New Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice on effective communication with students with disabilities

From the Office for Civil Rights - U.S. Department of Education

Dear Colleague:

Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, together with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, issued joint guidance about the rights of public elementary and secondary students with hearing, vision, or speech disabilities to effective communication. The guidance, in the form of a letter to educators (available in Spanish) with an attached Frequently Asked Questions document, is intended to help schools understand and comply with federal legal requirements on meeting the communications needs of students with disabilities. We are also releasing a fact sheet on the guidance for parents (available in Spanish).

Please share this information widely with your members, affiliates, and networks.

Thank you,

Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Education

Questions? Contact Us

Due process hearing request under IDEA

By Diane Taylor from examiner.com

The federal regulations for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes many provisions to protect the rights of parents and their child with a disability while also giving families and school systems means by which to resolve disputes. These rights are known as procedural safeguards. Parents have specific rights under this law to due process hearing requests under 34 CFR &300.507.

You or your school district may file a due process hearing request on any matter relating to a proposal or a refusal to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, eligibility determination or educational placement of your child or the provision of a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to your child.

In addition, in accordance with Section 1008.212, F.S., in the event that your school district superintendent requests that an extraordinary exemption from participation in a state assessment be granted to your child and the State Superintendent denies this request, you have the right to an expedited due process hearing. The request for an expedited due process hearing is made directly to the State Department of Education. Upon your request, you will be advised of any free or low-cost legal services and other relevant services available. The hearing must begin within twenty school days following receipt of your request. The administrative law judge or hearing officer must make a determination on the case within ten school days after the expedited hearing is completed.

Read more HERE.

Granting consent for release of special education records under federal law IDEA

By Diane Taylor from examiner.com

The federal regulations for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes many provisions to protect the rights of parents and their child with a disability while also giving families and school systems means by which to resolve disputes. These rights are known as procedural safeguards. Parents have specific rights under this law to grant consent for release of special education records under 34 CFR &300.622.

Unless the information contained in education records and disclosure is authorized without parental consent under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), parents must grant consent before personally identifiable information is disclosed to parties other than officials from the participating agency. Parental consent is not required for purposes of meeting the various requirements of Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) except under the following conditions:

• Parental consent or the consent of an eligible student (one who has reached the age of majority under State law) must be obtained before personally identifiable information is released to officials of participating agencies providing or paying for transition services.

• If your child is in, or is going to attend, a private school that is not in the same school district where you reside, your consent must be obtained before any personally identifiable information about your child is released between officials in the school district where the private school is located and the officials in the school district where you reside.

Student's rights under the regulations for FERPA in 34 CFR 99.5 (a) are transferred to your child upon the student reaching the age of majority at eighteen (18). The rights under IDEA are also transferred to your child upon reaching the age of majority. Under IDEA at least one year before the student reaches the age of majority, the student must be given the procedural safeguards notice as well as be informed of their rights under the statute.

Safeguards must also be in place with each participating agency in order to protect the confidentiality of all personally identifiable information at collection, storage, disclosure and destruction stages. One official at each agency must assume responsibility for ensuring confidentiality of this information. Training for all personnel collecting or using this information must be conducted under State policies and procedures as well as Part B of IDEA and FERPA. Each participating agency must maintain, for public inspection, a current list of names and positions of those employees within the agency who may have access to this information.

The school district must inform the parent when personally identifiable information which has been collected, maintained or used is no longer needed to provide educational services to your child. This information must be destroyed at your written request. However, a permanent record of your child's name, address, phone number, grades, attendance record, classes attended, grade level completed and year completed may be maintained without time limitation.

Article HERE.

5 Tips For a Successful IEP When Inclusion is the Target

By Tiffany Wilson, MA from Special-Ism

As IEP season is upon us, it is always good to remember these helpful hints to ensure that your child’s IEP goes in your favor when requesting that he/she be included into a general education placement with typically developing peers.

