kidslaw

May 4 Call -In Day IDEA Fairness Restoration Act

On Wednesday May 4, 2011 please contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act (S. 613 and H.R. 1208). The bill will allow parents to recover expert witness fees when they prevail in due process hearings and court actions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. ( IDEA).

http:// www. house.gov

http:// www. senate.gov

Aging Out and Autistic: A growing problem in Illinois

	Boolean Search Home » April 2011 Aging Out and Autistic: A Growing Problem in Illinois SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Just about everyone knows someone with autism theautismprogram.orgthese days. That may be because, according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one million Americans have some sort of autism spectrum disorder; most of them are children. Out of every 110 new babies, one will eventually be diagnosed with the disability, and the number is rising by more than 10 percent a year. Becky Moore, from Springfield, Illinois, has a son with autism, and she says when he graduates from high school, he will join a huge wave of people with very few options for living on their own. "Five-hundred-thousand children will transition out of the system after age 22 in the next 15 years and the question is, what will they transition to?" Students with developmental disabilities can stay in high school until age 22, but after that they're on their own. Moore says housing, job coaching and educational programs are scarce in Illinois, and so are resources. "In a lot of communities there is nothing for them to go to, and so it's a great question, concern, a great stress for parents across the nation." Moore says people who don't understand the disorder may mistakenly believe that autistic people can't live independently, but she knows from experience that many children with autism exceed expectations. "It's so joyful, the first time you hear them say, 'I love you, Mom,' or the first time they read a book, or the first time they do whatever, that you didn't think they'd be able to do." Moore says her son works very hard at everything he accomplishes and he deserves a future that involves meaningful work, and a social life. She says she's met with state officials who acknowledge that transitioning to adulthood with autism is a problem, but they also tell her that there's no money for new programs. That's why she's working with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois in reaching out to United Cerebral Palsy and the Autism Society of Central Illinois. They're trying to find ways to organize housing, and help young adults with autism to learn independent living skills. For more information go to lssi.org or theautismprogram.org Mary Anne Meyers, Public News Service - IL
	Copyright © 2011 Public News Service

The article above highlighits one of the primary reasons parents are seeking out our services. We are now seeing many families who are faced with the very real and immediate problem of what they will do with their adult autistic family members in order to provide a quality of life and care.

Sure Fire Ways for a School District to Guarantee A Due Process Request

 
I often speak to special education directors when they want to hear a " parent perspective " regarding special education procedures and dealing with parents. A few years ago I gave a presentation and provided a tongue in cheek view of how the interaction with parents can push a difficult situation into the due process zone. The topic was the Sure Fire Ways to Guarantee a Due Process Request. Here are my top "tips" that I am happy to report were recieved with a few laughs.  Regrettably, I have been at IEP's where these incidents have occurred. Here they go:

1. Roll your eyes at the parent or their experts every time they attempt to speak.

2. Ignore the material they brought to the meeting.

3. Look at your watch repeatedly and ask how long is this meeting going to take?

4. Dismiss the parents experts who they have paid to come to the meeting and treat them with barely   disguised contempt.

5. Hint that the mother may have a problem and need counseling.

6. Suggest that the " apple doesn't fall far from the tree".

7. Remind the parent repeatedly that if things were better at home then the child would be doing better at school. Do this a few times during the course of the meeting.

8. Make sure that the team is warned ahead of time not to provide much information.

9. Provide as little service and support as possible.

10. Delay sending any paperwork or evaluations to the parent until the meeting.

Special Education and Evaluations

This school year and last I have had at least a half a dozen cases of high school students who had not been evaluated by the school district and who were failing or struggling mightily to pass classes . A few had IEP's, one had a 504 Plan and others were at risk of dropping out of high school because of repeated failures in their classes. The students with the IEP's - one a junior and two seniors - had not been formally evaluated since middle school. Their 3 year re-evaluations consisted of a records review. Regrettably, the high school was reluctant to evaluate the students and in two cases the principal suggested that the student consider dropping out of high school and get a GED. The parents hired a lawyer.

In each of the cases, the school reluctantly agreed to evaluate the student, using a combination of private evaluators and school based psychological and related service personnel. The results of the evaluations allowed everyone to identify the problem accurately, design interventions and appropriate transition services. It shouldn't have required an attorney to make it happen.

Advice for Parents:

Insist on data based evaluations for your child.

The evaluations are critical to thoughtful accurate educational and transition planning.

Request an independent evaluation if the school won't or can't do the evaluation.

If you can afford to do so, hire an independent evaluator (e.g. psychologist, speech therapist, psychiatrist ) to evaluate your child.

Share the results with the school.

Put your request for an evaluation in writing to the school.

 

Twenty-Somethings: An Emerging and Expanding Practice

In the past fifteen years of my practice there has been a subtle shift in the age of the clients we represent. Initially, there was a clearer demarcation. Once an adolescent reached 18 and they needed legal help, (eg. arrest, mental health advocacy) they would be referred to an adult/criminal attorney. Not anymore. There are several reasons for the shift. The factors that have changed mirror what seems to be happening on a larger scale in American society.

In our office, we have been working with families long enough that many children we represented early on are now young adults. Our practice areas have expanded in response to the changing needs of our clients. We now have a substantial criminal law practice. We represent older adolescents (as well as younger) in the areas of internet crimes, alcohol and substance abuse related legal problems, sexually based offenses and traffic related offenses to name a few areas we deal with in our office.

