by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Capitols
OCR found that school officials in a Burlington County district illegally required the family of a child with autism to pay for services.In the last two years, federal officials have launched dozens of new probes addressing civil rights issues that previously received...
by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Capitols
The New Jersey Department of Education has issued a corrective action plan for a north Jersey school district. The order is in response to a complaint investigation initiated by a non-attorney advocate last fall. According to the report, students placed in a...
by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Capitols
U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Education Committee, has introduced a bill (S.2020) that would establish national standards on the use of restraints and seclusion in school. The “Keeping All Students Safe Act” would prohibit seclusion, as well as...
by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Capitols
Currently, more than $1.6 billion a year in Medicaid funding is used to pay for physical, occupational and speech therapy, mental health services, transportation and counseling.The U.S. Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services...
by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Courts
After a protracted court battle, a New Jersey school district has agreed to reimburse parents for legal fees and the cost of tuition at a state-approved private school. The case involves a boy with autism, now 15, placed at a private school by his parents. Initially,...
by Common Ground | Apr 16, 2012 | Courts
“A New Jersey District Court ruled that a child’s claim to compensatory education was moot because the child subsequently moved from New Jersey to another state.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia will review a case that has potential to...
by Common Ground | Apr 14, 2012 | Courts
A federal judge has ruled that Washington, D.C. public schools must dramatically change the ways in which they identify and serve preschoolers with disabilities. A class action lawsuit was filed in 2005 by parents of seven young children with disabilities, claiming...
by Common Ground | Apr 11, 2012 | Courts
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a California school district ordered to provide compensatory tutoring to a teen with learning disabilities. The case, Compton Unified School District v. Addison, involves a tenth-grade student who had failed...
by Common Ground | Apr 5, 2012 | Features, Parents, Professionals, Teachers
By: Dr. Meir Flancbaum As a teacher, you can serve as the child’s “coach,” when he implements strategies in the classroom. Sam is a bright, considerate, athletic middle school student, but he dreads going to school. Throughout his day, unintended movement and noises...
by Common Ground | Nov 15, 2011 | Snapshot
Two and a half million students — or about 5% of all students in public schools — are identified as having learning disabilities (LD) in 2009 and are eligible for assistance under IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In the last decade, the number of...
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