Parents of Alabama K-12 students with Autism Spectrum Disorder have already embarked on a challenging journey with their students. Getting your student's Alabama K-12 school teachers and officials to provide your student with necessary and appropriate disability accommodations and services shouldn't be your next challenge. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Huntsville, Montgomery, Birmingham, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Hoover, Auburn, Dothan, Madison, Decatur, Florence, Prattville, and other Alabama locations to help you and your student enforce the disability law rights your student has for special needs accommodations and services. We can help in the Mobile County Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, Baldwin County Schools, Sponsored School District, Montgomery County Schools, Huntsville City Schools, Birmingham City Schools, Shelby County Schools, Madison County Schools, Tuscaloosa County Schools, Limestone County Schools, Hoover City Schools, Madison City Schools, Elmore County Schools, and other districts across Alabama. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for premier services for autism spectrum disorder accommodations.
Recognizing Autism Spectrum Disorder
Alabama's public elementary and secondary schools generally recognize their legal obligations under state and federal law to accommodate your autism spectrum disorder student. The Mobile County Public Schools, for instance, expressly assures parents that it will provide special needs students with the mandated special education services. The Jefferson County Schools likewise commits to identifying every student in the district in need of special education services, in order for the district to meet its obligations under federal and state disability rights laws. You have probably seen similar assurances from your student's school regarding your student's disability rights and the school's commitment to providing your student with appropriate special education accommodations and services. But assurances are one thing, while performance is another thing. Get the help of our skilled and experienced attorneys if your student with autism spectrum disorder is not receiving the school's services.
Federal Laws Recognizing and Defining Autism
Federal disability rights laws provide your Alabama K-12 autistic student with strong assurances, and the federal funding to back those assurances, that your student will have an appropriate special needs education.
The IDEA Law and Autism
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makes crystal clear that students with autism spectrum disorder fall within its protections. The IDEA law expressly includes autism as a disability qualifying for educational services, defining autism as a “developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction” in ways that adversely affect your student's education. The IDEA law alerts your school's teachers and other educators to watch for these signs of autism spectrum disorder:
- repetitive activities;
- stereotyped movements;
- resistance to environmental change;
- resistance to change in daily routines;
- severe or unusual responses to sensory stimulation.
ADA Title II and Autism
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also declares federal protection for elementary and secondary school students who have Autism Spectrum Disorder. To qualify for ADA protection, a student must show a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” Your Alabama K-12 student with autism should have no difficulty qualifying for ADA Title II protection under this broad definition. Indeed, Title II regulations declare on their own that “autism substantially limits brain function,” neatly fitting autism within the law's definition for a qualifying disability. Your student's teachers and other school officials shouldn't be arguing with you over your autistic student's federal disability law rights. Let us help you and your student enforce those rights.
Alabama Laws Recognizing and Defining Autism
Alabama recognizes and respects the rights of autistic students and other students with special needs to disability accommodations and services. The Alabama State Department of Education adopted elaborate regulations, compiled in Alabama Administrative Code Sections 29-8-9-.00 et seq., to ensure that the state's elementary and secondary schools comply with the above federal laws. That way, your student's Alabama K-12 school can qualify for substantial federal funding for special needs services and accommodations. Autism is the first qualifying disability those regulations define, at Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.03(1). Alabama's state definition of autism closely tracks the above federal definition. Your autistic student clearly has equivalent Alabama law rights to special education services and school accommodations, to your student's federal law rights. Let us help you and your student enforce those rights so that your student gets the available special education services.
Alabama Programs to Identify Autistic Students
Both the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the corresponding Alabama State Department of Education regulations require your student's Alabama K-12 school to identify autistic students and other disabled students in need of special education. The onus is on the school, not on you or your student. Under Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9.01, your student's Alabama elementary or secondary school should have a child find program for early screening of your child and other disabled students, early intervention, and prompt referral for evaluation of your student's autism-related disability. Yet while the school has an obligation to identify and evaluate your student for special education services, you can also play an important role in ensuring that the school fulfills its child-find obligations. Let us help you advocate for the school to live up to its federal and state responsibilities.
Alabama Duties to Evaluate Autistic Students
Your student's Alabama K-12 school has a substantial obligation not just to find but also to evaluate your student and other students suspected of having autism or other qualifying disabilities. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9.02 captures the evaluation requirements, mandated and funded under the federal IDEA law. Do not worry about the school's ability to afford your student's evaluation for autism. Federal funding covers that evaluation. The school has the obligation and funding to refer your student to a qualified medical and education professional to diagnose your student's autism and recommend special education accommodations and services. The federal and state regulations require not only an initial evaluation but periodic reevaluations to ensure the timeliness of diagnoses and appropriateness of ongoing services and accommodations. The federal and state regulations further require both medical and education evaluations, so that the school's staff understands your student's autism and how to accommodate it with school services.
