Qualified Delaware IEP Representation
Parents can face severe challenges helping their students with disabilities through the individualized education plan (IEP) process. The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available across Delaware, including in Wilmington, Dover, Newark, Middletown, Bear, Glasgow, Brookside, Hockessin, Smyrna, and other Delaware cities and towns, to help your elementary or secondary school student get the special education services and accommodations your student needs. Our attorneys are available to enforce the federal and state IEP laws, rules, and regulations. Call 888.535.3686 now or complete this contact form to tell us about your student's case.
Qualified IEP Representation Matters
You have probably experienced the frustration, annoyance, and outright discouragement of trying unsuccessfully to get your disabled student the special education services your student needs and deserves. School officials often try hard to serve special-needs students. Sometimes, though, school officials do not do as they should. Some school officials simply do not recognize that they have federal and state law obligations to include you in the IEP process and provide the services your student needs. Other school officials know their obligations but don't believe that you can make them fulfill them.
When school officials aren't listening to you and aren't serving your student, our premier attorney representation can make an immediate difference. The moment we notify your student's school that we are representing you and your student in your student's IEP matters, school officials typically take swift action. They certainly listen to our advocacy while respecting our skills, experience, and reputation. We can help you through IEP team meetings, advocating, and negotiating for needed services and accommodations. We can also invoke school district and state dispute resolution procedures and, if necessary, even litigate for your student's disability rights. Qualified representation matters.
Avoid Unqualified IEP Representation
Don't retain unqualified local counsel. Unqualified legal representation may do more harm than good. School administrative matters differ markedly from the court and business matters most attorneys practice. If you hire a local estate lawyer, criminal defense attorney, or civil litigator who does not know school law, customs, conventions, and procedures, your unqualified representative may offend school officials while overlooking ready opportunities to resolve your student's matter swiftly, diplomatically, and favorably. If your student's matter requires invoking academic administrative procedures and state agency procedures, unqualified counsel won't know the rules, regulations, and conventions. Avoid unqualified IEP representation. Instead, get our help.
Why Schools Fail to Meet IEP Requirements
You and your student face natural obstacles trying to get the special education services your student needs. The obstacle shouldn't be money. Your student's school probably qualifies for and receives substantial federal funding for disability services. School officials should not generally be complaining that the school cannot afford the services your student needs. They may not want to spend the money, but they should have the money. Whether they have the money readily available or not, they owe your student the obligations federal and state laws impose.
Your obstacle shouldn't be that school officials don't know how to serve your disabled student. The school should have qualified specialists who know the services, equipment, and accommodations. If the school doesn't have the specialists on hand, the school district should have them available, and the state will also have technical assistance available. Your obstacle more likely has to do with convincing school officials, from teachers to specialists to staff and administrators, to take the time, make the effort, and go to the trouble of accommodating your student's disability. Sometimes, they just need a wake-up call. Our attorneys can give them that wake-up call, firmly and diplomatically, in ways that prove fruitful for your student.
Overcoming Delaware IEP Frustrations
Make no mistake: the lack of accommodations and services can delay your student's academic, social, and other development in school. Every delay can set your student further back when catching up can be very hard to do. You know the impact of delays on your student. You know the frustration of seeing your student fall behind. Don't take it solely upon yourself to overcome those frustrations. You may have already tried everything you know how to do. Further uninformed and ineffective advocacy may simply harden the school's position. Instead, reach out to us now for our skilled and experienced help. You and your student have so much at stake. Our premier Education Law Team can communicate, advocate, and negotiate for your student with you and on your behalf. We can research, write, appear, generate creative options, locate resources, and generally convince school officials of their ability and obligation to provide for your student's special needs.
Delaware School District IEP Representation
Delaware has nineteen traditional school districts plus an additional twenty-five public charter schools. Delaware's school districts include Capital School District, Milford School District, Smyrna School District, Cape Henlopen School District, Seaford School District, Indian River School District, Christina School District, Caesar Rodney School District, Lake Forest School District, Colonial School District, Polytech School District, Brandywine School District, Delmar School District, Woodbridge School District, and Laurel School District. Large high schools include Newark Charter School, William Penn High School, Caesar Rodney High School, Odyssey Charter School, Sussex Central High School, Dover High School, and Smyrna High School. These and other Delaware high schools and school districts are generally large and sophisticated enough to have the special education personnel and resources your student needs. We can help you find the right school officials at the school, school district, or state agency level.
Delaware's Commitment to IEP Implementation
Delaware's Department of Education maintains a public commitment to serving special-needs students through the IEP process. The Department of Education provides technical assistance and resources to school districts and to teachers, specialists, and administrators within the local schools to ensure that the state's schools qualify for substantial federal funding for special education. Delaware's Department of Education formed and funded its Office of Exceptional Children to coordinate special education with the support and guidance of the federal Office of Special Education Programs. The Department of Education has also formed and funded an Autism Educational Task Force, Exceptional Children Resources Workgroup, and other committees and advisory boards addressing special education. We can help you invoke the authority of state-level officials to ensure that your student's school district and school are serving your student appropriately.
