The Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area has many fine primary and secondary schools, all the way up to fine colleges and universities. However, those schools don't always provide the education disability services and accommodations that state and federal laws require. If you or your student face an education disability rights issue at your Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area school, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to enforce available education disability rights. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your case in the Spokane Valley area. Get the skilled and experienced representation of our education attorneys to enforce education disability rights.
Spokane-Spokane Valley Demographics
The Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area is on the eastern boundary of the State of Washington, along the state's Idaho border. The Spokane-Spokane Valley area includes the city of Spokane, with a population of about 228,000, and the city of Spokane Valley, with a population of about 107,000. The total population of the Spokane-Spokane Valley area is nearly 600,000, and it has a gross metropolitan product of over $20 billion annually. The combined statistical area of Spokane-Coeur d'Alene has a population of over 734,000. At 38 years of age, the Spokane-Spokane Valley area has a slightly younger population than the national median of 39 years of age. The area has seen significant population growth. Per capita income is just slightly below the national median, while household income is about 90% of the national median. Marriage and fertility rates in the area are at about the national average. Slightly more residents hold high school diplomas than the national average, while somewhat fewer residents hold college degrees than the national average.
Spokane-Spokane Valley Organization
The Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Spokane County along the State of Washington's Idaho border and Stevens County to the north and west of Spokane County. Most of the area's population is in Spokane County and in the city of Spokane and its suburb, Spokane Valley. Other cities of significant size within the Spokane-Spokane Valley area include Airway Heights, Cheney, Fairwood, and Liberty Lake. The two counties of Spokane and Stevens include many other smaller towns and villages, including Country Homes, Fairchild AFB, Mead, Medical Lake, Otis Orchards-East Farms, and Town and Country. Let our skilled and experienced attorneys help you or your student enforce education disability rights in any of these areas within the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Spokane-Spokane Valley Area Schools
Our Student Defense Team is available to serve you in any of the fine school districts spread throughout the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area. Those school districts and schools in the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area include Mead School District, Lakeland School District, Spokane School District, Central Valley School District, West Valley School District, Nine Mile Falls School District, Liberty School District, Freeman School District, Medical Lake School District, Deer Park School District, Reardan-Edwall School District, and Riverside School District. Let us advocate for your disability rights or the rights of your K-12 student in the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area.
Spokane Area Colleges and Universities
Our attorneys can also represent you in education disability rights disputes with your college or university in the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area. Your education disability rights extend beyond K-12 schools to reach and cover the actions of college and university instructors and officials. We can help if you or your student attend any Spokane area college or university, including Gonzaga University, Whitworth University, Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College, Carrington College, and Eastern Washington University.
Disabled Student Rights Under Washington Law
While students ordinarily look to federal law for their education disability rights, Washington state laws may also protect your K-12 student. To qualify for the substantial education disability funding available under federal laws, a state must adopt implementing laws, rules, and regulations. Washington's state legislature has enacted special education laws to accomplish that funding purpose while protecting disabled students. The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction holds the state's schools accountable to those state laws, to ensure continued federal funding. Washington state also extends education disability rights protections to students attending colleges and universities in the state. Washington's state laws guarantee substantive rights while also providing procedural protections if you disagree with the school's determination of education rights.
Washington State Disabled Students Substantive Rights
The education disability rights that Washington's state legislature and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction have guaranteed include all the necessary federal protections to secure substantial federal funding for your disabled K-12 student's benefit. Our attorneys can help you enforce these Washington state laws and regulations:
- ensuring that the local school provides your disabled student with a free appropriate public education under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-01080;
- ensuring that the local school adopts an individualized education plan for your disabled student under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-01100;
- ensuring that the school uses positive behavioral interventions for your disabled student under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-01142;
- ensuring that the school places your disabled student in the least restrictive educational environment under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-02050;
- ensuring that the local school district contracts with special education service providers under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.060;
- providing services for preschool-age students under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.070;
- imposing duties on the school superintendent to ensure special education services under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.090;
- providing for braille instruction and assessment for vision-impaired students under Washington Statute Sections 28A.155.105, 115;
- providing for early assessment of students with potential disabilities, through the curriculum under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.140;
- requiring the school to provide assistive devices and services under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.160;
- ensuring the ability of disabled students to participate in graduation ceremonies under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.170;
- providing assessment, services, and information regarding students with autism under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.190;
- limiting the use of restraints on disabled students and requiring parent notification under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.210; and
- providing high school transition services for disabled students under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.220.
