When the School Offers a 504 Plan: What Parents Should Do
When a child is struggling and the parent raises the question of special education, school personnel sometimes respond with a proposal to “try a 504 Plan first.” In some cases […]
504 Plan vs. IEP: What Parents Need to Know About the Legal Difference
For parents whose child has a disability, the question of whether the school should provide a 504 Plan or an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is one of the most consequential […]
Understanding the Endrew F. Standard: What “Appropriately Ambitious” Means in a Due Process Hearing
The substantive question in nearly every special education due process hearing is whether the school district has offered the child a free appropriate public education, or FAPE, as that term […]
What Parents Need to Be Successful in a Special Education Due Process Hearing
A special education due process hearing is a formal administrative adjudication under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1415, governed by rules of procedure and evidence […]
Transition Planning Under IDEA: An Illinois Parent’s Guide
What Illinois parents need to know about preparing students with disabilities for life after high school.
Somewhere around the time your child enters middle school, the IEP starts to feel different. Annual reviews stop being only about reading levels and minutes of speech therapy. Suddenly, the team is asking what your child wants to do after high school, where they will live, who will help them, and how. That conversation — and everything that flows from it — is transition planning.