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Special Education Law Tips

October 2016
2 Things that will help your child with school

Since we know that parents of special needs kids don't have a ton of spare time, our newsletter is designed to be short but sweet.  Enjoy these 2 Things and if you know someone who will also benefit from these tips, please feel free to pass it along.  Thank you from all of us at SchoolKidsLawyer.com!

A brief thank you and welcome!
We'd like to take a moment and thank all of our subscribers and offer a very sincere welcome to all of our new subscribers, especially those we met at the Autism NJ Annual Conference!
Transition Into Adulthood
As a parent, your primary goal is to enable your child to become a productive, independent adult.  Did you know that this is the job of the school district too? If your child has an IEP, then the planning for your child's transition into adulthood must begin by the age of 16.  "Transition services" must be included in the IEP with "appropriate measurable post-secondary goals".  The IEP team must conduct a transition assessment to determine the training, education, employment, and independent living skills necessary to determine what those transition goals should be.  The IEP team must list the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals.  If a good transition plan is not in place by the time your child with a disability reaches the age of 16, request an IEP meeting to develop a transition plan.  An excellent discussion of what 'transition services' are is at the National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) website.
School Attorneys at the IEP Meeting
A question we receive quite frequently is whether the school district can bring its attorney to an IEP meeting. The answer is yes, but the school district still shouldn't (and neither should the parent). There is no law prohibiting an attorney representing any member of the IEP team to attend an IEP meeting.  However, there are two strong suggestions against it.  (1) The attorney ethics rules in nearly every state provide that a lawyer should not communicate with a party such lawyer knows to be represented by counsel.  (See, e.g., MRPC 4.2.) So a lawyer representing the school should not be at an IEP meeting when the parents' attorney is not there. (2) In 2001, the US Dept of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) issued a policy letter that said "the attendance of attorneys at IEP meetings should be strongly discouraged." (OSEP Letter to Clinton - Word format). IEP meetings are intended to be collaborative, not adversarial. So yes, but no.
Our upcoming events:

Nov. 12, 2016 - SKL's Special Education Law and Advocacy
Workshop #1: Special Education Disputes
Residence Inn at Bishop's Gate, Mt. Laurel, NJ
http://schoolkidslawyer.com/workshop1.htm
 
Apr. 4, 2017 - Autism Series at Camden County College
Legal Issues Facing ASD Individuals at Age 21
Blackwood, NJ Campus, 6:30 pm
http://www.camdencc.edu/civiccenter/Lectures-and-Events.cfm

Our book SchoolKidsLawyer's Guide to Special Education Law: Workbook for Parents, Advocates and Lawyers
ON SALE NOW!



Go to http://schoolkidslawyer.com/book for more details!
 
Past issues of the 2 Things Newsletter are now archived online in both HMTL and PDF formats at http://schoolkidslawyer.com/2t.htm

If you have a group or organization that is interested in hosting a special education seminar, please contact us at info@schoolkidslawyer.com.

School Kids Lawyer

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