South Dakota IEP Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team knows the challenges that parents can face in getting special education services for their child with a disability. We are available across South Dakota, including in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings, Watertown, Mitchell, Yankton, Huron, Pierre, and other South Dakota cities and towns, to help your student get the services, equipment, and accommodations your student needs. We can help you enforce your student's federal disability law IEP rights. Call 888.535.3686 now or complete this contact form to tell us about your student's case.
Qualified IEP Representation Matters
Know that qualified IEP representation can make a difference when school officials refuse to listen to you and ignore your student's IEP rights. Our attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of students across the nation in IEP and other school matters. When we notify your student's school officials that you have retained us on your student's behalf, school officials will sit up and take notice. Our appearance on your behalf will gain you the attention and respect of school officials. We may be able to swiftly obtain or negotiate for the services and accommodations for which you asked simply because school officials will recognize our superior knowledge, skills, and experience in IEP and other education law matters.
Avoid Unqualified IEP Representation
Avoid retaining unqualified legal representation. You wouldn't hire a plumber to paint your house or a painter to wire your electricity. Attorneys tend to practice within fields of law because the law is so abundant and complex, and the practices and procedures differ so widely from field to field. Student disability rights and IEP laws and procedures are a peculiar, niche practice field in which very few lawyers practice. Your local criminal defense attorney, civil litigator, real estate lawyer, or estate planner won't likely have the necessary IEP knowledge, skill, and experience. Hiring an unqualified lawyer may frustrate and alienate your student's IEP officials, leaving you and your student further behind than when you started. Instead, get our qualified representation.
Why South Dakota Schools Fail to Meet IEP Requirements
School officials may assert several reasons for not meeting your student's special education needs. They may, for instance, claim not to have the money to pay for your student's evaluation or for assistive devices and other services and accommodations. However, schools receive substantial federal funding for special education. Your school shouldn't lack the financial resources. And even if it does, money is no excuse for ignoring legal obligations.
School officials should also not claim that they are unaware of appropriate special education services, accommodations, or equipment. Schools often employ specialists in disability services who have the education and training to know what's available and appropriate. School districts also generally offer technical advice and support, as do state agencies. Your student's school officials are more likely just unwilling to take the time and make the effort to do as the law demands. Let us help you remind those officials of their obligation. Our appearance on your student's behalf should get their attention. We can also point them to the technical assistance they may need.
Overcoming South Dakota IEP Frustrations
We understand why you are frustrated and discouraged at the failure or refusal of your student's school to provide appropriate disability services and accommodations. You know that every small or large delay in your student's accommodation can set your student back further. You also know how hard catching up can be. One setback often leads to another. Rather than simply share your frustrations, though, retain our premier attorneys to advocate on your student's behalf. Don't let your student become yet another sad statistic. Act now to keep your student up on academic, social, and other development. Our attorneys know how to sensitively and diplomatically communicate, point school officials to available options and resources, and bring about win-win resolutions that keep your student on track without alienating or disrupting your student's school relationships.
South Dakota School District IEP Representation
South Dakota has 151 school districts supporting 199 high schools across the state. Some of South Dakota's largest school districts include Sioux Falls School District, Rapid City Area School District, Harrisburg School District, Aberdeen School District, and Brandon Valley School District, each with at least four-thousand students up to the more than 24,000 students Sioux Falls School District enrolls. South Dakota enrolls over 138,000 students overall. South Dakota enrolls so many students in such large districts that it does not lack special education funding, services, and expertise. Our attorneys can help you navigate through school, district, and state agency channels to find the right officials and resources to help your student.
South Dakota's Commitment to IEP Implementation
You may be dealing with intransigent local school officials in trying to get your student special education services. But if so, that intransigence works against the South Dakota Department of Education's clear, statewide public commitment to meeting federal mandates for individualized education plans (IEPs). The state's Department of Education forms and funds a Special Education Programs division to ensure that local school districts and schools have appropriate resources and technical assistance. The Special Education Division divides the state into seven regions and designates a state-agency representative for each region to ensure that local school districts get the state support and technical assistance they need. The Special Education Division also holds each school district accountable with tools measuring compliance. We can help you identify allies at the state agency and school district levels in your local fight for your student's IEP services.
South Dakota Department of Education IEP Guidance
The South Dakota Department of Education's Special Education Programs division publishes many handbooks, guidance documents, and other resources to ensure that local schools can follow federally mandated IEP procedures. Those publications include eligibility resources, evaluation resources, technical assistance guides, assessment forms, flowcharts, and other helpful materials. Local school officials have no excuse for not knowing and following IEP procedures to reach appropriate outcomes for special education services. The Special Education Programs division's IEP Technical Assistance Guide is one of those key resources. Let us help you hold local school officials accountable for the IEP process these materials mandate and articulate.
