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

Last year at this time I had written, “As many of you are aware, autism occurs in 1 in every 110 births in the United States, and for boys, the rate is closer to 1 in 70.” As of today March 30, 2012, almost one year later the CDC as updated their most recent numbers on Autism. According to the CDC:

CDC estimates 1 in 88 children (11.3 per 1,000) has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Read the rest of this entry →

A couple of months ago I was touring an inclusive charter school that my wife and I want my son to attend for middle school. As we toured the different classrooms I noticed a sign hanging over the blackboard in every class. The sign read, “Fairness is not getting the same thing as everyone else, but getting what you need.” This motto seemed appropriate since the charter’s school inclusion “model allows for the individual needs of each child to be addressed in a manner that enhances each child’s strengths while also addressing learning needs” all within the general education setting.

Being the curious type I snapped a picture of one of the signs and went home to research the individual who came up with this philosophy. After doing some Google searches I found the following YouTube video from Rick Lavoie. Read the rest of this entry →

The Mayo Clinic recently reported that researchers have found that children exposed to anesthesia multiple times before the age of 3 have double the incidence of ADHD than those with no exposure to anesthesia. You can read the report here. In a 2009 report Mayo linked multiple anesthesia exposures before age 4 to learning disabilities.

Great. My son, has arthrogryposis and had three major surgeries and at least four smaller surgeries before age 3. Nothing we can do about that now. He has had many more surgeries since then. We have long noticed that he is inattentive. We also see that his memory suffers after surgeries. Nevertheless, without those surgeries his ability to walk, run, write, and feed himself would all be more severely impacted.For my child, and many like him, surgery is a necessity. Read the rest of this entry →

In Los Angeles, we’ve been rocked by the news stories of disgusting sex abuse at Miramonte elementary school with local prosecutors charging a longtime teacher with 23 counts of lewd acts with a child. Mark Berndt, 61, allegedly spoon-fed his semen to blindfolded students and also took pictures of the acts. He has resigned from the district.

Later last week, sheriff’s deputies arrested his colleague, Martin Bernard Springer, 49, on suspicion of fondling two 7-year-olds in his class within the last three years. Worse of all, Berndt was first was under suspicion in 1994. The incident involved a 9-year-old girl at Miramonte Elementary School, who told investigators that Berndt tried to fondle her inside a classroom in September 1993. Read the rest of this entry →

Today’s blog post is meant to be cathartic for me personally. Since I spend my days entrenched in Special Education, I have become particularly sensitive to the following pet peeves. Wikipedia defines a pet peeve as, “a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to him or her, to a greater degree than others may find it.” While some of the list below consists of minor annoyances, others make me down right angry.

1. Schools don’t diagnose they determine eligibility;

A day doesn’t go by without a phone call from a parent who tells me their child was diagnosed with Autism by the School District. School District’s DO NOT diagnose rather they have determined your child is eligible for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) under the eligibility category of Autism. The only person that can diagnose your child with Autism is a medical specialist. If you have been told by the School District that your child is eligible for an IEP under the category of Autism, I highly recommend you get an assessment performed by a trained medical professional. Read the rest of this entry →

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably heard of the ADA – Americans with Disabilities Act – that’s the landmark piece of civil rights 1990 legislation which requires wheelchair accessible bathrooms, for instance.  But what you may not know is whether the ADA applies to your disabled child in school.  You’d think it would, right?  But then, why does everyone talk about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) all the time?  Well, Title II of the ADA does apply to your disabled child in school.  Not just with respect to students with physical disabilities in wheelchairs, but also to any student with a disability who needs “accommodations.”  You may be more familiar with the term “504 Plan” which comes from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 – a precursor to the ADA.  The 504 law is very similar conceptually to the ADA – if you understand Section 504, you’ll understand the ADA.  The good news is that there’s new guidance from the federal government which clarifies (and even extends) how the ADA can help your child in school. Read the rest of this entry →

The other day I was watching a talk show and one of the guests brought in a book to help promote disability awareness and acceptance. “Just Like You,” is a book about a spider named Boris, who has one bad leg and a field mouse, named Henry who could not hear or speak. They are best friends who play and live by themselves in the forest; the other animals bullied and shunned them because they were different. One hot day, a fire breaks out in the forest, so Boris and Henry utilize their unique ways to communicate and spread the word that a fire was taking over the forest. Once the forest animals escaped danger, they looked past Boris and Henry’s disabilities and looked at them as equals. Read the rest of this entry →

Injustice stems from fear; fear begins with ignorance. Once, I was ignorant. I used to be a “normal” person who, in the midst of my normalcy, was afraid of people with disabilities. I was afraid because I didn’t know how to interact with them, I didn’t know if I should pity them, if I should ignore their disability, if I should talk more loudly, use more hand gestures or speak more simply. I didn’t know because, honestly, how could I? In my high school, the students with disabilities were placed into a classroom where we could volunteer to go visit them as teacher’s aides for community service hours. They were the others and we were the privileged ones who could offer our valuable time and presence to improve their lives. I didn’t like this at all. I would think about volunteering but then I would tell myself “that’s just not my thing, I wouldn’t be good at it.” But now, I understand that to be human is to be good at interacting with a person with a disability. They do not require special skills from their friends because they are every bit as human as we are, they have just as many talents and, if given the opportunity, they can contribute to the world just as much as any other person. 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 →

Last month I published a list of Special Education Facebook Pages to Like.  This was an extensive list of Companies and Organizations that focus primarily on Special Education.  What was left off of this list was all of the amazing communities on facebook dedicated to creating a warm, loving, supportive, and nonjudgmental environment for parents raising children with autism and other special needs.  Most of these communities are run by parents just like you and me.  While I run the Special Education Advisor community page on facebook I spend just as much time on many of the community pages listed below.  I also enlisted the help of Jessica at Autism Moms to bolster the list with some of her favorites as well.  Read the rest of this entry →