Your Consent to Alabama Autism Diagnosis Referral
As a responsible parent, you control whether your student should benefit from an Alabama K-12 school referral for autism evaluation. If you have already obtained your student's evaluation, and you and your student do not intend to invoke the school's evaluation, then you may withhold your consent. But if you want the school to move forward with autism accommodations and services, then you may need to consent to your student's examination by appropriate professionals. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9.02 details the consent requirements. You should receive the school's written request for your student's evaluation, and the school must obtain your written consent to move forward with that evaluation. Let us help if your student's Alabama K-12 school is not respecting your federal and state law right to control your student's evaluation through these consent procedures.
Your Consent to Alabama Autism Disability Services
As a responsible parent, you also control whether your student's Alabama elementary or secondary school may provide your student with autism accommodations and services. You and your student may believe that your student can persist without those services, in which event you may withhold your consent, and the school should not be treating your student as a special needs student for accommodations and services. Do not let the school force services and accommodations on your student that your student does not need, which may unduly interfere with your student's motivation, persistence, and school relationships. But if you want those services for your student, you must give the school your permission. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9.04 details the consent requirements your student's Alabama K-12 school should follow to implement autism accommodations and services. We can help if you have consent issues with your student's school.
Second Opinions on Alabama K-12 Autism Diagnoses
Not all evaluations are fair, complete, and accurate. If you disagree with the professional evaluation that the school obtained with your consent of your student's autism diagnosis, then under Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.02(4)(d) you may arrange a second evaluation by a qualified provider of your choice at school expense. Your student may, in other words, get a second opinion. Your student's Alabama K-12 school must then consider the second opinion when deciding whether and how to accommodate your student's autism. Don't overlook the power of a second opinion, especially if you find that the school's evaluator minimized your student's diagnosis or need for services. Evaluators taking frequent referrals from the school may grow biased in their evaluations, favoring the school and minimizing the need for expensive and substantial services and accommodations. Your independent evaluator would not generally share those biases and may be able to counteract and correct a first opinion. Let us help you obtain a second opinion at school expense from a qualified and unbiased provider to advocate for your autistic student's special education.
Scope of Your Autistic Student's Right to Services
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and corresponding Alabama State Department of Education regulations define the scope of your Alabama K-12 autistic student's right to disability accommodations and services. These laws and regulations guarantee your student the right to a free appropriate public education(FAPE). Your student's Alabama K-12 school should be providing your student with an education equivalent to non-disabled students, through autism accommodations and services. The FAPE construct ensures a broad enough scope of services to make your student's education equivalent to non-disabled student education.
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act imposes a similar requirement on your student's Alabama elementary or secondary school, when it prohibits disability discrimination. Title II does not follow the IDEA law's FAPE requirement but instead mandates that your student's Alabama K-12 public school reasonably accommodate your student's autism. Reasonable accommodation may depend on a range of factors from the cost of accommodations or services, to their availability, whether they disrupt the educational program, and how essential they are to your student's academic development. Let us help you advocate these constructs to get your autistic student the accommodations and services your student needs.
Your Student's Right to the Regular Classroom
The above federal and state laws provide your autistic student with another important right and protection. Schools once isolated and even warehoused disabled students in unique rooms outside of the regular classroom, depriving those students of socialization and instruction. The federal IDEA law and corresponding Alabama State Department of Education regulations counteract that practice by requiring that your autistic student's Alabama elementary or secondary school educate your student in the least restrictive environment(LRE). Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.06 details the state law LRE requirements. If you find that your student's Alabama K-12 school is segregating and isolating your student unnecessarily, let us help you enforce these rights for your student to learn in the regular classroom.
Impacts of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Your student's Alabama elementary or secondary school teachers and other school officials may recognize your student's Autism Spectrum Disorder without recognizing the impacts of that disorder on your student's learning. Being attentive to student disabilities and respectful of student special needs rights is one thing. Being skilled at recognizing the impact of those disabilities and the accommodations and services needed to address them is another thing. As the parent of an autistic student, you already appreciate how autism can impair your student's functioning. Your student's teachers and other school officials may not have the same appreciation. Your student's teachers and other school officials should be aware of these potential impacts::
- movement in the classroom, hallways, cafeterias, or other school areas, whether of teachers, staff, or students, or from images projected on classroom screens or shown on computers, can nauseate, distract, or otherwise disturb the autistic student;
- bright light overhead, from windows, from lamps, from projection, or from other sources may blind and upset the autistic student;
- loud or incessant voices of teachers, students, or others in the classroom or about the school premises may upset or distract the autistic student;
- loud or persistent sounds like chalk on a blackboard, scraping of chairs on the floor, tapping on keyboards, hallway hubbub, and playground shouting and screaming may irritate, annoy, or upset the autistic student;
- rough or abrasive sensations from furnishings, writing or eating utensils, working tools, and other equipment and materials may feel to the autistic student like burning or injurious irritation; and
- faces looking directly at the autistic student, whether during instruction, in student interactions, or other settings, may appear confrontational, embarrassing, invasive, or even threatening to the autistic student.
