From:
Connie Matthews
connie@westco.net
http://www.reedmartin.com
BOOKMARK OUR WEBSITE!

In this issue:
Advocacy Tip of the Week/ Check out the past Advocacy Tips/ Worst School Outrage of the Month/ Product of the Month, HELP! The School Is Not Going ToServe My Child/"Letter to Zirkel" on Section 504 (Duties of Schools)/1999 Regulations - Appendix A/ West Virginia Resolution Reveals Ignorance of Federal Law/ Conference Schedule/ New Conference Option/ New ASK REED Question/ Message Board;/Guest Book/ Special Audiotape Price Packages/ View Reed's Complete Product List/ Purchase Reed's Products on On-Line Shopping Cart/ Use Our Articles In Your Organization's Newsletter/ Link Our Page/Share Our Website With a Friend

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Well the school year will soon be ending. Did your child have an educational plan that conferred benefit? If not, why not? If not, is your child receiving Extended School Year services? Check out our website for the article: Start Preparing Now To Get Extended School Year Services This Summer and information on Reed's audiotape on Extended School Year. http://www.reedmartin.com/extendedschoolyear.htm

Our children grow up so fast and the education they receive will last them a lifetime. Be sure your children are receiving benefit in their educational plan. Don't let anymore time escape.

As the years go by the educational curriculum gets harder. If they do not have the basic skills, it makes each year more difficult.

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MY DAUGHTER IS GRADUATING!!

I am very pleased to announce my daughter, Allison, will graduate on May 29! It has been a tough 13 years in the public school system, however, we have finally made it. Allison struggled in school from the very beginning. She has had an IEP since the 5th grade. She is planning to write a book about her struggle in public education. She is also developing a newsletter for kids and teenagers. I am also putting together a book of Allison's story in public education. It will include the good, the bad and the ugly! Keep checking our website for information on these new products.

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ADVOCACY TIP OF THE WEEK:

This week's Advocacy Tip:
What are you signing away when you sign your IEP? Don't sign "in attendance" if you haven't been at a real IEP meeting http://www.reedmartin.com

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PAST ADVOCACY TIPS:

Don't forget to view the past advocacy tips. The topics include: You want to see all your child's records to make sure how things are really going, but you feel some records are being keep from you?

Have you been told "we don't have enough money for what you need." "We can't afford a full time PT or OT." "We are out of special ed dollars for the year."

Have you been told "your child qualifies under Section 504, but 504 is only for accommodations in the regular classroom." Have you been told "504 doesn't have any money so we can't spend anything on 504 accommodations

Do you have access to all the IDEA impartial hearing officer decisions in your state? There might be one on the topic you are fighting about. A hearing officer might have already found for you on your issue and you do not even know.

Everyone's role in implementing the IEP must be specified. Have you ever had a problem communicating with one of your child's teachers about specifically what that teacher is expected to do, or not do, with regard to your child?

Have your school personnel ever told you "none of our staff knows how to do that," or "I am a regular education teacher and I don't have time to do that" or "we would have to hire someone new and we don't have any money in the budget for that?"

Be careful when school personnel give you "legal" advice, and always "get it in writing.

http://www.reedmartin.com/advocacytipofweek.htm

*************************************************************************** WORST SCHOOL OUTRAGE OF THE MONTH:

School Boards Want Congress To Protect Their Right To Be Wrong

School boards just won't play fair. The school board lobby in Washington, D.C., which is considerable, has tried repeatedly to keep parents from recovering attorneys' fees in special education cases, and they are on the move again. They know they cannot allow a fair fight. If school boards can use the public's money to pay their attorney and then keep the parent from having one of their own, the school boards might win.

The issue is certainly one of fairness because the issue does not arise unless the school board is WRONG -- a law breaker. The issue of attorney fee awards never comes up if the parent is wrong and the school board is right. The only reason for the school board lobbyists to pursue this issue is so that they can protect their school board's RIGHT TO BE WRONG

Rather than putting their efforts into counseling their school boards to comply with the law (which would keep parents from having to get an attorney in the first place, and would keep the school board from losing in a lawsuit in the second place) these lobbyists want to rig the game.

