Your Child’s Rights: Behavior Problems in School
How Schools should manage poor behavior It’s no secret that kids don’t always act how adults want them to. Sometimes, when students don’t behave appropriately, the behavior can interfere with learning for themselves or their peers. There are a few different schools of thought for how to deal with behavior in the classroom. However, in […]
What are my child’s rights: 504 Plan
What are my child’s rights: 504 Plan What Must School Districts Consider at a 504 Meeting? Districts often ask a) what is the student’s mental or physical disability; b) does the student have a medical doctor’s letter to support their disability; c) how, if at all, does the disability impact the student in the educational […]
Do Children Have Rights in Private School?
Do children have rights in private school? Special Needs Children Have Limited Rights in Private School. Public schools (including charter schools) receive federal funding and in exchange for taking that funding, they have to abide by federal laws. One federal law which public schools have to follow is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). The […]
What’s the Difference Between General Ed and Special Ed?
What’s the difference between Special Ed and General Ed? This is a great question which parents are sometimes afraid to ask. The simple answer is that general education is the typical classroom that we think of when we think of school. Special education is more complicated because it has changed over time. Years ago before […]
Get Comp Ed for COVID Learning Loss
Get Comp Ed for COVID Learning Loss What Is “Comp Ed”? Compensatory education is a legal concept that has been around for decades but has had renewed interest during COVID-19. Technically it’s been a legal remedy that may be granted by a judge. Practically, compensatory education is a tool parents should leverage. It can make-up […]
How to Get an IEP Assessment
What is an IEP Assessment? Your Right to an Assessment Federal law (the “IDEA”) gives parents a right to a school IEP evaluation. That right did not change during COVID. Even if your child is in distance learning 100% of the time, they still have a right to be assessed if they have (or may […]
Don’t Let Your School Get Away with Denying an Evaluation to Your Child
Don’t Let your school deny your child an evaluation? Why Get an Evaluation Getting an evaluation is the first step in getting an IEP (an Individual Education Plan). You can not get an IEP without an evaluation. While you don’t need an evaluation to get a 504 Plan, you do need one to be eligible […]
What’s the Difference Between An IEP and A 504 Plan?
WHat’s the difference between an IEP and a 504 Plan? What’s the Difference? Before I get into the guidance, I just want to give you an ultra mini legal course in the difference between a 504 Plan and an IEP. An IEP comes from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) and gives very specific […]
Can that IQ be Right? Autism and IQ
Can This IQ be right? Autism and IQ More and more often I am advocating for children on the autism spectrum who are achieving at or above grade level, but whose IQ scores show them to have below average or even cognitively impaired. The IQ score is supposed to represent a person’s ability to learn, […]
If You Think Your Child Has a Learning Disability, Do these 5 things.
If you think your child has a learning disability, do these 5 things. I am a mother and a special-education advocate, and I have dyslexia. Many parents have confided in me that they had a “hunch” that something was not right with their child. More often than not, a parent’s hunch turns out to be […]
Authority Mag Interview on Education Reform
Authority Magazine Interview with Allison Hertog This interview of Allison Hertog is part of Authority Magazine’s series about the things that should be done to improve the US educational system. Allison Hertog comes to the fields of special education and disability law with a highly unique background. She is one of only a handful of […]
Finally, Some Good News for Gifted and Disabled!
Finally Some Good News for the Gifted and Disabled One of the most challenging and infuriating areas in which I practice is advocating for the gifted and disabled (called “twice exceptional”). I feel particularly passionately about these cases because I fall into the category of twice exceptional. I suffer from multiple learning disabilities. When I […]