If your Oregon K-12 student with autism spectrum disorder isn't getting the special education accommodations and services federal and Oregon law mandate, the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team has the skill and experience to help. We can serve you in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Gresham, Hillsboro, Bend, Beaverton, Medford, Springfield, Corvallis, Auburn, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Grants Pass, Aloha, and other Oregon locations. Our attorneys will represent your student in the Portland Public Schools, Salem-Keizer School District, Beaverton School District, Hillsboro School District, Bend-LaPine School District, North Clackamas School District, Eugene School District, Medford School District, Tigard-Tualatin School District, Gresham-Barlow School District, Reynolds School District, Springfield School District, and other districts across Oregon. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for the autism spectrum disorder special education representation you and your student need.
Autism's Educational Challenge
Autism spectrum disorder can be among the most challenging of educational disabilities to face. The impacts of autism can be so subtle and invisible to teachers and other school officials who overlook your student's need for accommodation and services. An autistic student's adverse reactions that the school environment and instruction unfortunately and unnecessarily trigger can look to school teachers and other officials more like student misconduct than disability responses. Your student's Oregon K-12 teachers and other school staff members and officials may be sympathetic to your student's autism diagnosis. However, although compassionate and well intentioned, they may also be clueless as to how to properly accommodate and serve your student to help your student overcome the disability's interference with learning. You have an obvious challenge on your hands. Let us help you and your student meet and overcome that challenge.
Recognizing Autism in an Oregon K-12 School
You have probably seen sympathetic and compassionate reactions to your student's autism at the teacher and staff member level. You may also have read or heard similar reassurances from your student's Oregon elementary or secondary school and the school district. The Portland Public Schools Special Education Services unit, for example, commits to an inclusive academic and social environment for autistic and other disabled students. The Eugene School District 4J, for another example, commits to identifying and properly serving autistic students and students with other disabilities. Your student's Oregon school district likely advertises similar disability offices and services. It must do so to obtain the substantial available federal funding. But public commitments are one thing, while individual effective actions are another thing. Let us help you and your student hold your student's Oregon school district accountable to its published commitments.
Federal Education Laws for Autism Services
You and your student will not likely deal directly with any federal official or office in your efforts to get special education accommodations and services for your autistic student. Yet federal law provides the background, and the federal government provides taxpayer funding for your student's mandated special education. Don't let your student's Oregon school district claim an inability to afford special education services. By complying with the federal special education legislation, your student's Oregon K-12 school likely receives or has access to substantial federal funding to pay for those services under the following law.
The Federal IDEA Law
Oregon elementary and secondary schools comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA law) to qualify for federal special education funding. You may already be familiar with the IDEA law's requirement that your student's school adopt an individualized education program (IEP) for your autistic student. Your student should have no trouble qualifying for special education under the IDEA law. Section 300.8(c)(1)(i) of the IDEA law expressly defines autism as a qualifying disability. The IDEA law recognizes that autism can significantly adversely affect your student's communication and social interaction. The IDEA law also recognizes repeated motions, stereotypical movements, sensory overload, and adverse reactions to changes in routines and environments as autism signs and symptoms. The IDEA law protects your autistic student.
ADA Title II
Oregon elementary and secondary schools must also comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA addresses a slightly different concern than the IDEA law addresses. The IDEA law is a special education law. The ADA is an anti-discrimination law. Title II of the ADA prohibits your student's Oregon K-12 school from discriminating against your student because of your student's autism. Title II regulations expressly include autism as a disability qualifying for the ADA's anti-discrimination protections. Those Title II regulations recognize autism as a mental impairment substantially limiting brain function, meaning that autism can qualify for ADA protection as a mental impairment substantially affecting a major life activity. We can help you and your student enforce both your student's IDEA law rights and ADA Title II rights.
Oregon State Laws Defining Autism
Oregon state laws, rules, and regulations also protect your student from disability discrimination and ensure that your student receives special education services. Oregon's Department of Education has promulgated District Policies and Procedures for Special Education with which every public school district in the state must comply. Those Oregon Department of Education special education regulations carry the IDEA law into local effect to qualify your student's K-12 public school for federal special education funding. With that federal funding, the Oregon Department of Education has formed special Autism Spectrum Disorder Regional Inclusive Services Teams to provide your student's Oregon K-12 public school with technical assistance for your student's special education. Don't let your student's school officials claim ignorance or a lack of resources for properly serving your autistic student with sensitive special education services. Let us help you invoke both the federal laws and state regulations.
Oregon K-12 School Child Find Obligation
As a parent, you are certainly ready, willing, and able to advocate that your student's Oregon K-12 school identify your student as autistic to provide appropriate accommodations and services. But the IDEA law does not make identifying your student's autism your job. Instead, the IDEA law's Section 300.111 requires your student's school to follow so-called child-find procedures to ensure that it identifies and serves every autistic student and students suffering from other disabilities. Section 1 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education carries out the state's child find obligations. We can help you invoke this federal law and state regulation to ensure that the school meets its obligation to identify your student's autism disability.
