What’s the Difference Between General Ed and Special Ed?

What’s the difference between Special Ed and General Ed? This is a great question which parents are sometimes afraid to ask. The simple answer is that general education is the typical classroom that we think of when we think of school.  Special education is more complicated because it has changed over time.  Years ago before […]

How to Get an IEP Assessment

What is an IEP Assessment? Your Right to an Assessment Federal law (the “IDEA”) gives parents a right to a school IEP evaluation.  That right did not change during COVID.  Even if your child is in distance learning 100% of the time, they still have a right to be assessed if they have (or may […]

Don’t Let Your School Get Away with Denying an Evaluation to Your Child

Don’t Let your school deny your child an evaluation? Why Get an Evaluation Getting an evaluation is the first step in getting an IEP (an Individual Education Plan).   You can not get an IEP without an evaluation.  While you don’t need an evaluation to get a 504 Plan, you do need one to be eligible […]

What’s the Difference Between An IEP and A 504 Plan?

WHat’s the difference between an IEP and a 504 Plan? What’s the Difference? Before I get into the guidance, I just want to give you an ultra mini legal course in the difference between a 504 Plan and an IEP.  An IEP comes from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) and gives very specific […]

Win in Federal Court for Our Clients!

Today our triplet clients had another huge win against the Miami-Dade County School District – the fourth largest in the country.  We’re so thrilled to report that Judge Joan Lenard of the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Florida denied the school board’s motion to dismiss our case.  Our clients, who won a due […]

Charter Schools Have a Great Opportunity to Serve Sped Students Well

In the spring of 2012 the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a study concluding that charter schools enroll a lower percentage of special education students than traditional public schools.  The latest is that the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has deployed “several broad compliance reviews” to address enrollment as well as legal […]

Response to Intervention: Misused to the Detriment of ASD Students?

The implementation of RtI (Response to Intervention), a new way to identify students as learning disabled, may result in delay or failure to properly identify students as eligible for special education services, and in my experience some school districts have been overbroad in their application of RtI – causing students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), […]