Special Education Case Law

http://www.wrightslaw.com/caselaw.htm

This website has been very valuable to me as I have worked on my graduate studies. This site has all law cases that pertain to special education cases that have happened. It dates back in history, and you can learn about different cases and the holdings of the courts according to law. THis is a great website!! Very valuable!

http://www.geocities.com/athens/styx/7315/subjects/law.html

This website is called Statutes, Regulations & Case Law. This website has information pertaining to IDEA Regualtions and Practices, Sdection 504, and 'Letric Law. It explains case law and has many cases that have happened. It gives valuable resources about contacts on the web to find more information about case law and regualtions.

http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/

This website is a blog page for parents that have questions or need help with a special needs child. It has great resources and would be a valuable tool as a parent to use for a better understanding for their child. The school can be a confusing place for a parent, so this website would be good for them to communicate with other parents and have questions answered.

Schools Behaving Badly

http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/schools_behaving_badly/

This website is a blog site that has information about schools that have done things are may not be ethical or legal. It looks as if this is a great resource for parents that may questions pertaining to legailty issues for their child dealing with special education.

Parent Advocacy

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/advo.index.htm

This site had a grat amount of resources pertaining to parent advocacy. It supplies articles that have a imformation about getting started with obtianing a parent advocate, explains advocating with articles, and many more. It also has advocacy tips and strategies, legal decisions about parent adovcacy, and resources.

http://www.disabilityresources.org/DRMincl.html

This website gives legal rights and inclusion terminlogy. It also provides resources for parents that may ahve questions.

http://www.ncld.org/content/view/290/322/

This website has great information about parent advocacy briefs. This particular site breaks the information down into age groups. It also has a great amount of information about legal issues such as IDEA, NCLB, and has a legislative action center.

No Child Left Behind

http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml

This website includes just about anything that you may want to know about No Child Left Behind. It has an A-Z index on NCLB! IT talks about the NCLB state status, and NCLB policies. It provides videos that should school's success with NCLB, and America's educational process.

http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
This website is part of the first website that I mentioned on this blog. However, this one in particular is about the Elementary and Secondary Act It talks about improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged and improving the basic programs operated by the local education agency and much more

http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/no-child-left-behind/
This website gives good insight of No Child Left Behind. It provides research on annual testing, teacher qualifications, reading first, funding changes, report cards, and academic progress. It also supplies many resources that provides valuable information.

Inclusion/LRE requirements

http://www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_One/Special_Education/special_education_inclusion.aspx
This website has definitions of inclusions including, mainstreaming, inclusion, and full inclusion. It also what federal law requires of inclusion. It discusses IDEA and Section 504. It talks about court decisions providing guidelines governing placement under IDEA. It has recommendations and resources. Great website!

http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/
This website provides information about legal requirements, teacher competencies, teaching strategies, decison-making, preparing for inclusion, and other issues. It also provides a great amount of resources.

http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/PUBS/504701.htm
This website provides a vast amount of information on LRE. Here is a list of some of the topics that it covers.
Information on Basic Rights and Responsibilities
Information on Evaluations/Assessments
Information on Eligibility Criteria
Information on IEP Process
Information on Related Services
Information on Due Process Hearings/Compliance Complaints
Information on Least Restrictive Environment
Information on Discipline of Students with Disabilities
Information on Interagency Responsibility for Related Services (AB 3632/882)
Information on Vocational Education
Information on Preschool Education Services
Information on Early Intervention Services
Information on the Rights of Students with Serious Health Conditions to Appropriate Educational Services
This is a GREAT website!

IDEA 2004

I have used this website before in the posting of high-stakes testing! Like I said in that posting, I have used this website a ton in this Legal Issues in Special Education class and I LOVE it!!! This site has such good, straight forward facts about whatever you are looking for! This time it just happens to be IDEA 2004. And of course this site has it all. This page contains information on IDEA 2004 on the following topics: Laws & Regualtions, Commentary to the Regualtions, Guidance from Education Dept, What You Need to Know About IDEA 2004, IDEA 2004 Publications and Reports, and Wrightslaw: Special Education Second Edition. Information about IDEA topics such as child find, eligibilty, evaluations, reevaluations, high-stakes testing, IEPs, IEP meetings and teams, accomadations, alternative assessment, placement, transition, parental rights and much more can be found in this book and on this site! This is a wonderful site to get knowledgeable information from! Go and check out the web page and the book!!
http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/

This second site that I found is really pretty cool. The actual website is called "IDEA Partners." The idea behind this group is to help parents and advocates improve educational results for children with disabilities. On this site there is a section titles FAPE: IDEA 2004 Summary. I printed this out to have with me because it has a very detailed description of all changes that were made with IDEA 2004! I highly recommend going and printing you a hard copy of this information! It is wonderful to have on hand. The summary talks about the IEP process, Due Process, and Discipline. With each of these sections, the summary goes into great detail and breaks it down into subsection! Go check this out! It is a great resource:
http://www.fape.org/idea/2004/summary.htm

