welcome to know your rights in new jersey today we're going to talk about special needs education with our guests paul pryor of live me see if i can get this right in cole fingal's pryor and fisher very nice well especially as children come in all different shapes and sizes it sounds cliche but you know if you've met once i was special needs you've met one child with special needs children with special needs can range from a variety of different disabilities in areas oftentimes children special needs will have issues like autism spectrum disorder will have some physical limitations mobility impairments and so forth all the way to the other end of the continuum where students have some very mild or undifferentiated learning disabilities such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorders and so forth so there's no one definition but under the law when it comes to public education a student special needs is a student who has some impairment  learning which negatively impacts his or her ability to learn and therefore require some specialized services interventions to maximize that student's educational potential so how does that translate into the variety of rights that a special needs child might have well a special needs child has a number of rights conferred by both federal and state law here in new jersey a student a special needs is entitle to receive from his or her district what's known as a free and appropriate public education that's a term of art free in a public public education often referred to his fate you know for those of us who practice in the area and the people who educate students especially and so the students entitle to receive it no cost  educate which is appropriate which is designed to allow the student to make meaningful educational progress over the course of his educational career and students especially in certain type of special education related services between the ages of three and twenty one say it's an extended period of time as compared to neuro typically developing students who don't have special education i'll repeat that phrase for me again regarding the type of education they are entitled to students entitle to a free and appropriate public education ok so since there are such a wide variety of special needs how does one determine what's fair and appropriate well emphasis often becomes an appropriate moca a right and and the mechanism by which we determine whether the program or the educational services are appropriate is the development of what's commonly referred to as an individualized education plan or an i e you know exactly thank you and these are individually tailored plans that are that are put together by both educators administrators and of course the parents and went when appropriate the student was special needs him or herself so that we address on an individual basis what that students and we are so that we can help hopefully confer some meaningful educational benefits that suit so generally how does one get into the i e part i e part of the process well the first part it all starts with the initially identifying the student isn't as a student who needs some specialized interventions and i don't either but i did advise that well it can be either the parent who raises that concern to the district into the school or the school will ultimately hopefully identify the student as being an individual who needs some specialized educational services either party can raise the concern and then once that happens the district  is obligated to then evaluate the student did assess his or her learning style and then determine whether that student has an impairment which limits his or her ability to learn and if so then we develop an i o who makes the determination regarding ips and i understand there's a teen who also makes the determination regarding the impairment and what type of impairment it again it's it's a  partnership or a collaboration between the parent and the school ultimately you know in most since and says the school district or the school will be the final arbiter of that at least initially and then of course if a student if a parent of a student disagrees with the school's determination in other words sometimes a district will determine that a student is not eligible or not in need of special education is it services so let me draw down just a little bit when you say the school and  p development who from the school is involved in and generally yeah that's a good question so it's a team of professionals that includes a learning disability teacher consultant for the school a case manager for the school often it ministre her or her middle level administrator from the school a special education teacher a regular education teacher and where appropriate professionals from various disciplines like such as occupational therapy speech therapy physical therapy applied behavioral analysis therapists and so forth so depending on the the nature of the of the concern involved those individuals on the school side will participate on the team and will help to develop either a sense of whether the student needs some special education interventions and if so what those interventions might be and of course central to all of that is the parent's participation right and so what is the challenging for parents sometimes however federal laws namely the cornerstone law the individuals with disabilities education act which was sometimes referred to as two i d e a that gives families gives parents particular vast procedural rights and procedural safeguards to enable the parent to advocate for their child and to exercise you know conflict resolution rights and to hold the district's feet to the fire so to speak to make the parents to allow the parents to be a central part of the plan and the planning and identification process to help guard against the parent being outgunned by schools i think to a fairly good job generally of identifying students in providing services i don't think people get into special education or education in general to deny educational services and rights to students but there is a certain realities in the situation that's conflict arises well isn't it true though that some people with special needs children are concerned that money plays a big part whether they receive fair let's put parasite appropriate appropriate education because appropriate isn't always within the established classroom of the established program yeah i think economics well under the law economics cannot play and play a role and in fact districts are specifically prohibited from using economics as a defend yes however you know in the real world in the natural tension where we have what we place upon districts under the law a very difficult task to provide individual a services to students with special needs and we don't always as a as a as a government as a society give them the necessary financial resources to you know accomplish that goal so we have this natural tension that exists you know in these systems where you know districts have larger concerns budgetary concerns administrative concerns but still have an obligation to provide appropriate services to students and that's where parents come in