ADVOCATING 4 KIDS

Special Education Spotlight #11 February 1, 2009                                                                                           

Contact Information: JoAnn@disabilitydeception.com                                                                    

Website: www.disabilitydeception.com 

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1.    JoAnn’s Corner www.amazon.com for $15.00 plus shipping!  New testimonial: “Nice to have a source that articulates what I see happening over and over.”   

http://www.MargaretKay.com .  According to Ms Kay there are 5 components that need to be in a school psychologists report.  These are paraphrased. They are:www.nasponline.org/standards/ProfessionalCond.pdf 

It has a lot of information and I would encourage all parents to look at the document. The problem is that as far as I can tell, this is a voluntary ethics guideline and only enforceable among their members. While investigating how to file an ethics complaint for a school psychologist, my state board of education said that the complaint cannot be filed with them; they have no authority!!
Below is some info from the manual; paraphrased:

1.    Mission of NASP is to promote healthy educational environments by using research based effective programs. We accomplish this through research, training, advocacy etc.
2.    School psychologists will act as advocates for the students that they work with.
3.    School psychologists at the very least will do no harm.
4.    School psychologists will speak up for the needs and rights of the students that they work with.
5.    School psychologists only use professional practices that maintain the dignity of children and parents.
6.    School psychologists do not participate in any action that would violate the civil and legal rights of children and parents.
7.    School psychologists will communicate to school administration and staff their concern for protecting the rights of children in determining services.
8.    Psychological reports that give test scores only, and generalized statements for eligibility for special education without specific recommendations, are seldom useful.
9.    School psychologists develop and implement behavioral change programs such as positive reinforcement, social skills training, and academic instruction.
10.     School psychologists develop academic and behavioral interventions.
I would love to hear from parents about your experiences with school psychologists if you had a good or bad experience, and would like to share with other parents, please E mail me at the above E mail address. Your privacy will be protected.http://jaygreene.com/2009/01/04/blaming-special-ed/ Jay talks about people that blame special education for the troubles in K-12 education and for draining money from general education.
B.    A wonderful article on Wrightslaw by Suzanne Whitney about states sending back 1.7 billion dollars in unused special education funds, between 2000-2002! Find this article at: www.wrightslaw.com/news/04/unspent.funds.heath.htm (JoAnn: Think about what this money could do for our children with disabilities! Contact your legislators about this travesty!)
C.    The National Disability Rights Network has released a wonderful report on Restraint and Seclusion entitled: “School is Not Supposed to Hurt!” This resource can be found at: http://www.napas.org/sr/SR-Report.pdf This is a wonderful document that gives lots of examples of children with disabilities hurt or killed by restraint and seclusion. The report also discusses recommendations and the important use of positive behavioral supports; which are covered in my new E-Book!
D.    Bookshare offers Free digital books for people with blindness or print disabilities, including severe learning disabilities. They are offering this with an OSEP grant!  There are specific requirements that must be met, but it is worth it! They offer 42,000 digital books, textbooks, teacher recommending reading, periodicals and assistive technology tools! You can find them at: www.bookshare.org                                                                           

Disability Deception has continued to sell well at

Last month I mentioned that I would be discussing school psychologists  and my opinion that in the last several years, many school psychologists evaluation reports, have become watered down.   I received many comments from parents a few of them I am listing:

A. “I completely agree with what you wrote about watered down school evaluations. How does a parent know what should be in a good evaluation?” (Keep reading this newsletter- I answer this question)!

B. “I agree with what you said, it has taken me a long time to figure out that this was happening (watering down of school psychologists reports).”   

I found a wonderful document written by a Nationally Certified School Psychologist by the name of Margaret J. Kay, EdD, NCSP, DABPS entitled “How to Prepare a Psycho educational Evaluation Report & Testify as an Expert Witness” You can find this free document at

