Does your adopted child suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused from early trauma? Trauma that happened before you ever met your child may be adversely affecting your parent-child relationship. Most adoptive families try numerous techniques to help their affected children. Living with a person who suffers from PTSD can be difficult for the entire family making some families feel desperate for help. Parents of children with PTSD tend to get a little excited when we hear about a new treatment. At least those of us with eternal optimism do.... more

A new study found evidence that eating disorders may be contagious among high school students. Researchers found that poor eating habits like binging, fasting, and using diet pills were clustered in areas within counties, especially among female teenagers. Teenage girls are subjected to strong social pressures to be thin and they are willing to use unhealthy behaviors to get thin. Researchers believe that finding clustered groups of teenagers with eating disorders, instead of county-wide sporadic... more

I think these words that I read today in an article by Pamela Darr Wright, of Wrightslaw, hit home with me today. This is exactly what I find so frustrating about the experience of many families when dealing with special education. Public school districts are extremely hard to fight to get what children with disabilities need (and are supposedly entitled to under IDEA) – an appropriate education. But regardless of where the child is ultimately educated, it is impossible for the parents to bail out.

Schools... more

For as long as I can remember there has been mention in LuLu’s IEP about her doing certain activities with fading prompts or without needing an adult to sit right by her side. When she came home to do school, after February 2006, I realized exactly what was going on…that LuLu required one-on-one adult interaction for everything. Without this constant adult interaction (actually needing the adult right there by her side), several of LuLu’s disabilities would/could come into play, making it impossible for her to learn.

Without an adult to redirect her, LuLu would easily... more

The parents and teachers at our school are definitely all a-flutter in anticipation of the annual state achievement testing mandated by No Child Left Behind. Because this is the virtual school’s first year of operation, the logistics of accommodating nearly 3000 students for testing across the state must be incredible.

Meanwhile, many of the students enrolled in our virtual academy have been homeschooled for years, so state mandated testing is new to them.

In our case, and the case of many other students with special needs, LuLu is working slightly behind... more

This is one of the trickiest things about figuring out special education services for children with disabilities. Some children qualify for IEPs and some are offered Section 504 Plans. Some are told they have to have one or the other. Some have both. Parents (and school personnel) are frequently confused about this.

The reality is that two different disability laws are involved. IEPs are mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), while 504 plans refer to Section 504 under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. While both protect the rights of... more

Some people believe that I’m very anti-school and translate that into being anti-teacher. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, our eldest daughter is about to become a teacher. Sadly, I see many challenges and pitfalls ahead of her as she starts a career with the public school system.

I’ve been watching carefully a local story that has been brewing since early September, when the special ed director of a metropolitan county, Sharon Purdie, was “reassigned” to a new position “director of special projects” by her district’s superintendent. This reassignment of a veteran special educator came after parents filed a due process case against the school system for abusing... more

Today, I left for 45 minutes to take Lane to college. Upon my return, the four year old says, “Dani was coloring while you were gone and not doing her school.” While it doesn’t seem like a huge infraction, we’ve been discussing this type of behavior for several days. It seems that she will do anything to avoid doing her schoolwork. It isn’t just because she is homeschooled this year either, her teacher told me the same thing last year when she was a public school.

She received three “Es” on her report card last year for not turning in assignments according to... more

The wave of parents who have contacted me recently about how school systems are working hard to push their children out is astounding. The tactics include threatening abusive placements, directly telling or asking parents to take the child out of school, suspending the child for actions related to their disability, calling social services and reporting the family for child abuse or neglect, filing their own due process suit against the parents who refuse to sign IEPs, charging parents with truancy who keep their children home from abusive schools…the list goes on and on.

From... more

“You should just post a sign at the border of your state saying children with special needs aren’t welcomed!” my friend exclaimed after I told her. We received word today that our federal appeal of our debacle of a due process hearing was dismissed and the school district (and state’s) motion was granted that our attorney is supposed to pay THEIR attorney fees.

I’m still wading through the legalese and waiting on a phone call from the attorney, but my understanding is that because we said the court was biased (ruling on things he said he wouldn’t rule on, not ruling on things in the original complaint, sleeping through testimony, etc.) and that they had violated LuLu’s civil rights... more