The Wrightslaw Way

Playing catch-up this summer? Use the time for summer learning and reading opportunities. Add these free resources to your reading list. From Wrightslaw: A Parent’s Guide to Response to Intervention (RTI) Response to Intervention: Guidelines for Parents and Practitioners From Montgomery County Public Schools (MD): A Guidebook for Twice Exceptional Students FREE e-books from the […]

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 […]

The school would NOT do a multi-factored evaluation for my son who has dyslexia. During the time he was stuck in the RTI cycle, we questioned the accuracy of the data that showed he had some growth in retaining sight words and increasing fluency. We battled through the 1st grade year.  Once again stuck in […]

My daughter is 4 grade levels behind in reading.  According to her evaluation, she has dyslexia, low working memory, and a severe reading disability. The school said they would start her in tier 3 RTI. If she doesn’t make make progress, they will give her an IEP. Shouldn’t she qualify for special ed now, without […]

Would a court view RTI as equivalent to Special Education?  It seems to me that RTI acts as a form of special education decision making and therefore is subject to the same legal standard-expectations-responsibilities. There is so much confusion about Response to Intervention (RTI) – What is it? When it should be used? With which […]

State parent leader, Susan Bruce, will be a featured speaker at “Parents Leading the Way” – the 2010 South Carolina Parent Leadership Conference this weekend at South Carolina State University. As a parent advocate and a regional education coordinator for PRO*Parents of South Carolina, Susan travels to 17 counties in the state while conducting workshops […]

When you have a disagreement between the teachers and the school psychologist about whether a child qualifies for services, you must consider the real question that needs to be answered. “Does the child have a disability that adversely affects educational performance?” If the answer to the question is “yes,” then the child is eligible under […]

Last month, we posted Independent Evaluations: Should parents provide a copy to the school? at http://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/?p=30# That post elicited a number of comments before dropping off the sidebar. Recently, a school psychologist added comment about reasons why she did not provide parents with a copy of reports before IEP meetings. Her comment included inaccuracies so […]

I have just a short time to post today – I have a flight to MO this afternoon for the conference being held in the Jefferson City area on Thursday. I did want to respond to a question from a public school speech language therapist who attended one of our conferences earlier this year. This […]