Top 10 Books on Special Education for Educators that Parents Might Want to Read

As a parent of a special needs child, you have a lot of responsibility when it comes to making sure your child gets the education that they need. This means that when it comes to the school system, you’ve got to have a direct and intimate involvement with the process and the accommodations that are being made for your child.

Since school districts are restricted by their budget and are usually slow to give individualized attention to one child, parents of kids who need a specific type of education will often need to advocate and fight for their child, to ensure that their education is administered properly.

If you find yourself in that battle, the best thing you can do to help you and your kid’s cause is to be informed about the topics you’re conversing with the school system about.

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One of the best ways to achieve this is to be well read in the area of special education, and to read from multiple perspectives. Here are ten books on special education that are mostly meant for educators, but can prove to be a great resource for parents looking to be effective advocates for their children.

1. Wrightslaw: Special Education

As referenced in our earlier article, Wrightslaw is an amazing resource both on and offline. Wrightslaw: Special Education is released in succeeding updated editions, bringing together the most complete and updated information about laws and policies of the special education process. It details everything an educator or parent would need to know in dealing with special education and the law.

2. Better IEPs

This book is completely devoted to the legalities and the law as it relates to special education. It is something that many special educators look for when they need to comprehend or create their special education programs. It takes an actional, education-oriented approach to the material, making it a great resource for parents who are in a dispute with their school district over their child’s education.

3. How the Special Needs Brain Learns

David A. Sousa gets into the thought processes and learning methods that are typical for special needs children. Not only is this book helpful for parents looking to understand how their children learn, but it’s something teachers should look to when creating lesson plans.

4. The Complete Guide to Special Education

This book is resource for teachers which covers not only special education policies as well, but also how parents experience the special education process. Whether or not the book directly relates to your personal experience, it aims to teach teachers how to deal with parents, and as such can be great diplomatic guide when in talks with a school district.

5. The IEP from A to Z

This is another book that encourages special education teachers to work with parents, and thus is something that parents can look to when trying to understand the perspective of the educator during due process. Working together will make sure that your child is getting the best and most individualized education that will help them succeed in school.

6. Including Students with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in Typical Classrooms

If your child has severe special needs and you want to them to be included in a mainstream classroom, this book covers the ways in which inclusion occurs in different classroom settings and strategies for successful inclusion. Inclusion can be a great challenge, especially if a school district has not accommodated this process before, but understanding what both a school, educators, and students go through during inclusion can provide you with a better ability to negotiate.

7. The Mislabeled Child

Written by two doctors, this book outlines the varying learning disabilities and discusses how to approach them in terms of teaching strategy. A useful tool for educators in diagnosing and teaching children, it can also help you as a parent understand what style of teaching might work best for your child.

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8. Lost at School

Ross Greene delivers a more pointed discussion about behavioral issues and how these issues affect classroom performance. He also provides strategies for dealing with disruptive or even harmful behavior in the classroom which can be employed by teachers and parents.

9. Case Studies in Assessment of Students with Disabilities

Practicality and real-life examples are the centerpiece of this book, which helps show teachers how certain training and strategies have worked in actual classroom situations. As a parent you can look to this book to see how other children with disabilities have fared in certain situations; it even includes questionnaires to assess your knowledge of special education.

10. Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults

This one is particularly helpful for parents as it highlights the emotional factors and behavioral issues surrounding special needs kids and how to deal with those occurrences. When it comes to IEPs this book can help you better grasp how your child is being diagnosed and how that will affect their education.

Learning as a Parent

When you know your child is going to have a difficult time getting a proper education, even under the best circumstances, you’ve got to learn as a parent and become a student of your child.

If you can better understand what they are and will go through as a student with special needs, you’ll be far more able and qualified to speak on their behalf, encourage them, and advocate for them, both at home and in the classroom.

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What To Ask Your Special Education Consultant

If you have a special needs child in the school system, hiring an independent special education consultant can help ensure your child’s future. Disagreements between you and your school district over how best to meet your child’s schooling and needs may arise over the course of your child’s education, and having a consultant to guide and assist you can make a significant difference in your child’s education.

Rather than fumbling around on the Internet and poring over legal details, retaining a consultant can eliminate the mistakes parents typically make when they go about it alone.

