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

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 →