Representing young adults requires us to be not only mindful of the law but to take a multidisciplinary view of the developmental issues related to their age. The law generally takes a black and white approach to youth over a certain age convicted of crimes. At 18 you are an adult and held accountable as an adult. Our clients seldom are fully formed adults and for most of them the idea of consequences or the long term implications of their actions are not part of their decision making process. They aren't quite as immature as our young juvenile clients but most are far from developing the maturity and judgment needed to function as competent adults. The term used in the social science literature refers to this group as "emerging adulthood." This rethinking has ben aided by neuroscience. In a recent article in the New York Times, What is it about 20-Somethings?,(New York Times, August 18, 2010), "Neuroscientists once thought that the brain stops growing shortly after puberty, but they know it keeps maturing well into the 20s."

It is our job to educate the courts and others about our client, assist in identifying treatment resources and to focus on minimizing penalties and maximizing interventions. The assumption that change is not only possible but can and will likely occur with the right interventions is an overriding premise of our legal representation. This is informed by the science and psychological research available about this age group. The term "emerging adulthood" was coined by the psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Arnett. Dr. Arnett is the author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens Through the Twenties. (2004, Oxford University Press).

This message is also good news to parents who are despairing of their twenty-something ever "getting it" and moving on in a positive healthy direction.    

For many young adults this movement in the right direction will not come without significant intervention. In the Chicago area we are fortunate to have a program dedicated to the needs of emerging young adults. The Yellowbrick program is located in Evanston, Illinois.

Selected Resources:

Jeffrey Arnett, Ph.D.

Yellowbrick

Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood

School Refusal/School Anxiety

It is all too common in my office for a frantic parent to make an appointment because their student is refusing to go to school or is frequently absent due to feigned illness or depression. Consulting an attorney for this issue may seem perplexing but for many parents the consequences of school refusal are what brings them to our office. Schools will often respond that it is up to the parents to get the student to school. This is a theoretically easier task for a grade school age parent. For the parents of high school or even middle school students it simply isn't physically possible to get them out the door, into the car and to school. Threatening, bribery and other extreme measures often don't produce the desired result - school attendance.

Grades begin to tumble, homework accumulates and students are at risk of losing needed credits. A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, "I Hate School" Extreme Edition, reported that in two-thirds of the cases of school refusal, a psychiatric problem, most commonly an anxiety disorder, is the cause. The same article reported the following:

    "People who experience school refusal behavior and anxiety disorders in childhood may face serious ramifications in adulthood, psychologists say and studies show:

• Depression: Young people ages 14 to 24 who had social anxiety were almost three times as likely to develop depression later on than those without the anxiety disorder.
• Psychiatric treatment: A study of school refusing kids showed that about 20 to 29 years later they received more psychiatric treatment than the general population.
• Alcohol, drug use: A study of children ages 9 to 13 with an anxiety disorder showed that those who still had the disorder seven years after treatment drank alcohol more often and were more likely to use marijuana than those whose disorders had resolved.
• Different life choices: Psychologists say that they've seen young adults with persistent anxiety make fear-fueled choices that can have long term effects; such as selecting a less rigorous college or career."

What should parents do?

• Consult a mental health professional.
• Don't wait for the problem to go away. Seek treatment quickly.
• Meet with the school to discuss a plan to deal with the school refusal. [the longer this goes on the more difficult it will be to deal with]
• Seek out a program for school refusal and anxiety disorders in your area.

 

Quinn signs anti-bullying legislation

I frequently recieve calls form parents of children who are victims of bullying. The parents are concerned about the effect on their child and frequently complain that the school is turning a blind eye toward the situation. In late June governor Quinn signed a new law that defines bullying to include electronic harassment through social networking sites - that's whether students are subject to taunting based on race, gender, religion, physical disability and now sexual orientation. This law also requires Illinois schools to have gang-prevention training and creates a 15-member School Bullying Prevention task force. The task force must prepare a report for the Illinois governor by March 1.

Legislative Update

Proposed Federal Legislation

H.R. 4247 and S. 2860 - This proposed legislation establishes standards for the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, direct states to develop plans to meet those standards, and bar schools from including restraint or seclusion as a specific behavioral intervention in a child's IEP.

S. 2781 ( " Rosas Law") This proposed legislation replaces the term " mental retardation " with " intellectual disabilities " wherever it appears in the law.

H.R. 2740 ( " The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act") - This proposed legislation permits parents who prevail in due process hearings and litigation to recover their expert witness fees.

Transition Services

H.B. 5688 This bill allows a child with a disability who recieves residential and educational services from either DCFS or DMHDD to be eligible to recieve transition services in accordance with Article 14 of the School Code from age 14.5 through age 21, notwithstanding the child's residential services arrangement.

Autism - National Standards Project

In every IEP or meeting with parents regarding interventions and teaching strategies, the question invariably arises about what works and how do we know. This is essential since the educational plan for students should include a description of the research based interventions to the extent practicable. Therefore, it is important to look for guidance to peer-reviewed research to assist in crafting programs for students.

The National Standards Project, published by the National Autism Center in 2009, attempts to provide critical information about which treatments have been shown to be effective for individuals with ASD. This comprehensive report identified 11 treatments as effective. (i.e. they were established as effective for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders ( ASD). Established treatments are those for which several well-controlled studies have shown the intervention to produce beneficial effects. There is compelling scientific evidence to show these treatments are effective.  The following interventions are Established Treatments:

Ø   Antecedent Package

Ø   Behavioral Package

Ø   Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for children

Ø   Joint Attention Intervention

Ø   Modeling

Ø   Naturalistic Teaching Strategies

Ø   Peer Training Package

Ø   Pivotal Response Treatment

Ø   Schedules

Ø   Self-Management

Ø   Story Based- Intervention Package

 For more information about the National Standards Project, Establised Treatments and to read the full report, please click on the following link:

http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/affiliates/