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Our
Mission
The
Wrightslaw Story l Founders
of Wrightslaw l Up Close & Personal
Ignorance
of the law can be as damaging as the child's disability. - Pete Wright
Parents
will always be catalysts for education reform.
 At Wrightslaw, our mission is
to provide parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys with accurate,
up-to-date information about special education law and advocacy so they
can be effective catalysts.
You will
find articles, cases, newsletters, and resources on dozens
of topics in the Advocacy
Libraries and Law
Libraries. You may subscribe
to The Special Ed Advocate, the free weekly e-newsletter about special
education legal and advocacy topics.
Our publisher, Harbor
House Law Press, publishes books, monographs, digital publications,
CD-ROMs, and DVDs about special education legal and advocacy topics, including:
* Information
for parents about their rights and responsibilities
* Information for teachers about professional training so they can meet
the diverse needs of their students
* Information for advocates about laws, regulations, and advocacy strategies
* Information for attorneys who want cases, pleadings, and tactics and
strategies
To
learn more about Wrightslaw publications and projects, please visit the
Press Room.
Members of the media can obtain news releases, author bios, testimonials,
images, book covers from the Media
Kit page.
The
Wrightslaw Story
Wrightslaw
began on November 9, 1993, when the U. S. Supreme Court issued the unanimous
decision in Florence
County School District Four v. Shannon Carter. 
Our phone was ringing continuously. From all parts of the country, parents
were calling about special education problems. We were struck by the fact
that the legal and factual issues in these cases were similar, without
regard to the location of the caller or the nature of the child's disability.
One day, we picked up a voice mail message from Hal Meyer, a member of
the CHADD Board of Directors. Hal
had questions about the Carter
case and asked us to write an article about the case for the ADD Forum
on CompuServe.
The ADD Forum was an incredible resource. Members uploaded research, articles,
book chapters, and other information to the Libraries. This information
helped thousands of people. The ADD Forum was also a community of people, many of whom became friends.
We realized that we needed to write a book about special education law.
The book would include the laws, regulations, and cases. Since the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 had been amended, we decided
to focus on the law book. We waited for the final special education regulations
to be published so we could include them in the book. Time passed. The
regulations were delayed again and again.
We talked to Janie Bowman, a friend from CompuServe, about our plans. Janie
gave us some great advice: "Get a website up before your book is
published!" The Wrightslaw site was born in April 1998. Wrightslaw allows us to discuss
issues and share information with parents, attorneys, advocates, educators,
psychologists, and school administrators. We are deeply indebted to Janie
for her encouragement and good advice.
Wrightslaw is now the premier
website about special education law and advocacy. Wrightslaw has also
become an important part of our identity so we include "Wrightslaw"
in the titles of our books:
Pete and Pam Wright also helped to produce the award-winning
DVD, Surviving
Due Process: Stephen Jeffers v. School Board in 2004.
In 2007, Wrightslaw began to produce WebEx Training Programs on a variety of about special education law and advocacy.
Pete
and Pam Wright: Founders of Wrightslaw
 Pete
Wright is an attorney who represents
children with special educational needs.
Pete struggled with learning disabilities,
including dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. His determination to help children
grew out of his own educational experiences.
In
October 1993, Pete successfully represented Shannon Carter before the
United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision
on Shannon's behalf in Florence
County v. Shannon Carter.
To learn about Pete, read Three
Generations at the Supreme Court and The
Untold Story.
 Pam Wright is a psychotherapist who has worked with children
and families since the 1970’s. Her training and experience in clinical
psychology and clinical social work give her a unique perspective on parent-child-school
dynamics, problems, and solutions.
Pam has written extensively about raising,
educating and advocating for children with disabilities.
Pam publishes The Special
Ed Advocate, a weekly electronic newsletter and manages several websites
including Wrightslaw, Fetaweb,
Yellow Pages for Kids with
Disabilities, and Wrightslaw:
No Child Left Behind.
Pete
& Pam Wright: Up Close and Personal
Our Home
Pete
and Pam Wright live on Stingray Point,
2 miles east of Deltaville, Virginia.
Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay during the early 1600s. Captain Smith discovered a world of ancient forests, strong, proud people and water teeming with life in this “goodly bay” and its rivers.
While fishing in shallow waters on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Captain Smith was stung by a ray and nearly died. After he recovered, he named the peninsula Stingray Point. You can follow Captain Smith's explorations on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, America's first national water trail.
The village of Deltaville is located on Virginia's coastal plan, at the eastern end of the Middle Peninsula. The mouth of Rappahanock
River is a few hundred feet north of our house. The mouth of the Piankatank River is less than a mile to the south. The Eastern Shore lies
seventeen miles to the east, across the Chesapeake Bay.
 
Our Family
We
have two sons, a daughter, two daughters-in-law, and three beautiful
grandkids.
Our younger son is an Army JAG officer with the First Armored Division. In September 2007, he left for a 15 to 18 month deployment to northern Iraq.
Life on Stingray Point
We love to sail,
windsurf,
fish, kayak, explore, and have adventures. We are amateur
radio operators (Pete is AD4VI, Pam is KF4LCU).
A wise farmer once told us, "If you have a tractor, you'll use it everyday." He was right. Pam is using the Kubota to clear land for a tree reforestation project. Pete uses it to pull stumps, logs and other heavy stuff. We take turns cutting the grass. 
After Bill Lohmann of The Richmond Times-Dispatch visited us, he wrote Paradise at end of the road - Champion of special-ed children still doing good while having more fun.
The image on the left is an exact replica of the original
Stingray
Point Lighthouse (circa 1928) at Stingray Point Marina.
Rev: 09/19/07
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