Delaware Department of Education IEP Guidance
Delaware's Department of Education, through its Office of Exceptional Children, publishes several protocols and guidance documents to ensure that local school officials are following mandated IEP procedures. The Department also publishes a lengthy Special Education Handbook summarizing IEP laws, rules, and procedures. Those guides instruct local school officials on how to identify students with special needs, notify parents of that identification, gain parent consent for evaluation, refer for evaluation, form the IEP team, conduct IEP team meetings, identify available accommodations and services, and implement and assess IEPs. We can help ensure that your local school officials are following the state guidance in carrying out the federally mandated IEP procedures.
Delaware Department of Education IEP Eligibility Process
Your student's IEP process should have begun with the school's determination of your student's eligibility for special education. The school should have made you an integral part of that process, beginning with notifying you that the school has identified potential needs for special education. The school should have requested your consent to refer your student for evaluation by a qualified professional. That professional should have produced a written report that the school should have shared with you. If you disagree with an evaluation, you have the federal law right to request another evaluation at the school's expense. You may then use the second evaluation to advocate for your student's eligibility or for different or additional services and accommodations. The IEP eligibility process is your stepping stone to success. We can help you invoke your student's eligibility process rights.
Delaware IEP Adoption
Eligibility, though, is just a first step in the IEP process. You may have fully agreed with the professional's evaluation of your student, diagnosis of your student's disability, and recommendation of special education. However, the evaluation is not the IEP. The evaluation simply informs the IEP team as to what to include in the IEP. The IEP team, of which you are the most important member, writes and adopts your student's IEP. Participate in that process. Watch for the school's notice of the first IEP team meeting and every subsequent IEP team meeting. Attend all IEP team meetings. Once there, put in your two cents and more. Make sure that the IEP team knows what you believe is best for your student. Approve the IEP only if you believe it is in your student's best interests. If the IEP team adopts a plan that you believe does not fulfill the school's obligation to your student, get our help to advocate for a revised plan.
Delaware IEP Implementation
IEPs are not self-executing. Just because your student's IEP team adopted a plan, with your input, help, and approval, does not mean that the school will carry out the plan. The IEP team must distribute the plan to all teachers, specialists, staff, directors, and leaders whose action the plan requires. Those individuals then need to do as the plan directs. They are not to ignore, reject, or revise the IEP's terms and provisions. If they disagree with the IEP, they may certainly raise issues with the IEP team. However, it is up to the IEP team to modify the plan. Otherwise, school staff and officials should be implementing your student's IEP. If they are not doing so, and your student is suffering setbacks as a consequence, take up the issue with the IEP team. Get our help if the IEP team does not respond appropriately.
Delaware IEP Team Meetings
Your conduct at an IEP team meeting may go a long way to getting your student the help your student needs. Take these steps to make the most of each IEP team meeting. First, make sure the IEP team meets. If you do not receive notice of an IEP team meeting, ask the school to call a meeting. Federal and state laws, rules, and regulations generally require IEP team meetings at least annually. But they should generally occur more often, every time your student encounters a new issue involving special education.
IEP Team Meeting Attendance
Attend each IEP team meeting. Treat other IEP team members respectfully. But don't let them talk down to you or ignore your input. Keep in mind that you are the team's most important member because of your parental devotion to, and parental knowledge of, your student. Ask to review every document the IEP team shares or mentions. Get copies for later review if necessary. Listen to other team members. Question them as necessary. Share your thoughts, insights, information, opinions, and objections. Communicate, negotiate, and advocate for your student to the best of your abilities. You are not a fly on the wall, simply to observe. You should be an active and respected participant.
IEP Team Meeting Disputes
You may soon learn that your student's IEP team is not notifying you, including you, involving you, listening to you, and respecting and accommodating your views. Parents of special-needs students can find that they have substantial disagreements with IEP team members. Some IEP team members won't respect a parent. Other IEP team members may not have the skills, experience, or dedication their position requires. Personality conflicts can arise. Some IEP teams simply operate poorly for a variety of reasons, including differing skills, experience, devotion, commitment, and attitudes.
IEP Team Meeting Representation
If you find that you are unable to advocate for your student effectively at IEP team meetings, retain our premier attorneys to assist you. Some IEP teams will welcome our participation at a special IEP team meeting to address and resolve disputes. We may be able to attend the IEP team meeting with you or on your behalf as your student's advocate. If so, our presence will often gain the immediate or prompt respect, attention, and accommodation of team members. IEP teams know that legal representation may mean legal enforcement if they do not do as federal and state laws, rules, and regulations require. If your student's IEP team does not permit us to attend, we can still notify the school of your representation, which alone may convince the IEP team to listen to and accommodate your concerns. We can also help you prepare for the meeting and can then follow up with communications, negotiation, advocacy, and enforcement as necessary.