1. Educate Yourself

• Become educated about special education law, specifically, the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA).
• Your child is entitled to be educated in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). This can be an inclusion setting at a child’s home school with his/her siblings and neighborhood friends!

2. Be Prepared to Advocate for Your Child

• Have a friend or consultant accompany you to your child’s IEP for support.
• Sometimes a school is unable to effectively include a student with autism into the typical classroom without some support from outside agencies specializing in inclusion or behavioral intervention. This type of support may be needed in order for your child to have a successful inclusion experience.

Read more HERE.

Special EDition: June 2013 -- Due Process

From Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)

Disagreements are a fact of life, but for children with disabilities, time and appropriate help are so important that Congress included a set of "Procedural Safeguards" (formal steps to take when you have concerns about what the school district is offering or refusing to do) in IDEA to make sure that a child's right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is protected. Filing for due Process is a key part of those safeguards.This month's Special EDition discusses due process hearings under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).

What is Due Process?
Whenever possible, it is best to try to work out disagreements related to special education directly with the school district and IEP team. However, when this does not work, you are NOT powerless. The next step to consider is filing for "Due process" (this includes whether or not your child is eligible for services at all). Due Process is a legal term that describes a government's commitment to a system of fair procedures to uphold a citizen's legal rights. In the context of IDEA and special education, due process ensures that your child with a disability (or suspected disability) receives an appropriate education based on his/her individual needs by outlining a process of steps to take when disputes arise ending in a formal hearing where a judge makes the final determination. A due process hearing is a way for you to resolve disagreements with your school district when you can't find a solution through the IEP process.

Read more HERE.

Top 10 Things to Know About IEPs

By National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) Editorial Team

If your child is struggling in school because of a learning disability (LD), an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) might be an option to support his or her K-12 educational needs. Every public school child who receives special education and related services must have an IEP, and it’s hard to understate just how important this document is—it’s the cornerstone of a quality education for many students with disabilities. As a parent, you play a key role at all points in the IEP process, and your knowledge and advocacy can make a big difference in ensuring your child’s success. As you browse NCLD’s IEP Headquarters and learn more about IEPs, here are ten points to be sure you take away:

Getting an IEP is one step in the special education process.In order to get an IEP, a child must be evaluated and found eligible for special education services. An IEP does not automatically follow a LD diagnosis, and not all students with LD will be eligible for an IEP. (If your child is not eligible for an IEP, a 504 plan may be available for in-school support.)

Read more HERE.

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund - February 2013 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family Caregivers,

This month's Special EDition is the first of a two–part discussion about the principle of least restrictive environment (LRE). If a student with a disability qualifies for specialized instruction and services (special education) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the student must receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment.

What is the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)?

The school district must ensure that:

• To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities are educated with children who do not have disabilities; and
• Special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of students with disabilities from regular education happensonly if the student's disability is so significant that education in regular classes, even with the use of additional aids and services, cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

What learning environment is the IEP team supposed to consider first?

The regular education classroom is the first placement the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team must consider. An IEP team, which must include parents, thinks about where a student will be educated, asks: What can we provide so that this student can learn in regular education classes?
The team must consider what "supplementary aids and services"(extra supports) will allow each student, as an individual, to make educational progress with peers at school who do not have disabilities.

Read more HERE.

IDEA—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

From National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY)

IDEA was originally enacted by Congress in 1975 to ensure that children with disabilities have the opportunity to receive a free appropriate public education, just like other children.  The law has been revised many times over the years.

The most recent amendments were passed by Congress in December 2004, with final regulations published in August 2006 (Part B for school-aged children) and in September 2011 (Part C, for babies and toddlers). So, in one sense, the law is very new, even as it has a long, detailed, and powerful history.

