Most parents’ natural inclination is to help their children succeed. Because of this desire, many parents of children with special education needs choose to provide their child with privately funded special education services to fill in the gaps when the school’s instruction is deficient. While this may be beneficial in the short term by helping bring a child up to speed, it can be detrimental to any attempt to increase the child’s school-based special education services or gain an out-of-district placement. In order to intensify or change a child’s services or placement, parents typically must be able to show that the district’s program failed to help their child make meaningful or effective progress. This showing is often made through the use of standardized testing and score comparisons from standardized measures over time. When a child’s scores continually improve in response to the initiation of privately funded services, the district is able to take credit for the upward trend, arguing that it is impossible to discern what instruction is responsible for change. Although it is extremely difficult to see your child struggling in school, parents should consider whether or not privately funding additional services is helping them reach their goal of receiving additional services through the school system or an out-of-district placement. Choosing to pull a child from privately funded services that seem to be working can be an extremely difficult decision. However, for many parents we work with, this sacrifice in the short term will allow parents to achieve what they are seeking in the long term for their child: a free appropriate public education. If you as a parent believe your child requires additional services or placement in a more specialized environment to make progress, then you may need to dial back the level of support you are providing privately in order to assess what your child is capable of achieving through the educational programming provided by the school district alone. This is often the hardest conversation we have parents, but depending on the circumstances of your child’s individual case, this short term sacrifice may be necessary to help you get the additional support you are seeking from the school district. If you are concerned that your child’s special education needs are not being met, please contact an attorney in our office today – we would be happy to speak with you about your child’s case. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Do not sign an IEP without reviewing it carefully.  An IEP is an important document which specifies a school district’s obligations to provide special education services.  Every year, parents attend team meetings to discuss their child’s program, after which they are presented with an IEP which reflects the team’s decision concerning the child’s service and placement.  Despite the importance of the IEP, many parents sign it without fully understanding what the document means. Signing an IEP without a clear comprehension of each provision is one of the biggest mistakes a parent can make because it locks that child into a full year of services that may not adequately meet that child’s needs. In order to avoid this common mistake, a good rule of thumb is to never sign an IEP at a team meeting. The law provides parents with 30 days to review an IEP, so there is no reason to feel pressured into signing on the day it is proposed. Even if parents believe that all of their requests were included in their child’s new IEP, it is important to take at least 24 hours to review the document before signing. An IEP is simply too detailed to fully digest during a team meeting. Special education is a very complicated area of law, governed by multiple federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. For assistance in understanding and interpreting your child’s IEP, please contact an experienced special education attorney at Sankey Law Offices. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Maintain Productive Relationships in Special Education Advocating for services or an out-of-district placement for a child with a disability can be a long and frustrating road. Often, parents must engage in countless team meetings, evaluations, and parent-teacher conferences just to accomplish small gains in their child’s service schedule. It is easy to see how many parents become discouraged by the process. Once parents reach the point of hiring an attorney, it is not uncommon to see a complete communication breakdown between the family and the school. Here are a few helpful tips to maintaining a respectful and productive relationship with your child’s school: 1. Develop positive relationships with your child’s teachers. Take every opportunity to communicate with the teacher about your child’s progress. Waiting for report cards or progress reports to discover how you child is doing is often not enough. Be proactive and schedule appointments to make teachers aware of any questions or concerns that you may have. And always remember to compliment teachers on what they are doing right, positive feedback goes a long way! 2. Review your child’s IEP with his or her teachers. Make sure that all teachers understand each provision in the IEP and understand any changes that are made throughout the year. Verify that your child is receiving the accommodations and services that are listed in their IEP and ask for documentation if necessary. 3. Document your concerns and requests in writing. Keep a written record of all of your concerns and requests. Even when a conversation occurs in person or over the phone it is helpful to send an email summarizing the conversation and clarifying any details that may have been misunderstood. These documents can serve as a reference during any future disagreements or be used as evidence in a due process hearing. 