Oregon K-12 School Duty to Evaluate Autism
Your student's Oregon K-12 school must do more than simply identify your student as autistic through its Child Find program. Under the IDEA law's Section 300.304, the school must also refer your student for autism evaluation and diagnosis by a qualified medical and education professional at the school's expense. Section 3 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education carry that evaluation obligation into effect. The evaluation must detail your student's autism diagnosis, recommend appropriate accommodations and services, and meet the other specific requirements for goals and measurements. Your student's evaluation should be comprehensive and helpful, providing the basis for your student's IEP. You very likely already have autism diagnoses of your student from your student's own medical providers. But the special evaluation the IDEA law requires may provide additional helpful detail as to the necessary and appropriate special education accommodations and services. Let us help with any evaluation issues.
Parental Consent to Oregon Autism Evaluation
You don't determine your student's autism diagnosis, but you do control your student's evaluation for autism. The IDEA law's Section 300.300 requires your student's Oregon K-12 school to obtain your parental consent before referring your student for evaluation. Section 3 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education confirms the school's obligation to obtain your consent. You get to decide. If you don't want your student to undergo an autism evaluation, then you may deny consent. The school should not then have your student evaluated. While evaluation may sound harmless and helpful, parents can have good reasons to decline consent. You may prefer that your student persist without a formal diagnosis to preserve your student's self-image and build your student's character through perseverance or because you do not trust the school's chosen evaluator. You may also prefer to advocate that the school use your student's prior evaluations. Let us help if the school fails to respect and abide by your decision whether to consent.
Parental Consent to Oregon Autism Services
While you have the right to grant or withhold consent to your student's evaluation for autism, the school must also respect your right to grant or withhold consent to the accommodations and services your student's IEP team approves. Congress ensured not only that you control whether your student's Oregon K-12 school evaluates your student for autism but also whether the school modifies your student's education to accommodate autism's impacts. Section 300.300 of the IDEA law lets you grant or withhold consent to special education. Don't overlook the power and significance of these consent provisions. You may be able to effectively wield your consent powers to influence the IEP team's decision on services and accommodations. Let us help you use those powers to their best strategic effect and to enforce your right to grant or withhold consent.
Oregon K-12 Autism Second Opinions
You have yet another significant right to exercise to influence and control how your student's Oregon K-12 school implements your student's special education. Section 1414 of the IDEA law permits you to obtain a second opinion if your student's first evaluator misdiagnoses your student's autism or fails to recommend appropriate accommodations and services. Once again, Section 3 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education confirms your right to a second opinion. You get to choose the professional performing your student's reevaluation. The school must pay for the reevaluation. You may find good reason in the errors and omissions of the first evaluation to obtain a second opinion. Evaluators make mistakes. They are also subject to influence, sometimes reaching erroneous opinions that they know the school district that employs or retains them prefers. If the school district doesn't want to provide accommodations and services, its chosen evaluator may not recommend them even if your student deserves them. Your independent evaluator can give an unbiased opinion. Let us help you choose a qualified evaluator and otherwise enforce your second opinion rights.
Oregon Autistic Student Services
The IDEA law's heart lies in the legal phrase Congress deployed to ensure that your autistic student gets appropriate accommodations and services from your student's Oregon K-12 school. Section 1401(9) of the IDEA law guarantees your student a free appropriate public education(FAPE). Educators and administrative review panels use the FAPE concept to determine whether your student's Oregon K-12 school is providing your autistic student with an education equivalent to the education non-disabled students receive. While the IDEA law does not list specific accommodations and services, the FAPE construct may require your student's school to design and implement behavioral prompts and rewards, modify sound and lighting to reduce sensory overload, provide hearing or vision protection, modify instructional materials, modify schedules and rules to provide for breaks, and provide aides and other accommodations and resources.
The IDEA law is not the only law that your student's Oregon K-12 school officials may apply to determine your student's autism accommodations and services. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits disability discrimination, mandating that your student's school reasonably accommodate your student's autism. Reasonable accommodation may require the school to modify building lights and furnishings, provide assistive devices or equipment, and take other actions, including the above IDEA law measures. We can help you and your student obtain appropriate intervention accommodations and services under these laws and the corresponding Oregon regulations.
