As the parent of an Oklahoma K-12 autistic student, you know how critical autism accommodations and services are to your student's education and development. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Broken Arrow, Edmond, Lawton, Moore, Midwest City, Enid, Stillwater, Owasso, Bartlesville, Muskogee, Shawnee, Bixby, and across Oklahoma to ensure that your student's school meets state and federal disability services mandates. We are able to represent your student in the Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Edmond Public Schools, Moore Public Schools, Epic One-on-One Charter School, Broken Arrow Public Schools, Putnam City Public Schools, Norman Public Schools, Epic Blended Learning Charter, Union Public Schools, Lawton Public Schools, Mustang Public Schools, and other Oklahoma school districts to enforce your autistic student's special education rights. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our highly qualified representation to induce the school to meet your autistic student's special education needs.
Autism's Substantial Parental Challenge
Our attorneys know that your situation as a parent of an Oklahoma K-12 autistic student is fraught with challenges. Autism can be among the most difficult of disabilities for which to receive adequate educational support services. That challenge exists largely because of the significant hidden impact that autism has on your student's learning needs, habits, and abilities. You may find your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 teachers and special education providers to be fully sympathetic to your autistic students' needs but nonetheless underqualified or unwilling to meet those special needs because of the sensitive interventions and support your student's autism requires. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 teachers and special education personnel may not even know the wide range of autism interventions available or may feel that they are ill-equipped to provide those services when technical assistance and support exist at the district or state level. Let us help you meet these and other challenges so that your autistic student doesn't fall behind and suffer in academic and social development.
Autism in Oklahoma K-12 Schools
Your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 school district officials also surely know that the district includes autistic students in need of special education services. Oklahoma's State Department of Education Special Education Services advertises the need to accommodate autistic students and students with other disabilities, providing school districts with resources like the Sooner Start Early Intervention Operations Manual featuring autism interventions. The Tulsa Public Schools, for one example, maintains a Special Education Services unit promising to meet the needs of disabled students, including students with autism. The Oklahoma City Public Schools, for another good example, likewise maintains an Office of Exceptional Student Services, assuring families of autistic students and students with other disabilities that they will serve those students diligently and sensitively. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 school district likely maintains a similar office, making similar promises and assurances. Let us help you hold your student's Oklahoma K-12 district accountable to your student's autism needs.
Federal Laws for Oklahoma Autism Services
Federal special education and anti-discrimination laws undergird your student's legal rights and remedies for autism accommodations and services. Our attorneys can help you invoke and rely on the following federal laws, as interpreted and applied under Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures.
The Federal IDEA Law and Autism in Oklahoma Schools
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the primary law guaranteeing your autistic student appropriate special education services. Oklahoma's special education policies and procedures carry the IDEA law into effect to ensure that your student's Oklahoma K-12 school benefits from substantial federal taxpayer funding of special education services. The IDEA law's Section 300.8(c)(1)(i) expressly identifies autism as a disability qualifying for special education. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 school should readily recognize your student's autism as a qualifying disability if your student's autism meets the IDEA law's definition of stereotypical repetitive motions, communication and interaction deficits, and adverse reactions to stimuli or change. Let us help your autistic student qualify under the federal IDEA law for its funded special education services.
ADA Title II and Autism in Oklahoma Schools
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a second federal law that prohibits your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 school from discriminating against your student based on the autism disability. Title II of the ADA applies to education. Title II regulations include autism as a mental impairment qualifying for anti-discrimination protection. Those regulations presume that your student's autism is a mental impairment qualifying for protection if it substantially limits your student's brain function. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 school must accordingly reasonably accommodate your student's qualifying autism disability with appropriate interventions and services. Let us help enforce this IDEA law and ADA Title II mandates for your autistic student's benefit.
Oklahoma State Laws on Autism Services
Oklahoma state laws, rules, and regulations also protect your autistic student, promising special education services. Oklahoma Statutes Section 70-13-101 authorizes the Oklahoma State Department of Education to promulgate special education regulations. Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures accordingly adopt and carry out the above federal IDEA law obligations. Those Oklahoma state regulations ensure that your student's Oklahoma K-12 school qualifies for substantial federal taxpayer funding for special education services. You need not worry whether your student's Oklahoma K-12 school can afford the services and accommodations your student's autism requires. Our attorneys can help you invoke both the above federal laws and the parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures.
Oklahoma K-12 School Child Find Duty
The above federal IDEA law and Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures require your student's Oklahoma K-12 school to implement a so-called child find program to identify autistic students and other students potentially in need of special education. The IDEA law's Section 300.111 defines the school's child find obligations, confirmed and reinforced by the Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures. The IDEA law's child find provision ensures that your student's Oklahoma K-12 school officials cannot blame you for failing to notify the school of your autistic student's need for special education. The school has the duty to identify your student as potentially disabled, not you. You may, of course, advocate with the school for your autistic student's accommodation. However, the school cannot fault you if your advocacy does not include a particular effort to invoke the school's programs. The school owes your student that duty.