Word-of-mouth is a typical way of finding an educational consultant. Friends, relatives, your child’s doctors are all excellent resources for recommendations. Special education lawyers who have training and expertise are another great resource for consulting.

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Here are key points to review and important questions to ask when you are interviewing potential consultants.

Credentials and qualifications. While you may be able to find this information online with some research, it’s a good starting point in getting to know the educational consultant better.

As he or she will be interacting with your child, providing you with advice that impacts your child’s future, and possibly representing your child’s interests, it is important that you can trust his or her judgment and training. Knowing the details of his or her education, professional affiliations, certifications and associations can serve as a baseline of his or her credentials.

Ask:

  • What degrees, certifications, and licenses do you and the members of your company hold?
  • What professional associations do you and members of your firm (if applicable) belong to?
  • Have you written any books or articles that I can read to get a better sense of your philosophy?
  • What conferences or extended education do you seek out to stay abreast of current policy and research?

Experience. While schooling and certification provide a good reference point, experience is a better gauge of the consultant’s competence and fit.

Many years of practice in areas of specialty that fits your child’s needs would mean that this consultant would be a better fit for your family. With schools and programs constantly changing, a breadth of experience means the consultant can adapt easily to the fluctuations. Also, you should get a sense of how many cases they handle a year, to ensure that while they have ample experience, they also have plenty of time to focus on your case.

Ask:

  • How many years have you been a special education consultant?
  • What areas of special education or clinical issues do you or your firm focus on? How many years have you been specializing in this field?
  • What is your on-going caseload? How many new cases do you take on a year?
  • Have you (or members of your company) visited any special-needs school/programs in the past year? How many? What was the visit regarding?
  • Have you previously participated in special education committee meets, impartial hearings, etc.? How many such incidences? What was the outcome?

Services. Once you’ve gotten a sense of the educational consultant’s education, training and experience, you can begin to review the services the firm provides and the costs associated.

While you can get an idea of what the consultant offers through online research, asking details about the services and cost ensures that there will be no surprises later on.

Ask:

  • Do you have an itemized list of your services and costs? What does a retainer cover?
  • How do you follow-up on cases after placement? How long do you follow-up? Is there additional cost associated with follow-up?
  • Are you available for post-placement care? Is that an additional cost?
  • Are you or someone from your firm likely to visit our child at his or her new school?
  • How accessible are you during office hours? Are you available after hours? Is this an additional cost?
  • Who covers for you when you are unavailable?
  • What is your preferred method of communication? How quickly do you reply to voicemail/email/etc.?
  • Are there any additional services that you or your firm can assist us with?

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Placement Process. Find out how the consultant reaches his or her conclusions, recommendations, or advice. You will be relying on the consultant to educate you on the options, so ask questions regarding his or her methodology.

Ask:

  • How do you determine the needs of the child? What methods do you use?
  • What factors do you take into consideration when considering placement options and schools?
  • How will you help us choose amongst the recommended options for our child?

You may have additional questions to ask, but this is a good starting point to help you vet potential educational consultants for your child.

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Suggested Reading: 5 Essential Articles on Special Education

Whether you’re the parent of a child with special needs or you’re a teacher working in a special education classroom, the subject can be confusing. There’s certainly no shortage of information out there for you to reference, but unfortunately most people don’t have time to wade through the thousands and thousands of articles on special education to find the handful of ones that can really teach you something valuable.

That’s why we’ve compiled five of the best articles on special education, each of which succinctly and competently cover the essential cornerstones of the special education process. Whether you’re just learning the basics when it comes to special education or you’re a seasoned professional, these articles are a valuable resource.

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1. An Overview of Special Education: “Special Education Law and the IEP”, on NOLO.com

Written to help parents understand their child’s educational rights under the IDEA Act, Special Education Law and the IEP was first published NOLO website.

The IDEA act is of particular importance to parents of children with special needs because it guarantees all parents the right to have their children assessed to determine educational eligibility, inspect schools and voice concerns and disputes with the school district.

Special Education Law and the IEP is a must-read for parents trying to understand IDEA Act

2. On Categorizing Disabilities: “Categories of Disabilities Under IDEA”, on NICHCY.org

This article, published on National Dissemination Center for Children With Disabilities website, is designed to help parents of children with special needs understand categories of disability under the IDEA Act. Understanding these basic categorizations is important for parents whose child was recently diagnosed with a disability.