IEP Team Members
Keep in mind that federal and state law mandates that your student's IEP team include certain members. You are the primary member of your student's IEP team. You have the right to attend IEP team meetings. Your student is also an IEP team member, as are your student's regular classroom teacher and special education teacher. The school may also prefer that its special education director or coordinator or another school leader, including a principal or assistant principal, also attend to coordinate services.
Student IEP Team Attendance
While your student has the right to attend an IEP team meeting along with you, you and your student may decide that your student's attendance is unwise, unhelpful, or unnecessary. Your decision may, of course, depend on your student's age. Younger students in lower grades often do not attend. Students in middle school or high school are more likely to attend. But that's for you and your student to decide. Think carefully of the effect on your student and on the IEP team's deliberations of your student's attendance, and make your best judgment. The IEP team's other members may help advise you on your decision.
Federal Laws Delaware Schools Follow
You may have heard of the federal IDEA law, the full title of which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The IDEA law mandates individualized education plans (IEPs) for those students who can show a qualifying disability. Congress used its spending power to adopt the IDEA law, which thus applies to public and private schools that receive federal funding. Nearly all such schools do because of the substantial federal funds available for special education. If your student's school receives federal funds for special education, it must provide your student and all other students with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The FAPE concept underscores a school's obligation to provide disabled students with the same kind of access to instruction as the school provides to non-disabled students. The IDEA law also identifies the special education assistive devices and equipment a school must provide. Let us help you enforce your student's IDEA law rights.
Qualifying as Disabled for Special Education Services
Surprising as it may seem, only some disabilities qualify for special education services under the IDEA law. Your student must have one or more of the listed disabilities listed in IDEA law to qualify for an IEP and its special education services. Those qualifying disabilities include only hearing, speech, vision, or cognition impairments, emotional impairments, orthopedic impairments, autism, and brain injury. Fortunately, though, the IDEA law also permits “similar health impairments and learning disabilities” to those just listed to qualify for IEP services. If your student doesn't have one of the specific disabilities the IDEA law lists, we may be able to help you show that your student qualifies under a similar impairment or disability.
Special Education Services Without a Qualifying Disability
Your student's school may go ahead and provide special education services on its own, voluntarily, even if the IDEA law does not apply because your student lacks a qualifying disability. Nothing prevents a school from doing so other than the cost, time, and effort. You may still advocate for services, even if you know your student does not qualify. The school may agree to provide those services. If your student lacks an evaluation showing a qualifying disability, then we may be able to help you request and obtain a reevaluation by another qualified professional, showing that your student does have a qualifying disability.
Other Federal Disability Laws Delaware Schools Recognize
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is another disability-rights law with which schools receiving federal funds must comply. The ADA's Title II prohibits disability discrimination in schools. Schools receiving federal funding must not discriminate against your student based on your student's disability. Your student should have equal educational access, notwithstanding your student's disability. The ADA may, for instance, require building modification, equipment purchase, or other services for the wheelchair-bound, visually impaired, or hearing impaired. Let us help you pursue your student's federal ADA rights.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 likewise bars disability discrimination in school programs. Section 504 is an older disability law at the forefront of disability accommodations. School officials often offer a 504 plan to students needing help to access school activities. Unlike the IDEA law, Section 504 does not limit the disabilities for which it requires accommodations. Your student's Section 504 rights are broader than IDEA law rights. Let us help you pursue your student's Section 504 rights.
Delaware Special Education Laws
Delaware's legislature has adopted several laws under a code chapter titled Exceptional Children, carrying out its federal obligations and own commitment to special education funding and services. Those laws authorize the Delaware Department of Education to adopt administrative rules specifying the measures school districts and schools must take to fulfill their state and federal special education obligations. Let us help you advocate these laws on your student's behalf for needed special education services.
Delaware Department of Education IEP Administrative Rules
Delaware's Department of Education carried out its legislative authority regarding special education by adopting detailed rules and regulations. Those administrative rules repeat and elaborate definitions for qualifying disabilities, special education services, assistive devices, transition services, free appropriate public education, and other key constructs. The rules also confirm the IEP process. Administrative rules can provide the details necessary for our attorneys to enforce your student's specific rights for needed special education services.
Delaware Laws and Rules for IEP Dispute Resolution
Delaware's legislature included in its special education laws a dispute-resolution procedure that provides you and your student with due process, including a formal hearing and appeal to the school board if necessary. That same legislative enactment authorizes the Department of Education to confirm and elaborate the fair procedure to challenge a school's denial of special education. Our attorneys can invoke these administrative procedures on your student's behalf, appearing at the hearing to present your student's evidence. We can also appeal to the board and even seek court review as necessary and appropriate.
Premier IEP Representation Across Delaware
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available in Wilmington, Dover, Newark, Middletown, Bear, Glasgow, Brookside, Hockessin, Smyrna, and other Delaware cities and towns to represent your student in disputes over IEP rights and disability services. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form.
