Washington, D.C. IEP Representation
Washington, D.C. parents have disabled children needing special education services, just like parents elsewhere. Washington, D.C. parents have the same federal IDEA law rights to those special education services. The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available in the District of Columbia to enforce your disabled student's IEP rights for special education services and accommodations. Retain our qualified, skilled, and experienced legal representation. Call 888.535.3686 now or complete this contact form to tell us about your student's case.
Qualified IEP Representation Matters
Know that our highly qualified IEP legal representation can make a difference in your student getting the IEP special education services your student needs and deserves. You've doubtless done your best. But if your best efforts haven't moved the needle, then you need our help. Don't let your student fall further behind simply because your student's school won't do as the IDEA law requires. Our Education Law Team can appear on your student's behalf, notifying school officials that they must communicate and deal with us and that we intend to enforce your student's federal rights. Our appearance alone may spur appropriate school action. If it does not, then we are ready to gather the evidence to go to bat for your student through the District of Columbia's administrative procedures and, if necessary, into the courts to enforce your student's IEP rights.
Avoid Unqualified IEP Representation
You need our highly qualified representation, not the representation of an unqualified local criminal defense attorney, estate planner, business lawyer, civil litigator, or real estate attorney. Local lawyers don't generally have the knowledge of education laws, skill in academic administrative procedures, and experience in the schools and their administrative forums necessary to enforce your student's IDEA law rights. Unqualified representation can sell your student short. Unqualified representatives may even do more harm than good if they attempt to argue and bully school officials as they might in other legal settings like a business negotiation or cross-examination in court. Our attorneys have the sensibility and diplomacy to work well with education professionals while still being able to enforce your student's rights through administrative channels.
Why District of Columbia Schools Fail in IEP Requirements
Washington, D.C. school officials, like school officials elsewhere, may give parents various excuses for not fulfilling their IDEA law obligations to provide qualifying students with an IEP and its special education services. They sometimes claim they lack the money when, to the contrary, federal funding provides substantial resources. They sometimes claim they lack the expertise when, to the contrary, abundant technical resources are readily available. The more likely reason school officials hesitate or refuse to provide your student with IEP special education services is that they don't want to put in the time and effort services and accommodations can take. School officials have routines, habits, practices, and schedules that make their days convenient and predictable. Accommodating special needs students requires disrupting those routines. But the disruptions are small, considering the school's legal duties and your student's priority needs. We can help overcome the lethargy and resistance of school officials.
Overcoming District of Columbia IEP Frustrations
You, too, need to consider changing your routine. You have probably already expressed your anger and frustration to school officials. You have probably already done everything you can imagine to prod school officials into helping your student with the IEP services and accommodations your student needs. But when your actions haven't produced results for your student, you need to stop blaming yourself or even blaming school officials. You need to get our highly qualified help to invoke the available procedural safeguards that the IDEA law mandates to enforce your student's IEP rights.
District of Columbia's Commitment to IEP Implementation
The District of Columbia Public Schools asserts that it aspires to be a model for special education. To that end, the District of Columbia Public Schools staffs for special-education technical assistance and services. The District of Columbia Public Schools even offer the River Terrace Education Campus as a school devoted to state-of-the-art services and accommodations for special needs students. The District of Columbia also offers referrals to special education in non-public schools. The District of Columbia Public Schools further staffs and offers a Division of Specialized Instruction within the District's Office of Teaching and Learning to ensure that local schools within the District have the technical support to provide special education instruction. The District also staffs special units in assistive technology, audiology, behavior and education support, physical therapy, sensory support, speech-language pathology, and other special education concerns. We can help you identify and advocate with district-level officials for your student's IEP rights and services.
District of Columbia Public Schools IEP Guidance
The District of Columbia Public Schools also offers substantial technical guidance, manuals, abundant workbooks on accommodating specific disabilities, and other instructional-support materials to your student's District school. Your student's school officials should not complain that they don't know what to do or what to offer. Those materials include special education guides, child-find and IEP eligibility guides, and guidebooks for audiology, speech-language therapy, and other specialty concerns. Don't let school officials complain that they lack the knowledge or support. We can help equip your student's school personnel with the contacts, guidance, and resources if a lack of technical support is contributing to your student's disability struggles.
District of Columbia IEP Eligibility Process
To get an IEP and its special education services, your student must generally first go through the school's eligibility process. The IDEA law requires schools to identify students in need of special education. The duty is on the school's part to determine eligibility. The IDEA law requires schools to make affirmative efforts to locate disabled students, known as child find procedures. But you may also advocate for your student to qualify for an IEP. We can help you do so. We can also enforce your student's eligibility rights through the District's administrative procedures. Ensure that your student gets the benefit of the mandated eligibility process. Let us help.