Understanding how disabilities are categorized according to the IDEA Act can also help parents prevent discrimination in their child’s education that could negatively affect them.

3. On Evaluations: “What You Should Know About Evaluations”, on Wrightslaw.com

First published on the Wrightslaw website and written by Robert K. Crabtree, Esq., What You Should Know About Evaluations is a guide that parents and teachers can use to understand how special education evaluations are really conducted.

For parents, What You Should Know About Evaluations is important because the information presented can keep children from being evaluated and re-evaluated without parental consent, which could hamper their educational standing at their school.

The article also provides information on how to choose an independent evaluator and how to work with an evaluator once chosen.

4. On Being An Advocate: “Advocating For Your Child”, on Wrightslaw.com

Advocating For Your Child is an article that was originally published in the book “Wrightslaw:  From Emotions to Advocacy – The Special Education Survival Guide” by Pamela Wright and Peter Wright, the owners of Wrightslaw.com, which is a huge resource database  for many special education law articles.

The article is especially important for parents of children with special disabilities, as it talks about how to fight for your child’s rights in all facets of life – from school to your child’s emotional development. Click through Wrightslaw’s “Advocacy” topic page for similar articles.

5. On IEPs: “How to Prepare for Your Next IEP Meeting”, on SpecialEducationAdvisor.com

How to Prepare for Your Next IEP Meeting is published on the Special Education Advisor website, designed to help prepare parents for Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. It provides a dated checklist of preparations to undertake during the 90 day period between the scheduling of an IEP appointment and the appointment itself.

Understanding how to prepare for IEP testing is important because IEP testing allows you to seek additional help for your child or strive to increase their classroom involvement and skill level.

Having a child with special needs can be confusing at first, but as a parent, it’s your job to make sure you fight for your child and learn everything you possibly can so you can stand in their corner. These five articles are a good first step, but as a parent of a child with special needs, your work is never done.

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Learn How to Stay On Top Of the Latest Issues In Special Education

If you have a child who needs special education accommodations in school, it’s helpful for you to stay on top of what’s happening in the world of special education, both locally and around the country. More often than not, the issues that surround this topic will be of the legal variety, so you’ll need find ways to keep track of legal cases and happenings that might pertain to you and your child.

Since the world of special education is a highly politicized and sometimes controversial topic, you need to educate yourself about the rule of law and how the topic is shifting and being shaped in our culture and political climate.

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As a parent, you might have already found yourself at odds with your local school district over the rights of your child. If that hasn’t happened already, it could very well happen in the future. When that time comes, you’ll want to be prepared and informed about the issues of special education in general.

To keep track of both national and local news related to this topic, here are a few strategies:

1. Blogs and Newsletters that pertain to special education and the law

There are a surprisingly high number of blogs online about this topic, most of which are geared to teachers, but some for parents as well. Even the information on the teacher’s blogs can be helpful to parents.

It’s just a good way to stay current and up to date on the world of special education, as the information included will be relevant to anyone interested in the topic.

Here’s a list of 50 different special education blogs that are designed for teachers, but can be helpful to parents as well.

2. Join local advocacy groups

Depending on where you live, you might find some local advocacy groups that you can join as a parent of a special needs child. Often times these can be associated with religious organizations, so check with some local churches to see if there’s a group that you could be a part of.

3. Talk to teachers

Since they’re the ones working directly with your children, they could be a great resource in finding out what you need to know and what’s happening in the world of special education. While they might not be able to answer every question, they can certainly point you in the right direction or provide you with the right materials.

4. Talk to a special education lawyer

In the event that you have some serious or pressing questions about you and your child’s rights, a special education lawyer is the most qualified person you could speak to. A lot of attorneys will often offer consultations to help you assess your situation, and whether you or not you have a case on your hands.

Staying Informed

However you choose to do it, just make sure that you consistently stay informed. There are plenty of resources out there for you to choose from, so pick the one that works best for you and use it for as long as your child is in school.

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Do You Need to Hire a Special Education Attorney?

