Special Education Spotlight #27 JoAnn Collins Educational Advocate for 20 years and author of Disability Deception and E book: Behavioral Basics
Contact information E mail: JoAnn@disabilitydeception.com or PO Box 89 Bradley Il. 60915
JoAnn’s Corner
I love to get E mails so feel free to E mail me. Let me know what issue you would like addressed in a future issue. Also any resources that you use that I can pass on.
Also remember that I am providing advocacy for parents that need help with their child’s education! Fees extremely reasonable from an experienced advocate!
What can be done long distance? Many things: Looking at a child’s psychological testing and interpreting the testing, report written on the interpretation, help with determining next step for parents in advocating for their child, individual help with specific situations (had several parents call and get help with due process requests and due process motions), Interpreting Neuropsychological and Clinical Psychologists reports and writing a report on how the parent can use the evaluation to benefit their child. Help with due process requests and preparation.
For the rest of the summer I have reduced my rate by half for parents that would like help, but have financial difficulty. If interested please send me an E mail with your phone number and a good time to call.
Testimonials:
“JoAnn you are a genius! You know so much and have helped me tremendously figure out how to fight for services my child needs. Thanks so much.”
“You helped me win a due process motion when I had no idea how to fight, or even what the motion was. Your knowledge of due process is awesome. More parents should take advantage. Fees are definitely worth it also!”
“You are awesome, your sites and all of the articles out there are like nuggets of gold, literally. You have made me feel empowered, and I cannot thank you enough!
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The US Department of Education (DOE) sent out determination letters on state implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in June of this year 2010.
The individual state information can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/fund/data/report/idea/partbspap/2010/ideafactsheet-determinations6-1-10.pdf.
The state can be found to “meet requirements,” “needs assistance,” or “needs assistance for two consecutive years. If a state “needs intervention” for three consecutive years the Department requires a corrective action plan or compliance agreement, or they may withhold federal payments to the state.
JoAnn—The DOE tried to withhold money from 1 state years ago (believe it was Virginia), and their was such an uproar that they have never had the strength to do it again—as far as I know. The sad thing is that they probably do not even check and see if the states follow the action plan.
Below are a few states and how they fared:
1. “Met requirements” California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, Wisconsin. JoAnn--this is only a partial list—see above for full list.
2. “Needs Assistance” Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia. JoAnn--this is only a partial list—see above for full list.
3. “Needs Assistance for two consecutive years” Guam, Puerto Rico, Texas, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands. JoAnn—this is a complete list.
4. “Needs Assistance for three consecutive years” Federated State of Micronesia, and Tennessee. JoAnn—this is a complete list.
5. “Needs Assistance for four consecutive years” American Samoa, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, and South Caroline. JoAnn—this is a complete list.
6. “Needs Intervention” Ohio JoAnn—this is a complete list.
7. “Needs Intervention four consecutive years” District of Columbia JoAnn—this is a complete list.
JoAnn—Part C’s results can also be found at the above Web address if you are interested.
A few comments: Check on your state and see how they are doing. And also it amazes me that the states that seem to have met the requirements are the states that have so much trouble with special education. One I am aware of is California. So I guess the determination has nothing to do with how hard it is for parents to obtain FAPE for their child!
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Information on Common Core State Standards (national standards)
In June the final set of Common Core State Standards were released. If States adopt them by August 2nd of this year they will receive additional points in their bid for “Race to the Top” money from the US Department of Education. The standards can be found at: www.corestandards.org.
So far several states have adopted these standards: Kentucky, Hawaii, Maryland, W. Virginia, Oklahoma, Illinois (where I live), Wisconsin, and North Carolina. I may have missed some so check with your State Department of Education, and see if your state has adopted them.
An article from Disability Scoop states that The United States is one of the very few developed countries that lack national standards for its public schools. They also state that this problem has worsened since many states have watered down their standards to prevent sanctions under No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
In a joint letter Joel I. Klein who is the chancellor of New York Schools and 54 other big city superintendents urge adoption of these standards!!
The actual standards for each grade level can be found at: www.corestandards.org.
JoAnn—I think national standards are long overdue and are an accountability measure that parents can use to make sure that their child is keeping up academically with their grade appropriate peers.
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On the Core Standard Web site there is an article about how the Core Standards Apply to Students with Disabilities—good article—worth reading. One thing the article states is: “Students with disabilities . . . must be challenged to excel within the general curriculum and be prepared for success in their post school lives, including college and/or careers. These common standards provide a historic opportunity to improve access to rigorous academic content standards for students with disabilities.”
JoAnn—Could have not said it better myself!
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Disability Deception of the month
Special Education Administrator: “Your child is not eligible for that service because he is Speech only!”
Parent: “But your own psychological evaluation states that my child has a Language Disorder. He needs Language and educational services because his disability is preventing him from learning to read and learning in other academic areas.”
Special Education Administrator: “I do not care. The law says that we can give him one special education service and nothing else, and that is what we are going to do. What are you going to do about it?”
I have actually heard this one a lot—that a child is only eligible for Speech but nothing else. The truth is that once a child is found to have a disability then the child is eligible for all related and special education services to meet their educational needs.
Definition from IDEA 2004 on child with a disability: “The term child with a disability means a child:
With mental retardation, hearing impairments, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments or specific learning disabilities, and
Who by reason thereof needs special education and related services.” JoAnn—note that it says services not service!
The definition of special education from IDEA 2004 states: “The term special education means specially designed instruction at no cost to the parents to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability. . .”
While many schools try very hard to limit the services that they offer children with disabilities—the law is clear that children with disabilities once they are found eligible for special education services must receive all services they need.
I recently heard from a mother on the East Coast that was having this problem with her school district. They stated in their psychological report that the child had Speech/Language Impairments but then refused to give him Language services. The child was also behind his peers in academics, was really struggling; and the school district still refused to give him educational services.
The mother stated to me that her state actually allowed a Speech only IEP; which makes no sense to me because this would be in violation of Federal law. States can pass laws that are more generous to parents than the federal law, but cannot pass laws that are more restrictive than the federal law!
I recommended that she request a complete psychological evaluation from the school (it had been 2 years since they evaluated him) in several areas that her child had difficulty in. I also told her of a few tests to request that would help isolate some of her child’s problem areas. I told her if they refuse to include the tests that she requested, or do not do a comprehensive evaluation in all areas of her son’s suspected disabilities she may then request an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. Many children have undiagnosed disabilities that need a comprehensive evaluation with qualified private experts to determine what these disabilities are and what specific related and special education services they need.
I have come to believe very strongly that many school districts today have become so bold in their denial of services, that parents must be willing to fight at due process to get their child needed services. I have heard from many parents that when they refused to back down (must have proof that your child needs the service of course—private IEE, graphing of lack of progress, IEP’s with similar goals and services for several years etc), the school usually did back down and give the child the service.
Schools know that due process is tough for parents and so they sometimes even intimidate them with this: “Go ahead file for due process. Our school attorney will wipe you off the face of this earth!”
I have heard this before and it does not scare me! Parents that try hard and develop an awesome paper trail, get a qualified independent educational evaluation of their child that includes recommendations of needed related and special education services can prevail at due process. Also remember that IDEA 2004 now requires a resolution meeting that you must attend, so this would be a way to resolve the disagreement before due process.
Nothing will change if we as parents continue to allow special education personnel to deny children needed services! This will have a devastating effect on the child for the rest of their life! And I speak from experience because my son’s lack of education in a few areas has really affected his ability to get and keep a job and participate in college.
