The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available to help you and your Louisiana K-12 student get the mandated autism special education accommodations and services. We are available in New Orleans, Lafayette, Metairie, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Kenner, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Prairieville, Houma, Marrero, Central, and across Louisiana. We can represent your student in the Jefferson Parish Schools, East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools, St. Tammany Parish Public Schools, Caddo Parish Public Schools, Lafayette Parish Public Schools, Calcasieu Parish Public Schools, Livingston Parish Public Schools, Ascension Parish Public Schools, Bossier Parish Public Schools, Rapides Parish Public Schools, Tangipahoa Parish Public Schools, Ouachita Parish Public Schools, and other Louisiana districts. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for the skilled and experienced representation your autistic student needs.
Autism's Parental Challenge
You already know that autism spectrum disorder can seriously interfere with your student's Louisiana K-12 school education. You may also be discovering that your student's teachers and other school officials are not as aware of the adverse impacts of autism on your student's learning as those school personnel could and should be. You may have had school personnel express strong sympathy for your student's autistic condition. But your student needs more than sympathy. Your student may need sensitive and effective autism interventions, accommodations, and services. Because autism is a mental and cognitive impairment, its impacts can be hidden from the view of teachers and school officials, making your student look like your student is misbehaving rather than dealing with autism's profound effects. You have a big challenge before you in getting your student the autism special education accommodations and services your student needs. Let us help you meet that challenge.
Autism in Louisiana K-12 Schools
Your autistic student's Louisiana elementary or secondary school and district likely express strong commitments to serving your student in an inclusive manner, with all appropriate disability accommodations and services. You may have read or heard of the school district's commitment. The Jefferson Parish Schools special education unit, for instance, asserts publicly that it provides vision, leadership, and expertise to individual schools to ensure compliance with law mandates. Lafayette Parish Public School System special education unit, for another example, promises that it provides full educational opportunities for disabled students, meeting the same federal and state mandates. Your student's Louisiana K-12 school district likely makes similar promises and assurances, as it must if it is to receive the substantial available federal special education funding. Let us help you hold your student's school district accountable to its federal and state law commitments.
Federal Education Laws for Autism Services
Your student's K-12 public education is a service of the Louisiana state government under Louisiana education laws. However, federal special education and disability rights laws undergird the Louisiana state public schools' commitment to special education. Your student's Louisiana K-12 school must at least meet the federal special education requirements to receive the federal taxpayer funding that pays for special education services in Louisiana schools. We can help you enforce your autistic student's rights to special education under the following federal laws.
The Federal IDEA Law and Autism
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA law) is the primary law on which Louisiana K-12 students with autism and other disabilities rely for special education services. If your student has an individualized education program (IEP), for example, your student's Louisiana K-12 school adopted that IEP under the federal IDEA law. Your autistic student should readily qualify for special education under the IDEA law, Section 300.8(c)(1)(i) which defines autism as a disability qualifying for special education. To qualify, your student's autism must significantly adversely impact your student's social interaction and communication and must generally exhibit itself in repetitive and stereotypical motions, sensory overload, and adverse reactions to change. But the IDEA law certainly favors your student's qualification for special education.
ADA Title II and Autism
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a second federal law that undergirds Louisiana state laws, rules, and regulations for disability rights in the state's public schools. The ADA is a non-discrimination law, not a special education law like the IDEA legislation. But ADA Title II regulations expressly include autism among the ADA's anti-discrimination protections for education. Under those regulations, autism is a mental impairment that substantially limits brain function. Mental and physical impairments substantially affecting major life activities, such as brain function, qualify for ADA anti-discrimination protection. Let our skilled and experienced attorneys help you and your autistic student invoke these federal protections.
Louisiana State Laws on Autism Services
The Louisiana legislature has adopted the state laws necessary to qualify the state's K-12 schools for the IDEA law's federal taxpayer special education funding. Louisiana Statutes Section 17:1941 declares the state's intention to meet the IDEA law's key requirements to provide disabled students with a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Subsequent statutes and Louisiana Department of Education regulations, codified at 28 Louisiana Administrative Code Sections 101 et seq., carry the IDEA law into further state effect. The Louisiana Department of Education accordingly maintains a special education unit to serve students with disabilities, applying the IDEA law and the Department's corresponding regulations. That unit provides technical assistance to your student's Louisiana K-12 school, collects special education data from the local schools, and monitors the IDEA law's enforcement. Let us help you invoke these Louisiana state laws to obtain your student's autism accommodations and services.
Louisiana K-12 School Child Find Duty
One of the prominent features of the IDEA law and the corresponding Louisiana Department of Education regulations is the duty those laws place on your student's Louisiana K-12 school to identify your student as potentially disabled and in need of special education. Section 300.111 of the IDEA law calls this school obligation the child find procedures. Don't let your student's school blame you for failing to come forward with the claim that your student has autism and needs the school's autism accommodations and services. That obligation is on the school, not on you, although you will surely have an interest in notifying and advocating with the school for your student's autism accommodation. Let us help you enforce the school's obligation to identify your student as qualifying for autism or other disability evaluation.