When you have a special needs child in the school system, there is always the potential for disagreement between you and your school district about how the needs of your child must be met and handled.

Because of the special education laws in our country, children with special needs must be accommodated for under the Individuals with Disabilities Education act (IDEA) and the Individualized Education Program (IEP). These two laws mean that the school system must take certain measures to make sure your child is in a situation where they’re able to get a quality education, which can often mean that certain changes and exceptions must be made on an individual basis.

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If you feel like those accommodations and exceptions aren’t being made for your child, it might be time to get a third party involved who can fight for the rights of your child.

A special education attorney can help you in a variety of ways, from being a simple behind the scenes consultant, up to representing you in court. Regardless of what level of involvement you might need, a special education attorney will know the ins and outs of these laws, as well as the rights of you and your child, and the rights of the school district.

But what are some other reasons or scenarios where an attorney could help you?

Assuming a dispute or disagreement between you and your school district, here are a few places where you may need some help.

Dealing with complexity: The complexities and specifics that you might face as parents of a special needs child can be daunting, even on a good day. IDEA and IEP, like any laws, are complex in the rights that they afford to both you and the school district, and understanding those complexities can take a lot of time.

What an attorney can do for you is provide you with a “readers digest” version, since they’ve already studied and understood the law more fully than you would ever have time to do.

Dealing with a loaded-for-bear school district:  If the school district that you disagree with brings their attorney into the picture, that might be your cue to do the same. Try not to worry about damaging your relationship with the district, as it’s already on thin ice if they have an attorney in the picture.

By making that move, they’ve lit the torch to start burning their side of the bridge, and when that happens, there’s no reason to leave yourself defenseless. At that point, your child’s rights take precedence over your relationship with the school.

If your case is strong: If you believe you have a strong case, and you’re confident about your own interpretation of the law, then hiring an attorney is more likely to pay off than if you’re unsure about your situation.

Often times special education attorneys will allow for a free consultation period where they can inform you as to whether or not you are on the right track. If so, hiring that attorney to represent you will be a much safer bet.

To save you time and energy: You probably already work a full time job and have a lot going on. The last thing you want to do is spend your evenings devoting time to reading the IDEA act and trying to filter the information given to you by the school district. If you don’t have the time to devote to that task, an attorney can do it in a more timely manner and can relay you the information, probably in a more clear way than you would be able to pick up on your own.

Making the Call

Hiring an attorney is a big decision, and there’s no easy answer as to when that’s right or necessary. However when you’re dealing with a special needs child and you’re paying taxes that fund the public school system, your child needs to be accommodated and taken care of.

A special education attorney will know exactly how to fight for your child, and make sure that they’re getting both a proper and lawful education.

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Special Education Student Rights: What You Need to Know

The average school day for a special education student is evolving every year. The stigma for putting an in-need student into a special education class is practically gone. Children with learning disabilities, physical issues, psychiatric disorders, and behavioral problems are getting a better education than ever before. Educators are discovering the best ways to cater lessons to individuals that need extra help.

 As a parent with a special education student, it can be scary to trust somebody else to ensure that your child is getting what they need in class. If you begin the process by educating yourself on the rights of you and your student, you will feel better equipped to protect your family.

 

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

 In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was put into effect. As ideas and attitudes toward disabled children changed, so did the act. It was eventually transformed into IDEA as a way to provide public education for special needs students.

Children who fall under IDEA’s public education services must be under 21 with learning disabilities, autism, serious emotional disturbance, traumatic brain injury, visual and hearing impairment, or physical disabilities. If you child falls into one of those categories, the state is required to provide free appropriate public education.

 Section 504

 It’s your child’s civil right to a public education. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ensures that. Public schools can’t discriminate against any child with special needs under this statute.

It also covers your child’s rights to extra curricular activities. That means that the school can’t exclude a special needs child from playgrounds, band, assemblies, field trips, off site programs, clubs, after school programs, summer programs, or graduation. An educator or adult supervisor can’t exclude your child from an activity simply because he or she doesn’t want to deal with a child with disabilities.

 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

 ADA, which was first put into action in 1990, is a broad protection for people with special needs. It protects their employment, transportation, public accommodations, and more. Part of this act specifically pertains to school children with disabilities. By law, public schools may not deny your child the proper educational services. This also includes extra curricular activities and programs that other students are entitled to participate in.