because then the parent can using the rights that are available to them press the district to do what the district is supposed to do and so when does a parent in this situation come to a professional why q well you know hopefully never right you know hopefully that would not to sound too whatever but hopefully never because hopefully  they have a good experience with their school district however in in a certain i think small but noteworthy percentage of families who have children special needs you know a conflict arises and then parents will often come see a person like myself when they either have questions about what their rights are or when they just have a gut sense that they're not their child is not getting the educational services that they they need and you know in some instances i could be quite critical if a student has a reading disability a visual processing disorder oftentimes in there and they're getting into upper elementary ages and they can't read or they are not reading on grade level or if you have a student with an autism spectrum disorder who was not able to maintain behavioral control in the classroom and they need some certain behavioral interventions you know parents know or have parents instinctively know and that's when they often come see you a person like me to least help them understand what their rights are and help them perhaps exercise those rights if that's what's necessary what are the most common problems that use c ari for children families with children with special needs off sometimes the most common problem is as a child won't make a child will be identified as having special education needs the district will formulate and put together and individualized education me when they don't have when the kid's not making any any meaningful progress at all and then we need to re examine what that student's educational placement might look like what their educational program might look like we may have to provide additional services we might need to advocate for a different kind of setting or a different kind of placement maybe a specialized placement that either is in the school district or outside of the school district and in a very particular program certain types of reading interventions or certain types of occupational physical therapy interventions so as to get that student hopefully back on track and hopefully back where he or she needs to be well what channels do you as the professional go through to try to resolve these issues well you always try a diplomatic approach avoidant approach right let's sit down let's talk let's find out what the issues are and let's narrow the issues and see if we can come to some form agreement of course if you can't do that then there's this there's this mechanism the special education context known as due process or due process hearing that's you know weigh the evidence listen to the testimony review the documents and you know make a as to whether the student is or is not receiving a free and appropriate public education thank you paul this is a great time to take a break we'll be welcome back we're here in new york writes new jersey with paul pryor discussing special needs paul you are certainly very passionate about this issue tell us a little bit about why well yeah i got in this area the you know having had strong parents and you know good advocates even in the early days before a lot of the special education rights we've talked about here today were in acted by congress instead it still did everything they could for him and you know i learned a very early age that when you have a loved one with special needs you will always have to continue to advocate and fight for that person for that show so with advocacy in mind what would you tell parents out there in our audience is the most and one of the most important things or some of the most important things they need to know when advocating for their child well first is to never give up right that the trade secret thing to my practice never ever ever go away and to get what you want right i mean no i know that in a polite infirm way but yeah right you just never go away you know and always remember as well that a child with special needs is only a child with special needs for about twenty percent of his life and then that child he or she becomes an adult with special needs for their meaning any percent of his or her life and so when we're talking about special education programs remember towards the tail end of those educational time limits before twenty one starting at the age of sixteen actually under the law we have to start thinking about transitioning that student from school into the adult world now that may look like very different things for very different students for some students with my learning disabilities it may be how do we transition them into a college killam or do they need some additional time for the move into a college curriculum for others such as someone little more severely impacted like my own personal circumstance they meet may need linkages to adult service delivery systems like in new jersey to new jersey division of developmental disabilities when do we ply for social security how do we get access to medicaid how do we make sure that we put everything in place necessary so that thirty forty fifty years from now when mom and dad are no longer around how have we how have we planned for that student so they have a meaningful purposeful robust as life as possible within the limits of their disability let's talk a little bit about the role of the department of education in this entire process again explain it to me well the new jersey department of education deal we is responsible for ensuring students between the age of three and twenty one receive a free public education were talked about last time they're responsible for monitoring overseeing ensuring the implementation of the individuals with disabilities education act they're responsible for interfacing with local school districts and making sure that local school districts are compliant they're also responsible for ensuring that dispute resolution processes are established meaning that they have a mediation process in a new jersey we actually have a very very nice mediation process where and before where parents in districts maybe disagree on what the the path forward should be the department of education can supply a mediator oftentimes a very well versed mediator in special education matters and educational matters who can help the parties resolve their disputes and if not then their response of the department is responsible for ensuring that the matter is moved over the office of ministry of law and that the matter is held conducted over there in a timely matter d also responsible for publishing regulations making information widely available to parents training school districts and school district personnel and so forth what are the pariah the of or type of resources out there were parents to get a better understanding of this and there's a lot there really is a lot and if you do a google search out there and you'll come up you'll get overwhelmed with the number of hits that any of you know i think they should prioritize it particularly