“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

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

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

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

The main difference between LuLu and the school system, though, is LuLu not only recognizes that she’s stuck, but she wants to change. She’s trying very hard. The school district, though, has us pretty much where they want us for now. LuLu isn’t in their classrooms or able to access any of their services, so she isn’t their problem. Heck, no one really even shows that much interest in LuLu at all. I was surprised that they readily accepted the goals I proposed at Friday’s IEP, but I shouldn’t have been. After all, I am the teacher and if those were... more

I got this FABULOUS bumper sticker from a dear friend a couple weeks ago. It made me laugh outloud, because she does know us well. On the first day it wasn’t raining, I plopped it on the back of my car. It so describes our life…we’re STUCK! (And I don’t even have one of those vacation t-shirts with the catchy phrases to show for all my labors).

There are two things of basic “stuckness” around our ranch:

1. Trauma. LuLu, through the advent of puberty, has made it abundantly clear that she’s still stuck in a certain... more

September 11, 2001. December 7, 1941. Now those are some dates of disasters. At our house, sadly, last February 13 is among them. Here’s the link to my blog that day.

While the blog makes it sound like I was rather shell-shocked and overwhelmed, I’ll tell you this much…I had NO IDEA what it was going to take to try to get IDEA (the special ed law) to meet my child’s needs. Last February 13, I had no way of fathoming where I’d be this February 13.

In... more

-Mostly I’m writing this blog because I found this graphic that was just too good to pass up. It speaks volumes to how 2006 has been for us. I know many of you have followed our school issues. We have a decision from the judge in our elongated, incredibly painful due process case. The word DENIED is in big bold letters. Yet…it is a mixed decision in many ways…and produces a whole range of mixed emotions in me.

What the judge didn’t deny was that to experiment on LuLu, provoking her behavior, using the things known to trigger... more