What Your Child Needs

 It’s important to know exactly what sort of education your child needs. For special needs students, it’s not enough to just have one classroom. There is so much individual attention that your child needs to focus on their specific disability. You should feel comfortable keeping in contact with your child’s teacher and express your questions and concerns.

 You should also ensure that your child is evaluated by the school to see if they need occupational, physical, or speech therapy. It’s also possible that your child may need a classroom aide. If your child isn’t tested, some part of his or her development will get delayed.

 What You Need to Do

 Keep records of everything. Record every communication with your child’s teachers and the school. Also ask the school for copies of their school district’s Section 504 in case the school ends up deny your child any educational and extracurricular services.

 It’s essential that you be an advocate for your child’s rights in order to make sure they get the best education possible. But the intricacies of special needs education laws can make it hard to know and understand every right available to your child. If you need help or think that your special needs child’s rights have been violated, consider reaching out to a special needs lawyer.

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The Special Education Process, and Why a Parent’s Instinct is Key

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Your Role as Parent

It’s common to hear of parents of children with special needs struggling for their children to receive an adequate education. What they see and feel, and what they’re told by the school district, is often very different. In their hearts they know they’re child could be doing much better, if only they were given the right support.

A parent’s instinct is one of the strongest instincts out there. I’m not a psychologist, but a school district’s understanding of what your child needs is often not on par with the reality. As a parent, you’re with your child a lot; you worry about them 24/7. You’re with them on the weekends, you’re with them after school, you’re with them before school, you’re with them in the summer, you’re with them on vacations—you know your child. And a school district does not only sees a small aspect of your child’s life and personality.

The one person that knows your child best at the school district is the teacher. However, the teacher does not have the power to make a determination if the child requires extra services, or qualifies for special education and related services. A teacher, unfortunately, has a lot of kids to worry about, and they’re often struggling to keep up with their workload.

I’m not knocking teachers; they do an excellent job given the circumstances that they’re in—however, the very person that knows your child best at the school district rarely will recommend a student to be tested for special education. If the teacher does and the child gets recommended for an assessment, the school psychologists will assess the student, spend a couple of hours with the child, and based on that small window that they observed your child they’ll make a recommendation for qualification of services. If they do not qualify, that’s not the end of the road. That’s why you have to go with your instinct—and if your instinct is telling you that the program offered by the district is not appropriate, then believe your instincts – it’s not right for your child.

What You Can Do

If your instincts tell you that something isn’t right, you need to get an outside assessment—you need to gather more information. You can bring on an attorney, you can bring on an advocate, you can talk to other parents, but you cannot rest until you feel that the district’s offering the right program for your child.

Diligence, diligence, diligence is key. Part of building the package, or putting a case together, is getting the right information. It’s similar to going to a medical doctor—if one doctor tells you something, it’s a really good idea to get a second, third, fourth opinion even, until you feel at ease.

It’s the same principle with the educational system: the district’s not always right. To show or prove that they’re not right, you have to go out and get that information, get additional assessments. I’m not saying you shop around for an assessment that will be written for what you want. It has to be objective; it has to be focused educationally on what your child needs. Having an assessment by an educational psychologist or somebody familiar with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process is key.

If that assessment doesn’t show the right results, or if you’re uncomfortable with that, then go get a third assessment. It can be a hard uphill battle, but whatever you request from a school district, you have to have proof supported by experts.

Our Role

I rely a lot on parent’s instinct. As a Special Education attorney, while I love meeting their children, the opportunity for me to do that is very limited. I am mostly involved with the legal side—I have to rely on parent’s instinct. We become a team and we work together. Ideally, the assessment will bring to light what your child needs educationally. After sharing the assessment with the school, I thenl put together a program, an IEP that will address all the needs of your child.

Again, you cannot rely on a school district to do that—they don’t know your child like you do. They’re looking at numbers, they’re looking at money, they’re looking at staffing—your child is just a name to them. You’re going to sit in an IEP meeting with a few people at most that have ever met your child. You’re going to have a district administrator making these decisions. You have to go out and get that information if you feel what they’re offering, or failing to offer, or not offering is not adequate. Like I said before, go with your instinct. A parent’s instinct is key for every student’s success in school.