When a parent feels they need an attorney, the question of attorneys' fees has to come up. In most areas of the law, if a prospective client wants the attorney to help them for free, they are out of luck. But in civil rights areas, the Congress and the Supreme Court have found that all of us, as a society, are well served if there can be a "private bar" of attorneys to take civil rights cases. So our civil rights statutes provide that if the plaintiff is correct, and if their attorney "prevails" in an action or proceeding under the specific civil rights act, then that attorney can receive a reasonable fee.

Check our website for the complete article.

http://www.reedmartin.com/outrage.htm

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PRODUCT OF THE MONTH:

HELP! The School Is Not Going To Serve My Child.
Internet/Email Special $12.95 ($2s/h) Save $4.00
POWER Members Pay: $11.65 ($2 s/h)

This 60 minute audiotape addresses:

Refusal to identify or diagnose the child (or a fake evaluation that says not eligible) "504" the student, but with no services that cost anything

Refusal because the needed evaluation or services is "medical" not educational

Dump the child without services in the regular classroom because "the law" requires regular

Expel the child for misbehavior (rather than identifying a possible disability)

Dropped from the rolls, no longer special ed eligible

Call police or file in juvenile court and say "it is not out of our hands."

Transfer rights to the student age 18 and then get them to "sign out" of school

Graduate the student after 12 years, ignoring the age range 19 through 21

And more, including 10 advocacy responses.

You must identify the Internet/Email Special to receive the discount Offer good until May 15, 1999 - Check the website for more information and discount coupon.

http://www.reedmartin.com/productofthemonth.htm

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"LETTER TO ZIRKEL" on Section 504:
Duties of Schools

A nationally recognized authority on special education law in general, and Section 504 in particular, wrote the federal Office for Civil Rights for an inperpretation. Their letter in response is referred to as Letter to Zirkel and was signed by the chief officer for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education.

The basic question was whether there was a limit on what school districts had to do, and had to spend, to meet the 504 rights of disabled students.

Check our site for the complete letter:
http://www.reedmartin.com/zirkel.htm

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1999 REGULATIONS - APPENDIX A:

When the statute we now call the IDEA was passed, in 1975, with regulations finalized, in 1977, the U.S. Department of Education received many questions about this new thing called "the IEP." The U. S. Department of Education consulted several persons who had been involved in IEP meetings and litigation over IEPs (Reed was one of those consulted) and USDOE added an "Appendix C" to the regulations that was 60 questions and answers about the IEP process. Appendix C was quoted in many court cases and became accepted as a part of "the law."

When Congress passed the 1997 IDEA Amendments, many of those statements in Appendix C were placed into the statute itself. But some additional issues had arisen from some of the many judicial interpretations of the IEP requirements. So in the 1999 IDEA Regulations, the old Appendix C has been replaced by a new appendix -- Appendix A -- which is 40 questions and answers about the IEP process.

View Appendix A at: http://www.reedmartin.com/appendixa.htm
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WEST VIRGINIA RESOLUTION
REVEALS IGNORANCE OF FEDERAL LAW

A Resolution, H.C.R. 70, was introduced in the West Virginia Legislature in regard to the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court this past March in Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Garret F.

The Resolution accused the federal judicial branch of "passing down what are, for all intents and purposes, laws which require both physical and fiscal action on the part of school districts to provide for one-on-one nursing care for disabled students."

The Resolution continues "many experts have agreed that this decision 'blindsides' school districts with financial and staffing obligations for which they are unprepared and/or inadequate to properly handle."

Those "experts" are not very expert and only the ignorant could have been "blindsided."

Over twenty years ago, school districts in West Virginia and across the nation, denied enrollment in public school to over one million disabled students of school age. The "justification" was that the schools did not have, or did not care to provide, a service that a student would need to be able to attend school. As a result of that denial, the U.S. Congress passed several federal statutes pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee "equal opportunity" for students with disabilities to receive education.

The first federal court decision in the United States on these new statutes and the duty of the state education agency and the public school districts to provide certain school health services needed to enable a disabled child to attend school was in West Virginia in 1976. The decision, Hairston v. Drosick, was principally under what is known as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which applies to any recipient of federal financial assistance, such as the state department of education and county school districts.