if it's a local family you know here in new jersey the department heads website deal his website does provide a fair amount of information is very helpful for parents or is actually specific parent section on the deal his website and website under the special education program section which has among other things a copy of the id for perusal a copy of the coordinate state law up there for perusal that all the regulations that are out there as well as some compliance guides that are out there and some things that are written in a more narrative form they can give families a flavor you know and maybe easier to understand terms of what the districts obligations in the parent's rights are other valuable resources include things like the arc of new jersey what is the or the arc of new jersey is it is a provider an advocacy organization providing you know governmental advocacy and  social advocacy to individuals with developmental disabilities they have a very comprehensive website an arc is the a r c a r c many many years ago was referred to as the association for retarded citizens we don't use those terms anymore right we don't use terms anymore so many years ago they converted themselves to the ark keeping keeping in keeping with their history but understanding you know the words to do sometimes really matter right so you know and and so they have a very nice website the arc of new jersey including a component with scully called the family institute which which provides families with a lot of different resources and rights in a very comprehensive easy to digest manner things that they put up there called go bags so if you have a particular issue on one of valuations or or at a district placements or guardianship or whatever it might be you can go to the specific go back and get all the information you need other resources might be an organization is autism new jersey dot gov is a great website as well who provide a lot of federal information out there so there's a variety of users resources out there i would say those would be a good place for parents to start to gather some valuable information in a way that's understandable and digestible for most most families so when parents come to a law firm or look are looking for a lawyer what is it they should be looking for and not just in the lawyer but other partners and their advoca new guy but experience counts and there's a lot of mistakes that can be made they can have negative effects on the students you know educational career long term and i would also say that you probably want to look for a practice that does just focus only on special education as much or a person who does other things and also does special education and why is that because again the long view of life for a person with special needs college bound or otherwise you know it's it's it's what happens after twenty one it would what's what's the long view does the person need to build services does the person qualify for medicaid do they qualify for social security do they need guardianship what is the what is the role of trusts in a state planning and all that so i'm not talking about this now but what you're really pointing towards is the connection between a state planning because your life will hanning yeah and the special  needs of a child yeah it's a global view right you want to try and find a practice as a more global view of these things and of course you know having a practice it's connected in plugged into the disability community you know kind of knows what's going on these are rapidly changing areas all the time are they really yes what's happened recently that we should know well with respect to transition services in adult services new jersey has recently completely changed the funding strategy and the funding for better or worse that's debatable i think i don't know if we have enough time for that but that's debatable some things better than some things worse but we i think we can just say it's different but our support should know about this yeah people should know about this  because the problem is that when families are unaware of what the changes are in their left behind they can often get they can get caught in the middle in the gaps of the system in transition and that's of course detrimental to the individual special needs him or herself so you want to have a practice it's kind of plugged in and aware of the changes and developments in the law are there any other specific partners that a parent should have in their advocacy and i know it can vary  depending on the needs of the child but are there any other type of partners they need yet parents you know to the extent that that it's necessary and helpful and it often is parents who are often well advised to  connect early on or at least at some point with with a clinical expert of their own or a person with clinical expertise of their own whether it's an educational consultant behavioral consultant and so forth so that or a college a college preparatory consultant so that the parent can get a sort of an unvarnished view of what the district is doing well what the system is doing well what the students needs are what we should focus on going forward what the what the maximum progress maybe the students already made or maybe you can move on to other things you know instead of repeating a skill or or an area that the students already mastered right so they can student continue to grow up right so i think that's a viable partner that's non it's more educational in nature big can provide the parent with a great deal of information and resources specific to their kids but this and with a what i consider a tough question maybe it's not for you i'm sure it is but this is a very this can  be from a parent's perspective a very expensive financially than i how how and how does a parent deal with that well it's like anything else you know in our society  having access to economic resources can sometimes you know translate into access to justice however there are there are nonprofit legal agencies out there that can provide some of these services you know of course on a limited resource basis because you know they have their own competing demands and pressure there's parents are well advised i think to first go into this process year by year ok speaking with the teacher speaking with it ministers of voiding problems not letting things pile up not letting concerns go on spoken you know in a polite respectful manner and not letting the child languish in a classroom or languish in a program for for weeks or months on end without speaking up first because oftentimes again as i said i think earlier people don't get into special education or education general to deny services or to hinder a child's educational progress if they if this school or teachers or administrators know of a parent's concerns there's a lot of things that they can do and oftentimes will do to mitigate those concerns and make the parent happy it's just a matter of raising awareness so and if and of course if you do that then you never have to never have to come see a guy like me would so would it be fair to say that your baby is persistent advocacy and vigilance yes and never yes never giving up