Your Kansas elementary or secondary school autistic student faces special challenges, just as you face challenges if you are on the autism spectrum while attending a Kansas college or university. Federal and Kansas laws, though, promise K-12 special education services and reasonable accommodation of disabilities at the higher education level. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Topeka, Lawrence, Shawnee, Lenexa, Manhattan, Salina, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Leawood, Garden City, or any other Kansas location to represent you or your K-12 student in obtaining autism educational services and accommodations.
Our attorneys can represent your Kansas K-12 autistic student in the Pleasanton School District, St. John-Hudson School District, Ellis School District, North Lyon County School District, Spearville School District, Waconda Unified School District, Canton-Galva School District, Lincoln School District, Onaga-Havensville-Wheaton School District, Troy Public Schools, Udall School District, Quinter Public Schools, Comanche County School District, or any other Kansas school district. We can also help if you are an autistic student in need of reasonable accommodation from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Emporia State University, Wichita State University, or any other Kansas institution of higher education. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now.
Autism's Educational Challenge
It is not hard to see why autism presents students with special challenges in engaging and completing an educational program. Autism involves communication deficits when communication is the keystone of the academic environment. Autism can also involve interaction deficits when the academic environment involves frequent or even constant close interaction. Autism tends to involve adverse reactions to stimuli change when the academic environment can involve frequent substantial stimuli change. Autism can involve repetitive stereotypic movements that can distract other students and disrupt the academic environment. Autism is also a hidden condition that school officials cannot generally see affecting the student's learning. Autism is the perfect storm for interfering with learning, making all the more important its reasonable accommodation and sound address through special education services. Let us help you overcome autism's challenge.
Kansas Autism Assistance Programs
Kansas agencies and educators recognize the challenges that autism presents to students and their parents and families. Kansas thus offers substantial autism assistance programs. The University of Kansas maintains the Kansas Center for Autism Research & Training to help equip autism sufferers and those who care for and serve them. The Kansas Department for Aging & Disability Services offers an Autism Waiver Program to help fund evaluation, resources, and training to relieve autism sufferers. Skilled providers like Autism Services of Kansas offer expert applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other training and intervention to help equip schools, teachers, aides, parents, and students to fight the effects of autism. Your autistic student's Kansas K-12 school teachers and officials should not complain that they lack technical knowledge and training to help your student. Let us help you obtain and deploy these resources to ensure that your student's Kansas K-12 school has what it needs to provide appropriate special education services.
Federal Laws Promising Kansas Autism Services
The Kansas Department of Education professes a strong commitment to complying with the comprehensive federal laws, rules, and regulations for special education services. That commitment is not only morally appropriate but also financially sound. By following federal special education laws and guidelines, Kansas qualifies its K-12 schools for substantial federal funding of special education services. Federal funds likely pay for the special education services from which your autistic student has already benefited. As the Kansas Department of Education acknowledges, Kansas laws only expand on the fundamental framework of the following federal special education laws.
The IDEA Law and Autism in Kansas K-12 Schools
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA law, is the primary law affording Kansas autistic K-12 students with federally funded special education services. The IDEA law is the federal legislation that requires your autistic student's Kansas K-12 school to provide an individualized education program or plan (IEP) for your student. Your autistic student should have an IEP if your student is receiving special education services. While the IDEA law promises special education services for other disabilities, the IDEA law's Section 300.8(c)(1)(i) expressly includes autism as a disability qualifying for special education services. The IDEA law defines autism in the way that the medical profession generally defines it, by the symptoms the autistic individual typically exhibits by age three. Those symptoms include adverse reactions to changing stimuli, stereotyped movements, and communication or interaction deficits, including resistance to face-to-face encounters. We can help if your autistic student's school is resisting qualifying your student for special education services the IDEA law funds. The IDEA law applies only at the K-12 level, not to higher education.
ADA Title II and Autism in Kansas Schools
The IDEA law is not the only federal law promising disability rights in Kansas K-12 education. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies broadly not just to employment and places of public accommodation but also to education. The ADA is an anti-discrimination law. Kansas schools at all levels must avoid discriminating against students with a qualifying disability and must instead reasonably accommodate those disabilities. Like the IDEA law, the ADA expressly defines autism to be a qualifying mental impairment, so long as the autism is severe enough to substantially limit the student's major life activity of brain function. Of course, autism readily does affect brain function and can impair it substantially. Let us help enforce your ADA rights at the college or university level or help your student rely on the ADA and IDEA law at the K-12 level.
