Special Education Law Blog

Guidelines for Working With A Special Education Attorney

The simple truth is that parents on balance achieve better results when they are working with an attorney. Of course, there are notable exceptions such as the very able and courageous parents in the Winkleman case.  Nevertheless, especially in the current environment which seems more charged and polarized attorney help can be critical.  The following is my distilled wisdom on how to make the most out of attorney representation and strategic approaches to working with an attorney:

Next Time Just Ask....

Behavior, behavior, behavior everything is a behavior in the minds of many school people. Sometimes my head could explode trying to explain to school people that if you simply asked some basic questions, you would discover that there are other non-behavioral explanations for actions of students. Failing to ask, everything appears to be a behavior. Here are some prime anecdotes that illustrate the point.

Analyzing the Role of Paraprofessionals

Paraprofessionals play an essential role for many children with disabilities under IDEA. Personally, my son has had a great paraprofessional for many years. She has had just the right balance of being supportive and backing off. She has been an advocate for him and a team player (in the non-negative sense) with the other school personnel. In a word she has been a crucial and wonderful part of my son's education.

However, the question is to what extent do schools overuse paraprofessionals as a quick and inexpensive "fix" instead of providing a certified teacher to teach students.  This question is addressed in a set of guidelines and worksheets from the University of Vermont's Center on Disability and Community Inclusion as part of Project Evolve.

Police Elopement Guidelines

The F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies have developed guidelines for people with autism,  families and police to address elopement behaviors.  The topics are as follows:

• What Families Can Do To Lessen Police Interactions
• Information for Persons with Autism
• Information for Law Enforcement Officers
• Police Training Sessions

The guidelines are intended for people with autism, but have application to any person who exhibits elopement behaviors.

Guidelines for Choosing an ABA Provider

Parents of children with autism often face a  momentous decision: do I initiate a home-based ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis sometimes referred to as Lovass) program, or do I enroll my child in the school's program or continue with the existing program. However,  of even greater moment if the answer is in favor of a home-based ABA program, who do I hire to run this program. The stakes are enormously high from an educational, financial and legal perspective.   Fortunately there is a "consumer's guide" to assist in making this latter decision.

NEA Guidelines For Teaching Children with Autism

NEA is one of the primary national teacher's unions. On many issues the NEA takes positions that are adverse to the interests of special education students particularly regarding behavioral protections.  Recently, however, the NEA has come out with guidelines and an overview for working with children with autism.[ Download NEA Autism Guidelines.pdf ] While it is by no means as authoritative as other texts, the fact that the NEA has officially endorsed these guidelines has an undeniable authority that schools would be hard pressed to dismiss.

Read Your IEP Backwards

As any avid reader of the sports section of a tabloid-style newspaper knows, the way to read the paper is to start at the back and work forwards.  IEPs should be given similar back to front attention.

Guidelines for Parents to Select an Evaluator

A high priority item for successful advocacy in special education is to have a good quality data based evaluation from a private evaluator.  Such evaluations are not required in every situation; typically,however, when a parent calls an attorney or advocate it is time to seek  private evaluations.  These evaluations can be from a doctor, therapist, consultant or psychologist, but they all must hit the mark to be of any real value. The following are my highlights of the criteria to evaluate the evaluators.

Guidelines for Evaluating Placement for Children with Cochlear Implants (Part 2) by Deborah Pergament

In this posting, my colleague Deborah Pergament will detail the factors to allow parents to determine if a placement is indeed an aural/oral setting for a child with a cochlear implant, and the necessary criteria to determine the appropriateness of a placement.

Guidelines for Evaluating Placement for Children with Cochlear Implants (Part 1) by Deborah Pergament

The following is the first of a two part posting from a colleague of mine. Deborah Pergament is an attorney in Chicago, Illinois who has dedicated her professional life to serving the needs of children in the area of special education, family law and juvenile justice.  She has successfully tried and won a recent case on behalf of a child with a cochlear implant and has several more pending.  This posting should enable parents to make more informed decisions in determining the appropriateness of a school placement for their son or daughter who has a cochlear implant ("CI").