Special Education Law Tip #13: Dial Back Privately Provided Services
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.
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Recognizing Dyslexia Awareness Month
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. Special Education Attorney Jeff Sankey is pleased to announce that he has become a member of the International Dyslexia Association. The International Dyslexia Association is an international organization that concerns itself with the complex issues of dyslexia. The Association’s membership consists of a variety of professionals in partnership with people with dyslexia and their families. For a great source of information about dyslexia, turn to the Association’s website at http://www.interdys.org/. Despite federal and state laws mandating that public schools provide a free and appropriate education to all students, this often does not happen for many children with dyslexia. We share the Association’s guiding principles that all children with learning disabilities have the right to achieve their potential and that a child’s learning abilities can be improved with effective remediation. With so many of the youngsters that we represent struggling to learn to read, we are acutely aware of the process that families often need to negotiate in order to obtain necessary services for their dyslexic children. We are proud that our efforts on behalf of these children have resulted in orders from the Massachusetts Bureau of Special Education Appeals providing them with access to specialized placements designed to remediate their learning disabilities. In fact, we recently prevailed in a case against a Massachusetts school district on behalf of a child with Dyslexia, obtaining funding for an appropriate out-of-district placement. The full decision can be accessed here: Student v. Greenwood Public Schools For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.No Fields Found.
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Special Education Tip # 12: Do Not Sign an IEP Without Reviewing it Carefully
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.No Fields Found.
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Effective Parents are Involved in Their Child’s Education
Through our work with parents of children involved in the special education system, we have seen what traits Here is the first in a series of tips on navigating the special education system. Trait # 1: Effective parents are involved in their child’s education. Hopefully, for every child, there is no one who is more knowledgeable about his or her strengths and weaknesses and more committed to his or her success than a parent. The federal statute that governs special education – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) – recognizes the importance of parental participation in the educational process by designating the parents as members of their child’s team that makes all special education decisions. Effective parents see themselves as equal partners with their child’s teachers and school administrators, and they work to strike a fitting balance between unproductive “hovering” and appropriate participation in their child’s education. Effective parents trust their child’s teachers but they don’t trust blindly. They realize that they have a responsibility to speak for their children to ensure that all staff members have an understanding of their disabilities and the best ways to address their needs. They recognize that it is important for them to be active participants in team meetings, contributing information and questioning decisions that they don’t understand. Effective parents ask questions when their child’s progress seems minimal or non-existent. They expect but don’t assume that service providers are qualified or that services are being delivered in compliance with the IEP, and they ask questions when they have reason to do so. Effective parents find many ways to be involved in their child’s educational program. Certainly, attendance at parent-teacher conferences and participation in team meetings are musts. Many parents also volunteer in school and join special education councils and groups. They also know that simply talking to their child about his or her school day provides a wealth of information that is likely not available from any other source. As in all worthy endeavors, information is the key to success, and effective parents both provide and obtain information about their child’s educational progress through watchful participation. Written by: Jeffrey Sankey For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.No Fields Found.
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10 Traits of Effective Parents in Navigating the Special Education System
Navigating the Special Education System Advocating for children in the special education system can be a frustrating and overwhelming experience for parents. Parents of children who require special education services quickly learn that they must be attentive and zealous advocates to help their children obtain the supports and placements that they need to make meaningful educational progress. When the system works in a way that allows a child to reach his potential, it is extremely rewarding for parents to see that their advocacy made a difference. Over the past decade I have worked with hundreds of families to help them obtain special education services for their children. Through my work with these families, it has become obvious to me that those parents who are best able to navigate the intricacies of the special education process share several common traits. Many articles have been written by attorneys –including me – that list the common mistakes made by parents in seeking special education services. In this series of articles, I want to take a more positive approach by describing the most productive qualities and practices of those parents who I have seen most effectively advocate for their children. Below are links to a series of tips on navigating the special education system. Trait # 1: Effective Parents are Involved in Their Child’s Education Trait # 2: Effective Parents are Aware of Their Child’s Disability and Their Strengths and Weaknesses Trait # 3: Effective Parents Have an Understanding of Special Education Rules and Regulations Trait # 4: Effective Parents Maintain Accurate, Complete and Organized Records Trait # 5: Effective Parents Cooperate and Share Information with their Child’s Teachers and Special Education Team Trait # 6: Effective Parents Maintain a Cordial and Professional Relationship with School Staff Trait # 7: Effective Parents Build a Team of Professionals to Evaluate and Advocate for their Children We will be posting 10 traits in this series of articles, so please check back for more “traits of effective parents” in the coming weeks. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.No Fields Found.