 

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Suspensions And Students With Disabilities

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While educators, policy makers, and parents are questioning the usefulness of standard suspension protocol, suspension rates across all grade levels have more than doubled over the past three decades. Some studies have found that a large percentage of the suspensions are for minor infractions such as disrupting class, tardiness, and dress code violations, rather than for serious violent or criminal behavior.

Meanwhile, students who have been suspended are missing out on valuable days of education, which can lead to lower student achievement. Additionally, out-of-school suspension correlates the child’s increased likelihood of dropping out and greater risk of future incarceration.

A recent analysis of Department of Education data by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project has found that racial minorities and students with disabilities are suspended at almost twice the rate of their white and non-disabled peers. The data was culled from 10 states’ schools, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, from the 2009-2010 school year. Some 500 schools in California were represented in the study.

The study revealed that male students of African-American descent with disabilities had the highest rates of suspension, as 25 percent was suspended at least once during the school year (compared to 13 percent of disabled students and 7 percent of students without disabilities). Identified as disabled or not, black students were the most likely to be suspended of any race, though Latinos and American Indians also were suspended at higher rates than whites.

For example, during the 2009-10 school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District had an overall suspension rate of 5.9 percent. But when race was taken into account, the dramatic difference in rates became apparent. Amongst black male students, the rate was up to 23 percent, compared to 5 percent of white males. Rates were lower in general amongst female students, but minorities still faced higher rates of suspension than their non-minority peers.

Even more striking disparities in risk of suspension could be seen between students with and without disabilities. In the Placer Union High School District, 8 percent of non-disabled students experienced suspension at least once during the school year. However, disabled students were ten times as likely to be suspended, as a whopping 86.7 percent of students with disabilities had been suspended during the same school year.
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The California data supported the overall study conclusion that black males with disabilities had the highest suspension rates. In the San Bernardino City Unified School District, black male students with disabilities had a 59 percent rate of suspension, while amongst non-disabled black male students was 29 percent.

The disparity between non-disabled and the disabled students’ rates of suspension suggests that children with disabilities are not getting the additional support and counseling in schools.

With the correlation between suspension and future performance, the higher rates of disabled students being suspended for potentially minor infractions puts them at great risk for future incarceration. The implications of this study are sobering, as students with disabilities make up a large proportion of children who are in the juvenile justice system.

Overall, studies have shown that the practice of out-of-school suspension does not help schools provide a safer or more productive educational environment for the suspended student nor their classmates. Educators and policy makers are discussing alternative forms of correction or discipline, like in-school suspension.

Structured programs that address multiple issues can help students get back to class faster and stay there. However, while this may help reform the practice, it does not address the underlying issue that disabled students are subject to more disciplinary action than non-disabled students.

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The History of Special Education in America

Education that fully accommodates the unique learning disabilities of special needs children is actually a relatively new and young installment of our public education system.

Prior to the 1970s, students with special needs had limited options and virtually no chance of succeeding by way of the free public education system alongside non-special needs children. The choices of the parents of these kids were one of the following:

  • Get their education at home — Parents would often resort to pulling their kids out of school and teaching them at home. While many parents choose to homeschool their children today, it’s often for reasons other than a hindering learning disability.
  • Pay for private school — Before the 1970s, private school was (and still is, in large part) an expensive luxury. While some families could afford it, the greater percentage could not, therefore leaving them with few options for educating their kids.
  • Pay for a private tutor — This kind of education crossed the two previous options together. Once again, this came down to an issue of cost, because if parents couldn’t afford private school, they weren’t likely to be able to afford a tutor either.

During the earlier half of the 20th century, special schools dubbed “institutions” were available for students with learning disabilities, but would often simply integrate those children with those with mental illnesses, where little if any education would ever take place.

There’s no question that the odds were stacked against learning disabled children. However the 1970s would turn all that upside down with just a few pieces of legislation.

Turning Point

During the 1930s, grassroots and advocacy groups began to form to lobby for the inclusion and accommodation of special needs kids in state and federally funded public schools. The culmination and fruit of these efforts came to its height in the 1970s with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

These two laws dovetailed one another as EHA made it mandatory that the right to a public education be afforded to all children regardless of their limitations or disabilities, while IDEA required that individualized accommodations be provided for children with qualifying disabilities.