Louisiana K-12 School Duty to Evaluate Autism
Evaluation is the next duty that your student's Louisiana K-12 school has, after its duty to identify your student as potentially suffering from autism interfering with education. Section 300.304 of the IDEA law requires the school to retain and pay a qualified professional to evaluate whether your student suffers from autism as a disability qualifying for special education. Section 103 of the Louisiana Department of Education's special education regulations places the duty to pay for your student's evaluation on the school district out of the federal taxpayer funding devoted to special education. You may have already had multiple examiners confirm your student's autism diagnosis. However, the IDEA law's Section 300.304 requires a thorough evaluation that makes the autism diagnosis on specific criteria, recommends appropriate services and accommodations, and offers other recommendations on goals and assessments. Your student's IDEA law evaluation can become the tool for us to advocate for your student's special education rights and services.
Parental Consent to Louisiana Autism Evaluation
While your student's Louisiana K-12 school gets to choose the evaluator or evaluator, the IDEA law gives you a role in that choice. Section 300.300 of the IDEA law enables you to grant or withhold your parental consent to your student's autism evaluation. The school must notify you before the evaluation occurs, giving you a chance to withhold consent depending on the school's choice of a qualified evaluator and other factors. You may prefer that the school not evaluate your student for autism if your student does not need accommodations or services, you do not trust the school's evaluator, or you disagree with the time, place, or other circumstances of the evaluation. Or you may hope to influence the school to rely on evaluations you have already obtained. Your right to grant or withhold consent may help you achieve those objectives. Let us help you strategize, advocate, and negotiate for appropriate evaluation. You want a good evaluation, not a bad one.
Parental Consent to Louisiana Autism Services
The IDEA law also gives you the right to grant or withhold consent to the autism accommodations and services the school's evaluation recommends and your student's IEP team adopts. Section 300.300 of the IDEA prohibits the school from beginning or continuing disability services without your parental consent. Sections 119 and 123 of the Louisiana Department of Education's special education regulations confirm your right to withhold or grant consent. Thus, if you like the evaluation but disagree with the services, you may be able to use your refusal to consent to induce the school to adopt better measures. We can help you strategically deploy these consent powers to appropriately influence the school's IEP decision and implementation.
Louisiana K-12 Autism Second Opinions
The IDEA law and the Louisiana Department of Education's IEP regulations grant you yet another important right to a second opinion on your student's autism evaluation. You have seen above some of the potential perils of an initial evaluation. The school may choose an unqualified or biased evaluator who may not complete a comprehensive and competent evaluation of your student's autism. You and your student's own medical care providers have the greatest familiarity with your student's autistic presentation and condition. The school's one-time examiner may lack the history and information to make a sound diagnosis and recommendation. Or the school may simply subtly influence the examiner not to diagnose autism or not to recommend needed but potentially expensive accommodations and services. Section 1414 of the IDEA law permits you to obtain a second opinion. Multiple Louisiana Department of Education IEP regulations likewise refer to your right to a reevaluation. Your choice of a second evaluator may remedy those errors, giving us a better basis on which to advocate and negotiate for your student's autism accommodations and services. The school must pay for the reevaluation. Let us help enforce your student's reevaluation rights.
Louisiana Autistic Student Services
Section 1401(9) of the IDEA law guarantees autistic students and students with other qualifying disabilities a free appropriate public education(FAPE). The FAPE construct determines the scope of services that your student's Louisiana K-12 school must provide your student to accommodate autism. The IDEA law does not itemize those services; instead, it gives us the above authority to advocate for accommodations and services that will provide your autistic student with an education equivalent to the education that non-disabled students receive from your student's school district. Those services and accommodations may include modified instructional materials, modified school schedules, modifications to classroom lighting or sound, hearing or vision protection, classroom aides, behavioral interventions, and technical training, among other services.
The Americans with Disabilities Act takes a different approach toward determining the services and accommodations your student's Louisiana K-12 school must provide relating to your student's autism. The ADA is an anti-discrimination law, not a special education law. Title II of the ADA mandates that your student's school not discriminate against your student based on your student's autism. Title II further requires that your student's school reasonably accommodateyour student with measures like the above so as not to unlawfully discriminate. Reasonable accommodation may depend on whether services are available, what those services cost the school, how effective those services may be, and whether the accommodations disrupt other instruction. Let us help your student get the needed autism accommodations and services under these constructs.
Your Autistic Student's Louisiana K-12 IEP
Your student's individualized education program (IEP) is the legal document and tool that the IDEA law mandates to ensure that your Louisiana K-12 student receives appropriate autism services. We can help you obtain an appropriate IEP for your student, enforce your student's IEP, or challenge an inadequate IEP to gain better accommodations and services. Section 300.312 of the IDEA law requires your student's Louisiana K-12 school to include you on your student's IEP team. The Louisiana Department of Education's IEP regulations further detail your student's IEP rights, including the makeup of the IEP team on which your student's regular and special-ed teachers should serve. The IEP team writes your student's IEP. The IEP team must meet at least annually and before modifying your student's IEP, giving you fair notice of all meetings so that you can attend and participate. Let us help you enforce these important IEP team rights.