Washington State Procedural Protections for Disabled Students
The procedural protections that Washington's state legislature and Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction have guaranteed you and your student in any dispute with the local school over education disability rights, that our attorneys can help you invoke, include the following:
- your opportunity to examine records relating to your disabled student's special education services under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05000;
- your right as a parent to participate in special education meetings relating to your student under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05001;
- your right to obtain an independent evaluation of your disabled student at school expense under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05005;
- your right to advance notice of any meeting or hearing on your student's special education services under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05015;
- the right to appeal a denial of education disability services under Washington Statute Section 28A.155.080;
- your right to file a complaint with the state agency's dispute resolution bureau under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05025; and
- your right to a due process hearing under Washington Code Regulation 392-172A-05035.
Disabled Student Rights Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
The above State of Washington special education laws and implementing regulations supplement and carry out federal education disability rights, qualifying the Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area schools for substantial federal funding. The primary federal law under which Congress appropriates that funding is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The IDEA law guarantees your public K-12 school student an individualized education program for special education needs. Our attorneys can help you enforce those education disability rights for your K-12 school student in Spokane area schools, under the following federal law constructs.
The IDEA Law's Free Appropriate Public Education
The IDEA law requires that your disabled student's Spokane area public K-12 school provide your student with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). That construct tells you, your student, and the school how far the school must go in providing special education services, which is generally as far as necessary to provide your student with the same education as non-disabled students. That requirement may mean that your student's school must provide assistive technology, devices, and services like optical character readers and note-takers, modified facilities with handicap ramps and bathroom railings, and modified schedules allowing, for instance, for extra exam time or more frequent breaks. We can help you advocate for your student's free, appropriate public education under the federal IDEA law.
The IDEA Law's Least Restrictive Environment Guarantee
The IDEA law also requires your student's Spokane area K-12 public school to teach your student in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Schools once warehoused or isolated disabled students in special classrooms, where those students did not necessarily receive the instruction of non-disabled students and lost the opportunity to socialize and participate in emotional and relational development. The IDEA law ended that practice in favor of requiring schools to instruct disabled students in the regular classroom so far as reasonably possible. We can help you enforce that IDEA law right if you find that the school is unnecessarily segregating your disabled student outside of the regular classroom.
Disabled Student ADA Rights
The IDEA law is not the only federal law protecting you or your student against disability discrimination in school. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is another federal law that applies beyond the IDEA law's K-12 public school reach, all the way up through the college and university level. The ADA is a non-discrimination law, meaning that schools receiving federal funding must generally reasonably accommodate students with disabilities so that they may participate in the same manner as non-disabled students. Let our attorneys help you or your student apply the following ADA provisions in your Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area school.
ADA Qualifying Disabilities
The ADA requires that you or your student show a qualifying disability. The ADA's definition of a disability is “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” A qualifying impairment generally means an inability to accomplish something physical, like sitting, standing, walking, carrying, and moving the hands, or something using the senses like seeing or hearing. A qualifying impairment can also include an inability to accomplish something mentally, like concentration, focus or attention, and cognition. The ADA thus protects against discrimination based on ADD, ADHD, and similar learning disabilities.
ADA Reasonable Accommodations
If you or your student can show a qualifying disability, then the ADA requires your Spokane-Spokane Valley school to reasonably accommodate that disability. Accommodations can include building modifications such as elevators or lifts, ramps, and handrails. Accommodations can also include assistive technology or devices, services, and schedule modifications like those named above under the IDEA law. The school does not have to do everything, only reasonable things. Reasonableness may depend on the cost, availability, and disruptive aspects of the proposed services or alterations. We can help you or your student advocate the reasonableness of needed accommodations.
Education Disability Rights Advocacy
You or your student should not have to fight your Spokane-Spokane Valley school to obtain the above education disability rights services and accommodations. However, disabled students must often advocate with our skilled and experienced help to obtain those rights. Schools generally have substantial federal funding for disability services yet may still complain about cost, time, or trouble. In those instances, we can help by appearing on your behalf, requiring school officials to communicate with us, showing school officials the law, and presenting the evidence and arguments showing your rights or the rights of your student. We can also invoke informal resolution conferences and formal hearings, take appeals of adverse decisions, seek court review, and even seek special alternative relief through oversight channels if you have already lost all hearings and appeals.
Spokane-Spokane Valley Education Disability Rights Attorneys
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in your Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Area to help you or your student advocate education disability rights. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students nationwide with education disability rights disputes and other school issues. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your case.
