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Advocacy Tips for Parents Staying on Top of Your Child’s Education

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  1. Get organized
    • Buy a folder or two. Set up an organizational system that works for you. Keep Records of communication, emails, and work samples.
    • Be clear about the communication system your school uses to track your child’s progress and assignments. If this isn’t sufficient based on your child’s needs communicate that to the school personnel and work on an alternate or supplementary system.
  2. Communication
    • Most communication should be in writing- preferably via email.
    • Be polite and professional in all communication. This does not require you to agree but don’t make it personal.
    • Be clear and concise. Long emails don’t get read.
    • Agree on the frequency of communication.
    • When appropriate, use a checklist rather than a long narrative.
    • Agree on which team member from the school will be the point of contact.
    • If it is urgent, pick up the phone.
  3. IEP meetings
    • Develop a “proposed agenda”. Circulate this to the IEP team in advance.
    • Agree on the length of the meeting and who will participate.
    • This is not the time to play “gotcha.”
    • Prioritize your concerns and what you hope your child will achieve this school year.
    • Leave the meeting with an action plan and agree on who will be responsible for any follow up.

Resources: www.understood.org

Our office is available for consultation and or representation in special education, bullying, and educational concerns. Please feel free to email us at mmoran@grundlaw.com or call (312)-640-0500.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

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This school year has been one where student’s mental health issues have been at the top of mind in cases in our office. Regrettably, this has been a period where calls from clients often involves bullying, threats of school violence, and bringing weapons to school. These are not neatly categorized since the client may be experiencing all three issues simultaneously.

The below fact pattern is an example of numerous cases that have presented themselves to our office in the past few months:

A middle-school student in anger informed a group of students at lunch that he was thinking of shooting up the school. This student had been repeatedly bullied over the last six months and teased because he was in special education. He had been knocked down at gym and called a gay slur. The student told a teacher who encouraged him to work it out with the other boys.

The student was embarrassed to tell his parents that this was happening. He became increasingly isolated and started to complain of stomach aches and illness on many mornings.

The student was pushed down at outdoor recess and kicked by one of the boys who had been bullying him all year. No adult witnessed this event. The next day he came to school with a knife in his backpack. He told another student that he was going to hurt someone if he was bullied again. That student reported this to the School Resource Officer who searched his backpack and locker.  A knife was discovered in the pocket of his backpack. The student was suspended and faced expulsion.

This fact pattern is unfortunately not isolated and is part of a pattern that has been increasingly common this school year.

Despite much anti-bullying rhetoric from schools, it has been my experience that this is often a reactive statement but that little is done to address a culture of bullying and threats until it has reached a crisis.

What can parents do:

  • Talk to their children and model behavior.
  • If your child is the victim of bullying put your concerns in writing and insist on a plan of action from the school. (For example, implementation of a written safety plan).
  • If your child is accused of bullying insist on a meeting with the school to discuss the concerns and allegations.
  • Determine if the school has a written anti-bullying policy.
  • Request a bullying investigation in writing.

Resources:

ISBE: Student Care (217)-785-5585

https://www.isbe.net/student-care

Bullying Illinois School Code 105 ILCS 5/27-23.7

Safe2Help Illinois offers students and families a safe, confidential way in which to share information that might help prevent suicides, bullying, school violence or other threats to school safety. This program is not intended to suspend, expel, or punish students. Rather, the goal is to get students to “Seek Help Before Harm.” Safe2Help Illinois will also develop an educational curriculum aimed at changing the culture in Illinois schools while also providing the resources to help parents and educators reinforce the components of this program. 

Safe2Help Illinois is a 24/7 program where students can use a free app, text/phone, website, and other social media platforms to report school safety issues in a confidential environment. Once vetted, the tips will immediately be shared with local school officials, mental health professionals and/or local law enforcement, depending on the nature of the tip. The program also will help local officials by connecting them with mental health resources or other appropriate resources to intervene and help students before they harm themselves or others. Visit their website to learn more.

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NEW GUIDANCE HELPS SCHOOLS SUPPORT STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES and AVOID DISCRIMINATORY USE OF DISCIPLINE

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On July 19,2022, the Department of Education for Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) released guidance to assist public elementary and secondary schools fulfill their responsibilities to meet the needs of students with disabilities and avoid discriminatory use of student discipline.

These newly released resources are the most comprehensive guidance on the civil rights of students with disabilities concerning student discipline and build on the Department’s continued efforts to support students through pandemic recovery.

