I posted this on the community board to try to get as many people to read it as possible, but I wanted to also post it here. I hope it's helpful for someone.
I just found out that the governor signed legislation requiring school districts to show the burden of proof that the are providing an appropriate education to special needs students if a parent goes through impartial due process.
Many schools in the past couple of years were using the law against parents. They weren't coming into meetings in good faith. They basically had the attitude, "This is what we offer, take it, leave it, or hire lawyers to go to the next level...we already have our lawyers." This kept many parents from being able to pursue sue process, because they simply couldn't afford to hire the lawyers, specialists and other witnesses to prove their case under the former burden of proof laws. Many also have several area education lawyers on retainer, shrinking an already small pool of specialized, expensive attorneys even more.
Add to this the fairly recent supreme court decision that schools/states can't require parents to hire attorneys to represent them/their children...they can represent their children themselves, and it puts a small amount of the power back in the hands of the parents.
Here's a link about the legislation: http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/ny...eases_8219.htm
I just found out that the governor signed legislation requiring school districts to show the burden of proof that the are providing an appropriate education to special needs students if a parent goes through impartial due process.
Many schools in the past couple of years were using the law against parents. They weren't coming into meetings in good faith. They basically had the attitude, "This is what we offer, take it, leave it, or hire lawyers to go to the next level...we already have our lawyers." This kept many parents from being able to pursue sue process, because they simply couldn't afford to hire the lawyers, specialists and other witnesses to prove their case under the former burden of proof laws. Many also have several area education lawyers on retainer, shrinking an already small pool of specialized, expensive attorneys even more.
Add to this the fairly recent supreme court decision that schools/states can't require parents to hire attorneys to represent them/their children...they can represent their children themselves, and it puts a small amount of the power back in the hands of the parents.
Here's a link about the legislation: http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/ny...eases_8219.htm
