The Heartland Association of Legal Assistants invited me to be their featured presenter at their monthly membership meeting.  I had prepared a detailed power point presentation on special education issues:  eligibility, IEP requirements, and school discipline.  I printed the slides and distributed them before I began the address.

We never saw the presentation.   In my introduction, I started talking about juvenile justice for children with special needs.  As expected, this audience consisted of intelligent professionals.  They engaged me in a constructive dialogue about how inadequately our juvenile justice system handles cases for children with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses.  Our dialogue took the entire allotted hour, so we never returned to the original material.

Over time I will blog my thoughts on juvenile justice for children with disabilities.  In the meantime, I received a thank you letter from the Program Chair.  She wrote that she heard great feedback about my presentation.  She said the only negative was that they wished for more time so they could have seen my presentation.

Maybe next time.  I’m open to an invitation to return on another occasion.

Three families consulted me this week to prepare for their IEP meetings.  In each case, we emphasized the importance of preparing for the meeting.  Preparation can help you better advocate for your child to obtain special education services.

Here are some of the ways you can prepare for your child’s next IEP meeting:

• Designate in writing additional members of your IEP team.  Parents can designate members of the IEP team who have knowledge of your child or expertise regarding your child’s disabilities.
• Prepare a statement of parental concerns.  Bring copies for everyone at the IEP meeting.  Request your statement to be included with the IEP and the conference notes from the meeting.
• Review your child’s most recent educational evaluation.  If your evaluation is inadequate or out of date, make a written request for a re-evaluation.  If the re-evaluation is inadequate, you might be entitled to an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense.

These are just a few of the many other ways you may prepare for your child’s IEP meeting.  Use the resource box at the right to contact me about your specific situation.

Watch this video to meet Quinn, posted by his mother.  Quinn is like any other child:  adorable, loved, and happy.  He is also autistic.  Thanks to his mom for sharing her beautiful child with us!

I’m back to blogging after a break for Thanksgiving.  During the break we enjoyed a visit from our daughter who is a freshman studying apparel design at Iowa State University.  Now, though, I’m thankful to be blogging again with you and meeting great clients.

I met two new clients today who remind me to be thankful for adults who love children.  The first client was rescuing an unrelated 16 year old boy who was thrown out by his mother.  This client has mentored the young boy since he was about nine years old.  I hope to help them by obtaining custody through a guardianship or through a private child in need of care petition.

The second new clients were parents of a high functioning autistic boy.  I was impressed with how knowledgeably and assertively these parents have advocated for their son.  Even so, they have been struggling with their son’s school district this year.  The district is failing to implement his IEP.  Some of the staff have been yelling at their son to the point of bringing him to tears.  We talked about filing a formal complaint about the staff’s discrimination through bullying which denies him access to a public education.  We might also request an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense to remedy the inadequacies in the school district’s re-evaluation, especially regarding their son’s need for assistive technology.

I am thankful for these clients and all adults who love kids.  I am grateful for the opportunity to assist them in improving the lives of the children they serve.

Gov. Palin spoke last Friday in Pittsburgh about how she proposes to assist families raising children with special needs.  She proposed

• School choice for parents and caretakers of children with special needs;
• Portability of federal and state funds to follow the child to private placements;
• Full funding of IDEA (special education).

Some voters in the disability community aren’t persuaded.  As Governor of Alaska, she cut funding for special needs education by sixty two percent.  For a criticism of Palin’s speech, see this editorial published by commondreams.org.  To see a brief excerpt of Gov. Palin’s speech in her own words, watch this video:

This week I accompanied a teen with Asperger’s into a police interrogation.  (Asperger’s is on the autism spectrum.)  He wasn’t accused of anything. He was the victim. A peer had sexually assaulted him the restroom.

Because of his Asperger’s, he could explain literally exactly what happened to him; but, he could not identify the perpetrator from a photo lineup. Of course, that’s exactly why the perpetrator chose him as a victim. He knew he could get away with it.