4. Think twice before sending an email. Email is one of the fastest modes of communication. It is great to use when a fast response is necessary, but it is easy to become impulsive and send a hostile message in the heat of the moment. Always re-read emails before sending them to your child’s school to make sure that the language is both precise and respectful. Emails written with a negative tone can be damaging during a due process hearing. Children spend at least twelve years of their life in the public school system. Therefore, it is important to remember to use a positive and respectful attitude during all contacts with the school system. Keep in mind that any communication could be brought up during a due process hearing so it is important not to say anything that you would be embarrassed to explain in front of a hearing officer. The upshot: maintain productive relationships with school staff, and that will go a long way to making the special education process easier for you and your child. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

How to choose Special Education Evaluators or Experts Deciding to hire an attorney to undertake a special education case is a big decision for many parents. Preparing to file a hearing request with the Bureau of Special Education Appeals is often a long process filled with many unexpected expenses. Therefore, it’s only natural that parents would like to find cost-saving measures, while still creating the strongest case possible for their child. Here are two tips that will accomplish just that: 1. Choose Evaluators Wisely Independent evaluations are essential to successful outcomes in special education cases. These evaluations have the capacity to pinpoint the exact areas where a child is struggling in as well as outline the optimal program for that individual child. While it may be tempting to find an evaluator based only on price, there are many more factors that parents should consider in order to save money in the long run. The first factor that parents should consider when selecting an evaluator is whether they have the proper credentials to be administering the selected test measures. Many tests can be administered by a professional with a Master’s degree, however it is important to keep in mind that some assessments should only be conducted or interpreted by evaluators with a doctorate. Second, the evaluator should have experience working with children who have a similar profile to your child. Some experts work mainly with children on the autism spectrum, while others are more comfortable administering tests that focus on reading disabilities. Relying upon an evaluator who has experience working with children whose strengths and weaknesses are similar to your child will likely result in a much more precise report. Finally, parents should choose an evaluator who has experience testifying at a hearing. Evaluators provide hearing officers with expert opinions on what an individual child needs. Expert testimony can often win and lose cases, so it is extremely important to choose an evaluator who is comfortable in front of a hearing officer. By choosing an expert with the proper credentials, who has experience working with children of a similar profile as your own child, and who is willing to testify at a hearing, parents can avoid going through the time and expense of obtaining evaluations that are not strong enough to win their case. Selecting the right expert the first time can save parents the cost of having to repeat evaluations in the future. 2. Stay Organized In most cases, children have struggled to make progress in school for several years before their parents resort to hiring an attorney. During these early years, it is important for parents to stay organized and create a record. By keeping and maintaining documents in an orderly fashion, parents can save attorneys from spending several hours organizing and locating documents – which ultimately saves parents money on attorney’s fees. Parents should consider creating binders organized by either year or category. Binders should contain hard copies of all correspondence (including email), evaluations, IEPs, team meeting notes and attendance rosters, signed acceptance or rejection pages, progress reports,

Share the Results of Outside Evaluations with Your Child’s School Many parents struggle with the decision to disclose information about their child’s disability to their child’s school. While independent evaluations and doctors reports often contain detailed narratives and recommendations that are useful in developing IEPs, they also tend to contain sensitive and confidential information that the family may not necessarily want to disclose to their child’s school. While it can be natural to feel the need to keep sensitive information private, it is important to remember that a District can only provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) when they are armed with all up-to-date information about your child. Evaluations and reports must be disclosed if parents expect the District to provide services in accordance with expert opinions. In addition, if a parent intends to use any portion of these independent evaluations or doctors reports as evidence in a due process hearing, those documents should be disclosed to the District ahead of time. Once a hearing request has been filed, the District has the right to ask for any documents that will be used by the parents and their attorney during the hearing in a process called Discovery. If a parent waits for the independent reports to be subpoenaed during Discovery, the District will likely request that he hearing process be halted until the team can consider the expert recommendations. Generally, it is best to disclose all information to your child’s school. Providing the team with independent evaluations and doctors reports not only creates goodwill and a sense of open communication between the parents and school district, but it can also help keep up the pace for a pending due process hearing. If you have questions about sharing information about your child and his or her special education needs with your school district, please contact an experienced special education attorney at Sankey Law Offices. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

