I don't know, but I'm about to. Tomorrow at 9 am is our due process hearing. I spent the afternoon at the attorney's hammering out a settlement we proposed to the school, where basically we asked for everything we wanted (and all the attorneys fees, therapy fees, and evaluation fees). We didn't hear back, but both the attorney and my husband think the school will show up at the hearing tomorrow ready to settle.

I, having a healthy dose of skepticism (and probably secondary traumatic stress - see my last blog), think the school system totally plans on letting this hearing go forth. Will we win? Depends on who you ask. Our attorney calls my witnesses "awesome" and says our case... more

Yesterday was a first in my life -- I was served with a subpoena. Now I know others have professions in which this happens all the time. I guess in my "new" profession of ADVOCACY MOM it was bound to happen to me, too.

(Isn't subpoena a funny word -- it's the kinda thing you'd see on the national spelling bee and no matter how many times I spell it correctly, it still bugs me...but I digress...)

The school system expects both hubby and me to be there next Wednesday to testify in the due process hearing and complaint we filed in February. I hope they don't expect us to testify "against" ourselves, because that's unlikely to happen!!

There isn't... more

We asked for, and received, a continuance on LuLu's Due Process Hearing. Mostly we received it because of the unexpected death in my family and my need to travel to the funeral. The legal maneuvering of this process is astounding. I am learning so much about our school system and its priorities. And I believe these tenets to be true in other systems as well:

1. School systems are huge bureaucracies. The bigger the system, the bigger the bureaucracy. Ours is so large that they have one person employed full-time to handle the filing of due process hearings with special... more

This is the way LuLu is often viewed. I see it coming. A "professional" starts asking lots of questions about LuLu's behaviors, her background, our history and he/she gets that look of great interest on his/her face. The words like "research", "hypothesis", "study" start coming up more and more frequently and pretty soon I realize this person has great thesis plans based on LuLu.

So it was yesterday when I met with the school system's expert in severe behaviors. He holds a Ph.D. and is a self-proclaimed "pure behavioralist". I was (and still am) VERY apprehensive. While... more

The stress level at our ranch is so high that my hubby and I can only relieve it through humor. Today, during a phone conversation about our due process case we decided that the school was being sooooo stubborn, not open to any of our suggested negotiation points, much like our 3rd grade daughter when she shows such ODD tendencies. So, it just makes sense that a due process lawsuit for a 3rd grader would be handled by 3rd grade attorneys....wonder what that would look like????

The grown up attorney says: "To the extent that your issues/problems are... more

We got a copy of our formal complaint against the school system yesterday. Our attorney is definitely worth the money. She spelled out very clearly the issues and what we need done to resolve them. Paragraph after paragraph cited that the school "never" and the school "ignored" and the school "failed". And at one point she said, "The resolution to this very sad case...."

Very sad case. While I'm thrilled that the lawyer was so direct and aggressive in her language, those words slapped me. We're a "very sad case". The word languish comes to mind. The formal complaint doesn't use the word, but implies it. Someone (we?) has allowed my child to languish in the public school system... more

I know the topic of advocating for our special kids is HUGE. I've often wondered if I could do it justice because I only have one child, one set of experiences, one specific situation and each child's educational needs and support services are so vastly different. But, I'm taking a crash course in special ed regulations - otherwise known as trial by fire.

We had an IEP meeting today - a 4+ hour IEP meeting. The two biggest issues on the table were eligibility (it has been 3 years since her eligibility had been established) and placement (due to several out-of-school suspensions). My objectives (and obvious agenda) was simple - get her eligibility changed from EBD (emotional/behavior... more