1.    The reason that the child is being referred for a special education evaluation. Academic difficulties, behavioral difficulties, suspect autism, suspect a learning disability; the specific reason why the child is being evaluated.
2.    The Child’s History and Background Information. Medical History, family history, educational history, and also observations from people who are with the child on a regular basis. Also, how the child has tested over time. Ms. Kay mentions the Mathew Effect which is in refers to the decrease on tests measuring verbal learning in children whose reading difficulties are not remediated. I have said this for years: that a drop in IQ can only be caused by two things; traumatic brain injury, or the fact that the child has not received remediation for their academic difficulties.  I first heard this from a Clinical Psychologist who was testifying at a due process for someone I was advocating for.
3.    The child’s behavior during the testing. What is important is not just the test scores, but what the child does during the process of the evaluation. Is the child having difficulty focusing, paying attention, is the child hyperactive or hypoactive, are they showing signs of frustration, is the testing tedious for the child. Process assessment should be included because it is critical how the child obtains the test score, more than the score themselves. I have heard from parents that believe that their child is given help to obtain a better score, though I have not seen this in children that I have advocated for.
4.    Test Results and Analysis of the test results. The psychologist needs to discuss the test scores but also interpret the test scores. This is often where I disagree with many school psychologists. They will often find low academic scores and then state in the eligibility meeting that the child does not qualify, for special education services. I am also concerned about some school psychologists that pick tests in areas that they know the child will do well in.  For Example: A child who is reading at first grade level but is in third grade being given a reading test, that does not test phonemic awareness, reading fluency, decoding, vocabulary etc. Each area must be tested to determine if a child has educational needs in that area.
Ms. Kay states that this section of the report should state whether the child is making progress and whether the child is benefiting from special education. I have never seen this myself; but if you have please E mail me at the address above, and share with me your story, it will help other parents.

5.    Summary of Test Results and Recommendations for Interventions. This section should give a summary of the results of the evaluation, recommendations for special education services, and a determination of the child’s eligibility for special education services.  I have not seen specific recommendations in a child’s report for many years. I am seeing general recommendations, but not recommendations for specific special and related services that a child needs. Other parents and advocates have commented that they are seeing the same thing.

JoAnn: I am also not seeing many school psychologists stating in writing whether the child is eligible for special education or not.   This is copied from a child’s report: “It is recommended that the information presented in this report be used in combination with information provided by other relevant parties for the determination of eligibility for special education and for academic programming.” I could not believe this when I read it! The psychologist could not even bring himself to state that the child needed special education services!

JoAnn: I am also concerned by the fact that many school psychologists are not testing children in all areas of suspected disability, as required by IDEA!! If the psychologist does not test the child to determine if the child has learning disabilities how are they going to find the learning disabilities! Many years ago when my son Shaun was 7 I asked for him to be tested for LD. The school assured me that my son was not LD! I found out later that he was never tested. An independent evaluation showed that he had severe learning disabilities in 7 areas!  The child must be tested in all areas of suspected disability according to IDEA!

Advocacy Tip:  Insist that these five areas be included in your child’s next evaluation! If you do not see these things on the report ask the school psychologist in person at your child’s IEP meeting.

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2. Disability Deception of the Month

This month’s deception is going to be about ethics and school psychologists. The National Association of School Psychologists has put out a document entitled the “Professional Conduct Manual.” This manual is wonderful and very specifically states what the ethic guidelines are for members of their group. You may find this document at:

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3. Resources
A.    I found a wonderful Blog on blaming special education by a man named Jay Greene. His blog can be found at:

Check this out for your child!
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4. Disability and Special Education Newswww.disabilitydeception.com. I update it often with new resources and new information!                                                             

A.    The above report from the National Disability Rights Network has prompted the House to take action!  Rep. George Miller D-Calif, chairmen of the House Education and Labor Committee stated that he would schedule a hearing on the issue of restraint and seclusion that is used in school districts for children with disabilities. “This report raises serious questions about the treatment of schoolchildren, the qualifications and training of staff, and what actions have been taken to address these unconscionable practices.” Miller said.
B.    ABC News had a story about an 8 year old Idaho girl with Aspergers which is on the autism spectrum,  that was arrested at school for battery. The girl became upset when she was not allowed to go to a Christmas party, because she would not take off her favorite cow costume. Her parents are considering suing the school district! The charges were dropped by the prosecutor Mr. Towry! He stated that the charges were dropped because of the child’s age and condition. JoAnn:  Where is the use of positive behavioral supports which must be considered, when a child has behavior that interferes with their education! Many special education personnel have totally lost their common sense, continuing to punish children for behavior that is part of their disabilities, rather than use positive behavioral supports and plans! I not only support a lawsuit in this case but would love to contribute to the parents legal fees! School districts must be forced to deal with
children’s negative behavior, in an appropriate way, that helps increase the child’s positive behavior
C.    Supreme Court to hear case about whether parents can unilaterally place their children in private school at public expense, even if their child has never been in public school. The Supreme Court Tom F. Case on this issue ended in a 4-4 decision with Justice Kennedy recusing himself. Justice Kennedy is supposed to hear this case and not take himself out of the case. Justice Kennedy has a grandson with autism; so it will be interesting to see how he rules! 
This case is out of Oregon and what is interesting is that the school district found the child ineligible for special education services. Since they found him ineligible the parent should have the right to put him in a private school at public expense.
D.    DC Files Suit Over Special Education Case It Calls Frivolous article in Washington  Post
The school district is taking advantage of an IDEA 2004 regulation that allows schools to recover attorney fees if parents bring frivolous actions. Across the US this has been tried a few times with no success, because parents have the unlimited right to file for a due process hearing if they disagree with the school districts recommendations. DC is asking for$1,752.25 to cover legal representation at a due process hearing.
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Get your copy of the E book today for $10.00 which includes shipping at:

