The Wrightslaw Way

My daughter has pulmonary hypertension. Her cardiologist’s orders say no physical activity – “must be excused from PE.” The principal informed me that she would HAVE to participate in PE. When I disagreed, the principal accused me of being argumentative. What should I do? First, you need to document what happened in the meeting by […]

Guest post from a grandparent advocate who says, “Excellent job again Wrightslaw! There is nothing like the power of getting organized!” Our school district knows that I keep records and am well-documented when advocating on behalf of my grandchild. The district’s ombudsman listens to me and treats me with respect. When I provided proper documentation […]

Nina’s summer project last year… I organized all the documents I have into a chronological file as you suggest in From Emotions to Advocacy. It took months and is in 3 gigantic binders! But I have already had occasion to find things there several times. There were documents in there that I had totally forgotten […]

The school district was supposed to test my daughter for giftedness and/or learning disabilities when we moved two years ago.  I just found out they never did. She is experiencing problems in the classroom. I wrote and asked the principal to test her, but he refused. He said he didn’t even understand why I was […]

2011 Summer School Short Course Assignment #2: WRITE A LETTER Your assignment this week: Write a short, one page letter to the school to request an action. Before you write, answer these questions: Why am I writing? What is my purpose? What do I want? What am I trying to accomplish? We will use a […]

“Do you have any advice about the ’10 day notice letter’ to the school that parents are required to send if they plan to place their child in a private school at public expense? What should be included?” The 10-day notice letter can easily be one of your most important evidentiary exhibits, helping or hurting […]

Help!  I need an attorney! Last year my son’s special ed reading teacher did NOT follow thru with the program in his IEP. The school said they did! Last September, the teacher gave him a toy gun for a reading reward. Why on earth would she give him a “gun” – he would get in […]

2011 Summer School Short Course Assignment #1: QUIZ Directions: Type the number of the question and your answer (TRUE or FALSE) in the message box below. How much do you know about writing effective letters? Are the statements below true or false? 1. When you write a letter to someone at school, you want them […]

Why? Why am I writing to the school? What am I trying to accomplish? What? What do I want? What are my goals? When you write letters to the school, you want to express concerns and educate your reader about your child’s problems. When you write a letter, be guided by your purpose. You want […]

My son has many doctor’s appointments.  Last year we signed HIPPA rights at one doctor’s over to the school, but it was a mistake.  The school interfered by making extra appointments, canceling appointments when it was not convenient for them, all without our knowledge. Now, the school says my son cannot miss a day of […]