Making School Work
A Private Law Firm – Allison Hertog, Esq., M.A.
Can A Child with Behavior Problems Survive in a Regular Classroom?
Dec 3rd
This issue is really getting to me lately. It seems I have several clients right now who have bright kids who are perfectly capable of doing well in a general education classroom but for their behavior problems. The schools I’m dealing with want to transfer the kids to special education classrooms which are exclusively for kids with “emotional More >
Finally, Some Good News for Gifted and Disabled!
Feb 6th
One of the most challenging and infuriating areas in which I practice is advocating for the gifted and disabled (called “twice exceptional”) these days. I feel particularly passionately about these cases because I fall into the category of twice exceptional (I suffer from multiple learning disabilities) and when I was a student in public school, I was More >
Even If You Could Get a 1:1 Aide, Here’s Why You May Not Want One.
Feb 24th
I hear it less now than I used to, but parents still routinely ask whether I can help their child get a 1:1 aide (meaning a paraprofessional who is ostensibly hired only to support a single child). My first response is that it’s always been very difficult, but due to budget cuts, it’s more difficult More >
BREAKING NEWS – Can You Get McKay $ w/o Going Back to Public School?
Jul 26th
Under an incredible brand new law (HB 1505) disabled children can use the McKay Scholarship towards their private school tuition, if they have: a) never used the Scholarship before; and b) attended public school for any year in the last 5 years.** That means that if your disabled child is now in private school without More >
Gov Christ Signs Law on Restraint and Seclusion of Students with Disabilities
Jun 28th
On June 4, Gov Charlie Christ signed into law the state’s first regulations for the use of restraint and seclusion on public school students with disabilities. The law requires that a school prepare an incident report within a specified period after each occasion of student restraint or seclusion and that the school notify the student’s More >
BREAKING NEWS – FL Will Pay for Private PreK Therapies
Jun 6th
Yesterday Governor Crist signed into law what appears to be an extraordinary program for disabled prekindergarten children beginning with the 2012-13 school year. The details are not clear yet, but here’s the deal in brief. If your disabled child will be 4 years old by September 1, 2012 and he or she gets an Individualized More >
Are You an Extreme Chooser? (How Far Would You Go to Find the Right School?)
May 3rd
Most parents are advocates of school choice -whether we identify ourselves that way or not. We would choose to send our children to the best school in our neighborhood over the one which was just simply around the corner, that is, if we could. Upper middle class parents routinely choose to buy homes in neighborhoods More >
Transition to the “Real” World from FL Public Schools (in a bleak economy no less)
Jan 29th
The IEP meetings are crucial for not only diploma planning, but also for transition planning and career preparation. Good transition goals in the IEP (which are critical years prior to high school graduation) can include workplace experiences that help students learn about employment settings and vocational opportunities and specific plans for developing self-determination skills. IDEA More >
What’s New in Schools? – It’s Called RtI
Sep 9th
Starting now it will be much harder (in fact, I think nearly impossible in Florida)to get your learning disabled (“LD”) child special education services. That said, special ed services historically haven’t helped LD kids very much. So, let’s hope these changes are all for the good. Children with behavior problems may not receive special ed services as easily as before either.
RtI – the details
Sep 7th
RtI is a 3-tiered process of increasingly intensive research- based instruction which is part of federal law (IDEA 2004). At the end of the process (Tier 3), students who are still struggling in reading, math and/or behavior will be eligible for special education services (an “IEP”). The theory of RtI, which is to catch struggling students early and provide high quality research-based instruction, is great.
Special Education Vouchers Prevent Mislabeling, Study Says
Aug 21st
Special Education Vouchers Prevent Mislabeling, Study Says EdWeek Article I write from the Florida special needs voucher trenches – I am both an attorney for parents of disabled public school students and a fierce proponent of the McKay Scholarship. I don’t doubt the results of Greene and Winters’ study which addresses those students with “marginal” More >
If RtI Isn’t Working for Your Child: Knowing Your Legal Rights
Aug 12th
Response to Intervention (RtI) is a 3-tiered process of research-based instruction, which is part of federal law (IDEA 2004). Before RtI, in order to get considered for special education services (an “IEP”) the main thing your struggling learner needed was a psycho-educational evaluation (conducted by a private or public school psychologist). The evaluation needed to show More >
Make School Work for Your Disabled Child
Jul 27th
Did you ever wish you had someone to sit on your side of the table? Not just a lawyer. Not just someone with first-hand experience teaching kids with disabilities. But also a passionate advocate for your child’s needs. Well, you’ve finally found one – me, Allison Hertog. I am one of only a handful of More >
