Revised regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will take effect March 15, 2011

Revised regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will take effect March 15, 2011. These revised rules are the department’s first major revision of its guidance on accessibility in 20 years.

The regulations apply to the activities of state and local government and more than seven million places of public accommodation, including stores, restaurants, shopping malls, libraries, museums, sporting arenas, movie theaters, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, hotels, jails and prisons, polling places, and emergency preparedness shelters. The rules were signed by Attorney General Eric Holder on July 23, 2010, and the official text was publishedin the Federal Register on September 15, 2010.

The department is also releasing a new document, “ADA Update: A Primer for Small Business,” to help small businesses understand the new and updated accessibility requirements. In addition, the department is announcing the release of a new publication explaining when the various provisions of its amended regulations will take effect. Both documents will be available tomorrow on the department’s ADA website, www.ada.gov.

I believe that the new regulations will also apply to summer camps and programs, private schools,
day care centers, and other places of public accommodation for children.


For more information about the ADA, call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at
800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TTY), or access the department’s ADA website at www.ada.gov.

Gifted Children Should be Considered for Special Education Services

In a recent OSEP communication, Letter to Anonymous, 110 LRP 52277 (OSEP 1/13/10), the agency informed an anonymous writer that the IDEA and its regulations, although silent on the topic of gifted students, protect students who have qualifying disabilities requiring special education and related services even if they are intellectually gifted. The writer specifically referenced students with high cognition and disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Asperger's Syndrome, and specific learning disabilities related to reading, writing, and mathematics who struggle to timely complete grade-level work and have difficulties with organizational skills, homework completion, affective areas, social skills, classroom behavior, reading and math fluency, writing and math operations. OSEP responded that districts should not let a student's intellectual prowess, or even the fact that he is classified as gifted under state law, undermine their child find activities or eligibility determinations. Although a student has high cognition, the student may also have one of the disabilities listed in the IDEA, and the child may require special education and related services as a result. Even though a student may be gifted, he or she is not automatically disqualified from eligibility for special education and related services under the IDEA. OSEP observed that the IDEA does not address the topic of gifted students. However, "It remains the Department's position that students who have high cognition, have disabilities and require special education and related services are protected under the IDEA and its implementing regulations," OSEP Acting Director Alexa Posny wrote. Under 34 C.F.R. §300.8, a child must meet a two-prong test to be considered an eligible child with a disability: (1) have one of the specified impairments (disabilities); and (2) because of the impairment, need special education and related services. For example, a child with high cognition and ADHD could be considered to have an 'other health impairment,' and could need special education and related services to address the lack of organizational skills, homework completion and classroom behavior, if appropriate. Likewise, a child with Asperger's Syndrome could be considered under the disability category of autism and the individualized evaluation would address the special education and related services needs in the affective areas, social skills and classroom behavior, as appropriate.

The Importance of Brown vs. Board of Education

Did you know that the rights of children with disability to be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) flows directly from Brown vs. Board of Education. The Brown case was the vital Supreme Court case, which held that the segregation of people due to race was inherently discriminatory and harmful. Read the case to understand the important of LRE for our children. http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/u

US DOE Bullying Surveys and New Website

The Department of Education (ED) announced grant awards to 11 states for Safe and Supportive School programs. States will use the grant money to conduct in-depth surveys of students, family, and staff about school safety and direct dollars to the schools with the biggest problems. The 11 states are: AZ, CA, IA, KS, LA, MD, MI, SC, TN, WV, and WI. The Office of Civil Rights in The U.S. Department of Education will issue guidance to schools in the next few months explaining that bullying can include racial, sexual, or disability harassment that is prohibited by law. It will also inform schools of their legal responsibilities to protect students from discriminatory harassment.

The Department has a new bullying website at:

http://www.bullyinginfo.org

What is Specially Designed Instruction?

