Learn Your Special Education Laws, Special Education Rights, and Share IEP Goal Ideas

Understand That Math is a Cumulative Subject

It is also the sole subject that is nearly 100 percent cumulative. Students must have a strong foundation in order to be successful. In the elementary years a child has to have a clear understanding of our place value system in order to add, subtract, and multiply large numbers. The basic skills, such as addition, provide the framework for understanding multiplication. Fractions and decimals lay the groundwork for ratios and percentages. Read the rest of this entry →

Today we had a terrific conversation on @thecoffeeklatch about being your child’s advocate and turning them into an advocate for themselves. The following is a summary of the discussion. It is a conglomeration of the wonderful thoughts and ideas produced by a group of tremendously supportive parents of special needs kids. Some of these ideas are mine, but not all. Please go to the search box on your twitter profile, and type in #tck to see the actual discussion of these topics. Read the rest of this entry →

My husband and I recently took a tour of Summit View School, a Nonpublic School, which has two campuses in the Southern California area.  We toured the San Fernando Valley campus with the Director of the School, Nancy Rosenfelt.  Summit View specializes in educating students from first through twelfth grade with Learning Disabilities; meeting their unique needs and requirements.  Summit View also uses many specialized instructional programs to teach the students such as:  Schools Attuned, Wynn, Multisensory Phonemic Awareness Program, Read Naturally and many more.  The two campuses have a total of 275 students and small class sizes.  Summit View is a Nonpublic School, which means it is privately operated, but still State Certified and regulated by the California Department of Education.  It also means that a majority of their Students have Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and have been placed there by a local public school district; however, they still have many students who pay tuition in order to attend.  Sounds like a great school…….right?   But even more important than being a great school, it’s a wonderful environment! Read the rest of this entry →

A family who sued the Prescott Unified School District unsuccessfully under the Individual’s with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) will not have to reimburse the District for $130,000 in legal fees.  The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the District Court’s ruling that the lawsuit was filed for an improper purpose and thus the Parent’s owed the District reimbursement of their legal expenses.  The case, which is R.P. versus Prescott Unified School District, if not overturned, would have had serious negative effects on future IDEA lawsuits.  What I found most fascinating about this was one of the reasons for the reversal which stated:  Read the rest of this entry →

My name is Steve Flores and I would like to share with you my experiences in coaching children with special needs. I’ve run a soccer program for kids with special needs for the last 11 years. In that time, the program has grown from just a few children to over 60 kids. One of the reasons I think the kids keep coming back to play is the benefits they get from participating in a sport. As the parent of a child with special needs, I know how consuming life can be attending to our kids requirements. We spend so much time worrying about their IEP’s, special diets, etc. that sometimes we might overlook a key part of our child’s development. Kids with special needs can benefit just as much from a youth sports program than any mainstream child. Sports build self esteem, something that I feel is important to any child’s development. Numerous times I’ve had parents tell me how much their child has grown socially over the course of just one season.  Read the rest of this entry →

I was reading a few blogs about Individualized Education Programs (IEP) over the last month and a few of them have me concerned that as hard as we try to educate parents about IEP’s many still don’t understand their purpose.  Some of the misconceptions I have heard or read about lately include:

• Children with IEP’s won’t get suspended for fighting when other children would;
• Children with IEP’s get special provisions made for them that they will come to expect even after their school days are over; and
• Children who grow up with IEP’s never learn responsibility because they are used to getting their way. Read the rest of this entry →

I’m disabled. More specifically, I’m learning disabled. Even more specifically, I have nonverbal learning disabilities. Not differences, disabilities. There are things that virtually all NT people (NT = neurotypical, the acronym for people who think they don’t need one) .   A  ‘difference’ is something you might choose – more rational or more emotional? More mathematical or more artistic? – A disability is something you wouldn’t choose, and I’m disabled. I am, that is, UN able to do some things. Hence the word. Read the rest of this entry →

This material is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as legal advice.  You must check with your own insurance company and your legal consultant for verification of laws and guidelines specific to your state.

Dealing with your health insurance company can be difficult and confusing, especially when your child needs ABA, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and/or residential placement or in-patient hospitalization.  For many parents, obtaining reimbursement for these services from their insurance company has never even been contemplated.  Others call their insurance company with questions regarding these services, are told the services are not covered, and therefore reimbursement is never pursued.   Most health insurance policies, however, do cover some of these services, but obtaining coverage can be difficult. Read the rest of this entry →

Adolescence is a tumultuous time for everyone, including individuals with Developmental Disabilities (DD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  ASD includes Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).  Often time, individuals with DD and ASD may have intellectual disabilities and delays in development so we tend to forget that they also experience the significant physiological and social-emotional changes like everyone else.  As individuals enter the middle and high school age for any child, it is important to incorporate related developmental factors, including puberty, sexuality, mood changes, and independent living ability in their daily lives.  These are issues that impact all children, including children with developmental disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), coming into adolescences.  These issues also drive how we approach treating adolescents with ASD in teaching skills and addressing their behaviors.   Read the rest of this entry →

SANTA ROSA, Ca. – Sixteen-year-old Tai Wells now knows how to transfer appliqués onto t-shirts, emboss pencils and create custom plaques thanks to an innovative program at the Sierra School of Sonoma County that puts special-needs students to work in a school-based “small business.” Read the rest of this entry →