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COVID-19 Updates for Families of Students with Disabilities

March 24, 2020 By helpdesk1 Leave a Comment

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Education issued a Questions and Answers document to give guidance on how Districts should be providing services to students with disabilities as the school buildings begin to close.

This past weekend, they issued a Supplemental Fact Sheet wherein they made it clear that Districts may provide special education and related services through distance instruction, whether virtually, online, or telephonically.

The question we have most frequently received since school closure became a possibility is: Does the district still have to follow my child’s IEP? In short, the answer is YES, as long as they are providing educational opportunities to the general student population. Specifically, the DOE stated that “schools must ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, each student with a disability can be provided the special education and related services identified in the student’s IEP developed under IDEA, or a plan developed under Section 504.” However, with the onset of this national emergency, the United States Department of Education has urged that parents and school districts be flexible and collaborative in working within the confines of distance teaching and safety measures to provide disabled students with a free and appropriate public education. Thus, related services that require physical contact may not be feasible at this time, but other services/accommodations such as extensions of time for assignments, videos with accurate captioning or embedded sign language interpreting, accessible reading materials, and many speech or language services through video conferencing, may be able to provided.

School districts will be required to assess on a case by case basis whether compensatory education services are required when school resumes.

We have had a few IEP meetings via google hangout and conference call within the past week. So far, they have gone more smoothly than anticipated. We are learning ways to make them more efficient (i.e., mute if you are not speaking, in order to eliminate background noise; if it is just an audio call, have speakers identify themselves). Please be patient with Districts as they work out the kinks in this new way of conducting meetings. If you have an IEP meeting coming up, or are due for an annual review meeting, we recommend you reach out to your child’s case manager to inquire how the meeting will be conducted. We have obtained the appropriate technology so that if your IEP team states that they are unable to handle a remote meeting, we can certainly “host” it for them.

Finally, we hope you are all staying safe, and away from each other! If you’d like to schedule a virtual meeting, please contact Melissa, and she will schedule something for you.

Manes & Weinberg | Special Needs Lawyers, LLC 802 South Avenue West, Westfield, New Jersey 07090 (973)376-7733 E-mail | www.manesweinberg.com

First Marking Period Check-Up

December 4, 2018 By beth Leave a Comment

Now that the first marking period is over, it is time to assess the implementation and effectiveness of your child’s 504 Plan or IEP. The IEP will dictate when you receive progress reports, but they usually coincide with report cards. Please be clear that progress reports and report cards are not the same thing. Report cards report your child’s grade in a class. Progress reports report your child’s progress on each of his or her goals and objectives. If you do not receive progress reports at the end of the marking period, be sure you request them from your case manager. Here are a few questions to ask and steps to take:

· Have you noticed your child struggling with any academic subjects?

· Is your child taking longer than usual to complete homework assignments and/or getting frustrated when trying to do so?

· Does your child seem withdrawn socially, unhappy about going to school, and/or exhibit emotional outbursts after school?

· Has your child regressed, or lost any skills developed over the past school year?

· Have any teachers reported concerns?

· Have you been receiving copies of your child’s school work, and does it match the progress that is being reported to you?

· Compare the progress report to the IEP to confirm that each goal and objective is being tracked.

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THE ABOVE:

· Immediately schedule an appointment to meet with your child’s teacher about any concerns you have and/or request an IEP meeting which you can do at any time during the school year. You do not have to wait until parent/teacher conferences at the end of the month or an annual review IEP meeting.

· You can also request monthly or quarterly progress meetings to more closely monitor your child’s progress.

· If you are concerned about your child’s mental health, you can ask the school district to pay for a psychiatric evaluation.

· If you are concerned about your child’s behavior in school, you can ask the school district to conduct a functional behavioral assessment.

· If you are concerned about your child not making progress with a particular reading, writing or math program, you can request that quarterly assessments be administered.

· If your child has a 504, and the modifications do not appear to be sufficient, ask for a child study team evaluation.

Jessica and Beth would be more than happy to speak with you to give you additional information about your child’s education rights, and how to navigate the process of defending them.