Kansas State Laws on Autism Services
The Kansas state legislature adopted the Kansas Special Education for Exceptional Children Act to carry out and expand on the federal IDEA law, ensuring that Kansas K-12 students benefit from the substantial federal funding for special education services. The Kansas Special Education Act further authorized the Kansas Department of Education to promulgate special education regulations detailing the requirements local K-12 schools must follow. Together, the Kansas statutes and regulations repeat every substantial requirement of the federal IDEA law, including the following specific provisions and regulations available here in comprehensive format:
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-7 requires Kansas public K-12 schools to implement a child find program to identify students with a disability affecting their education;
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-8 requires Kansas public K-12 schools to refer and pay for an evaluation of a student with a suspected disability;
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-2 requires Kansas public K-12 schools to provide disabled students with a free appropriate public education (FAPE);
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-16 requires Kansas K-12 schools to implement an individualized education plan (IEP) for disabled students;
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-1(ll) requires Kansas K-12 schools to educate disabled students in the least restrictive environment; and
- Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-26(d) requires Kansas K-12 schools to follow procedural safeguards in special education disputes.
Kansas K-12 School Child Find Duty
The IDEA law's child find mandate is the first powerful tool in your arsenal to obtain special education services for your Kansas K-12 student. The IDEA law's Section 300.111 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-7 require the school to implement a child find program. A Child Find program trains and equips teachers and other school officials to identify students who may have a disability interfering with their education. The IDEA law and the corresponding Kansas regulation thus put the burden on the school to identify your student as autistic. While you may, of course, tell school teachers and officials that your student is autistic, your failure to do so or failure to tell the right school official is no defense for the school's inaction. The school has the responsibility to identify disabled children because the school's teachers and other officials are in a position to observe your child's learning. Don't let your student's school teachers and officials wait for you to demand autism evaluation and services. We can help you enforce the school's child find obligations.
Kansas K-12 School Duty to Evaluate Autism
Your student's Kansas K-12 school must also refer your student for autism evaluation once it identifies your student as potentially in need of special education services. Of course, you may already have had your child diagnosed as autistic by skilled professionals. But those professionals may not have recommended specific special education services for your student at your student's current level. You need not bear the cost of obtaining a new evaluation. The IDEA law's Section 300.304 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-8 require the school to refer and pay for evaluation. Remember that the school has federal funds to do so. Do not let the school cry poverty. The school's evaluator should complete a report in the required evaluation form, including your student's autism diagnosis and the recommended special education services. Obtain, read, and rely on the school's evaluation report. It is another good tool in your arsenal. We can help enforce your student's evaluation rights.
Parental Consent to Kansas Autism Evaluation
You need not require your Kansas K-12 autistic student to submit to the school's autism or other disability evaluation. The choice of whether to have your student evaluated for a disability is your choice, not the school's choice. The school may recommend and request an evaluation but must not force your student into an evaluation. The IDEA law's Section 300.300 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-7(c)(3) require parental consent for evaluation. Why would you refuse to consent to your student's autism evaluation? You might not respect the school's chosen evaluator, you might find the time and place of the evaluation to be inconvenient and burdensome, or you may find the conditions of the evaluation to be burdensome for your student. You may also prefer that your student not have the school identify your student as disabled. Your ability to withhold consent may give you the leverage you need to obtain your preferred evaluator or preferred time, place, and conditions of evaluation. Let us help you resolve evaluation disputes with the school.
Kansas K-12 Autism Second Opinions
You are not stuck with your student's first evaluation if you disagree with the evaluator's diagnosis or recommended special education services. You may obtain a reevaluation of your Kansas K-12 autistic student by an evaluator of your choice at school expense. The IDEA law's Section 1414 grants the parent of an autistic student or student with another disability the right to a reevaluation. You may have a good reason for not trusting, valuing, or respecting the first evaluator's opinion. The evaluator may have misdiagnosed your student, made inadequate service recommendations, or exhibited bias or a conflict of interest against your student. The initial evaluation may have left your student without needed special education services. Your student's autism may also have changed, or your student's need for special education may also have changed since the initial evaluation. The school may also propose to end or change services when a reevaluation would contradict the school's proposed action. Whatever your reason, we can help you obtain your student's reevaluation to improve or preserve your student's special education services.
Parental Consent to Kansas Autism Services
You also have the right to grant or withhold your consent to the special education services that the Kansas K-12 school recommends for your autistic student. The IDEA law's Section 300.300 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-16 require parental consent for special education services. You may have any number of good reasons for your student not to receive special education services including that your student is doing fine without them and that the services might interfere with your student's motivation, embarrass, or isolate your student, or adversely affect your student's reputation. Your right to withhold consent may also help you obtain different and better services for your student than the school offers. Let us help you strategically deploy your consent rights for your student's best outcome.
