You have the right to attend your child’s IEP meetings.  In fact, federal regulations require the school to hold your IEP meetings at a “mutually agreed on time and place.”  Also, you must be notified early enough to ensure that you have an opportunity to attend.

In a recent unpublished opinion from California, a federal court overturned an IEP.  The school invited the parents to participate by speaker phone.  That wasn’t good enough.  The parents had the right to attend their child’s IEP meeting in person.  Because they weren’t present at the meeting, the IEP was invalid.

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.

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.