Special Education Tip – Put Your Hands Over Your Ears – 54-2017

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Rochelle’s Special Education Tips

Put Your Hands Over Your Ears

It is always a good time to remember what you do not want to hear at IEP team meetings. The following has been heard at recent meetings:

• “Putting the child in inclusion classes instead of self-contained classes will take up a lot of teacher prep time.”
  • Just do not say it.
• Regarding a parent who insists on hand-delivery of documents, “The parent would not accept hand-delivery of the 5-day documents which we tried to provide more than 5 days before the meeting, so we provided them a day late.”
  • Never agree to a late delivery of documents.
• “I am not sure if a report was made to DSS regarding the (obviously deviant) behavior of the parent that the student reported to us.”
  • If you have reason to believe that abuse or neglect has occurred, the school administrator should know if the report was made to DSS.
• “I do not retain the data after the progress report is submitted to the parents.”
  • It is time to discipline the employee. Did the data ever exist?
• “We realize now that the number of restraints we had to use with him has been really excessive.”
  • Has each instance of restraint been written up?
• Regarding a student who is on her 2nd round of Home and Hospital Instruction and whose parents will probably be seeking recertification for Home and Hospital, “The parents will not let us talk to the doctor.”
  • Your Home and Hospital form requires a parental signature consenting to your communication with the doctor. If the parent does not consent, Home and Hospital should not be granted and the student’s absence is not excused.

Rochelle’s Special Education Tips (“Tips”) are designed to be helpful and thought provoking, but should not be considered legal advice as they may not be accurate for use in all situations. Tips are based on my opinions and positions in accordance with federal and Maryland law and my over 35 years of experience in the special education legal field. – Rochelle S. Eisenberg, Esquire

Copyright © 2017 Pessin Katz Law, P.A. All rights reserved.

Tips may be reproduced for distribution within the educational institution, the individual school or school system and is for use by their staff. Additional distribution must be approved by author.

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