When a school district requests consent to conduct evaluations of a child receiving special education services, many parents’ first inclination is to say no. This is especially true for parents who recently hired an independent evaluator to assess their child’s abilities and make recommendations. Many parents fear that the district will skew evaluations to only show their child’s strengths, making it harder for them to prove that their child is in need of additional services or an out-of district placement. However, it is important to realize that allowing the district to perform its own evaluations is a vital to step in getting your child the necessary services or succeeding at a due process hearing. Therefore, it is important to always provide consent for school evaluations. When facing the possibility of a hearing, parents should do everything possible to be cooperative. By rejecting the district’s requests to conduct its own evaluations, a parent is opening up the possibility that the school district will argue that they could not determine an appropriate placement for the child due to the parent’s refusal to provide information or access to the child. In addition, it is always best for your child’s educational team to have as much information as possible about what your child needs. Providing consent for the school to conduct additional evaluations when requested is one way to ensure that more information about your child’s needs and strengths and weaknesses will be available to all members of your child’s team. In the event that the school district’s evaluations result in recommendations contrary to what you think your child needs, you may request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) for a second opinion or seek out your own private evaluation. And remember, it is completely possible that the district’s evaluations will reinforce what your private evaluator already stated, making your case stronger. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Is it a Good Idea to Record Team Meetings in MA? Team meetings can be stressful and confusing. During a typical meeting, teachers, administrators and specialists offer opinions about your child, often at a rapid pace and using terms with which you may not be familiar. Naturally, it is important for parents to understand what is being said about their child during team meetings so that they can evaluate the special education programs and placements that are being proposed. Given the importance of this information, it would seem to make sense to record the team meeting so that you can review the tape later at home. But is recording a good idea? First, be aware that under Massachusetts law, it is a criminal offense to record another person’s conversation without their consent. This means that, if you wish to record a meeting, you must disclose your intention to the team. With few exceptions, if you notify the team that you want to record the meeting, you will be allowed to do so. If you are denied the right to record a meeting, you should ask the team for a copy of any school policy that they are relying upon to deny your request. However, in our experience, the presence of a recording device at a team meeting often inhibits the participants’ honest discussion about your child and may make it more difficult to reach a decision. Team members are just less likely to speak candidly when they know they are being recorded. Therefore, unless there is some unusual reason for recording the meeting, we suggest that parents forego recording and instead do their best to simply take notes of what transpires. Better still, bring a family member or friend with you whose only job is to write down what is said at the meeting. Most frequently, parents want to record when there is a history of adversarial meetings. Even in these situations, however, recording rarely demonstrates that the team is hostile because members will not speak freely when the recorder is on. Furthermore, parents will need to be cautious in their own remarks because, when the parents record, the team will undoubtedly make its own recording. When would we recommend recording team meetings? Certainly, if a parent has difficulty hearing or understanding what is being said, recording may be the only alternative. Furthermore, recording may be appropriate during any disciplinary hearings or manifestation determination meetings that could result in suspension or expulsion of the student. Honest and candid discussion of a student’s strengths and weaknesses are hallmarks of a good team meeting. When recording the meeting is likely to inhibit this discussion, we suggest that parents carefully consider whether it is worthwhile. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

