Basic Rights in Special Education
Basic Rights in Special Education is the main SPAN training program, designed for parents who are advocates for their children. The training encompases all the "basics" a parent needs to know for becoming a full participant in collaborative decisionmaking teams with professionals. Each year, Hunterdon County has one training session, but parents who miss this opportunity can attend sessions in other counties. The program runs 2-3 hours. For a donation of $10, a manual is provided that describes the laws and policies impacting children with disabilities or special health needs. SPAN seminars are open to all and trainings are specifically designed to be "parent friendly." Sessions also provide an opportunity to address individual as well as group issues.
For more information on Basic Rights Training dates in your area, contact Debra Fernandez at the main SPAN office: (973) 642-8100
Here is an overview of the Basic Rights training:
Building Partnerships: This starts with building a vision of advocacy for your child. While you, as a parent, are the expert about your child, building partnerships with teachers, aides, health care providers, professionals, and friends in the community offers your child the most opportunity for success. Many of us, as parents of children with disabilities, need to learn appropriate assertiveness as a starting point for mutual respect and collaboration. The Basic Rights training shows how to do this.
Federal Laws: The two most important protections for children with disabilities are federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. IDEA is the law that guides the process for identification, evaluation, classification and the development of an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Section 504 prohibits discrimination based solely on disability, as well as other criteria. Section 504 can apply to discrimination against both children with disabilities who are classified and those who have disabling or chronic health conditions that are not classified (e.g., a child with asthma or diabetes who needs support at school). Methods for assuring that your child's rights are not violated are discussed.
What is an Individualized Education Program?: There are ten steps that parents and professionals need to follow to develop IEPs that will confer benefit on children with disabilities that are covered in this part of the training. These are:
Step 1: Identification of the student who may need supports or services: School districts are required to seek out children who are at risk because research shows that issues that are identified at younger ages can more effectively be dealt with. Any parent has the right to ask for an evaluation if they suspect their child has a disability.
Step 2: Identification of the Collaborative Planning Team: Your Child Study Team and Case Manager are part of this team, and so are you.
Step 3: Evaluation: Your rights during your child's evaluation. Different types of assessments, standardized testing, and functional assessments can help you and your collaborative team get a better picture of the needs your child has, as well as your child's strengths. Rather than rely on single measures of intelligence (i.e, an I.Q. test), this section of the training teaches about the theory of multiple intelligences, so that strengths that are identified can be used by the student to learn and grow.
Step 4: Determination of Eligibility for Services: After the evaluations are completed and reviewed, the Child Study Team will make its decision and recommendations in a meeting with you. If your child is found eligible, work will begin on formulating the IEP. If your child is not found eligible, you may appeal this decision or request eligibility under Section 504 and receive services for your child.
Step 5: Identification of the Student's Strengths, Needs, and Skills: All children have strengths and gifts, and have developed skills. During this part of the process, it is important that you communicate those to your collaborative team so that an appropriate IEP and program can be developed based on your child as an individual. The "Current Educational Status" section of the IEP is the foundation upon which goals and objectives are built, so it is important that this truly reflects your child's progress, strengths, gifts, and needs.
Step 6: Development of Goals and Objectives: For goals and objectives to be successful, many things other must be considered. What interests and preferences does your child have? What hopes, dreams, and expectations do you have for your child for the next 12 months? Are goals and objectives age appropriate? able to be applied and practiced in different environments such as at home and in the community? useful for enhancing your child's physical or social development? Are the skills being addressed functional for your child's life? Are the goals and objectives measurable (is there a way to chart intervals of progress over a school year)--how? by who? how often? Addressing this issues during the development of the IEP can lead to an appropriate program where benefit is conferred. It can provide a basis for collaboration at the "ground level"--in the classroom, on the playground, in the home, and in the community. Parents who complete the Basic Rights training SPAN provides are urged to attend one of SPAN's IEP trainings and workshops because of the importance of this document as a foundation for success.
Step 7: Identification of Supports and Services: This is the "what?" of the Placement process. In order to offer each student in an appropriate program, the supports and services that you and the team agree are necessary to meet the goals and objectives identified in Step 6 must be laid out very specifically. How often does a child need a service? How much time of a child's day or week should be devoted to each service? Supports and Services must be individualized and based on need, not simply what the school says it has available.
Step 8: Identification of Least Restrictive Environment: This is the "where?" and "by who?" part of Placement. IDEA's two core concepts are a "Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)" and Least Restrictive Environment(LRE). The law favors placing children with disabilities in their neighborhood schools with their neighborhood peers because this is a very important aspect of being a child. Because your child has needs, has been classified, and has an IEP with goals and objectives does not take away his or her right to have an appropriate program developed in the least restrictive environment. Likewise, since the IEP process is individualized, classification or your child's diagnosis should not drive placement in a class that is not his or her least restrictive environment. These two issues of FAPE and LRE are eloquently addressed in the Oberti vs. Clementine decision, a New Jersey case. Every child is given the right to an appropriate program with supports and services in his or her least restrictive environment. This is your child's most basic right under the law.
Step 9: Classification: There are sixteen different classifications in New Jersey or "labels", one of which must be given to your child at this point. Always remember that this is just a label, it is not your child. The most important label for your child is his or her name. Labels can be helpful only to the extent that they communicate something useful, for example, if your child is labeled "autistic" it may help those who understand autism understand differences in behavior or language. The most common labels are "eligible for speech/language services" and "perceptually impaired". Because classification is a label, it should not drive anything else in the IEP process. A classification label is a way of grouping, and therefore is by definition not reflective of the individualized approach your child has a right to.
Step 10: Provision of On-going Support and Monitoring: An IEP is useful if it is understood, consulted, updated with information about progress toward goals and objectives, and implemented by the collaborative team and other personnel. You have a primary role in this. You may want to establish ways of communicating (meetings, notebooks, progress reporting, logs, work samples, observation sessions) so that monitoring is on-going and changes can be made as you see the need for them. No parent should have to wait for their annual review to find out how progress towards IEP goals and objectives is being or not being made. Likewise, parents and professionals need to share successes and challenges, ideas and strategies throughout the school year. This way, decisions can be made in a calm and supportive atmosphere, instead of in a crisis that could have been avoided with better and more timely sharing. In a crisis, people who have built strong communication and understanding (even though they may not agree) can usually be most effective in solving problems.
Following the IEP Process with these 10 steps, in this order, is the best way to assure that your child receives an appropriate program that enhances his or her life.
Transition to Adulthood: Children become teenagers and teenagers become adults. When children and teenagers grow, it often takes longer to make the transition to their adult life. At age 14, all children who have disabilities should have a written plan for making this transition. Even at younger ages, it is often appropriate to start thinking about this transition and teaching children about their adult life and choices they will have in front of them.
Conflict Resolution: Because success in education of children with disabilities is built upon collaboration, you and your child must have ways to resolve conflicts with school personnel. There are often local informal ways to do this (such as meeting with a teacher, the principal, the superintendent, the case manager, or the director of special services) but there are also formal rights given to both parents and school districts. These include Mediation (local, county, or state), Due Process(administered by the state by Administrative Law Judges), written complaints to state and/or federal authorities, or actions in courts. Problem solving, negotiating, and ways of ending conflict are addressed.