Read the complete article at: http://www.reedmartin.com/wvresolution.htm
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REED'S CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

May 14-15 Aneheim, CA
TASKA
Call: 714-533-8275

May 21 - Virginia
Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center
Call: 703-691-7826

June 23 - PA
Leigh University

July 31-Aug 3 - Chicago
LRP - New Conference for Advocates, Parents and Parent Attorneys
Tactics to Win Appropriate Services
Call: 1-800-727-1227
Restricted to child advocates and attorneys and parents of students with special needs

August 9 - PA
Summer Institute on Autism PA Department of Education

August 19 - Worthington, OH
Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD)
Call: 614-382-5452

September 26-29 - WA
Pacific Northwest Conference

October 6-8 - D.C.
National CH.A.D.D.

October 14 - Fresco, CA
Exceptional Parents
Call: 559-229-2000

October 23 - Concord, CA
California State LDA Conference

**************************************************************** NEW CONFERENCE TOPIC:

Making the New 1999 IDEA
Regulations Work for You

Contact us about having Reed come to your area: (304) 598-3406 or connie@westco.net View the complete list of conference options at: http://www.reedmartin.com/conferences.htm

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ASK REED:

I have been offered Extended School Year but I am not sure it is what I am entitled to.

Check our website for Reed's answer:
http://www.reedmartin.com/askreedesy.htm

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MESSAGE BOARD:
Special thanks to our internet friends for sharing your questions and answers with others. This is a great way to share your successes and help another parent or advocate. We have so much we can learn from each other.

Be aware that the question and answer is posted for everyone to view.

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Thanks so much to all of you that have signed our guestbook! We greatly appreciate your kind comments.

Please be sure to sign our guestbook the next time you stop by. ******************************************************************** SPECIAL AUDIOTAPE PRICE PACKAGES: Don't let another year pass you by. Be informed of your child's educational rights! Choose ANY FOUR Audiotapes $55.95 ($6 s/h) (Save $11-$18 off regular price) POWER Members Pay: $50.35 (s/h) Choose ANY SIX Audiotapes $79.95 ($6 s/h)( Save $21-$29 off regular price) POWER Members Pay: $71.95 (s/h) Be informed in every aspect of your child's educational rights COMPLETE SET OF 13 AUDIOTAPES $169.00 ($6 S/H) POWER Members Pay: $152.10 Save $51.35, if purchased separately http://www.reedmartin.com/audiotapes.htm ************************************************************** REED'S COMPLETE PUBLICATION LIST: http://www.reedmartin.com/orderform.htm ************************************************************* PURCHASE REED'S PRODUCTS ON SECURE ON-LINE SHOPPING CART http://www.reedmartin.com/shoppingcart *********************************************************** USE OUR ARTICLES IN YOUR ORGANIZATION'S NEWLETTER: Many have requested permission to use Reed's articles, Advocacy Tips of the Week, ASK REED, etc. in your organization's newsletter. We are happy to have you use these articles. Please add the following to the information you take from our site: This information is educational and not intended to be legal advice. Reed Martin is an attorney with 27 years experience in special education law. He has conducted workshops on IDEA, Section 504 and the ADA in all 50 states. He can be reached through email at connie@westco.net or http://www.reedmartin.com Also, please send us a copy of your newsletter. ************************************************************************** LINK OUR SITE: Many have requested to link our site to yours. We feel honored for you to add our link. Just place the following: http://www.reedmartin.com Reed Martin, J.D., Special Education Law *********************************************************************** SHARE OUR PAGE WITH A FRIEND: Help a friend in their advocacy. Send our page to a friend. Fill out the SEND-Now form on our website. ********************************************************************* If you have questions or comments for us, please call: (304) 598-3406; fax: (304) 598-3512; Email: connie@westco.net Connie Matthews Reed Martin Conferences And Publications http://www.reedmartin.com P. O. Box 487 Morgantown, WV 26507 (304) 598-3406 (Ph) (304) 598-3512 (Fax) connie@westco.net ******************************************************************* Our Mission is Lessening Discrimination Against Children with Disabilities by Providing Parents and School Personnel Tools for Advocacy *******************************************************************