Other laws during this decade also played a role in providing strong foundational platform to support learning disabled children, including the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guaranteed civil rights to all disabled people, and included the right to a free public education.

These years marked an incredibly positive turning point for the parents and advocates of special needs kids, and would eventually lead to the extinction of the private special needs “institutions.”

Moving Forward

Fast forward to present time and you have nearly all special needs education occurring in the public schools, with private or homeschool options being taken as a matter of personal choice and not out of desperation or necessity.

Likewise the teachers who educate these students are being provided with proper training and education to better assist special needs children and make sure that they are getting the best education possible.

In the 2001 and 2004 under President George W. Bush, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) assured a greater measure of accountability to public schools to insure the proper education of special needs kids. The law also provided assistance for better technology and loan programs that were targeted to supper those who were learning disabled.

While there always seems to be room for improvement in America’s education system, we are certainly due some credit for turning our history in a positive direction when it comes to special needs kids.

Everyone should have a chance at a great education. Thankfully our country is continuing to move in that direction.

 

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How To Prepare For A Meeting With Your Special Education Lawyer

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Make the most out of your meeting with your special education lawyer, whether at the initial consultation or on subsequent visits, by being prepared with all the necessary documents and information. The tips below will help you organize your notes and questions before the clock starts running at the attorney’s office.

Initial Meeting

You may have had to fill out a questionnaire prior to meeting with your lawyer so that you won’t have to waste time during the meeting going over basic information. Either send the completed form to the office with copies of all documents that accompany the questionnaire, or, if requested, bring that with you to the initial consultation. Like a first date, this first meeting can set the tone for the rest your relationship.

Additionally, you should ask the lawyer if they have handled similar cases in the past and how they addressed the case then. Find out how long it took them to reach a resolution, and how much of their practice centers on special education needs. His/her response will give you a sense of how they plan on managing your situation. Did he/she handle each case personally, or were a number of junior attorneys the main point of contact? Ask to meet with other members of his team that may work on your case.

Documents

Bring copies of every document that pertains to your special needs child’s file, no matter how insignificant or old it may seem to you. You lawyer will rely on that information to create a picture of the situation, and later, use it as support for their arguments.

The documents below are just a few of the reports, forms and evidence of correspondence that will help your attorney. Bring copies to your initial consultation and any new documents to subsequent meetings.

–        all evaluations done by the school or privately

–        waiver forms

–        emails and letters between you and the school and the child’s doctors

–        report cards and progress reports

–        disciplinary reports (if any)

–        any other school records

–        doctors’ and therapists’ records

–        hospital admission records (if any)

–        any other documents pertaining to the case

Organize your child’s files chronologically prior to handing over the copies. By preparing these files in a systematic way that allows the lawyer to quickly peruse the documents, you will save both you and your lawyer time. Use binders and tabs to keep all the paperwork neatly organized. This will also allow you to double-check for duplicates of documents or omissions.

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Goal Setting

Prepare a list of objectives and expectations for your lawyer prior to your meeting. This will help your lawyer determine if this is a case that he or she is able to take on, as well as the best approach to achieve those aims. The goals may be broken down to smaller steps to be accomplished between each meeting.

Some common goals set for each meeting include reviewing contracts and other legal documents, responding to a legal complaint, lawsuit or threatening letter, obtaining legal advice to understand your rights, or determining if you have a case or legal recourse against someone else.

Attend meetings with your special education lawyer with a list of questions related to achieving your goals. Here are some sample questions to help you and your lawyer work toward your objectives:

–        How should you respond?

–        What are the legal areas of concern?

–        How is the opposing side likely to respond (to our action)?

–        What are you options, in and out of court?

–        What difficulties can the lawyer see with the case?

After you’ve met with the lawyer, follow their instructions to the letter. If asked to provide more paperwork, sign forms, etc., perform the tasks in a timely manner. You will accrue additional fees if attorneys have to follow up with you.

By spend a little time preparing to meet with your attorney and setting goals for each meeting, you’ll be able to get the most out of your time with your special education lawyer and get your case one step closer to resolution.

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