Last month I put in information about a newspaper article that was in my local newspaper the Daily Journal in Kankakee Ill. The article was entitled “The Agony of Autism.” The article was about a 13 year old Minnesota boy who was banned from church for being disruptive. I asked parents to please E mail me with answers to some questions:

a. Are you sometimes concerned that your child may be disruptive in public?

b. Would you leave a setting where your child was screaming or running

c. Have you been asked to leave a setting where your child was loud, screaming, or touching others?

d. Have you altered where you take your child because of their behavior? In what way have you altered where you take your child?

e. Have you come up with easy solutions to keep your child calm in public that you would be willing to share with others?

I would like to keep this open for one more month for more responses. Any parent of a child with any disability may respond, as well as professionals in the educational field. Next month I will print some of the responses, (without names or identifying information) to share with other readers of this newsletter. I will also include some of my comments and things that I have used for my daughter Angelina in public settings. To send an E mail response send it to: JoAnn@disabilitydeception.com

As a parent of three adult children two who have disabilities, I have been lied to many times by some special education personnel. But I also have been very fortunate, to meet some wonderful disability educators, that absolutely refuse to lie to parents. The sad thing is they are few and far between. The disability educators that do not tell parents the truth, about the law or about their child’s education, negatively affect the child for the rest of their life. This is the reason that I wrote Disability Deception; Lies Disability Educators Tell and How Parents Can Beat Them at Their Own Game! I want to help parents of children with disabilities, to be able to determine when they are being lied to, by some special education personnel. Once a parent learns that they are being lied to, they can learn advocacy skills to overcome the lies, for the benefit of their child’s education.

Chapter 1 of Disability Deception gives several reasons why some school personnel lie to parents. I will list a couple for you:

1. Special education personnel sometimes lie because, they do not want to provide special education programs and related services, to children with disabilities. I was once interviewed and asked why schools do not want to give services to children, and of course some of the answer is money. I do not believe though that it is all related to money, some of it is that they do not want to take the time that is needed, to help children with disabilities reach their full potential.

2. School personnel sometimes lie to parents when they ask for a specific service, because they do not want to set a precedent. Especially services like tutoring, or Applied Behavioral Analysis. The school districts are scared that if they give the service to one parent, many more will want the same service for their child. I think this is ridiculous because, schools are required by law to give every child with a disability a free appropriate public education.

3. Special Education personnel often lie to parents, that they consider vulnerable (for instance a single parent or a parent going through a divorce). This hit home for me when this happened to me. I was going through a terrible divorce and having a dispute with my school district over services for my son. I refused to give in and eventually settled my dispute with the school district. Remember, it is not that the parent is vulnerable, it is that the special education personnel think they are!

Here are a few of my best advocacy techniques:

1. Any important educational issue must be handled in writing and not handled verbally. You are not obligated to speak to school personnel. Letters are documentation that you will need, in case of a future dispute between yourself and school personnel.

2. Stand up to disability educators in an assertively persistent manner, if you are told something that you are not sure is true! Ask them for written proof from the federal or state special education law that what they are saying is true! The more you let them get away with deceptions, the more they will speak deceptions!

3. Develop a working knowledge of federal and state special education laws, and No Child Left Behind. This will help you recognize when you are being lied to! You do not have to memorize the law, but just know where to find something if you need it.

4. Purchase Disability Deception at www.amazon.com or www.disabilitydeception.com. The book is affordable and will help give you ammunitionm in your fight for your child’s life! For reviews and testimonials by parents go to the two above Web sites.

Questions

Have you been lied to by special education personnel?

Would you like to share what the lie was about?

Were you able to overcome the lie for the good of your child?

Would you tell us how?

Lets share how to overcome deceptions told by some special education personnel; to help our children receive a free and appropriate public education, and live fulfilled lives!

JoAnn Collins

JoAnn has been an educational advocate for over 15 years helping parents navigate the special education system. JoAnn is the author of Disability Deception.

We welcome JoAnne Collins. She has agreed to share her insight and resources about “Lies Disability Educators tell parents.