Louisiana K-12 IEP Contents
Section 300.320 of the IDEA law requires your student's Louisiana K-12 school to include specific IEP contents. The Louisiana Department of Education's IEP regulations once again detail your student's IEP content rights. What goes into your student's IEP is important because the IEP is a legally enforceable document. The IEP must, for instance, include your student's autism diagnosis and the autism accommodations and services the school will provide. But, the IEP must also include your student's academic and behavioral goals and ways to measure your student's achievement of those goals. These measurement requirements can be key to your ability to modify an ineffective IEP. Let us help you address IEP content issues to ensure that we can help you enforce your students' IDEA law rights.
Mainstreaming Louisiana K-12 Autistic Students
You may already be aware of your student's K-12 school's obligation to mainstream disabled students into the regular classroom. Mainstreaming can ensure that disabled students receive appropriate social development and the same instructional structure and services non-disabled students receive in the regular classroom. Section 300.114 of the IDEA law mandates that your student's Louisiana K-12 school educate your student in the least restrictive environment(LRE). Section 117 of the Louisiana Department of Education IEP regulations confirms your student's LRE rights. The LRE requirement means that your student's school should not be isolating and warehousing your student in a special room outside the regular classroom if your student can participate in the regular classroom with appropriate accommodations, aides, and services. The IDEA law's mainstreaming mandate is particularly important for autistic students, whose potential for disruptive behaviors can encourage schools to simply warehouse those students outside the regular classroom, to their detriment. Let us help you enforce your autistic student's critical LRE rights.
Autism Spectrum Disorder's Learning Impacts
Autism's impacts on your student's learning can be subtle and hidden. Students with autism often prefer to avoid direct eye contact with teachers, students, and others in the school setting. They may also react adversely to bright lights from windows or from artificial lighting including classroom projection. They may also react adversely to the movement of teachers, students, overhead or window fans, and other persons or equipment. They can also react adversely to ambient sounds like the tapping of keyboards, writing on the board, or scraping of chairs on the floor. Even the hot, cold, or rough sensation of furnishings, utensils, materials, and other instructional items or conditions can overload an autistic student's senses or irritate and distract the autistic student. You know these learning distractions and impacts, but your student's teachers and other school personnel may not. Let us help you ensure that your student's Louisiana K-12 school personnel are taking proper advantage of the district's and state's technical training and assistance, as the IDEA law requires.
Louisiana K-12 Autism Interventions
Fortunately, medical professionals and educators have developed a wide range of autism interventions, accommodations, and services. You may have already found some of those approaches to be effective while other approaches are ineffective. But your student's Louisiana K-12 school teachers and other personnel may lack the knowledge, skill, and experience to identify and deploy appropriate autism interventions. Once again, IDEA law funding supports substantial technical assistance to train educators in deploying autism interventions. Those approaches can include anything from applied behavioral analysis (ABA) tools and methods to environmental approaches (classroom modifications), educational approaches (redesign of instruction methods and materials), peer support approaches (modeling and mentoring), psychological counseling for the autistic student or training for parents and school staff, therapeutic measures to restore the autistic student's functioning, and skilled case management integrating two or more of the above approaches. Let us help you advocate for your student's best intervention approaches.
Louisiana K-12 Autism Rights Enforcement
Congress gave parents and their attorney representatives ways to enforce IDEA law rights. Section 300.504 of the IDEA law requires your student's Louisiana school district to provide procedural safeguards. Section 1946 of the Louisiana legislature's special education laws reiterates your student's right to have a legal representative invoke those procedural safeguards. You have ways to enforce your student's special education rights. Those ways include informal conciliation conferences and mediations, formal district hearings, appeals to higher authorities in the state's administrative tribunals, and limited court review in appropriate cases.
The Defense Attorney's Role
Beware of attempting to enforce your student's rights through the above complex administrative procedures or with unqualified local criminal defense attorneys or civil litigators. Our attorneys have the substantial academic, administrative skills and experiences to effectively assist you and your student in navigating the above enforcement procedures. We can help you obtain the best possible outcome for your student by providing the appropriate special education services to address your student's autism. We can invoke informal settlement conferences, negotiate relief at those conferences, and pursue formal hearings at the district level if necessary. If you have already lost your student's hearings, we may be able to take an administrative appeal through the Louisiana Department of Education's procedures and even pursue court review, depending on the nature of the erroneous hearing decisions. We may even be able to negotiate alternative special relief through the district's general counsel's office or other oversight officials if you have already lost all appeals.
Premier Louisiana K-12 Autism Attorneys
Your best move is to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help your autistic student enforce the above special education rights. We help hundreds of students in Louisiana and across the nation with school issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your autistic student's Louisiana K-12 school issues.