Scope of Kansas Autistic Student Services
The IDEA law's Section 1401(9) and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-2 require your autistic student's Kansas public K-12 schools to provide free appropriate public education (FAPE) to your student, notwithstanding your student's autism. The FAPE requirement levels the playing field for your autistic student, ensuring that your student gets an education equivalent to that of non-disabled students. If the question instead involves your right under Title II of the ADA to have your Kansas college or university's reasonable accommodation of your own autism disability, then the ADA offers its own enforcement mechanism. In other words, the ADA's anti-discrimination provision works in a somewhat similar fashion to the IDEA law's FAPE requirement, leveling the playing field for autistic students in higher education. We can help you gain reasonable accommodation in your higher education program or help your K-12 student obtain a free appropriate education.
Limitations on Kansas Autistic Student Services
Special education services and reasonable accommodations for autism and other disabilities are not unlimited. You may not get everything you demand for yourself or your Kansas K-12 student. In general, the services or accommodations must be reasonably affordable, reasonably available, and reasonably non-disruptive. They must also be reasonably related and effective in relieving autism. Your Kansas college or university or your student's Kansas K-12 school may claim that the demanded services or accommodations are unreasonable. Let us help advocate and negotiate on your behalf and invoke the disability laws' procedural safeguards to resolve disputes most favorably.
Available Kansas Autistic Student Services
While you may not get everything you demand for yourself or your student, you may nonetheless get a wide range of accommodations and special education services. You may find that the school is willing to modify classroom lighting, sound, furnishings, and movement, relieve you or your student from seating requirements or movement restrictions, and modify schedules to allow you or your student to take necessary breaks. You may find the school willing to provide note takers, readers, and assistive devices or equipment, and allow you or your student to use special eyewear, hearing protection, or fidget devices. The school may have to modify instructional materials and institute a behavior modification plan with a system of rewards for your K-12 student. Social supports, including peer modeling and mentoring and adult coaching and mentoring, provide other options. The tools and services can be many and varied, depending on which instructional, behavioral, psychological, environmental, or other approach works best for you or your K-12 student. We can help you advocate, negotiate, and invoke procedural safeguards for the appropriate services and accommodations.
Your Autistic Student's Kansas K-12 IEP
The individualized education program or plan (IEP) is the key tool that the IDEA law authorizes to improve your autistic K-12 student's education. Your student's IEP is a legal document that we can help you enforce through school and district procedures, agency procedures, and the courts if necessary. Thus, treat your Kansas K-12 student's IEP process seriously, with the attention and participation it deserves. And require the school to treat you seriously. You have the right to attend and participate in all your K-12 student's IEP committee or team meetings. The IDEA law's Section 300.321 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-17 require the school to notify you of your student's IEP team meetings and ensure that you are a member of the IEP team. Let us help you enforce your student's IEP team rights.
Kansas K-12 IEP Goals and Measures
One of the most significant provisions of the IDEA law is its requirement that your student's IEP include academic and behavioral goals and objective measures for those goals. Without goals, you, your student, and your student's teachers may not know whether your student's IEP is working in the way that it should. Measurable goals also help your student's IEP team plan for special education services that will actually make a difference to your autistic student's education. The IDEA law's Section 300.320 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-18 are the specific provisions that require the school to include written academic goals and measures in your K-12 student's IEP. Let us help you ensure that your student's IEP includes goals, that those goals are measurable, and that the school is regularly measuring your student's progress toward those goals with appropriate adjustments to your student's IEP.
Warehousing Kansas K-12 Autistic Students
Warehousing of autistic students and students with other disabilities was a traditional concern for the parents of those students. Before Congress enacted the IDEA law, schools routinely isolated autistic students to reduce classroom disruption and save on the costs of providing modified instruction, modified facilities, or other special education to the isolated autistic student. Naturally, those isolated autistic students lost peer support, social interaction, classroom rewards and motivation, and structured classroom instruction. Warehousing can destroy an autistic student's education.
Mainstreaming Kansas K-12 Autistic Students
Congress addressed the warehousing issue in the IDEA law by including a mainstreaming provision. Mainstreaming is the opposite practice of pushing autistic students and students with other disabilities back into the regular classroom, with appropriate services and accommodations to make their presence fruitful for the disabled student and non-disruptive for other students. The IDEA law's Section 300.114 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-1(ll) require your autistic student's K-12 school to educate your student in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Refusing needed special education services in favor of isolating your autistic student is no longer a viable option. Let us help you enforce your student's LRE rights.
Premier Kansas Autism Rights Enforcement
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Kansas to enforce the procedural safeguardscodified in the IDEA law's Section 300.504 and Kansas Administrative Code 91-40-26(d) for your Kansas K-12 autistic student's benefit. We can also help you invoke those safeguards or equivalent procedures at your Kansas institution of higher education if your issue involves your own autism. If you have already lost all hearings and appeals, we may still be able to obtain alternative special relief through a general counsel's office. We have helped hundreds of students across Kansas and the nation in enforcing disability rights and resolving other school issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your issues involving autism spectrum disorder.
