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

A few months back the Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote a 28 page primer entitled, “An overview of Special Education in California.”  While it is meant to be an introduction to Special Education in the State of California a large portion of the report parallel’s special education across the nation and is worth reading even if you are not living in California.  Especially since California has approximately 10% of the more than 6.6 million children currently receiving Special Education services across the United States.

About One in Ten California Students Receives Special Education Services. About 686,000 students with disabilities (SWDs) receive special education services in California, comprising about 10 percent of the state’s public school enrollment. Specific learning disabilities—including dyslexia—are the most common diagnoses requiring special education services (affecting about 4 percent of all K–12 students), followed by speech and language impairments. While the overall prevalence of students with autism and chronic health problems still is relatively rare (each affecting 1 percent or less of all public school students), the number of students diagnosed with these disabilities has increased notably over the past decade. Read the rest of this entry →

When a child is first diagnosed with a disability, parents must learn a lot in a short time if they want their child to receive the best services. Finding that information can be challenging, but NICHCY is here to help. Has your child been classified as having an “Other Health Impairment”? NICHCY’s fact sheet can help clarify what that means. Has your child experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury? NICHCY’s fact sheet can help you understand how that disability affects learning.

NICHCY’s Disability Fact Sheets are our most popular web pages. Each fact sheet includes a definition, causes, characteristics, how common the disability is in school-age children, educational considerations, and helpful organizations for further information. Most also include supports broken down by age group, tips for teachers, tips for parents, and a brief story of a child with the disability. The fact sheets are a great starting point for anyone who is living or working with a child who has a disability. Many are also available in Spanish—easy to read, easy to share. Read the rest of this entry →

According to the National Education Association, student enrollment in special education services has increased 30 percent over the last decade. Of the students who receive special education services, 75 percent receive all or a portion of their education in general education classrooms, affecting how instruction and services are delivered to all students in the public education system.

It is difficult to imagine that 60 years ago, students with disabilities were fighting just to be able to have an education, while today’s schools support an inclusive model. The landscape of special education has shifted dramatically in public schools and certainly for the better. But what special education is? How it has changed in public schools over the years? And what it looks like today? Read the rest of this entry →

I can’t believe in the year 2012 we are still discussing whether a child with ADHD can qualify for an IEP.  Many people continue to point out that there are 13 disability categories listed in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) isn’t one of them.  The 13 categories are Read the rest of this entry →

If the Proposed DSM-5 changes have the effect predicted by the New York Times article, New autism definition may exclude many, study suggests, then these changes will cause a huge upheaval in the lives of many families who struggle with Autism every day. According to the New York Times Article:

Hundreds of thousands of people receive state-backed special services to help offset the disorders’ disabling effects, which include learning and social problems, and the diagnosis is in many ways central to their lives. Read the rest of this entry →

I often hear from parents, I have just gotten a medical diagnosis for my child and have set up my first IEP meeting to qualify them to receive services.  That medical diagnosis could be ADHD, a learning disorder, a mood disorder, an anxiety disorder, pervasive developmental disorder or a whole host of others.  These are typically the same parents that are blown away when the School District tells them they don’t qualify. Read the rest of this entry →

The following list outlines the definitions of each of the disability categories established under the Individuals with Disabilities Education (Improvement) Act of 2004 (“IDEA”) Read the rest of this entry →

What You Need to Know about the Discrepancy and Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses (“Third Method”) Models.

The special education process for identifying a student with specific learning disabilities is one of the greatest challenges the parent of a child with specific learning disabilities can face.  Not only do you need to understand how your district defines/identifies what a specific learning disability is, but you need to know how your child qualifies for special education services under their definition.  This challenge arises because we do not have a hard and fast definition of a specific learning disability.  You as a parent see that your child is not performing well in school.  It would seem to be cut and dried that your child has a specific learning disability of some sort or another.  However, there are many factors involved with identifying a learning disability, and not all academic problems are caused by a specific learning disability. Read the rest of this entry →

The lazy days of summer will soon be over and whether your child goes back to school in August or September; you should pull your child’s most recent Individualized Education program (IEP) and take the time to read it from cover to cover.  Now is a good time to familiarize yourself with all of your child’s disability, goals, accommodations, class placement, etc….in order to make sure your child’s IEP is implemented correctly in the upcoming fall semester.  It’s important to be familiar in advance so that you are able to begin tracking your child’s services at the beginning of the first semester, instead of finding out sometime in December your school is out of compliance with your child’s IEP.  Also, if you have an IEP meeting coming up in the first semester to discuss amending the current one, now is a good time to write a list of concerns that you have.  You can always add to it when the school year begins, this way you are prepared to have a productive meeting when the time comes.  Read the rest of this entry →