            “ All students deserve to have their rights protected, and schools deserve greater clarity on how they can avoid the discriminatory use of discipline”, said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “ Too often, students with disabilities face harsh and exclusionary disciplinary action at school. The guidance we’re releasing today will help ensure that students with disabilities are treated fairly and have access to supports and services to meet their needs-including their disability- based behavior.  We also expect that districts utilize the American Rescue Plan dollars to build capacity, provide professional learning opportunities for educators and school leaders and hire additional staff. These resources will also help schools live up to their legal obligations, support an equitable recovery for all our students, and make sure that students with disabilities get the behavioral support and special education services they need to thrive. “

            The new releases reflect the concern, particularly in light of the prevalence of student mental health issues associated with the pandemic, that some students with disabilities are not receiving the supports and services necessary to address their educational needs, including their disability- based behavior.

The new resources include:

Getting the Right Reading Intervention Shouldn’t Be So Hard

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It has been nearly 26 years since I started my practice with a focus on special education law and advocacy for children and adolescents. The practice is and was inspired and informed by my own son’s struggle with dyslexia. I was fortunate to have both the financial ability and resources to provide him with excellent research -based intervention. He learned to read using an Orton-Gillingham based approach. It was neither a fast nor easy solution. It worked. He is an avid reader and has a lifelong love of learning.

            After all this time the issue of reading intervention continues to be difficult for parents. Schools resist “labeling/identifying struggling readers as dyslexia. It is not uncommon for school systems to delay evaluations and interventions. Schools often do not utilize interventions that are researched based for students with specific learning disabilities relying on a patchwork of eclectic programs that depend on the skills or lack thereof a particular teacher and may even depend on what school a student attends in a district. This haphazard approach to something as basic as reading still surprises me. The science of reading intervention is not new. The Orton-Gillingham approach used 32 years that was implemented by my son’s reading teachers is hardly cutting edge and there is very little dispute that these interventions are needed and effective.

            Despite this fact, a common complaint from clients who seek our legal assistance has to do with the failure of their child’s school to agree to or even utilize research-based methodologies. Parents should push back when they are met with this resistance. Below, I have outlined a few tips for families who find themselves in this situation.

  1. Insist on an evaluation. If your school will not evaluate seek out a private comprehensive educational evaluation.
  2. Trust your gut. Parents often know there is a problem before the school does.
  3. Put every communication regarding your concerns to the school in writing.
  4. Track your child’s progress.
  5. Stay informed. [Resources to follow below]
  6. If the school takes a wait and see approach- agree on how long this period will last. Confirm that in writing.
  7. Agree on how progress or lack of progress will be monitored.
  8. Read with your child at home. The pandemic and school closures revealed deficits in reading that many parents were unaware of until their child was home and they saw the struggle first- hand.

Resources:

  • Dyslexia Handbook, Illinois State Board of Education, www.isbe.net

School Officials Don’t Need Probable Cause to Question Student

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Guidance Counselor - Taking NotesMany parents are outraged when their child or adolescent is questioned by school officials regarding misconduct in a school setting without appropriate Miranda warnings and without notifying the parents. A district court in Michigan recently ruled that a school was able to detain a student for questioning. To detain a student, a school must have a reasonable suspicion that the student violated a law or school rule. A lesser standard is appropriate, the court reasoned, because school officials act in loco parentis for a student and in order to maintain order, a student’s freedom may be restricted in some ways. D.J.Y. v. Ypsilanti Community Schools 115 LRP 6578 (E.D. Mich. 2015).

Karma

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Last week I received a call from a lawyer who had reviewed a CLE presentation I had done on School Discipline. He was handling his first expulsion case and wanted some advice. I was busy and thought for a brief moment that I just couldn’t take the time to help. I called the lawyer. He was grateful and we talked about the implications of a student with special education issues and school discipline. The child’s family had few resources and this lawyer was trying to assist in assuring that this 13 year-old wouldn’t be expelled without access to education.

Over the years, I have had many of these calls. I have always tried to reach back and help because access to legal advocacy in special education, in most instances, depends on a family’s ability to afford an attorney or advocate. The stakes are very high. Removal from school is disastrous for all children. Failure to get the right resources can damage a child forever.

There are only a handful of private special education attorneys in the Chicago area. There are far fewer, if any, as we move away from the greater Chicago area. The need is the same. Access to these resources is critical. It is a shared responsibility.

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