Alabama K-12 School Autism Interventions
Your student's Alabama elementary or secondary school has a wide range of potential interventions to pursue to accommodate your student's autism. Those interventions may be significantly broader, more flexible, and more beneficial than your student's teachers and other school officials appreciate. The Alabama Department of Mental Health, for instance, offers six different forms of intervention for people with autism from age birth to twenty. Don't let your student's teachers and other school officials plead ignorance about the nature, breadth, availability, and effectiveness of those interventions. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.07 authorizes the State Department of Education to provide your student's Alabama K-12 school teachers and support staff with technical assistance training in providing those interventions. Your student may benefit from one of the following forms of interventions or a combination of these interventions, all authorized by the Alabama Department of Mental Health:
- intensive care coordination including an assigned case manager's needs assessment, case planning, service arrangement, reassessment, monitoring, and follow-up;
- therapeutic coaching, training, and mentoring in appropriate behavior, communication, problem solving, conflict management, and peer and adult relationships;
- in-school and at-home therapies to restore and enhance the student's capacity to function in the school environment;
- behavioral support to diminish and extinguish disruptive behaviors while improving compensating behaviors;
- psychoeducational training for the student, family members, and teachers or staff to maintain purposeful engagement;
- peer support programs and training to maximize relational resources for the autistic student.
Your student may also benefit from accommodations changing the instructional setting, changing educational designs and approaches, altering the learning environment, and changing educational materials.
Enforcing Alabama K-12 Autism Disability Rights
If you and your student need to challenge the school's actions or inactions accommodating your student's autism, we can help you invoke the procedural safeguards that the IDEA law and Alabama State Department of Education regulations mandate. Procedural safeguards give us a way of helping you hold your student's Alabama K-12 school teachers and officials accountable to the above laws. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.08 details those procedural protections, consistent with your student's constitutional due process rights. You and your student, for instance, have the right to invoke an administrative hearing challenging the decision of your student's individualized education program (IEP) team to deny your student the services and accommodations your student needs. Let us help you pursue those procedural protections to get your student the necessary help.
Your Autistic Student's Alabama K-12 IEP Team
The above federal laws and Alabama State Department of Education regulations require your student's Alabama K-12 school to form an individualized education program (IEP) team, once the school accepts your student's autism diagnosis and need for special education. Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.05 details your student's IEP team rights. You and your student have the right to be on your student's IEP team. Your student's regular classroom teacher and the school's disability accommodations officer should also be on the IEP team, along with other appropriate school officials as the team may discern. The school must notify you of IEP team meetings and must hold an IEP team meeting at the beginning of each school year and any time the school intends to modify your student's IEP. The team must write and approve an IEP, with your input. The regulations further detail your right to review and challenge the IEP if you disagree with the team's decision or implementation. Let us help you with IEP team disputes.
Your Autistic Student's Alabama K-12 IEP Contents
The federal IDEA law and corresponding Alabama State Department of Education regulations also provide for what your Alabama K-12 student's IEP team must include in the plan. Your student's IEP team should be following the state's template for a suitably detailed and comprehensive IEP, consistent with Alabama Administrative Code Section 290-8-9-.05. Those contents should include a statement of your student's diagnosis, need for accommodations and services, measurable educational goals for the year, progress toward meeting those educational goals, and the specific services and accommodations that will help your student reach those goals. The IEP should also include the manner in which the team will periodically assess how your student is doing under the plan, so that the team can modify the plan with your involvement as necessary. The IEP is the crucial mechanism to enforcing your student's federal law and Alabama state regulatory rights.
Premier Alabama K-12 Autism Attorneys
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Alabama to effectively and strategically advocate for your Alabama K-12 autistic student's special education rights. Don't go it alone without the help your autistic student needs. Academic administrative procedures can be mystifyingly complex. And do not rely on an unqualified local criminal defense attorney or other unqualified counsel. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students nationwide gain the disability accommodations and services they need and deserve, and otherwise resolve other school disputes favorably on their behalf. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your autistic student's Alabama K-12 school matter.