District of Columbia IEP Evaluation Process
Getting the school to consider your student for IEP eligibility is just the first step. The IDEA law also mandates that the school follow an appropriate evaluation process. That process begins with the school's notice to you that the school wishes to refer your student for disability evaluation. Schools don't just pick and choose which students get an IEP based on their own guesses. The IDEA law requires that they use a qualified professional with the education, training, and skill to identify a qualifying disability and recommend appropriate services. The school must have your consent to refer your student for evaluation. You may ask the school about the evaluator's qualifications. If you disagree with the evaluator's report, you may require the school to pay for a second evaluation. We can help you review the school's evaluation report, invoke a second evaluation, and choose that second evaluator to ensure that the evaluator has the right qualifications.
District of Columbia IEP Adoption
The evaluation report is important. It sets the course for your student's IEP process. However, the evaluation report is not the individualized education plan itself. The evaluation report simply informs the IEP team to draft and adopt an appropriate IEP. The IEP team, in other words, must translate and interpret the evaluation report into practical accommodations and services the school will offer your student. The IEP should identify the disability or disabilities that the IEP team accepted that your student exhibits and list the equipment, accommodations, assistive devices, and other services your student will receive in the school. The IEP is, in that sense, significantly more important than the evaluation report. The IEP is your student's legal document to enforce special education service rights. We can help you get your student's school to conduct an IEP team meeting to adopt an appropriate IEP. We can also help you challenge through the procedural safeguards the school's denial of an IEP or adoption of an inadequate IEP that does not provide your student with the needed services.
District of Columbia IEP Implementation
Getting the school to adopt a proper IEP, qualifying your student for special education, and listing the needed services are big steps. However, the IEP is not the last step by any means. The IEP is a legally enforceable document, but the IEP does not carry itself out. The IEP is a paper plan. It does nothing for your student unless school personnel implement it. The IEP team should thus promptly distribute the IEP to all school personnel who will play a significant part in putting the IEP into practice. Those personnel should include your student's regular classroom teachers and special education teachers, the special education coordinator or director and other school staff and leaders, and in some cases other specialists, aides, or education professionals inside and even outside the school. Those personnel should follow the IEP, not ignore or change it. If they disagree with it, they should carry it out anyway, although they may urge the IEP team to modify it at an IEP team meeting. We can help you ensure that your student's school is implementing your student's IEP.
District of Columbia IEP Monitoring
Monitoring the implementation of your student's IEP is also an important activity. Just because the IEP team distributes your student's IEP to appropriate personnel does not mean that those personnel will follow the IEP. You can play a role in monitoring the implementation of the IEP. Ask your student whether teachers, aides, and others are accommodating your student in the way that the plan lists. Use teacher conferences and IEP team meetings to confirm plan implementation. If you discover that personnel are skipping important services and accommodations, request an IEP team meeting to urge that all personnel follow the plan. We can help enforce your student's IEP if school personnel fail or refuse to follow it. The IEP is your legal tool to gain the needed special education services.
District of Columbia IEP Team Meetings
Make the most of your student's IEP team meetings. You can see from the above discussion how important those meetings are to the development, adoption, distribution, implementation, and assessment of your student's IEP. Be sure to attend each IEP team meeting, requesting rescheduling if you cannot. Also, be sure that the school holds an IEP team meeting at the start of every school year. The IDEA law mandates that the IEP team meet at least annually, which is often best done at the beginning of the year. Even if your student has a good IEP already in place, an annual meeting can help ensure its continued implementation.
Conduct at IEP Team Meetings
Attending all IEP team meetings is an important practice. But what you do at those meetings is also important. You should contribute positively and productively, retaining the admiration and respect of the other team members. You may not be an education professional like the other team members, but you are your student's parent and, thus, the most important member of the team. Act accordingly. Don't let others silence, disrespect, or ignore you. Speak up, but also speak diplomatically and respectfully. Listen to others and consider their views. You may disagree while holding to your own views, but don't do so disrespectfully. The IEP team adopts and modifies your student's IEP. You may be the most important team member, but other team members may overrule you. You need to build support for your views. Remain committed to your student, but also be factual, balancing your views.
IEP Team Meeting Disagreements
No one is perfect, not your student, you, or other IEP team members. You may find that members of your student's IEP team disagree sharply and even disrespectfully. Don't let that be you. Keep your composure as far as you are able, even when you need to disagree, and stick to your own views. Don't let other team members disrespect you. But if they do, let that be their problem, not your problem. Don't be surprised if IEP team members appear to lack the knowledge, skill, or character to carry out their roles appropriately. Sometimes, professionals have a bad day or find themselves in the wrong place with the wrong skills. Advocate with the IEP team to get the right people with the right attitude and the right skills in the room. Let us help if IEP team disagreements prevent your student from getting the IEP services your student needs.
