Taking Off the Gloves
NonLawyer Chronology
1970's
1975 - Ray and I moved to Teaneck, New Jersey from Manhattan to find the special education Melody needed. She was enrolled in the Teaneck Public Schools for the 1975-1976 school year.
1975 - Passage of P.L. 94-142, The Education For All Handicapped Children's Act.
1976 - I was asked by local parents to be president of Teaneck’s Special Education PTA and accepted . I resigned nine months later. The school district would not let me administer the PTA independent of the Director of Special Services and local Superintendent, both placing restrictions on what I could say and do.
1976 - M.A. v. Teaneck Board of Education.We took Teaneck to due process about Melody’s special education program. As a result, I discovered the newly passed special education laws. Word spread that we had beaten Teaneck in the lawsuit. So it was that our daughter, Melody, was my first child and first case. Soon, parents began to call for advice about their children or simply appeared at our door.
1977 - The Teaneck Parent Information Center (TPIC) was founded as a 501c3 corporation for the purpose of researching local, state and national special education issues. Neither Ray nor I knew that as we began TPIC locally, discussions occurred at the federal level of government to establish and fund parent training centers in each state, paying them to do what we created but without the bite of independence. We were carefully watched from afar, calls from William Tyrell at OSERS, coming in during call hours at 7 A.M. Once we began to publish the TPIC monthly newsletter, ED-PAC, from 1978-1998, we were the only game in town. ED-PAC became one of our many controversial projects because it could not be censored or controlled by anyone but the TPIC Board. ED-PAC, short for ”Educational Package”, explained to parents what P.L. 94-142 meant in language they understood.
1978 - Acito v. Westwood Board of Education. Parents of a multiply disabled child asked me to do a due process hearing, seeking residential placement. The father, an attorney, believed I was the right person to try and help his son. I finally agreed. Barbara Bateman, Professor at the University of Oregon, published So You’re Going to a Hearing at this time. I followed every direction in her book, telephoning her periodically with questions. After several days of hearing, Westwood settled and placed the child residentially.
1975 - Ray and I moved to Teaneck, New Jersey from Manhattan to find the special education Melody needed. She was enrolled in the Teaneck Public Schools for the 1975-1976 school year.
1975 - Passage of P.L. 94-142, The Education For All Handicapped Children's Act.
1976 - I was asked by local parents to be president of Teaneck’s Special Education PTA and accepted . I resigned nine months later. The school district would not let me administer the PTA independent of the Director of Special Services and local Superintendent, both placing restrictions on what I could say and do.
1976 - M.A. v. Teaneck Board of Education.We took Teaneck to due process about Melody’s special education program. As a result, I discovered the newly passed special education laws. Word spread that we had beaten Teaneck in the lawsuit. So it was that our daughter, Melody, was my first child and first case. Soon, parents began to call for advice about their children or simply appeared at our door.
1977 - The Teaneck Parent Information Center (TPIC) was founded as a 501c3 corporation for the purpose of researching local, state and national special education issues. Neither Ray nor I knew that as we began TPIC locally, discussions occurred at the federal level of government to establish and fund parent training centers in each state, paying them to do what we created but without the bite of independence. We were carefully watched from afar, calls from William Tyrell at OSERS, coming in during call hours at 7 A.M. Once we began to publish the TPIC monthly newsletter, ED-PAC, from 1978-1998, we were the only game in town. ED-PAC became one of our many controversial projects because it could not be censored or controlled by anyone but the TPIC Board. ED-PAC, short for ”Educational Package”, explained to parents what P.L. 94-142 meant in language they understood.
1978 - Acito v. Westwood Board of Education. Parents of a multiply disabled child asked me to do a due process hearing, seeking residential placement. The father, an attorney, believed I was the right person to try and help his son. I finally agreed. Barbara Bateman, Professor at the University of Oregon, published So You’re Going to a Hearing at this time. I followed every direction in her book, telephoning her periodically with questions. After several days of hearing, Westwood settled and placed the child residentially.