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Susan Luger Associates Newsletter |
Happenings in the World of Special Education March 2010 |
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Susan Luger Associates is now on Facebook.
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Some In's and Out's of Objecting to a Placement Recommendation
Rhode Island Federal District Court Rules that a Parent's Objection to Placement is Insufficient Grounds to Claim Denial of FAPE
Just because you object does not mean the IEP Process is at Fault
A child is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and school phobia. The original placement offer by the District called for residential placement, and the parent strenuously objected, sufficiently so that the District abandoned that recommendation. Then the District's alternative placement was a hospital day school. The parent participated in several District meetings concerning the placement and ultimately disagreed with the day placement. The parent sought an alternative placement.
The Federal District Court of Rhode Island ruled that the objection of the parent is insufficient to find the District's procedures and recommendations out of compliance. The Court found that, by abandoning the residential placement offer, the District took the parent's participation into consideration and did not ignore the parent.
Moral #1: if you have an objection to a placement, it has to be backed by expert witness and testing-based recommendations as not meeting the needs of the child. Parental objection, per se, is insufficient grounds.
Side story: the parent also tried to argue before the Rhode Island Court that the District botched the transition plan for the child. The Court discarded that argument because it was not brought before the IHO initially.
Moral #2: line up your ducks (even before you get to the IHO) -- at the CSE level. Otherwise, it can be excluded from subsequent dialogs.
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'No Child Left Behind' Remade in Obama's Administration |
'No Child Left Behind' (NCLB) is being jettisoned by the Obama administration, but the best of its core tenets are remaining. The administration has embraced the principles of accountability, disaggregating data and insisting that no student groups -- not minorities, not those with disabilities -- be left behind. It is heartening that the administration is mapping out a direction true to education reform. Congress still has to approve.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Obama administration's plan fixes failings of NCLB, by setting an aspirational bar for achievement and by replacing the punitive nature of penalizing schools. The administration's plan has a new accountability system requiring that all students be on a path toward college and/or career readiness.
Students would be tested every year in math and reading, but other measures, such as graduation rates or scores in other subjects, could factor into the picture of a school's success. Schools would be judged by how much progress students make year by year, accounting for different starting points.
The administration plan would reward, with extra funding and recognition, high-poverty schools that do especially well.
Action now shifts to Congress, where Education Secretary Arne Duncan is set to testify this week. |
| Workshop News |
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Workshops Scheduled |
We are planning a workshop on "Understanding the Neuro-Psychological Report", directed at parents and educators, in the near future. Please keep an eye on our website for details and registration.
Prior Workshops in the 2009-2010 Year
Andrea Silvia, our own double-threat advocate & attorney, provided the workshop: The Essentials of a Multisensory Orton-Gillingham program, March 10, 2010.
David Cooperman, MD presented "Is It ADD or Is It Asperger's?", January 25, 2010.
Dr. Nancy Eng spoke on 'Identifying Speech and Language Issues in Mono- and Bi-lingual Children' -- October 28, 2009.
Financial Consultant Stuart Flaum to discuss 'Special Need Trusts' -- November 18, 2009. Presentation available on request. | |
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Community Corner |
March 18, 2010
Susan Luger and Joseph M. Fein, Esq. will speak before the Connect the Dots organization at 38 W.32 St., NYC at 6:30PM. Contact us if you wish to attend.
March 21, 2010
National Autism Association NY Metro Chapter is having a Bowl-A-Thon. SLA's Luger's Barracudas will be defending its honor. Contributions welcomed. |
March 24, 2010
Susan Luger and Joseph M. Fein, Esq. will describe "Navigating the Special Education Process" under the auspices of NAA.
April 11, 2010
Susan Luger will be on a panel "Best Practices in the Education of Children with Autism" at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.
May 3-5, 2010
The SLA organization will be well-represented by a contingent of advocates and affiliated attorneys at the annual LRP Conference (nationwide special education attorneys, school district representatives, thieves and gamblers) in Orlando.
Contact us to highlight your organization's activities. |
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Early Anesthesia May Hinder Kids' Learning |
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Researchers report that children under the age of 4 who get multiple courses of general anesthesia for surgery may be at greater risk of developing a learning disability later in childhood.
Researchers acknowledge that they are uncertain if it is the anesthetic causing the problem or if children needing surgical interventions are more prone to developing learning disabilities.
The analysis showed that children undergoing anesthesia once were no more likely to develop a learning disability than children who have not undergone surgery. But, children with two anesthesia usages experience a 59% greater likelihood of developing a learning disability.
Also, children anesthesized for more than two hours overall faced the greatest risk of developing a learning disability.
This article is gleaned from Science News. |
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| 2-year-olds possess grammatical insights |
| Brain responses suggest that toddlers already know fundamental rules for using nouns and verbs |
Two-year-olds know more about grammar than they can say. Budding toddlers recognize the difference between nouns and verbs in simple sentences, even though the kids don't utter such sentences for at least another year.
Children begin to use two or more words at a time by age 2, but their statements are typically incomplete and show no signs of grammatical knowledge. Yet upon hearing a sentence in which a noun incorrectly replaces a verb, or a verb incorrectly replaces a noun, toddlers display split-second brain responses that signal awareness of the rule violations.
The new findings don't address a longstanding debate over whether language learning hinges on innate grammatical knowledge.
This article is gleaned from Science News. |
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If you learn of any newsworthy item related to Special Education, contact us with the information. |
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End Notes
First, a note of thanks to those of you who noticed (and avoided mentioning) my faux pas in misspelling the name of the heroine in the docu-drama highlighted in last month's Newletter. That shows the universal problem in automatic find-and-replace actions.
The first hint of buds growing on trees, the allusion of weather warming up, the mere suggestion of baseball in the air -- these are today's discoveries. Spring is in the air and the whole biosphere is coming out of hibernation. We moved the clocks forward, giving us added daylight.
In New York City, the Committees on Special Education are engaged in their annual reviews, SLA advocates are being dispatched to accompany parents, we gear up for the upcoming school year.
Several of our affiliated colleagues have taken part in the Council of Parent, Attorneys, and Advocates (COPAA) conference in St. Louis last week. They are briefing the staff on the latest findings and decisions. There is another professional conference that a larger contingent will be attending in early May. They too will brief the full staff. Quarterly workshops and meetings are held for our staff and affiliates to update them and hone their skills. No moss grows under their collective feet.
We monitor the various levels of courts for upcoming decisions of interest to the world of special education. Sometimes we applaud the sagacity of our judges, sometimes we just shake our heads in disbelief and wonder what they ate for breakfast that day.
These are ongoing activities, not usually seen by our clients or the public in general, necessary for SLA to continue to serve its clients and the community. When an occasional newbie asks about the repetitiveness of the special education process, year after year, we smile to ourselves to think of the constantly changing environment that we work and thrive in, and the behind-the-scenes work we take on.
Sincerely,
Susan Luger Associates, Inc. | |
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