North Dakota IEP Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team knows the challenges, discouragement, and frustrations you face trying to qualify your student with a disability for special education services. We are available across North Dakota, including in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, West Fargo, Williston, Dickinson, Mandan, Jamestown, and other North Dakota cities and towns, to advocate for your student's federal and state law disability rights, getting your student the individualized education plan (IEP) services, equipment, and accommodations your student needs. Call 888.535.3686 now or complete this contact form to tell us about your student's case.
Qualified IEP Representation Matters
Our skilled and experienced representation may be all you need to get your student back on track with the necessary special education services for your student's school success. Your student's day-by-day development is simply critical. Every day, week, or month lost to fighting with school officials over disability services sets your student further back. Our attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide in school disputes. We know the disability laws and school administrative procedures. We also know how to approach school and district officials with the sensitivity and diplomacy your student needs to preserve and enhance important school relationships. Put us to work for your student. Your investment can pay dividends far into your student's future.
Avoid Unqualified IEP Representation
Unqualified legal representation can do more harm than good. If you hire an unqualified local criminal defense lawyer, estate planner, civil litigator, or real estate attorney to communicate and advocate with school officials, you may damage the school's trust, confidence, and relationships on which your student depends. Without the right law knowledge, sensitive advocacy, and procedural skills, your unqualified legal representative may make school officials more reluctant and less willing to provide due services and accommodations. You wouldn't hire a plumber to fix your car or a painter to fix your furnace. Don't hire unqualified legal representation. Get our highly qualified help.
Why North Dakota Schools Fail to Meet IEP Requirements
School officials may claim that they lack the money to pay for needed special education evaluations, assistive devices and equipment, instructional materials, and other services. Yet your student's school has substantial federal funding and the full resources of the district and state to provide those services. The school also has state and federal obligations, notwithstanding questions over available funding. School officials may also claim not to have the time, staffing, means, or methods to help your student deal with your student's disability. On the contrary, school districts and states offer and provide the necessary specialists, special resources, and technical assistance. The funding and expertise is there. When you retain us, and we notify the school of our retention, you should see the action you would expect and what your student deserves. If not, we can pursue your student's administrative rights to enforce the school's obligations.
Overcoming North Dakota IEP Frustrations
It's one thing to be frustrated over the school's refusals and delays in providing your student with special education services. We understand your frustration and discouragement. You see the impact on your student of falling behind in studies that your student could complete with appropriate services and accommodations. You are right to be concerned about your student's short- and long-term losses due to those delays. But while it's one thing to be frustrated, it's another thing to take effective action. Your best move can be to retain our skilled and experienced representation. We can promptly appear, communicate, advocate, and negotiate on your student's behalf, likely to good effect without further undue delay. We can also promptly pursue appropriate dispute-resolution procedures through the district and state and into court if necessary. Don't just be frustrated. Instead, get our help for your student's needs.
North Dakota School District IEP Representation
North Dakota has over 500 schools organized into over 150 school districts. Some of North Dakota's larger or more notable school districts include the Fargo Public School District, Bismarck Public School District, West Fargo Public Schools, Fairmount Public School District, Carrington School District, Anamoose Public School District, Belcourt School District, Grand Forks Public School District, Beulah Public School District, Alexander Public School District, and Mandan Public School District. North Dakota enrolls over 115,000 elementary and secondary school students. North Dakota's educational system is large and sophisticated enough to provide the resources, technical assistance, and procedures for special education services to your student. Let us help you gain those services without further delay.
North Dakota's Commitment to IEP Implementation
As a parent of a disabled student seeking special education services in North Dakota, you should appreciate that you have the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction behind you. The Department of Public Instruction publicly declares its support for the IEP process. The Department of Public Instruction also establishes and organizes approximately thirty Special Education Administrative Units to coordinate services, technical assistance, resource distribution, and data collection and analysis across the state. Your student's school lies within one of those geographic Administrative Units. We can help you identify, communicate with, and advocate with the appropriate state-level officials to hold your student's accountable to the state and federal IEP process mandates.
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction IEP Guidance
The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction publishes abundant forms and resources for local school districts and schools to use in implementing their IEP programs. Your student's school officials should not complain of a lack of knowledge, guidance, or resources. Everything your student's school needs to comply with federal IEP mandates should be available through the district from the state. One of the key resources, for example, is an exhaustive Accessibility Guidelines Manual detailing each step in the IEP process. The state also offers school accountability assessments so that schools can ensure that their specialists and staff members are complying with IEP mandates. We can help you hold your student's school officials accountable to use those resources and implement the IEP process accordingly.