South Dakota Department of Education IEP Eligibility Process
Your student should have had the benefit of a formal IEP eligibility process, ensuring that your student had the best chance to qualify for an IEP and receive appropriate services. Federal law makes the school responsible for identifying disabled students in need of special education. But you can certainly advocate for your student's evaluation as well. Once the school has identified your student as potentially in need of special education, the eligibility process requires the school to notify you so that you can consent to your student's evaluation and otherwise participate. The school should have had a qualified professional evaluate and diagnose your student's disability and recommend services. You should receive and review that evaluation report. If you disagree, you may require the school to pay for a second evaluation, the results of which you may use to advocate for your student's eligibility. We can help you invoke the eligibility process and its procedural protections. We can also help you challenge an adverse determination that your student does not qualify for an IEP or the service your student needs.
South Dakota IEP Adoption
Once your student shows eligibility, your student's school should have constituted a team to develop and adopt the individualized education plan (IEP) for your student. The evaluation report or reports you received should have recommended special education services. However, evaluation reports are not the same as an IEP. The IEP team must meet to develop, negotiate, write, and adopt the IEP. You are the most important member of the IEP team. You should have received notice of the IEP team's meeting so that you could attend. You should have been able to participate in the meeting to advocate for your student's eligibility and for the specific services, equipment, and accommodations your student needs. Let us help if you were not notified of the IEP team meeting, did not get to participate, or disagreed with the IEP the team adopted, leaving your student in need.
South Dakota IEP Implementation
Just because your student's IEP team met and adopted an IEP doesn't mean that your student's school will carry the IEP out to its full and proper effect. The first step once your student's IEP team adopts the IEP is for the team to distribute it to all personnel in the school who need to act to implement it. An IEP isn't meant to simply document your student's disability and the services your student needs to accommodate it. An IEP is instead a working document that should, once distributed, produce the appropriate actions. Don't let your student's IEP be just a piece of paper showing that your student's school went through the motions. Instead, monitor your student's instruction to ensure that your student gets the IEP's services, equipment, and accommodations. And if your student does not, let us help you advocate for the IEP's full and proper implementation.
South Dakota IEP Team Meetings
The IEP team meeting is a critical step in getting your student the special education services your student needs. You should know how to conduct yourself at all IEP team meetings. Don't let school officials wing it, making decisions about your student's special education on the fly. Instead, insist on IEP team meetings if the school does not hold them. Watch for meeting notices, and attend in person, requesting rescheduling if you are unable to do so at the scheduled time. Expect an IEP team meeting at least annually, usually at the beginning of the school year. But advocate for subsequent team meetings whenever conditions change, needing an adjustment to the IEP.
IEP Team Meeting Attendance
When you attend your student's IEP team meetings, participate as an active and valued member of the team. The other IEP team members are educators and specialists. You may be neither. But you are your student's parent, with the best insight and most complete observation of your student. You know your child best. Expect other team members to listen to you and value your information and opinions. Don't be shy. But also respect the observations, insights, and opinions of the other IEP team members. Review all documents the team mentions or shares. Get copies if doing so will help so that you can review documents more carefully later. Ask questions. Answer their questions. Participate actively. It's your best chance to advocate for your student.
IEP Team Meeting Disagreements
You do not have to agree with anything and everything the IEP team says, does, or recommends. IEP team members may ignore you or even disrespect you. Other IEP team members may lack the skills they should possess or may exhibit poor character, resulting in team conflicts. Yet you may still hold to your opinions, especially when you know that they are better for your student than what the IEP team proposes. However, the IEP team may not adopt what you demand, insist upon, approve, or recommend. You may find that compromising is best for your student. But if you disagree, then let us help. You have procedural rights to challenge an IEP with which you disagree. We can help you invoke those rights.
IEP Team Meeting Representation
We may be able to attend an IEP team meeting with you to advocate for your student. Some IEP teams welcome attorney representatives. Our attorneys know how to communicate diplomatically, sensitively, and respectfully with school teachers, staff, leaders, and specialists. We also know how to advocate and negotiate for appropriate services, equipment, accommodations, and relief. Our presence at an IEP team meeting may lead to new, creative, win-win resolutions that help your student achieve the best educational outcomes. If the IEP team does not welcome our attendance, we may nonetheless be able to equip you for a fruitful meeting while notifying the team that you have retained us to enforce your student's IEP rights. Our representation can make a difference. If it does not, we are ready to communicate, negotiate, advocate, and, if necessary, litigate to challenge the IEP team's inadequate conclusions.
