The Wrightslaw Way

Your state Department of Education must develop a system to provide information about state complaint procedures and how to resolve parent-school complaints.

• Take care when you use your state complaint system (or OCR).
• Use complaints only if you can prove that the school is breaking the law.
• Never base a complaint on what someone tells you.

Writing State Complaint Letters

Find our what the attorney and the lay advocate need to know. When do you start the preparation for the letter? What are the first steps before putting pen to paper? Who is your target audience – you are writing the letter for who? Are you sure?

Read the new OSEP guidance for State Complaint procedures and get links to sample letters. [Read more →]

I filed a state complaint for non-compliance with the IEP. My son’s teacher and aide are not familiar with autism. He sits in the corner of the room and does nothing. They are not following the IEP.  School staff falsified documentation, changed dates, and did not tell the truth at the last IEP meeting, so we ended the meeting.  I will bring an advocate when we reconvene.

They emailed me that the CEO of the school will attend the next meeting. Is this to intimidate me?

Who cares if the CEO of the school comes to the meeting? Here’s what I would do…. [Read more →]

A case involving a kindergarten student with a tree nut allergy has the potential to set a precedent for food-allergy-related accommodations in a federal appellate court.

Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), joined by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief Friday in the civil rights case, T.F. vs. Fox Chapel Area School District, in the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one step below the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal judge previously ruled that:

• the school district did not discriminate against the child in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act,
• the school offered reasonable accommodations
• the school did not retaliate against the child’s parents when it filed a truancy petition against the parents after they withdrew their child from school

One accommodation offered by the school was “special lunch seating at a nut-free table” that was actually a single desk in the cafeteria. [Read more →]

“It is a sobering fact: dyslexia affects up to twenty percent of the population and it has very specific symptoms.”

Kelli Sandman-Hurley, ED.D., explains that students who have dyslexia “…will always have dyslexia, and those students with more moderate to profound dyslexia will always encounter difficulties and will almost always need some accommodations to help them reach their potential …”

“For many parents and their dyslexic children, the label of dyslexia frees them from years of asking themselves why reading and writing are so hard…”

What happens when educators don’t have the information they need to prevent reading and writing failure?

Read Dyslexia: An Ounce of Prevention by Kelli Sandman-Hurley, ED.D.

http://www.reading.org/reading-today/classroom/post/engage/2014/05/29/dyslexia-an-ounce-of-prevention#.U4z2Ei9ecy5

I am a Special Education high school teacher.  The special ed administrator will not allow the Team to add an accommodation at the annual IEP meeting.  We can only add accommodations at the three year reevaluation so that tests used for reevaluation will back any new accommodation. Is this legal?

A student’s needs – based on his strengths and weaknesses in the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance – drive the IEP.

These strengths and weaknesses help the IEP Team (the whole IEP Team – not just one teacher/administrator) decide on the individualized accommodations that are appropriate for a child.

The present levels should be updated every time the IEP Team meets. http://www.wrightslaw.com/howey/iep.present.levels.htm

When Can You Revise the IEP?

A parent can request their child’s IEP be revised at any time.

A parent, teacher, or related services provider may decide that a child’s IEP needs to reviewed/revised early, before the annual review, without waiting 3 years for the triennial reevaluation. [Read more →]

I have two children in a public special ed class who are in the medically dependent children program through the state. They have nurses who go with them to school. The school told me that the nurses can not be present in the room during instruction time due to FERPA-that they are violating the privacy of the other students.

I thought FERPA only applied to records. Is there something I am missing?

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal statute. The purposes of FERPA are twofold:

• to ensure that parents have access to their children’s educational records
• to protect the privacy rights of parents and children by limiting access to these records without parental consent

FERPA regulates education records, nothing more. [Read more →]

At the printer now!

Wrightslaw: All About Tests and Assessments by Melissa Lee Farrall, Ph.D., SAIF, Pamela Darr Wright, MA MSW, and Peter W. D. Wright, Esq.

Take advantage of this special pre-publication offer: 25% OFF

Pre-pub price $11.22

Regular Price $14.95

This special offer is good from Tuesday, May 6 through Tuesday, May 20, 2014.

Pre-publication orders will be shipped during the second week of June 2014. If you order additional products, they will be shipped right away!

Wrightslaw: All About Tests and Assessments

• answers more than 200 of our readers’ frequently asked questions about psychological, academic, and neuropsychological tests and assessments
• answers questions about speech-language, physical and occupational therapy, sensory, motor, and behavior assessments
• includes charts of tests that assess specific problems and charts of the skills that your child needs to master

Learn more

Review the Table of Contents

Download a free chapter about Reading Assessments

Read Early Reviews

You will receive 25% OFF all Wrightslaw products in the Wrightslaw Store during this Special Pre-pub Offer!

Order today!

The results of the 2013 Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), show that fourth- and eighth-graders made incremental progress in math and reading.

The scores show one- and two-point gains (on a score of 0-500) compared with the 2011 tests. Average reading scores for eighth-graders just barely rose, after stagnating for about a decade.

In spite of the poor national results, parents often think their local school is doing a good job. If all local schools are doing a great job, why such poor results on the nation’s report card?

We wondered how you felt your school was doing.

Is your school doing a good job of educating ALL kids, including those kids who aren’t easy to educate? If you had to give them a grade, what would it be?

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If you have more specific information to add about your how your school is doing, use the comment section below.

Do you know how your school compares to schools in other states?

How is Your State Performing?

Click on the map to find out how your state is performing. [Read more →]

The inaugural FARE National Food Allergy Conference will be held June 21-22, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, IL, gathering the country’s leading food allergy experts and members of the food allergy community together for a weekend of world-class programming.

The conference provides a unique opportunity for individuals and families managing food allergies, caregivers, school staff, health care professionals and others interested in the field to gather as a community and learn about advances in food allergy research and advocacy, best practices and practical skills for living well with food allergies, and much more.

This year’s program will feature a mix of seminars, interactive sessions, forums, and experiential programs that are tailored for specific audiences, such as teens with food allergies, newly diagnosed families, and families who have more experience managing food allergies. Sessions will include presentations on diet, mental health, dining out, school inclusion, reaching newly diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals, conducting community outreach, research, advocacy updates, and much more.

Pete Wright to present “Special Education Law and Advocacy Training Specific to Food Allergies” on June 22, 2014.

Register Online Today!

Check out the Conference Schedule!

For all conference details, please visit the FARE website!

See you in Chicago!

To Advocate, To Innovate – 4th Annual Education Conference sponsored by NYC Special Education Collaborative.

Location: Baruch College, Vertical Campus, Newman Conference Center, 14th Floor, 55 Lexington Avenue at 24th Street, New York, NY 10010.

Day 1 – June 3rd – Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy Crash Course – Full-Day Keynote: Pete Wright

Day 2: June 4th – To Innovate – Keynote: Rafe Esquith, National SPED Panel and Corinne Rello-Anselmi.

Attendees will acquire an in-depth understanding of the charter school requirements of IDEA 2004 and Section 504. Legal decisions related to special education and charter schools will be analyzed and attendees will learn how to avoid being involved in such litigation. Attendees will learn how to quickly find answers to their legal questions.

Conference open to ALL Educators, Administrators and Parents!

Download the conference packet!

Register online today.

See you in NYC!