{"id":4039,"date":"2010-12-16T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4039"},"modified":"2019-03-26T10:58:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:58:07","slug":"should-we-sue-the-school-i-dont-know-what-else-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/should-we-sue-the-school-i-dont-know-what-else-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Should We Sue the School? I Don\u2019t Know What Else to Do!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Should%20We%20Sue%20the%20School%3F%20I%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know%20What%20Else%20to%20Do%21\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>We are having a dispute with the school about placement in the least restrictive environment.\u00a0 The school keeps denying our requests.\u00a0 Should we threaten to sue them?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>First<\/strong> &#8211; NO threats.<\/p>\n<p>I never say anything in an IEP meeting that I am not prepared to do. You should never say anything that you cannot \u201cback up\u201d with data, statistics or documentation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-23341\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/conflict.meter_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/conflict.meter_.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/conflict.meter_-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/conflict.meter_-768x562.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Use this same principal for requests. I never asked for things unless I have the data to show that\u00a0 the request is \u201cappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Second<\/strong> &#8211; It sounds like you are having an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/lre.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">LRE<\/span><\/a> (least restrictive environment) issue.<\/p>\n<p>Get the data.\u00a0 Research LRE and make yourself an expert!<\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself these questions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did the IEP team consider the LRE, the placement your child would be in if not exceptional? (When I say, \u201cconsider,\u201d I mean did you and team actually talk about LRE?)<\/li>\n<li>Did the team consider \/discuss the supports\/modifications necessary for your child to participate in this LRE?<\/li>\n<li>Did you make your request to the team in writing?<\/li>\n<li>Has the school issued prior written notice, explaining why they denied your request?<\/li>\n<li>Where is the data that demonstrates that the placement your child is currently in is the LRE and is the appropriate placement? Ask for it, if you don\u2019t have it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Third <\/strong>\u2013 An option for resolving the dispute.<\/p>\n<p>Check to see if your state offers <strong>Facilitated IEP Meetings<\/strong>. Facilitation occurs before a complaint is filed. In my state, the parent or the school district can request facilitation (in several \u201cpilot\u201d counties).<\/p>\n<p>An IEP facilitator:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Should be an unbiased person who is not a member of the IEP team,<\/li>\n<li>Has no decision making authority,<\/li>\n<li>And is not there to judge who is right or wrong.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The facilitator is the \u201cguardian\u201d of the process who creates a \u201csafe zone\u201d and ensures that everyone has a chance to speak.\u00a0 The facilitator keeps the focus on the child.<\/p>\n<p>In my state, both parents and the schools have been satisfied with the outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>The one thing I have learned is that everyone \u201cplays nice\u201d and is on his or her best behavior when a facilitator is present.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.directionservice.org\/cadre\/index.cfm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">CADRE<\/span><\/span><\/a> has information on their site regarding Facilitated IEP Meetings. Enter \u201cfacilitated IEP meetings\u201d in the search box.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find more here:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parentcenterhub.org\/disputes-overview\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Informal Approaches to Resolving Disputes<\/span><\/span><\/a> from the Center for Parent Information and Resources (formerly NICHCY). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parentcenterhub.org\/disputes-overview\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Five Options, 1-2-3<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To help special education planning teams reach agreements, the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Special Education Mediation Service (MNSEMS) provide the option of facilitated IEP meetings. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacer.org\/parent\/php\/php-c90.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Facilitated IEP Meetings<\/span><\/span><\/a> from the PACER Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are having a dispute with the school about placement in the least restrictive environment.\u00a0 The school keeps denying our requests.\u00a0 Should we threaten to sue them? First &#8211; NO <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/should-we-sue-the-school-i-dont-know-what-else-to-do\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,136],"tags":[97,666,665,132,1318],"class_list":["post-4039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ieps","category-strategies","tag-disagreements","tag-dispute-resolution","tag-facilitated-iep-meetings","tag-iep-meetings","tag-lre"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4039"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24113,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions\/24113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}