Oklahoma K-12 School Duty to Evaluate Autistic Students
The next significant obligation that the IDEA law places on your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 school is to provide your student with an appropriate professional autism evaluation, diagnosis, and recommendation for autism services and accommodations. The IDEA law's Section 300.304 is the applicable provision, once again confirmed and reinforced by the Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 school must also pay for the evaluation. Your student's autism evaluation, diagnosis, and service recommendations are the foundation for your student obtaining a suitable individualized education plan (IEP) for autism accommodations and services. Let us help you enforce your autistic student's evaluation rights to ensure your student gets appropriate IEP services.
Parental Consent to Oklahoma Autism Evaluation
You may have more power and control over your student's Oklahoma K-12 autism accommodations and services than you think. The IDEA law's Section 300.300 gives you the authority to grant or withhold parental consent to your student's evaluation. The Oklahoma State Department of Education's special education policies and procedures once again repeat and reinforce your IDEA law authority to let your student's Oklahoma K-12 school evaluate your student for autism or not. If you do not consent to your student's autism evaluation, school officials must not do so. Conversely, if you do consent to your student's autism evaluation, school officials must do so. Your student's school officials are thus more likely to listen to your recommendations and preferences for the time, place, and nature of the evaluation and the professional who completes the evaluation.
Denying Consent to Oklahoma Autism Evaluation
Parents of autistic students may have their own grounds on which to refuse to permit school officials to evaluate their students for autism. The choice is yours, whether you can articulate reasonable grounds or not. But think of it. You may decide that your student, although autistic, is doing well enough without autism accommodations, without potentially stigmatizing, burdening, or discouraging your student with a formal evaluation. Or your student's school may already be accommodating your student in the manner you prefer, without a new evaluation changing those reasonable accommodations the school is already providing. Or you may not trust the evaluator or desire to subject your student to the time, place, or manner of the evaluation. You may also have your own evaluation of your student already and prefer to advocate that the school use that evaluation rather than a new one that may work against your student's best interests. You decide, and let us help enforce your decision.
Oklahoma K-12 Autism Second Opinions
You have additional power under the IDEA law to control your student's autism evaluation and its outcome. If you decide to permit the school's chosen evaluator to conduct the school's requested and recommended evaluation but then regret your decision because of unhelpful, inaccurate, or biased evaluation results, you may require the school to pay for a reevaluation by a professional of your choice. The IDEA law's Section 1414 gives you reevaluation rights, once again reinforced by parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education's special education policies and procedures. Your student may need a reevaluation to overcome the initial evaluation's poor results, incorporated into an unhelpful IEP. Your student's IEP will generally depend on your student's evaluation. You may be able to correct a bad initial evaluation with a good second opinion. Let us help you enforce this important IDEA law right.
Parental Consent to Oklahoma Autism Services
You have even more power over your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 school accommodation than the above consent and reevaluation authority grants you. The IDEA law's Section 300.300 further provides that you may grant or withhold consent to disability accommodations. If your student's Oklahoma K-12 school determines to accommodate your autistic student in ways that you do not believe will help your student and may instead stigmatize, embarrass, and discourage your student, you may simply refuse permission for the accommodations. Or if you prefer other accommodations and services, such as a different behavioral intervention, you may refuse permission for the school's recommended service but offer permission for your preferred intervention. Your power to withhold consent to disability accommodations gives you leverage over your student's autism accommodations. You may be able to control how the school chooses to help your student. Let our highly qualified attorneys help you use this power and the other powers strategically and sensitively for your student's benefit.
Scope of Oklahoma Autistic Student Services
While you may not yet have thought of how you can properly wield the above IDEA law powers for your Oklahoma K-12 autistic student's benefit, you may already be well aware of the other central device that the IDEA law uses to determine the scope of your student's special education services. The IDEA law's Section 1401(9) guarantees your autistic student a free appropriate public education(FAPE). Once again, the Oklahoma State Department of Education's special education policies and procedures repeat and confirm the FAPE guarantee. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) takes a different but similarly helpful approach when it requires your student's Oklahoma K-12 school to reasonably accommodate your student's autism, depending on whether the services and interventions you request are available, affordable, effective, and not unreasonably disruptive.