NICHCY’s website is full of information about IDEA. We are pleased to connect you with:

• Summaries of IDEA’s requirements, which shape what school systems do;
• IDEA itself—to read IDEA’s exact words, you can either download a copy of the law and its regulations, or read them here online;
• Guidance on IDEA from the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education;
• Legal analysis that’s appeared in law journals;
• Training materials on IDEA that you can use to fully inform yourself and others; and
• 20 indicators by which the Office of Special Education Programs measures States’ implementation of IDEA.

Read more HERE.

$24 Million in Grants Awarded to 22 States to Improve Training Systems to Help Children with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education announced today the award of $24 million in grants to 22 states to improve personnel training systems to help children with disabilities. States receiving grants are: Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. The State Personnel Development Grants Program, authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), provides funds to assist states in reforming and improving their systems for personnel preparation and professional development in early intervention, education and transition services in order to enhance results for children with disabilities. Read more at Ed.Gov HERE.

Strength Based IEPs

By Doug Goldberg from Special Education Advisor

When most people hear about a child that has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) the first thing that crosses their mind is, “I wonder what their deficits or needs are.”  This is because too many IEPs are being written using the deficit model.  The deficit model focuses on the student as the major problem, neither looking within the environment nor the instructional practices in the classroom.  As Kral stated way back in 1992, “if we ask people to look for deficits, they will usually find them, and their view of the situation will be colored by this. If we ask people to look for successes, they will usually find it, and their view of the situation will be colored by this”.  Only focusing on the child’s deficits could have the following effects, 1) the IEP will not work very well, and 2) it will cause self-esteem issues and behavior problems with the child.

Read more HERE.

Feds Pledge More Focus on Outcomes for Students With Disabilities

Federal special education officials on Monday reaffirmed a pledge to focus more on how special education students are faring, rather than almost exclusively concentrating on whether states are technically upholding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

At the IDEA Leadership Conference, Melody Musgrove, the director of the office of special education programs, shared trends on students' performance on state assessments and on dropout rates for students with disabilities, which have been largely unchanged for the past few years.

"We're proposing a new way to be held accountable in special ed," Musgrove said.

While federal monitoring of some specific issues has improved states' work in those areas, said Ruth Ryder, deputy director of the office of special education programs, focusing almost exclusively on compliance with the law hasn't made much of a difference where it counts: those test scores and dropout rates, among other measures.

"We've improved compliance," Ryder said. "It hasn't had the effect on results as we'd like to see."

For example, heavy emphasis on whether school districts are evaluating students for disabilities within 60 days of receiving parents' permission to do so and on whether children in early childhood programs for students with disabilities are referred to programs for school-age children by their third birthdays have improved states' performance in those areas, Musgrove said.

"Where we put our emphasis is what improves. We've seen this across many of our compliance indicators," she said. But, "we've got to pay more attention to student outcomes."

Instead of looking only at whether states help students with disabilities plan for life after high school, for example, federal officials could look at how students are faring in postsecondary settings, although that's unequivocally more difficult to capture.

That shift won't mean the federal government will back off from compliance with the law, Ryder said, although the agency won't visit states this coming school year as part of its efforts to monitor that compliance. It will instead spend the year revamping exactly how states will be judged. Any changes must jive with current IDEA regulations.

Read more of Nirvi Shah's On Special Education article HERE.

OSEP Provides Guidance on the Number of Transition Goals Required in an IEP

By Doug Goldberg from Special Education Advisor

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in 2004 the U. S. Department of Education through the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) required states to develop State Performance Plans based on 20 indicators. The data would be submitted annually, by each State, in Annual Performance Reports. The 13th Indicator, or Indicator 13, relates to transition services for students.

The National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Center (NSTTAC) which is funded by OSEP helps States achieve compliance with indicator 13 and have put together a checklistand a checklist frequently asked questions to help in their efforts.

Read more HERE.

Was District Negligent in ID'ing Student With Disabilities?

By Nirvi Shah from On Special Education

Should a Compton, Calif. mother be allowed to file a negligence claim against a school district for failing to identify her daughter's disabilities?

Read more here.