Re: IDEA and Educators

[Guest guest]

>For your information, the Federation of Families for Children's Mental

Health is seriously concerned with provisions in both the Senate and the

House versions of the IDEA Reauthorization. Short term objectives

would be eliminated from IEPs; parents would have to prove that behavior

was a manifestation of their child's disability to prevent disciplinary

action; IEP and manifestation reviews would be overly simplified

providing for only a cursory review when making such decisions; the

" stay-put " protection would be eliminated under some conditions; a

preliminary review prior to scheduling a due process hearing would be

added thus delaying the process further; a statute of limitations for

filing due process hearings would be created thus undermining parent's

efforts to cooperate and negotiate with school officials; and there

would be limits on the awarding of attorney fees in some circumstances.

We believe that the proposed improvements mentioned in the notice below

are insufficient to overcome these serious deficiencies. In June 2004,

TASH put together a summary of their concerns with the Senate version of

this bill. They are attached here for your information.<

This weekend I spent some time with a family member who I think highly of but

who disappointed me greatly. As he has been a Superintendant for 12 years now I

have called numerous times over the past 6 years to ask questions about the

" goings on " at the school Tristan has attended and hoped to educate him from a

personal standpoint and also learn what our rights are. He has for the most

part been nice and tryed to answer my questions but I always got the impression

he became the bureaucrat

instead of the family member in those discussions. He did encourage me a few

weeks back when I told him we were going to request 8 compensatory hours a week

for Tristan and he said that because of the history and circumstances it was a

valid request and the school should have no trouble granting it. I found out

this weekend that he is not only a Superintendant but now teaches a Special Ed

Law class at a University and he went into an " argument " for the Reauthorization

of the IDEA. I realize that he must have played a part in this new legislation.

His position is that it is the ED kids that have " forced " the educators to

demand that they not be protected by or hide behind the IDEA discipline

protections. He described how ED kids are violent and/or disruptive and there

is nothing they can do because the parents " hide behind " the IDEA. He said that

the new law is not " supposed " to effect someone like Tristan who has behavior

issues due to his autism. Somehow I believe though it is not supposed to, it

will. What are the thoughts of those more privy and knowledgeable in this area?

Carlson