IEP Team Meeting Representation
We may be able to help you in IEP team meetings if you are unable to keep them productive and on track for your student's needs. IEP teams have welcomed the attendance of our attorneys. They bring the necessary special knowledge and skills. They can be problem solvers. They can also negotiate appropriate, generative, creative, and workable solutions when the team has been unable to do so. If the IEP team refuses to allow one of our attorneys to attend with you and on your student's behalf, we may still equip you for the next IEP team meeting while monitoring the outcome and invoking procedural safeguards to correct team deficiencies. One way or another, we can help you make the IEP process work for your student.
IEP Team Members
You have a say in who attends your student's IEP team meetings. The IDEA law requires the IEP team to allow you to attend. You are a mandated IEP team member. Your student's main regular classroom teacher and primary special education teacher are also mandated IEP team members. Beyond those members, the school may include special education coordinators, supervisors, or directors in IEP team meetings. A principal, assistant principal, or other school leader may also attend to coordinate services and accommodations and monitor the meeting to ensure that it stays on track while evaluating the performance of team personnel. Your student's IEP team may also invite evaluators, specialists, aides, or others whose observations, insights, or skills may help the team discern what best to do for your student. Help your student's IEP team get the right personnel in the room for each meeting. And let us help you if the school does not do so.
Your Student's IEP Team Attendance
You may also have your student attend IEP team meetings. Your student is another mandated member under the IDEA law. But your student need not attend if you and your student judge it better that your student does not do so. Your student may be too young, immature, or inappropriately disposed. You be the judge. Ask other team members what they think, too. They may prefer that your student not attend if they feel they need to share frank views that might unduly alarm, discourage, or offend your student. But seriously consider including your student. Your student will eventually need to take responsibility for your student's own learning. Including your student in IEP team meetings can be a big step toward doing so.
Federal IEP Law District of Columbia Schools Must Follow
You are very likely familiar with the IDEA acronym. IDEA stands for the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. You have also heard a lot about the other acronym, IEP, which stands for an individualized education program or plan. The IDEA law is the one that requires an IEP for your student if your student has a disability qualifying under the law. The IDEA law mandates that disabled students receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The acronym FAPE, less familiar to parents but generally well known among education professionals, refers to the instruction students should generally receive whether or not they are disabled. The IDEA law ensures that disabled students receive instruction to the same standards as non-disabled students, even if with different services and accommodations. The IDEA law lists assistive devices and equipment schools may have to provide for special education services.
Qualifying as Disabled for Special Education Services
Qualifying for an IEP may not be as easy as it sounds for your student. To qualify, a student must have one of the IDEA law's specific disabilities. The IDEA law lists only emotional or orthopedic impairments, speech or hearing impairments, cognitive or vision impairments, and impairments from autism or injuries to the student's brain. The IDEA law also states that schools must recognize similar health impairments or learning disabilities without defining those broader terms. Let us help with referrals and evaluations to qualify your student for an IEP and special education services if qualifying has been your student's challenge.
Other Federal Disability Laws in the District of Columbia
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are two other federal disability laws with which District of Columbia schools must comply. Both laws bar school discrimination based on disability. The ADA may mandate a building modification and the school's purchase of assistive devices. Schools also adopt 504 plans for accommodations, enabling disabled students to participate in school activities. Let us enforce your student's ADA and Section 504 rights when advocating for IEP services under the IDEA law.
District of Columbia Special Education Rules and Regulations
The District of Columbia's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction lists the laws the District has adopted to provide for special education. The District's special-education laws include a comprehensive set of special-education regulations running to well over one hundred pages. Those regulations do everything from defining the key IEP terms, protocols, and processes, to establishing offices and divisions for technical assistance and distributing funding. We can help you use these District regulations to enforce your student's IEP rights.
District of Columbia Rules for IEP Dispute Resolution
The District of Columbia's comprehensive special-education regulations include the procedural safeguards and due-process procedures that our attorneys can invoke on your student's behalf to enforce your student's IEP rights. We can request and attend a formal administrative hearing at which to present your student's evidence and challenge the evidence and opinions of school staff that are interfering with your student's IDEA law rights. Court review may also be available.
Premier IEP Representation in Washington, D.C.
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available in Washington, D.C., to enforce your student's IEP rights for disability services. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form.