North Dakota IEP Eligibility Process
Getting your student appropriate special education services begins with showing that your student is eligible for an IEP under federal and state mandates. You and your student have likely already been through the eligibility process, although your school may not have complied with that process. Under the federally mandated IEP process, the school must identify your student as in need of special education services. You may certainly advocate in that respect. The school should then notify you, asking that you consent to a professional evaluation of your student for a qualifying disability and recommended services. The IEP team will use the evaluation to determine if your student qualifies for an IEP. If you don't agree with the evaluation, which the school must share with you, then you can ask for another evaluation by a different professional and advocate the results of that second evaluation for your student's qualification. You also have appeal rights if the IEP team denies your student's qualification. We can help you through this process.
North Dakota IEP Adoption
Eligibility is just the first step. The evaluation, though it recommends qualifications and services, is not the same as the individualized education plan (IEP) that your student's IEP team must adopt. You should receive notice of the IEP team meeting at which its members will consider the evaluation and any competing evaluation to approve your student's qualification for an IEP and special education services. You may participate and advocate in that meeting for the team to approve a plan for your student and special education services. We can help if you did not receive notice of an IEP team meeting, the IEP team did not meet, or the IEP team did not approve a disability determination or provide the services you know your student needs.
North Dakota IEP Implementation
Adopting the individualized education plan (IEP) is an important step. The IEP recognizes that your student qualifies for services and deserves the specific services the IEP names. However, IEPs do not enforce themselves. The IEP is just a paper, although a legally enforceable piece of paper. The IEP team must distribute the IEP to all individuals within the school who have any role in carrying out the services, acquiring the equipment and assistive devices, and providing the accommodations for which the IEP calls. Those individuals may be regular classroom teachers, special education teachers, specialists, staff members, aides, directors, coordinators, or school leaders or administrators. Those individuals are not to ignore or change the plan. They are to carry it out as written, although they may advocate that the IEP team reconvene to modify the IEP.
North Dakota IEP Monitoring
The IEP is a working and living document. You may well need to monitor your student's instruction as best you can to ensure that your student is receiving the specified accommodations. Your student may be able to help you in that monitoring role, letting you know what services your student is receiving or not receiving. You can also use teacher conferences and additional IEP team meetings to monitor IEP compliance. If you find that your student is not getting the IEP's specified services, we can help you advocate for the IEP's proper implementation.
North Dakota IEP Team Meetings
You can see from the above discussion how important the IEP team meetings are. IEP team meetings develop, approve, adopt, and revise individualized education plans. Conduct yourself accordingly. Attend all IEP team meetings, asking for a rescheduled meeting if you are unable to attend on the scheduled day and time. If you don't see the school holding IEP team meetings, then request and demand that the school does so. Make sure you are receiving due notice of all IEP team meetings. The school must hold at least one annual IEP team meeting, usually at the start of the school year. But expect more frequent meetings, especially if conditions change or your student continues to struggle.
Attending IEP Team Meeting
Do more than just show up for all IEP team meetings. Participate in each IEP team meeting as if you were the team's most important and most valued member. As your student's parent, you know your student best and are your student's strongest advocate. Act cordially and professionally. Listen carefully to what others say. Review every document they share. Request to see every document they mention. Take copies for review at home. Bring appropriate documentation to share. Also, share your observations, insights, and opinions. Ask and answer questions. Don't hold back. The IEP team meeting is your forum for discussion and meaningful action. Let us help if your student's school is not conducting IEP team meetings in a way that allows you to participate as a valued and respected member.
IEP Team Meeting Disagreements
Not all IEP team meetings go well. You may find that IEP team members disagree among themselves, sometimes strenuously. They may also disagree with you, one hopes respectfully. However, personality conflicts can develop. IEP team members may lack qualifications for their roles, or they may lack appropriate professional demeanor and character. You do your best and expect others to also do so. But if you find that disagreements are interfering with the IEP team's work, then get our help. We can help you challenge incomplete and inappropriate IEP team plans that are due to unprofessional conflicts and disagreements among team members.
IEP Team Meeting Representation
In the worst case, you may feel entirely inadequate to advocate effectively for your student among the professionals attending your student's IEP team meetings. In that case, we may be able to help. Some IEP teams welcome an attorney representative for the parent and student, especially when they realize that the parent has not been an effective advocate. Our premier attorneys know what to do when attending academic administrative conferences like an IEP team meeting. They have the communication and diplomacy skills to keep IEP team meetings on course, keep team members in line, and generate, propose, advocate, and negotiate appropriate resolutions, providing your student with the needed special education. If we cannot achieve what your student needs at the IEP team meeting, we can also help you pursue administrative or even court relief.
