ACDL News

By Rose Daly Rooney, Legal Director and Amanda Glass, Equal Justice Works Fellow The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that each state’s education agency develop several systems to address disputes that may arise between the families of students with disabilities and their schools. One required system is a mediation system, which was discussed in our last four blog posts. Another required system is the […]

By Rose Daly Rooney, Legal Director and Amanda Glass, Equal Justice Works Fellow You learned the basics about mediation in Mediation: What is it?. You received information and tips to help you get ready for mediation in Preparing for Mediation.  You picked up guidelines about writing a good settlement agreement in The Mediation Agreement.  Hopefully you will use this information to have a successful mediation that […]

By Rose Daly Rooney, Legal Director  Whew! You reached an agreement about your child’s special education during the mediation session.  Congratulations! Your work is done, right? Well, not yet.  Now, you must actively participate in writing the Mediation Agreement to ensure that it is: accurate, complete, enforceable, and does not waive important rights. Even though the mediation process is informal, written mediation agreements are […]

by Rose Daly-Rooney, Legal Director “A winning effort begins with preparation.” –Joe Gibbs “Winning” in mediation is when parents and the school (or other public education agency) explore ideas for resolving a dispute and agree upon terms that will meet the interests of providing a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment to the student.  Here are nine tips to help you […]

by Rose Daly-Rooney, Legal Director Carlos has autism and runs from the classroom when he is frustrated by his academic work or overwhelmed by the noise in the cafeteria or during assemblies.  His grandmother—who has power of attorney while his mother is deployed—does not agree with the school’s proposed plan for addressing the behavior and providing adequate safety measures in Carlos’ Individualized Education Program […]

by Stephanie Mendivil, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2019) An independent education evaluation, or IEE, is an evaluation conducted by a qualified evaluator who is not employed by the school district. An IEE can take place at any time at private expense. Parents may request an IEE at public expense, which means that the school district or charter school where the child is enrolled pays […]