August 24, 2008

School is Open, and Congratulations, Sandy

It’s great, isn’t it? School opens right after the Labor Day weekend and all of us are frantically getting ready. The money crunch is everywhere and many families are not buying new clothes for their kids this year. Even so, excitement is in the air. And nobody is more excited than Sandy Winkelman. Yes, that Sandy Winkelman. She has just won her State appeal of the IHO decision to reimburse her for her son’s school tuition for 07-08. Parma has 90 days to appeal that decision. In each prior hearing when the Winkelman family lost, Parma gave newspaper interviews saying they wanted to stop the constant yearly litigation. Now that the Winkelman family has won, will Parma appeal that decision? I hope not and that Parma follows its own advice. This is a terrific family who deserve some down time from the years of chaos, stress, and financial hardship. Kudos also to Andy Cuddy. He is the young attorney who never charged the family a fee for hundreds of hours of work and saw this case through to the present time. File for your fees, Andy! You’ve done a marvelous job.

Remember the 6 year-old that the New York district wanted to retain? I went to her IEP meeting this week. It turned out that after we worked out a genuine IEP and examined the instruction she needed, retention was appropriate. The difference between the original recommendation and where the case now sits is that the initial retention recommendation was never going to give her any more services than she had and the building principal made all of the decisions. Once we put the program and placement responsibility on the IEP team, and had them look at their testing data, the child’s instruction required far more intensive services with slightly younger children. At the end of the meeting the Mom said she thought the child should be retained because that would better meet her child’s needs. A productive dialogue had taken place between her and the school team that allowed her to better understand the problems. And the Team knew that they had made a mistake by not taking the required actions before determining a placement.

I wish this were so with my 3 year old who is still awaiting an IEP to get her into the appropriate program and school. The school has canceled the last two IEP meetings. Will keep you posted.

Let’s finish this newspaper-clipping file. Here we go.

1. Young children spend an average of three hours a day moving by age 9. By age 15, their activity is down to 49 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Boys are more active than girls by about 18 more minutes a day. The absence of recess, dropping gym, and fewer sports programs that are affordable are noted as reasons. When you write those IEPs, remember that our bodies are designed for vigorous activity- lots of it. Get your kids moving and you’ll have fewer behavior and attention problems. (As Children Grow, Activity Quickly Slows, Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, 7/16/08).
   
   
2. Boredom. How many of our kids say that they are bored in school? Many. Current research says that boredom is a tool for sorting information, allowing the brain to remake the outside world. The Cambridge Journal of Education has found that boredom is a legitimate human emotion that is central to learning and creativity. Temporary boredom is when the brain concludes there is nothing new or useful it can learn from the environment and uses about 5% less energy. Daydreaming and doodling during class is a kind of self-entertainment when a person is bored. Nodding off episodes in lectures (NOELs) occurred with 16 out of 100 doctors attending a talk. So when your child tells you he/she is bored, it is important to really listen. It may be because they can’t read the book or process what the teacher says but it is a genuine feeling to address. You’ll be able to tell the IEP Team that your child had a NOEL moment, and you won’t be singing a Christmas Carol! (You’re Checked Out, But Your Brain is Tuned In, Benedict Carey, The New York Times, 8/5/08).
   
   
3. Jennifer Bollero, Esq. has written a book entitled Before You Retain a Lay Advocate. She practices law in Illinois and has two children, one with autism. She emphasizes the need for training and the importance of asking lay advocates for a summary of their experience. She explains the importance of having advocates behave in a professional manner, work in a well supported office, be sensitive to the needs of the child and parent, and to have the client make the final decision. The only aspects of her book to which I take exception are:
   
   
   1. She does not know that law advocates have privilege with their clients, which they do.
   2. She says, “All lay advocates should be clear in their own mind when their job has transformed from one of accompanying a parent…to actually giving legal advice about what to do next. The latter is, by law, the province of an attorney.” Ms. Bollero apparently does not know or understand that nonlawyers are to give advice to parents and not merely accompany them. “Any party to a hearing can…be accompanied and advised by counsel and by individuals with special knowledge or training with respect to the problems of children with disabilities” (34 CFR 300.512 (a) (1)). Her book’s position would appear to support the OSERS proposed rule that let’s states decide whether nonlawyers can represent parents in due process hearings. Factually, however, her book gives good advice but makes significant errors in these two areas. Her email is jlbesq@juno.com.
      
      
4. The use of restraints on children with behavioral disorders remains a critical issue. With increased mainstreaming and lack of proper supports for regular classroom teachers, there is increased use of physical force on children with developmental and psychiatric problems. Children continue to die with the use of restraints. Oversight is nonexistent in most states. Parents who are grateful for Inclusion are often afraid to complaint about the treatment of their children. Other parents want their child restrained. What nobody discusses in the research on the use of restraints is the vital role of the IEP and preplanning how behavior will be handled, placing those decisions on the IEP. (Calm Down Or Else, Bennedict Carey, The New York Times, 7/15/08).



5. “The Next Kind of Integration” is socioeconomic, class replacing race as the primary basis for desegregating schools. A Louisville, Kentucky public school assignment director, Pat Todd, is leading efforts to implement a new class + race formula in desegregation. In the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the court’s ruling “should not prevent school districts from continuing the important work of bringing together students of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.” Without question, this concept of integration will be the focus of intense debate and effort over the next decade. This issue also impacts directly on the socioeconomic divide of children with disabilities in that they are faced not only with poverty, but with having their needs met in schools where the majority may also live in poverty and services are few. (The Next Kind Of Integration, Emily Bazelon, The New York Times Magazine, 7/20/08).



6. The presidential election is upon us and nary a word about education. No Child Left Behind is being reauthorized and groups involved with it make it clear that education is viewed as a civil rights issue and want changes in the law to strengthen NCLB. Where are they in the Obama and McCain campaigns? (Education as a Civil Right Issue, Editorial, The New York Times, 8/1/08).

That’s it! A clean desk to start the new year. Enjoy the last days of August and I’ll check in again in September.