As the school year comes to a close, perhaps you have decided to place your child in a private special education school program in September. Parents may be able to receive public funding for a private placement, but only if they can demonstrate that the District did not offer their child a free appropriate public education (FAPE). If you intend to seek reimbursement from your public school district for a unilateral placement – that is, a private school placement made without the consent of the District – you must provide timely notice of your intention to the District’s Director of Special Education or Superintendent. Under federal law, a parent must give notice either orally at the last team meeting prior to the placement, or in writing at least ten business days before enrollment. Pay attention: notice must be provided within 10 business days, not calendar days, so be sure to subtract weekends and holidays when calculating the time. A written notice – sent by certified mail – is almost always preferable so that there will be a record that the District received notification. The notice must include a brief statement explaining why the parents are rejecting the placement proposed by the District and a statement that the parents intend to seek reimbursement for the costs of the private placement. The key word is brief. You do not need to provide a detailed or lengthy explanation of your reasons. If you fail to provide the requisite notice to the District prior to your child’s placement, you will, with few exceptions, be barred from receiving reimbursement. This is an easy step to overlook with severe consequences, so make sure to set reminders to send timely notification. This is the first post in a new series of articles we have started where we will provide a special education tip each week.  Please check back each week for more tips and answers to frequently asked questions related to special education law. If you have questions about notice requirements, unilateral placement or any other special education issues as you begin to plan for September, please contact us for further information and advice. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Determine if Your Child is Eligible for Special Education Services Many parents of students who require special education services have concerns about their child’s progress or particular learning needs beginning at a young age. While parents always know their child best, in order to receive special education services in Massachusetts through the public school system, a student must first be referred for an evaluation to determine if he is eligible to receive such services. To be eligible for services, a child must:      Have a disability;      Not be making effective progress in regular education due to the disability; and      Require either specially designed instruction or a related service that is necessary to access the general education curriculum. The local school district where the child resides will make the determination as to whether a child meets these criteria and is therefore eligible to receive special education or related services. As mentioned above, the initial step in this process is the referral for an evaluation. Under Massachusetts and federal law, a parent or a person in a caregiving or professional position may refer a child for an initial evaluation to determine if a child is eligible for special education services. Once the school district receives this referral, the district must send a written notice to the parents requesting parental consent to conduct an evaluation, and also provide an opportunity for the child’s parents to discuss their concerns and share information with district personnel. If parental consent is not given, the district may obtain authorization from a hearing officer at the Bureau of Special Education Appeals (BSEA). After consent or authorization is obtained, the district must conduct the evaluation at no cost to the parent. Massachusetts special education law provides specific timelines for conducting this evaluation and reviewing the results with parents, which we will discuss in our next special education article. Our suggestion: if you have concerns about your child’s progress, request an evaluation. The findings of an evaluation may lead to entitlement to necessary services, or, at the very least, assure you that your child’s progress is satisfactory. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Evaluations are Often Necessary to Determine Your Child’s Progress As the school year comes to an end, take the time to carefully review your child’s final report card and progress reports. Are you satisfied that your child made progress this year? How did he perform in relation to the goals set forth in his IEP? Under federal and state law, your child’s team must provide an educational program that is designed to allow her to make meaningful progress in accordance with her potential. Measuring “meaningful progress” is difficult and requires consideration of many factors. Grades and progress reports alone are insufficient indicators of progress, and parents should be wary if the team’s assessment of progress is based entirely on these subjective measures. In our view, objective measures and standardized tests are the best ways to assess a student’s performance and to determine whether he or she is demonstrating progress over time. If you have concerns about your child’s performance, we strongly recommend that you consider scheduling an evaluation to assess his progress. Evaluations can be requested through the school district or, if you have the financial means or insurance to cover the cost, you may wish to retain a private evaluator. Private evaluations can be costly but are generally more extensive and detailed than evaluations conducted within the district. These evaluations are critical not only to show your child’s progress but also to provide recommendations for services designed to improve your child’s performance. When considering whether to retain a private evaluator, be sure to inquire whether he or she is willing to present the findings of the evaluation at a team meeting or, if necessary, at a due process hearing. An evaluation by someone who is unwilling to present it is essentially worthless. If you have decided to arrange for an evaluation, be aware that this can be a lengthy process. The most experienced evaluators are often booked months in advance. Because of their expertise, they are often worth waiting for, but advance planning is critical. It is best to schedule evaluations when you first have concerns about your child’s performance so that you can obtain a timely assessment and helpful recommendations. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.