The Wrightslaw Way

Three questions from a special education teacher are answered below with the citations from federal law. Question #1: When IDEA 1997 was reauthorized as IDEA 2004, Section 1400 Findings and Purposes, Paragraph (E)(i) and (ii) were deleted in entirety.  Are teachers  no longer required to be highly-qualified in IDEA 2004? Answer: In IDEA 2004, 20 […]

My 3 year old son has Angelman’s syndrome and has just started walking independently. He has a one-to-one aide in the school-based prek program. The school is saying they do not have to provide any physical therapy because it is a medical issue. As long as my son has “access” in the classroom, they are […]

(Moved from the Community Helpline) The school is proposing to have the majority of our autistic son’s special ed services provided by a classroom aide. They are saying the aide doesn’t need formal training or experience because he/she will be supervised by a highly qualified special ed person. How much training is implied by 1400 […]