The Wrightslaw Way

Waited until the last minute to register? Walk-In Registration is available for you. The University of San Diego Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice is the setting for this Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy Conference. Join Pete Wright, Esq. and sponsors, the Dyslexia Training Institute for this special event specific to dyslexia. Registration […]

My son has high functioning autism.  He is a middle schooler, reading 2 years below grade level. He has difficulty in comprehension and inferencing, but not decoding.  The school uses the Jamestown Reading Navigator.  Is this an effective program? This is a link to the Jamestown Reading Navigator and to the program overview.   http://www.readingnavigator.com/mkt/jumper.html The […]

I filed a complaint with my state department of education. The school claimed that the Behavior Intervention Plan was not valid because they had not attached the BIP to my son’s IEP. The DOE found “no violation” because the BIP was not “attached to” or mentioned in the IEP. Questions: To be valid, does the […]

Although our son is blind and autistic, physically he is able and he is compliant. The school agreed to APE on his IEP – but only 30 minutes a week. The general ed kids get three 45 minutes sessions of PE a week. Shouldn’t he get the same amount as the gen ed kids? I’m […]

Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies (2011) from the Office of Safe and Healthy Students (formerly OSDFS) This report reviews states’ bullying laws and model bullying policies and school districts’ bullying policies. As of April 2011, 46 states had bullying laws, 45 of which directed school districts to adopt bullying policies. Forty-one states had […]

My son has autism and the district says they are reducing services and changing him from an IEP to a 504 for Aspergers. I believe they are trying to move him off a plan entirely.  He has difficulty with organization and is headed to middle school with a rotating schedule that drops a period each […]

The issue of insurance covering ABA therapy for children with autism is a big issue for families in many states and for military families moving from state to state. Although some private insurance companies will pay for a diagnosis, many insurance companies do not pay for treatment. Nationwide initiatives are underway to change state insurance […]

I am an ESE teacher of students with autism in a self-contained class. The majority of my students are not allowed to go to art and music unless they can be mainstreamed without a paraprofessional’s assistance. My principal told me, “they just don’t get to go.” When I called the ESE department in my district, […]

I am a special education teacher of 30 years. I have taught every category of students with disability, including autism.  But it seems now that autism is everyone’s main focus. Lobbying groups are huge – they receive everything.  On the contrary, these same advantages are not enjoyed by the dyslexic population of special ed.  Dyslexia […]

Jackie Igafo-Te’o says she had a “surreal feeling” when she saw two of her children on television. Melody, 13, and her brother, Michael, 15, were featured in a two-minute Disney Channel segment called “The Time I Realized My Brother was Different.”  In the film,  Melody describes what it’s like to live with a brother with […]