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Special Education Due Process 101 – The Nuts and Bolts
A number of disputes and disagreements can arise between parents and school districts regarding a child’s special education programming. Some of these areas of disagreement may include identification, declassification, appropriateness of program, appropriateness of placement or services,...
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Funding Home Programs and Private Schools – Possible, Yes! Easy? Not Exactly
You have learned that your child requires intensive intervention and educational services. A school district may provide your child with the services your child requires on the IEP. To help support your request for an intensive (and what is oftentimes, costly) educational program, provide your...
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What Are Your Legal Entitlements Now That Your Child Has Been Diagnosed?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law that governs the education of children with disabilities, including developmental delays. Your child with autism has the right to a free appropriate public education under the IDEA. Each state must provide all eligible...
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How to Effectively Advocate for Your Child’s Transition with Your School District
Parents of children diagnosed on the autism spectrum are often concerned about their child’s transition from the structured environment of a school-based program to the post-secondary world and all of the hurdles that transition entails. A student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is the...
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How to Combine Cooperation and Advocacy at Your IEP Meeting
The IEP season is now in “full swing” and parents often wonder how they should conduct themselves at their child’s IEP meeting. It truly is a balancing act to be “cooperative” with your child’s IEP team while also advocating for the educational supports that are appropriate for your...
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Compensatory Education is an Important Remedy to Consider
Compensatory education, an often overlooked remedy, is a legal term used to describe future educational services (or funds for services) that courts can award to a disabled student under the interpretation of the Federal IDEA statute. A compensatory education (comp ed) award is meant to compensate...
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Parents: Give the IEP Team Quality Evaluations with Recommendations
In my last article (The Best Kept Secret, Autism Spectrum News - Summer 2010) I discussed what might be the best kept secret of parent counseling and training (PCT) for parents of children with autism. Under the Federal Regulations of the IDEIA, PCT is to be provided to parents as a related service...
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The Best Kept Secret – School Districts are Obligated Under Federal Law to Offer Parent Counseling and Training
When you have a child with autism, there are so many things to “stress about” but parents should not have to do it all alone. School districts are obligated under federal law to offer, as a related service on the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), parent counseling and training. It is the...
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Cutting Through Irrational Fiscal Fear and Administrative Paralysis to Secure Appropriate and Effective Autism Programs
Even during our most recent period of unprecedented, if not unbridled economic prosperity, the cost of providing special education was treated as an unwelcome burden that taxpayers were “mandated” to support. Congress had enacted IDEA (now known as IDEIA) with assurances to foot 40% of the cost...