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Special Education Tip # 11: Maintain Productive Relationships
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.No Fields Found.
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Special Education Tip #10: Choose Evaluators Wisely & Stay Organized
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,
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When an Employee Cannot Be Fired: Exceptions to the At-Will Employment Rule
As we discussed in a previous blog post, most jobs in Massachusetts are categorized as at-will employment. This general rule means that employers or employees may terminate their relationship for any cause, or no cause at all, however there are several exceptions to the general rule. Below are some exceptions to the at-will employment rule: 1. Federal or State Statute A federal or state statute may prevent an employer from terminating the employment relationship in specific circumstances. For example, under both federal and Massachusetts law, employers may not terminate an employee that is a member of a protected category for a discriminatory reason (e.g. race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc.). This means that an employee cannot be fired because of her race, religion, or gender, to name a few protected categories. However, just because an individual is a member of a protected category does not make any termination legally actionable. The employee must have been fired specifically for a discriminatory reason. Massachusetts’s law also forbids employers from terminating an employee out of retaliation after that employee made a complaint to an outside agency regarding discrimination or illegal conduct in some situations. 2. Implied Covenant of Good Faith & Fair Dealing Every contract in Massachusetts includes an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. This essentially means that no party to a contract should intentionally act in a manner that would harm another party’s ability reap the benefits of the contract. A common example of a breach of this covenant occurs when an employer terminates an employee just before the employee was set to receive a bonus, to avoid payment of the bonus. 3. Public Policy In order to establish an exception to at-will employment based on this exception, there must have been a violation of a clearly established public policy. The three recognized categories of clearly established public policies include: a. Termination for asserting a legally guaranteed right (e.g. voting). b. Termination for doing what the law requires of them (e.g. jury duty, reporting suspected child abuse in positions that require mandatory reporting). c. Termination for refusing to do what the law forbids them to do (e.g. helping the employer commit fraud). In addition to these three well-established exceptions, there have been circumstances where a court has found that termination for voluntarily assisting with a government investigation also falls under the public policy exception. While it may seem clear that an exception to the general at-will employment rule is present in some cases (especially where there is a violation of a federal or state statute), a fact-specific inquiry is often needed to determine whether or not an employee’s specific circumstances falls within an established exception. If you have questions about employment law or the end of your employment relationship, please contact a lawyer in our office today at (781) 930-3127. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.No Fields Found.
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Special Education Tip # 9: Share the Results of Outside Evaluations with Your Child’s School
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.No Fields Found.
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At-Will Employment Law in Massachusetts
In our practice, we often speak with individuals who have been terminated from employment and are seeking legal recourse. Unfortunately for many individuals who find themselves in this situation, most jobs in Massachusetts are categorized as at-will employment. This means that either the employer or the employee may end the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. Generally, neither party is required to give any form of notice or warning before terminating the employment relationship. Here is some information on at-will employment law in Massachusetts. Is Your Job At-Will? For the most part, in Massachusetts a job is considered at-will unless it is otherwise noted in a contract or other agreement. An Employment Agreement or letter offering the position will usually contain language specifically stating if the position is at-will or not. At-will employment is contrasted with a position that is offered for a specified period of time, such as a contract covering a one year period, and this type of position is not “at-will” but rather contractual. In addition to explicit information contained in a written contract, an employer may form an implied contract with employees through an employee handbook or other internal guidelines that provide information about any terms that modify the default at-will status of employment. It is important to note that even if a handbook includes such information, many employee handbooks do contain a disclaimer stating that the employer retains the right to modify employment policies at any time. If an employer does not give any information about whether a position is at-will or not through a formal contract, employment agreement, employee handbook, internal guideline, or oral conversation, it is generally safe to assume that the position is at-will. There are, however, some exceptions to the default at-will employment rule, which we will discuss in our next article. What this Means for Most Employees? In Massachusetts, non-union employees without a contract, are employees at-will and can be terminated at any time, for any reason or no reason. In general, unless there is an employee handbook or other guideline to the contrary, this can also be done without notice. Of course, an employee cannot be terminated for a discriminatory reason or in retaliation for engaging in certain protected activities as this would violate state and federal anti-discrimination laws. Our next article will discuss these prohibitions in greater detail. Please contact an experienced employment attorney if you have specific questions about your employment status or employment discrimination. If you have questions about non-compete agreements or other employment related issues, please give us a call at (781) 930-3127. For more information, please contact us at 781-930-3127. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.No Fields Found.
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