The Wrightslaw Way

Want to become an advocate or fine tune your advocacy skills?

It’s never too late to catch up on Summer School for Advocates at http://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/09/summer.school.advocates.htm

When you complete the 5 part series, you’ll find your certificate here.

Need A Pocket Manual for Advocates? Get a free download… [Read more →]

Tags:   Advocacy · FAPE · IDEA 2004 · IEPs · Rights & Responsibilities · StrategiesNo Comments.

Does a teacher or service provider have the right to refuse to be recorded during an IEP meeting? Is there caselaw or code that deals with this?

An IEP meeting should focus on how to provide appropriate education to a child with a disability. There should be no conversation at an IEP meeting that cannot be repeated or taped. [Read more →]

Tags:   Advocacy · IEP Meetings · IEPs · Parental Rights2 Comments

New Book! Wrightslaw: All About IEPs is at the printer now!

Shipping second week of December                        $12.95    Order now

• Answers more than 200 frequently asked questions & introduces key legal issues
• Outlines your rights & responsibilities and explains the law in plain language you can understand
• Provides the reference source of information, the law, regulation, OSEP publication, or commentary

Preview the book …

A Special gift

Prepub special offer good from October 28 through November 11, 2009.

Free Wrightslaw Highlighter/Pen Combo with your order. Order now

Bulk Discounts Available

1-9 books: $12.95
10-19 books (20% discount): $10.36
20-99 books (40% discount): $7.77
100+ books (50% discount): $6.48

Tags:   Accommodations · Assistive Technology · Evaluations · FAPE · FAQs · IEP Special Factors · IEPs · Parental Rights · parental role · Placement · progress monitoring · Related services · Resolving Disputes · Special Ed Law · Special Education Regulations · Strategies · Supplementary aids and services · Transferring schools · Transition · unique needs3 Comments

Is your school meeting all the needs of students with disabilities? Reading? Math? Graduation Rate?
Is your principal held accountable for all special ed failures as well as successes?

If you have the answers to these questions, you will also need an effective way to demonstrate the answers. A picture (or graph) can be worth a thousand words.

While beliefs and perceptions may not be expressed openly, they have an enormous impact on relations between parents and school personnel, administrators, and school board members, and influence how decisions are made for children with disabilities.

Watch the video. You will find an effective way to get your message to the decision makers and change perceptions. Parent advocacy at its best!

Tags:   Accountability · Improving Outcomes · Parent advocacy3 Comments

What a great line - from Special Ed e-News at the Special Ed Connection.

e-News advises that in the panic to write the IEP, cover all the necessary goals, objectives, benchmarks (if applicable), and figure out how to accurately measure progress, the PLOP (present levels of performance) often gets neglected.

If you are into acronyms, the PLOP is known now as the PLAAFP. The present levels of academic achievement and functional performance provide baseline information about your child’s knowledge and skills. Present levels are the starting point for setting IEP goals and measuring progress toward these goals.

Here’s what IDEA 2004 says about the PLAAFP… [Read more →]

Tags:   Goals and Objectives · IEPs · Measurable Goals · Present levels of performance9 Comments

Don’t miss the fall Parent Education Session at the Special Education Advocacy Clinic at William & Mary Law School - “Keeping Your Child’s IEP on Track.”

Tuesday, November 3, 4:00-5:30 p.m.

It’s free and open to the public.

Find out - (1) How to Design a Good IEP, (2) How to…. [Read more →]

Tags:   IEPs · Parent advocacy · Parent Training · PELE · Special Education Advocacy Clinic · William & Mary Law SchoolNo Comments.

Sent from one of our readers -

I have Dyslexia. I told numerous people I have dyslexia including teachers, psychologist ect… when I had my son tested for learning disabilities. No one thought it was a big deal, and no one cared to test my son for Dyslexia. He has all of the warning signs, yet no one cared enough to formally test.

A lot of his problems in school could have been avoided if the schools were forced to consider Dyslexia as a possible problem. Every special ed teacher should be required to test all children in special ed for Dyslexia. My son was a late talker, had directionality issues, needed speech for his r’s and l’s. in fact he has every symptom of Dyslexia yet no one wanted to test for it. This needs to change.

I agree that it’s important to test children for dyslexia. There is a screening tool that does a good job of identifying kids who will have reading problems. Parents or caregivers can give the screening tool when a child is 4. [Read more →]

Tags:   Dyslexia · Reading · success story · Teaching Reading13 Comments

On September 11, 2009, the Federal Register provided notice under the Department of Education - Annual Mandatory Collection of Elementary and Secondary Education Data for EDFacts that OCR will begin collecting data on seclusion and restraint in schools. The link to the Federal Register notice is: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-21935.pdf. [Read more →]

Tags:   Data Collection · IDEA 2004 · Retraints · seclusion · Special Education Law3 Comments

If you’d like to help out a worthy cause while cutting back on your clutter, you can donate your old VHS tapes to the Alternative Community Training (ACT) organization.

This Missouri based organization provides work for disabled individuals. They currently have more than 55 employees erasing and repacking donated VHS tapes and floppy disks. This program brings in about $500,000 annually.

Who doesn’t have at least one or two (maybe 20?) VHS tapes hanging around? Even if you only have a DVD player, I’m sure there’s still a tape lingering around somewhere. [Read more →]

Tags:   ACT Alternative Community TrainingNo Comments.

In 2007, a judge ordered sanctions against MPS and remedies for kids. MPS says what the judge ordered in June 2009 will be too costly. However, “they have a never-ending pot for attorney’s fees.”

A lawsuit brought by Disability Rights Wisconsin in 2001 alleged that MPS systematically failed to identify and serve students who may have been eligible for special education services.

In June, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein issued orders for MPS to seek out hundreds, if not thousands, of students - including regular education students - who might have missed being identified as eligible for special education services between September 2000 and June 2005. He appointed an independent monitor to oversee MPS and approve the official documents the district should use to contact potential class members.

In August, MPS won a reprieve in the special education lawsuit.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago granted MPS its motion to stay those orders, essentially hitting the pause button on the case. [Read more →]

Tags:   Child Find · Compensatory Education · Discipline · Eligibility · FAPE · Identification · Legal Decisions6 Comments