Available Oklahoma Autistic Student Services
The IDEA law's FAPE mandate and the ADA's reasonable accommodation mandate give our skilled attorneys the legal grounds on which to effectively advocate for a wide range of autism accommodations, interventions, and services for your Oklahoma K-12 student. You may be aware from your student's prior autism diagnosis and interventions of the breadth of potentially available school accommodations. Your student's Oklahoma K-12 school may be able to provide a combination of classroom lighting, projection, and sound changes or protections, additional aide support, teacher and aide training, psychosocial counseling for your student, peer modeling and mentoring programs, applied behavioral analysis interventions using cue cards and reward systems, restorative therapies, instructional design and materials changes, note taking, readers, and other alternative assistive methods and devices, rules and schedule changes for a more flexible and fitting school experience, and case management to integrate these and other services and interventions. Let us help you advocate effectively for the best combination of autism interventions.
Your Autistic Student's Oklahoma K-12 IEP
You are likely already familiar with the IDEA law's individualized education program (IEP) document. The IEP is the IDEA law's central tool for developing, approving, implementing, and enforcing appropriate disability accommodations and services. The IDEA law's Section 300.321 and parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures guarantee your participation on your student's IEP team. The IEP team must consider your input, giving you notice of each meeting, for you to attend. The IEP team must meet at the beginning of each school year, whenever the school desires to change your student's placement or services, and whenever you or a teacher requests a meeting to assess the plan's progress. Our attorneys can help you enforce these critical IEP rights, to advocate and negotiate for your student's best interests.
Oklahoma K-12 IEP Goals and Measures
What makes the IEP a critical enforcement tool is the detailed goals and assessment measures that the IDEA law requires for the IEP. The IDEA law's Section 300.320 and parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures demand that your student's Oklahoma K-12 school include more than just your student's autism diagnosis and accommodations. The IEP must also include your student's academic and behavioral goals, as well as ways for you and the other IEP team members to determine whether your student is meeting those goals. Measurable goals can help us advocate and negotiate for changes in your student's IEP when the IEP is not working, and you believe alternative accommodations will achieve better results.
Warehousing Oklahoma K-12 Autistic Students
One of the biggest concerns and objections of parents of autistic students is the tendency of school officials to remove the student from the regular classroom long-term at the first sign of adverse reactions. Classroom teachers rightly prefer to avoid disruptions of instruction. However, your student's removal and segregation from other students may deny your student structured instruction, socialization opportunities, and peer network support. Warehousing your student in a separate room can be the worst thing for your student's motivation, confidence, and consistent instruction. The reason for your student's adverse reaction in the classroom may be the school's failure or refusal to provide available and mandated autism accommodations.
Mainstreaming Oklahoma K-12 Autistic Students
Congress provided a remedy to the warehousing problem. The IDEA law's Section 300.114 requires your student's Oklahoma K-12 school to educate disabled students in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Once again, parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures repeat and reinforce the LRE mandate. The purpose of the LRE requirement is to give parents and their legal representatives a tool to advocate for the student's inclusion in the regular classroom environment. If your student's proper autism accommodation will reduce your student's disruptive behaviors to the point that your student can receive regular classroom instruction, then the LRE construct mandates that inclusion. The LRE mandate is thus also a tool to advocate for autism accommodations that will keep your student in the regular classroom. Let our attorneys help you deploy the LRE mandate strategically and effectively for your autistic student's benefit. No more warehousing.
Autism Spectrum Disorder's Learning Impacts
Technical training and assistance are other key aspects of IDEA law. The IDEA law's Section 1463 and parallel Oklahoma State Department of Education special education policies and procedures authorize funds for the Oklahoma State Department of Education to provide technical assistance to local school teachers and education support professionals. The Oklahoma State Department of Education commits publicly to providing that technical support. Your student's teachers and education support professionals should not claim a lack of knowledge, skill, or expertise to accommodate your autistic student with appropriate services and interventions. They have available technical assistance to recognize the adverse impacts on learning of your student's autism. Let us help you ensure that your student's school personnel exercise the technical skills and knowledge to effectively accommodate your student's autism.
Oklahoma K-12 Autism Rights Enforcement
Congress gave us the tools and procedures to enforce your student's IDEA law rights. The IDEA law's Section 300.504 and parallel Oklahoma State Board of Education special education policies and procedures provide for procedural safeguards. These safeguards give your student due process protections, ensuring that you have notice of the school's IEP decisions and the opportunity to challenge those decisions before a fair, qualified, and independent decision maker in a formal hearing. We can help you invoke your student's procedural rights to a formal hearing to present your student's evidence and challenge the school's erroneous assertions. We can also invoke early voluntary settlement conferences, appeal adverse hearing decisions your student has already suffered, and seek alternative special relief through oversight channels if your student has already lost all appeals. Court review may also be possible in some cases.
Premier Oklahoma K-12 Autism Attorneys
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is ready to enforce your Oklahoma K-12 autistic students' special education rights at locations across the state. Our skilled and experienced attorneys have helped hundreds of students in Oklahoma and across the nation favorably resolve their disability rights and other school issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your autistic student's Oklahoma K-12 school issues.
