Every once in a while, parents win one. And these parents in Texas of a girl with behavioral disorders won a due process case where they were seeking reimbursement from their local school district for their daughter attending the charter school within the psychiatric hospital in which she’d been a patient.

This could indeed be the first case dealing with a new trend of establishing charter schools within psychiatric... more

From what I can tell, the answer is “no”. In our case, LuLu has been unserved by our local public school for 18 months now. During those 18 months we’ve had 13 days in court and 4 IEP meetings, but no education provided for LuLu. Meanwhile, she’s been at home with me, in Ladybug Elementary, doing our thing.

When a due process complaint is filed (either by the school district or more often by the parents) a rule called “stay put” is generally evoked. Stay put means that the child’s placement and services remain the same as was outlined in the last... more

As school is starting, it is very disconcerting that our local news headlines include several cases where school teachers have been arrested for child molestation. The one that is bugging me the most is this former high school teacher accused of molesting his own 4-year-old daughter, and possibly some of his students. What did he teach? Special education, of course.

For parents of children with special needs, the potential for our children getting abused... more

One thing that raising LuLu all this time has taught me is how to deal with opposition. She can be quite oppositional; quite stuck. And it can be quite draining.

But none of this compares with how oppositional the educrats can be surrounding our pursuit to have my daughter educated. The due process war we’re in rages on. And the end goal for us…to secure an education for LuLu…is no where in sight.

The latest oppositional moves include the state DOE getting the federal judge to agree (in one day’s time with no official notice... more

Ok, here’s where you need to do as I say, not as I’ve done. Odds are if you go to a due process hearing with your child’s school district over special education services...you will lose. The cards are squarely stacked against the parents.

This article, Schools Beat Back Demands For Special-Ed Services from the Wall Street Journal points out that in the vast majority of hearings, the judges find in favor of the school districts. Or if they don’t, the school... more

Wanna talk about a complicated issue? Then let’s talk about foster children who receive special education services. Knowing how much advocating and participation that it takes to get an appropriate education for a special needs child, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when that child is in foster care.

This article, from ABA’s April 2007 Child Law Practice journal details how IDEA 2004 deals with assigning a “surrogate parent” to be the decision-maker for children in special... more

As someone who is “been there; done that”, I can tell you straight up that if at all possible, avoid initiating a due process complaint against your child’s school district. By the time your special education situation has reached this juncture, there is much broken that is hard to repair. But there is much you can do earlier in your relationship with the school to lessen your chances of being involved in a due process hearing.

Here are 10 ways to avoid (or at least lessen the chances of) a due process hearing.

1. Know the... more

What if I disagree with what the IEP Team decides? Well, as my grandmother would have advised, “you catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.” This was her way of saying that much can be accomplished with the right tone. I have found this to be true in most of my life. It was, however, not true in our case when it comes to dealing with IEPs.

So, instead of quoting grandma on this one, I need to quote Pat Howey, a parent advocate who works often with Pete and Pam Wright... more

In the series on developing IEPs I’ve been writing, I addressed the nuts and bolts of how functional behavioral assessments and positive behavioral interventions should be a part of a child’s IEP if the behaviors impede his learning (or the learning of other children). But there’s so much more to address when it comes to behavioral interventions at school, especially for traumatized children and/or those with a combo platter of disabilities.

The causes of our children’s behaviors are complex…the antecedents are often not clear…and... more

One of the most challenging areas of developing an effective IEP, in my opinion, is how to address behavioral concerns. IDEA is clear that behaviors must be addressed when they impede the child’s learning or that of other children. The law is also clear that behavioral interventions must be positive. But, as they say, the devil is in the details.

At the core of developing behavioral strategies for disabled children is a “universal” (supposedly) truth that all behaviors are done for a reason and communicate something. So if all behaviors occur for a reason,... more