The Specially Designed Instruction (SDIs) section of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) is one of the most important parts of this important document. The special education teacher, with the IEP Team determines what accommodations and modifications the student will be receiving. As a legal document, the IEP not only binds the special educator but the whole school population in terms of every member of the community must deal with this child. Extended test time, frequent bathroom breaks, whatever "SDI's" are written into the IEP must be provided by the principal, the librarian, the gym teacher, the lunchroom monitor, the general education teacher as well as the special education teacher. Failure to provide those accommodations and modifications can create serious legal jeopardy for the members of the school community who ignore them.


SDI's fall into two categories: accommodations and modifications. Some people use the terms interchangeably, but legally they are not the same. Children with 504 plans will have accommodations but not modifications in their plans. Children with IEP's can have both.


Accommodations: These are changes in the way in which the child is treated in order to best accommodate the child's physical, cognitive or emotional challenges. They might include:

•Extended time for tests (the standard is one and a half times as long as allowed, but for academic tests in most general education classrooms unlimited time is not uncommon.)


•Frequent test breaks


•The ability to move around the classroom (especially kids with ADHD)


•Bathroom breaks when needed.


•Special seating (in front of class, separated from peers)


•A water bottle at the student's desk (some medications create dry-mouth.)


Modifications: These change the academic or curricular demands made of a child to better fit the child's ability. Modifications might include the following:

•Modified homework


•10 words on spelling tests


•Scribing (the teacher or an aide writes the responses as dictated by a child.


•Separate modified tests in content areas.



Alternate forms of assessment: dictating, oral retelling, portfolios
It's good to have a conversation with other teachers who sees a child as you are preparing the IEP. (See Writing an IEP) to discuss SDI's,. especially if you need to prepare that teacher to deal with an accommodation they are not going to like (like bathroom breaks without requests. Expect this request from parents, and expect general ed teachers to fight it. Some children have medications that make them need to urinate frequently.)


Once an IEP is signed, and the IEP meeting is over, be sure every teacher who sees the child gets a copy of the IEP. It is also important that you go over the SDI's and discuss how they are going to be carried out. This is one place a general educator can cause him or herself some serious grief with parents. This is also a place where that same teacher can earn the trust and support of those parents.
(Courtesy-Jerry Webster, about.com)

For Parents Whose Children Are In Transition

A good reminder for employers and parents whose children are in transition:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continued to aggressively pursue employers who discriminate against individuals with disabilities. The EEOC filed a lawsuit against Tarsadia Hotels that operates Comfort Suites in California for allegedly firing a front desk clerk who has autism. The employer allegedly belittled the employee, refused to provide accommodations and denied the employee access to a job coach whose services were free to the hotel. More information is available at:
http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-16-10b.cfm

Predetermination in IEP's

Many parents feel left out of the IEP process and feel that it is anything but "individual" when they arrive to a meeting to be given a Draft IEP that becomes the IEP by the need of the meeting with little to no input. Parents are supposed to be an integral part of the IEP team, not just a consenting signature.

These are some examples of how this looks:
- The District meets just before the IEP for extended periods of time. They coordinate what they are going to tell parents. Parents are often told that a certain placement is "a wonderful school" by the entire IEP team even though not a one has even been there to see it.
- The District meets without parents, and then writes it up as an IEP meeting.
- Refuses to make any changes to the IEPs stamped DRAFT.
- If parents refuse to consent to the IEP they hold another meeting without the parent, stating that they have made reasonable effort to notify parents who won't respond.
- Refuse to provide parents written reports or Draft IEP's
- Staff say "Outside evaluators cannot overrule the IEP team, and I have decided that ..."

A great case involving pre-determination is Zachary Deal v. Hamilton County TN Board of Education. You can find it on wrightslaw.com.

Predetermination can be proven by:
1. Them making few and no substantial changes reflecting parent input from the draft ones they provide.
2. Them having a pattern of doing the same IEP categorically or maybe just at a specific school.
3. Them failing to identify any substantive reason or data in the prior written notice given the parent for refusing parent requests.
4. Recorded admissions that this is the way it is going to be whether the parent likes it or not.