Children with special needs can become easy prey. They can be especially vulnerable in unsupervised settings such as the restroom, or unstructured settings such as passing periods or the cafeteria. For that reason, you could demand at an IEP meeting that your child with a disability be accompanied by a para in these risky situations.

The number of children and youth labeled as bipolar increased 40 times from 1994 to 2003. The frequency of the diagnosis has increased even further since then.

The numbers come from a study just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many believe the jump comes from more aggressive diagnosis. Because of the size of the increase, some question the validity of the diagnosis.

Bipolar teens and children experience massive mood swings. During their manic stages, they may feel surges of energy and confidence. They might make grandiose plans that never come to fruition. They might also make impulsive decisions that violate the law.

These manic stages are soon followed by debilitating depression. They fail school. They might self medicate using alcohol and illegal drugs. As in their manic stages, they may make poor choices which lead to trouble with the law.

Families with bipolar children often retain my firm for representation in juvenile justice proceedings and special education. These families often find that the juvenile justice system offers little help. In many cases, inappropriate responses from juvenile justice might actually obstruct the family’s efforts.

Punishing teens for bipolar behavior won’t cure their disorder. Fortunately, a combination of medical intervention with mental health therapy can help these children become productive.

However, the pace of the medical and legal interventions might contradict each other. The juvenile court demands immediate compliance with its orders and conditions of probation. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist might need time to experiment with different combinations of drugs. Some of the medicines might need several weeks to take effect. Concurrently, your family needs training and community resources. Your child may require talk therapy over several months.

At the same time, the school system should evaluate your child for eligibility for special education and related services. If the bipolar mood disorder interferes with school, your child might need an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to receive a free, appropriate public education.

Our firm helps families with bipolar children in all these systems. We ensure that the juvenile justice system coordinates with the mental health system to keep your child safe and compliant. We advocate for the school to provide an appropriate education so your child can succeed and stay out of trouble. We refer your family to public and private resources to learn how to manage your child’s behavior while interacting with larger social systems.

You can get more done for less effort by acting before disaster strikes. If your child may be experiencing symptoms of bipolar mood disorder, seek early professional help.

A client sent this video to me. My client’s son is autistic. The school district wants to move him away from his home school, where he attends with his twin sister. Instead, the district wants to educate him in a more restrictive setting in a distant school. We filed a special education due process request to keep him in the least restrictive environment.

In this video, a family in Maryland compellingly communicates to their son’s IEP team how their son’s autism affects his learning. They emphasize that their son can and does learn. He just learns differently than other children without autism.

The video provides an excellent primer on autism and special learning tools such as ABA. The video lasts about 9 minutes and 14 seconds.

In my law practice I see the delayed results of problems which could have been prevented by early intervention in a child’s first years. Early childhood intervention could prevent later issues involving special education, school discipline, and juvenile delinquency.

A Kansas audit released yesterday found that state agencies could better coordinate programs for such young children. The study found multiple agencies offered similar programs for the same population. However, the auditors found no indications of wasted tax dollars or failed programs.

The programs serve 40 percent of Kansas children under the age of 5. The 23 programs provide immunizations, therapy for special-needs toddlers, abuse prevention efforts, parenting training and assistance to poor mothers. The services cost $310 million last year.

Legislation passed in Kansas this year will create an Office of Early Childhood Education by 2009. The new agency could have a role in coordinating services; however, the specific authority of that agency has not yet been clarified.

I support any effort to ensure services reach the children who need them. At the same time, Kansans should feel assured from this audit that these essential services already work mostly as intended.

On Monday the U.S. Court of Federal Claims began hearing the first of nine test cases to determine if vaccines cause autism in children. The test cases could ultimately determine the outcome of 5,000 similar claims.

In the first test case, the parents of a 12 year old contend that their duaghter’s vaccines contained a preservative called thimerosal. This preservative, they allege, weakened their daughter’s immune system. Consequently, their daughter now suffers from severe autism.