Your Autistic Student's Oregon K-12 IEP
If the FAPE construct is the IDEA law's heart, the individualized education program (IEP) is the IDEA law's functioning limbs. Your student needs a specific tool to carry out the planned autism accommodations and services. The IEP is a legal document and tool that we can help you and your student enforce. Section 300.312 of the IDEA law requires that your student's Oregon K-12 school form a team to develop, approve, implement, and assess your student's IEP. Section 4 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education confirms your right to participate on your student's IEP team, along with your student's regular classroom and special-ed teachers and any other supervisors or administrators the school determines. You should have the school's notice of IEP team meetings, which must occur at least annually and before any change in your student's autism accommodations, placement, or services. Let us help you enforce your IEP team rights.
Oregon K-12 IEP Contents
Your student's Oregon K-12 school IEP must include everything to ensure your student enjoys the special education accommodations and services that the IDEA law promises. Section 300.320 of the IDEA law states the required IEP contents. Once again, Section 4 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education confirms those IEP contents. School IEP teams typically use a template to ensure that your student's IEP includes all the mandated contents, including your student's autism diagnosis, required accommodations, required services, measurable academic and behavioral goals, and means of determining whether your student is meeting those goals. Let us help you ensure that your student's IEP team adopts an appropriate IEP with all the required measures. We can also help you challenge an inadequate IEP.
Mainstreaming Oregon K-12 Autistic Students
One of the biggest concerns of parents of autistic students is that the school will segregate, isolate, and warehouse them outside the regular classroom. Warehousing causes autistic students to lose the socialization, peer support, and structured instruction of the classroom while suffering stigmatizing isolation. An autistic student's adverse reactions to the classroom environment can make segregation seem like an appropriate solution. But, the better solution mandated under the IDEA law, may be to provide classroom accommodations and services to minimize and avoid classroom disruptions. Mainstreaming disabled students into the regular classroom for socialization, peer support, and consistent instruction is one of the IDEA law's primary goals. Section 300.114 of the IDEA law requires your student's Oregon K-12 school to educate your student in the least restrictive environment(LRE). If your student can persist without substantial disruption in the regular classroom, with appropriate accommodations and services, then the LRE mandate means that your student's school should not be removing your student. Let us help if your student faces warehousing issues.
Autism Spectrum Disorder's Learning Impacts
Your student's Oregon K-12 teachers and other school officials may unfortunately have only a limited understanding of autism's effects on student learning. It is not your role to educate them. The Oregon Department of Education offers abundant special education resources, providing autism technical assistance to your student's teachers and other school officials. Do not let your student's teachers and other special education officials claim or exhibit ignorance. Let us help you advocate effectively that your student's school personnel receive and rely on the training and technical support that the IDEA law and Oregon Department of Education regulations require. Your student's teachers and other school officials should know that your student's autism may react adversely to light, sounds, movement, sensations, direct eye contact, and a range of other ordinary stimuli that non-disabled students can easily ignore or tolerate.
Oregon K-12 Autism Interventions
Your student's Oregon K-12 school has a variety of potentially effective approaches to pursue to accommodate your student's autism. Autism does not always respond to a one-size-fits-all remedy. Disability professionals offer multiple alternative approaches to accommodating autism and serving autistic students because the same approach does not always work. Your student's Oregon K-12 school officials may be providing an ineffective intervention when other approaches would serve your student. Let us help you advocate several alternative approaches. Your student may benefit from a change in services and accommodations if current approaches are not working. Your student's school officials may be willing to consider classroom alterations, new instructional designs, behavioral interventions, modification of materials, changes in school rules and schedules, therapeutic interventions, peer or adult mentoring, and an overall integrated case management approach.
Oregon K-12 Autism Rights Enforcement
Don't give up hope if you have reached your wit's end with your student's Oregon K-12 school officials over accommodations and special education services for your autistic student. Congress wrote enforcement provisions into the IDEA law that our skilled and experienced attorneys can help you enforce. Section 300.504 of the IDEA law mandates that your student's Oregon K-12 school offer you and your student procedural safeguards. Section 7 of the Oregon Department of Education's District Policies and Procedures for Special Education carries those procedural safeguards into effect with specific administrative procedures. Those procedures include district hearings, administrative appeals, and even limited court review.
The Education Law Attorney's Role
Our attorneys have the academic administrative skills to help you pursue the above enforcement mechanisms. If you disagree with your student's IEP or its implementation, we can help you invoke the district's administrative hearing procedure. We can help you present your student's diagnosis and other evidence at the hearing while challenging the school's inadequate stance. If you have already lost your student's hearing, we may be able to take an effective state agency appeal or even seek court review and reversal of hearing or appeal decisions. If you have already lost all appeals, we may alternatively be able to obtain special oversight relief in negotiations with the district's general counsel's office. Let us help you exhaust all avenues to get your student the relief your student needs and deserves.
Premier Oregon K-12 Autism Attorneys
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help you and your autistic student enforce the above special education laws and rights. We have helped hundreds of students in Oregon and across the nation. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your autistic student's Oregon K-12 school issues.