IEP Team Members
The IDEA law and its rules and regulations tell you and the school who should be on your student's IEP team. Don't leave that decision entirely to the school. You are one of the law's several mandated members. The school generally cannot exclude you from IEP team meetings, even if it wishes to do so. The general education teacher and special education teacher for your student are also mandated IEP team members. Administrators like the school principal, assistant principal, or special education director may also attend. The team may invite other teachers, specialists, evaluators, or administrators to attend when they would help with the discussion. Let us help you if the school is not allowing you to attend or not getting the other mandated attendees and the right personnel into the meetings.
Your Student's IEP Team Attendance
The IDEA law also mandates that the school allow your student to attend. Your student may be too young, immature, or differently disposed to be helpful at an IEP team meeting. Even if your student is capable of attending and contributing meaningfully, you and your student may decide that attendance would not be helpful. Frank discussion without your student present may be best. You would know, and you can also listen to the advice of school personnel. But your student has the right to attend, and your student's attendance could prove helpful.
Federal IEP Law North Dakota Schools Must Follow
As a parent of a special needs student, you have very likely already heard about the federal IDEA law. The convenient acronym IDEA stands for the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The IDEA law authorizes and requires individualized education plans (IEPs) for students who exhibit a qualifying disability. Schools that accept federal funds must comply with the IDEA law, a key provision of which requires the school to provide all students, including disabled students, with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The vague FAPE phrase outlines the school's duty to provide special education assistive devices and equipment.
Qualifying as Disabled for Special Education Services
It is odd to say, but the IDEA law recognizes only certain disabilities. The qualifying disabilities include emotional impairments, orthopedic impairments, hearing, speech, vision, or cognition impairments, autism, and brain injury. If your student does not have one of these impairments, the IDEA law permits your student to qualify by showing a similar health impairment or learning disability.
Special Education Services Without a Qualifying Disability
Your student may end up receiving special education even if your student does not technically qualify for those services under the IDEA law. The school may simply voluntarily offer it in your student's best interest. Teachers, specialists, and administrators may want to see your student get help, even if they do not technically qualify for it. And you may advocate for and encourage that help, whether or not the school initially provides it. If the school refuses because your student does not qualify under the IDEA law, then consider requesting another evaluation at the school's expense. Let us help you make that request, including identifying a qualified evaluator. A new evaluation by a different evaluator could make a difference in qualifying and getting needed services.
Other Federal Disability Laws North Dakota Recognizes
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Your student's school, in receiving federal funding, must also comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA applies not just to workplaces and places of public accommodation but also to schools. ADA Title II prohibits schools from discriminating based on disability. Schools must generally provide disabled students with equal access to school programs and facilities. Students with vision impairments, hearing impairments, or wheelchair or other assistive needs may require the school to modify the building, purchase equipment, provide assistive devices, or even alter instructional materials and instructional methods. Let us help advocate your student's ADA rights.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Your student's school must also comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibiting disability discrimination. Section 504 is a broader law than either the IDEA law or the ADA, particularly in the disabilities it reaches and covers. Your student's school may offer your student a 504 plan that provides aides, services, equipment, or adjustments granting your student access to school activities. Let us help advocate your student's Section 504 rights.
North Dakota Special Education Laws
North Dakota's legislature has adopted a comprehensive set of special education laws, carrying the federal mandates into effect at the state, district, and local school levels. The state codifies those laws in North Dakota Century Code Chapter 15.1-32. Those laws provide for the Department of Public Instruction to appoint a special education director, form special education administrative units, distribute state and federal special education funds, and support local IEP teams and procedures, among many other actions. The state special education laws also authorize the Department of Public Instruction to promulgate administrative rules and regulations. We can help you advocate these state laws in addition to seeking enforcement of the federal law provisions.
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction Administrative Rules
North Dakota's Department of Public Instruction has exercised its statutory authority to adopt rules and regulations for special education. North Dakota Administrative Code Section 67-23-01 et seq. compiles those rules and regulations. The administrative rules confirm and clarify the state's statutes. Our attorneys would rely on these administrative rules to invoke procedures and advocate action at the school, school district, and state levels on your student's behalf.
North Dakota Administrative Rules for IEP Dispute Resolution
North Dakota Administrative Code Section 67-23-05 specifically provides for a dispute resolution procedure. That procedure satisfies the constitutional protections your student has under the Constitution's due process clause and the North Dakota Administrative Procedure Act. You and your student have a right to a formal hearing before an independent decision maker and to appeal that official's decision if adverse. Our attorneys can invoke these procedures for your student, present your student's evidence, challenge the school's contrary evidence and arguments, and appeal any adverse decision, as well as seek court review as necessary.
Premier IEP Representation Across North Dakota
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot, West Fargo, Williston, Dickinson, Mandan, Jamestown, and other North Dakota cities and towns to represent your student advocating for IEP rights and disability services. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form.
