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In my job as a special education advocate, and my other job as a parent of a child with special needs, I have been involved in too many Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings to count.  During these numerous IEP meetings I have met some wonderful, caring, knowledgeable, well meaning Teachers and School Personnel. I have also, at times, heard some of the most outrageous statements!!!  These ridiculous comments fly in the face of everything the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) stands for.  What you will find below are ten of most ridiculous statements that I have heard and why they are so ridiculous.

Register for Session 5 Here! What:Session Five: Communication Devices in an Inclusive ClassroomThis webinar looks the use of single and multiple message communication devices and how they can be used as an integral part of the school day. We’ll examine vocabulary, motivation and share ideas and examples that you can use in your classrooms the very next day. Session Objectives: Colleagues who take part in this webinar will: 1. Gain a greater understanding of the range of communication devices, who they are for and how we might use them.2. Understand the importance of using motivating words and phrases to engage your learners.3. Understand how the meaningful use of communication devices can be embedded into teaching activities across the curriculum. Attendance Certificate will be provided upon completion of the webinar. When:February 15, 201210:00 - 11:00 am MTContact:Phone: 800.843.9166Email: support@readytalk.com

There are many types of speech and language disorders that can affect children. Over one million students are being served in our schools under the speech or language impairment category of IDEA, the law that authorizes special education. Do you have a student in your classroom who struggles with articulation, fluency, voice, or language? Is the student’s academic performance being negatively affected? This blog will give you 8 tips to help support students in your class who have speech or language impairments.

Autism Spectrum Disorders and Public Schools How many Montana public school students are there with autism? There are approximately 141,000 public school students in Montana’s K-12 schools and on January 31, 2012, there were 823 students with an educational label of autism. There are 16,000 students with educational disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal legislation which determines special education eligibility. Five percent of the students with disabilities are autistic. This percentage has increased from 1 percent to 5 percent in the last seven years, as the number of students with autism has increased and the number of enrolled students (and students with disabilities) has decreased.

The 13-year-old author of The Reason I Jump invites you, his reader, to imagine a daily life in which your faculty of speech is taken away. Explaining that you’re hungry, or tired, or in pain, is now as beyond your powers as a chat with a friend. I’d like to push the thought-experiment a little further. Now imagine that after you lose your ability to communicate, the editor-in-residence who orders your thoughts walks out without notice. The chances are that you never knew this mind-editor existed, but now that he or she has gone, you realize too late how the editor allowed your mind to function for all these years. A dam-burst of ideas, memories, impulses, and thoughts is cascading over you, unstoppably. Your editor controlled this flow, diverting the vast majority away, and recommending just a tiny number for your conscious consideration. But now you’re on your own.

Universal design (UD) is an idea that developed in the mid-1990s as advocates of making buildings and products accessible to people with disabilities realized that these features often had benefits for a broader population. Examples include curb ramps, automated doors, closed captioning in television sets and accessibility features for computer operating systems.

Welcome to our new training curriculum on early intervention! The full curriculum isn’t done yet, but we are pleased to make three modules available for your reading, downloading, and training use, and have many more on the way.

More than 132,000 students with multiple disabilities receive special education and related services in our public schools. Is there a child with multiple disabilities in your class? He or she clearly has special learning needs, so how is teaching this student different than teaching a student with just one disability? How can you address the student’s learning needs in positive and effective ways that will help the student learn? If you are looking for ideas on how to address these questions and others, this blog is for you!

Transportation is one of the most important services a school district is required to provide to students with disabilities under federal and state special education laws. The article will focus on the federal requirements regarding transportation and whether or not your school district is in compliance with those laws. Individual state laws are not discussed as the laws vary and are beyond the scope of this article.

During IEP season the stakes are high.  Parents and teachers alike go into those meetings full of emotions and ideas.  Sometimes I am surprised that what is unsaid seems just as loud as what is actually said. In the past In the past, I’ve made the mistake of going into an IEP angry.  I did not get the best results for my son at that meeting.  So I’ve been trying different tactics over the years, and I’ve made a conscious effort to learn the art of diplomacy in my words and actions.

I have a confession to make. Until about a year ago, I had no idea what SAMHSA was. I had never even heard of it. My son has struggled with serious behavioral issues for more than nine years, which we now know are caused by his bipolar disorder. We were working with a small army of social workers, counselors, school personnel, psychiatrists, therapists—and I was well-versed in a small textbook of acronyms like IEP, SMI, ADHD, ODD, ADA, etc. But not one time was SAMHSA or any of its programs ever mentioned to me as a resource.

Fewer than a third of states and territories now comply with federal disability law under a change announced Tuesday in the way the Department of Education evaluates how well public schools educate students with disabilities.

The Obama administration wants to see more kids with disabilities — no matter how significant — participating in classrooms alongside their typically-developing peers. The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services are jointly seeking public comment this week on a draft policy statement encouraging greater inclusion for young children with disabilities.

This video illustrates how essential early childhood inclusion is for all children, including those who cannot be in close proximity to other children because of health concerns. In this video, Kate Mathany describes how her daughter Getty virtually attends a typical preschool classroom every day using a VGo. In the first part, Kate introduces us to Getty and describes how the idea to use the VGo came about. In the second part, Kate is joined by Eileen Sedilko, Getty's preschool teacher, as they illustrate how Getty's school day works from both home and classroom perspectives. They discuss a range of topics including preschool inclusion, parent leadership, the use of adaptations, collaboration, teamwork, the benefits of inclusion for all children, families, and teachers. This video has important messages for families with children who cannot attend a preschool because of health reasons who are looking for solutions, for all those interested in early childhood inclusion, and for current and future early childhood educators. A presentation of the Desired Results Access Project, Napa County Office of Education, funded by the California Department of Education, Special Education Division. Produced by Larry Edelman.

The Foundations Project is asking parents of young children with disabilities about how they think about their children’s learning skills to help them become more independent in the future and able to speak for themselves as they grow older. We believe that young children who know how to calm themselves (called self-regulation), make and express their choices, and engage in activities with necessary help, are laying the foundations for later self-determination. Most young children develop these skills naturally as they grow. But sometimes children with disabilities need adults in their lives to help nourish those skills. It makes sense that children can learn these skills more rapidly when all the adults in their lives – parents and teachers – are working together. Please complete the survey that follows about your child’s strengths and challenges in self-regulation, choice-making, and engagement. We also ask you to share ideas and strategies that you use to encourage your child. Also, we want to hear your opinion about what it takes to make a successful partnership between home and school so that you and your child’s teacher can work together on these issues.