IEP Team Members
Federal law confirms that you are a required member of your student's IEP team. The IEP team must also include your student's special education teacher and your student's regular classroom teacher. You may find that the school has a special education coordinator who will also attend or that a principal, assistant principal, or director will attend to coordinate services. Other teachers and specialists may attend from time to time. If you do not find that the right school officials are participating, advocate to get the right personnel on board. Let us help.
Your Student's IEP Team Attendance
Your student also has the right to attend the IEP team meeting under federal law and state guidance. However, your student's attendance will depend on their age, maturity, and disposition. You and your student can make that decision. You may also decide to listen to the advice of school officials. Make the best decision. Your student's presence and participation may help, or the discussion may alarm, distress, and distract your student. You and your student are the judges. Don't let the school exclude or include your student without your consent.
Federal IEP Law South Dakota Schools Must Follow
Parents of special needs students often hear of the federal IDEA law. The IDEA law, the full title of which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, mandates individualized education plans (IEPs) for students with a qualifying disability. Under the IDEA law, schools receiving federal funds must provide students with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). That construct, as broad and vague as it is, nonetheless defines the school's obligation to provide disabled students with specific special education assistive devices and equipment. We can help you enforce your student's IDEA rights.
Qualifying as Disabled for Special Education Services
Unfortunately, for some disabled students, only certain disabilities qualify under the IDEA law. The IDEA law qualifying disabilities include only hearing, speech, vision, or cognition impairments, emotional impairments, orthopedic impairments, autism, and brain injury. However, the IDEA law additionally recognizes “similar health impairments and learning disabilities.” Your student may be able to show something similar affecting your student's learning if your student does not exhibit one of the IDEA law's listed disabilities.
Special Education Services Without a Qualifying Disability
Some schools provide special education services beyond what the IDEA law requires. Your student's school may decide to help your student just because your student is struggling with obstacles that look like they may be disability-related, even if your student's evaluation did not show a qualifying disability. Let your student's school do so if you think the services are helping. Ask your student's school to offer services anyway if your student does not technically qualify for them. Let us help you get another evaluation to prove a qualifying disability if your student does not yet qualify and the school refuses needed accommodations or services.
Other Federal Disability Laws South Dakota Recognizes
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Schools receiving federal funding must also comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA Title II bars a school from discriminating based on disability in student access to programs and facilities. ADA claims often involve students with physical, vision, hearing, or other apparent disabilities, requiring wheelchairs or visual or hearing aids, and building modification or equipment purchases. We can help you advocate for your student's ADA rights.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Schools receiving federal funding must also comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, also barring disability discrimination. If your student does not qualify for special education services under the IDEA law, school officials may offer your student a 504 plan aiding access to school activities. Section 504 does not limit its qualifying disabilities to a specific list. Your student may qualify for a 504 plan even if not having an IDEA-law qualifying disability. We can help you advocate for your student's Section 504 rights.
South Dakota Special Education Laws
South Dakota's legislature has enacted Chapter 13-37 of its Codified Laws, titled Special Assistance and Related Services. The chapter authorizes the South Dakota Department of Education to adopt administrative rules and regulations carrying the state's federal IDEA-law obligations into effect. The chapter further provides for the distribution of federal funds and the raising and distribution of state funds to support special education. We can help you advocate and enforce these laws for your student's benefit.
South Dakota Department of Education Administrative Rules
South Dakota's Department of Education has promulgated its own rules and regulations, compiled at South Dakota Administrative Rules 24:05:01, carrying its special education statutory authority into effect. Those rules provide for a disabled student's eligibility criteria, evaluation, individualized education plan process, and other procedures, helping local schools comply with federal mandates and qualify for federal funding. We can also help you enforce these state regulatory rights for your student's benefit.
South Dakota Rules for IEP Dispute Resolution
South Dakota's Special Assistance and Related Services laws, found in Chapters 13-37 of the state's Codified Laws, authorize the state's Department of Education to adopt a dispute-resolution process for parents who disagree with the school's IEP decisions. The Department of Education has exercised that authority in a set of procedural safeguards appearing in South Dakota Administrative Rules 24:05:30:01 et seq. Those safeguards include your right to request an administrative hearing before an independent decision maker and to appeal that hearing result as necessary. Our attorneys can help you request a hearing, present your student's evidence, challenge the school's evidence, and appeal any adverse decision. We may also be able to help with court review.
Premier IEP Representation Across South Dakota
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings, Watertown, Mitchell, Yankton, Huron, Pierre, and other South Dakota cities and towns to represent your student advocating for IEP rights and disability services. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form.