This third website that I found is called the National Center for Learning Disabilties. This site has all the latest IDEA 2004 news. It explains what IDEA 2004 and how it is main federal program that authorizes state and local aid for special education and related services for children with disabilities, including students with learning disabilities. It has background information pertaining to IDEA 2004. Also it supplies research and policy and advocacy information. This site also breaks up the information in groups such as early learning (Pre-K), grades K-8th, and grades 9th-12th. There is a section titled resources in the web that supplies valuable sites that have an abundance if information about IDEA 2004. This is a great site! You can see at it:
http://www.ncld.org/content/view/274/321/

High Stakes Testing

The first website that I found that I though that was interesting was a site about things that are against State Achievement Tests. This site is called "Fair Test". It is the National Center for fair and open testing. The site has a great amount of information about testing, from K-12 Tesing to University testing. There is also a fact sheet and a resource link that can give more valuable information about high stakes testing. This website talks about the harmful effects of tesing on curriculum and instruction. It also talks about high-stakes testing exacerbates inequilities between wealthly and poor communities, and whites and students of color. This site also has a section about dropouts, retention, and high-stakes tests and how they are related. The harmful impact on bilingual students and English Language Learners that high-stakes testing has is also a section that you may refer to on this web page. The section that I found most interesting was a section titled "Testing Special Needs Students: Inclusion into flawed assessment policies and exams does more harm than good." There is much more important information that should be taken into account about testing. Here are some of the titles: Tesing Young Children, Scoring, Reporting and other errors made by testing companies in high-stakes situation, Anaylsis of the content and questions of various tests, Student voices on testing, Test pressure results in psychological harms for some children and many more!!! There is also a video about Standardized Testing Characteristics and NCLB assessing bilingual students!! You can find all this great information at the website: http://www.fairtest.org/arn/caseagainst.html


This website is called "Wrightslaw." I found this website to be very helpful while I have taken this Legal Issues class this semster! I have used the site a million times to get information about cases that I have read about. This site has a section titled: "High-Stakes Testing." It talks about the legal issues that come from state achievement testing. There is a great amount of information pertaining to children with disabilities that have to take high-stakes testing. There are articles and court cases that are a wonderful reference. This website also contains links to publications about high-stakes testing. This is a great resource to found about legal issues with state achievement testing.!!! Go check this out at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/highstak.index.htm

This next link is an article that I found from the Washington Post. I found this articel inspiring because it talks about other possiblities that can be used in schools besides high-stakes testing. The author of this article, Jay Matthews is a education columnist for the Washington Post. In this article, he refers to the book "Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Tesing Corrupts American Schools." Mr. Matthews addresses four other suggestion that the authors of the book have given. (1) Formative Assessments: Assessment for learning, not an assessment of learning (2) An inspectorate (3) End-of-course examinations (4) Performance test, including project and portfolio defenses, begor judges. This was very interesting!!!! I also found the website for the book!!
Website for article from Washinton Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033100704.html

Website for the book: http://books.google.com/books?id=f7-eAAAAMAAJ&q=high+stakes+testing&dq=high+stakes+testing&pgis=1

Due Process

This website is called "Family Education." This site educates parents about how to prepare for a due process hearing concerning their child's special education issues. This site has many different topics such as: starting the process, what about mediation?, what standards do hearing officers apply to IEP's?, and preparing and presenting. This site also has a link that will connect you more information about special education and the law. It is located at the bottom of the page. You can get all this valuablr information at: http://school.familyeducation.com/special-education/ada/38427.html?page=2

This second website is a wonderful site that has information specifically about the state of Texas. It is called "Texas Project First-Families, Informaton, Resources, Support & Training." This site has a vast amount of vitla information for parents and advocated of special needs children. Not only does this address "due process", but it has many links to imoprtant sites such as: The Texas Education Agency, Laws, Rules and Regulations, Special Eduation 101, Parent Training and Information Center, and Other Parent Training Resources. This website defines due process as "citizens right to justice, the entitlement of a citizento proper legal procedures and natural justice" (Encarta Dictionary) This site talks about what you need to know about due process hearing, who the hearing officer is, and specifics about the due process hearing itself. It also has a link that gives you information about The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 and procedural safeguards. This is a great website! Go check it out at: http://www.texasprojectfirst.org/DueProcess.html

This site is the Illinois State Board of Education website. This is a really great site because it discusses due process and offers some resources that are valuable, but it also has a video! The first video on this website is call the "Due Process: Resolving Special Education Disputes." This particular video demonstrates the steps in due process, beginning with a dispute concerning a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) and concluding with the hearing itself. There is a narration that provides in-depth information pretaining the legal requirements and procedures for sue process. The second video is called "Special Education Mediation. This video demonstrates a sample of a special education mediation process. It was recorded in 1986, however, while the recording may be a little dated, the information presented is accurate and the procedures are still appilcable. (You'll need RealOne player to view the video)
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/html/due_process.htm

Diagnostic Testing/IEP Development

IDEA 2004 Close Up: The Individualized Education (IEP) is a website that contains vital information pertaining to the Individuals with Disabities Education Act (2004). This website gives you information about the IEP itself. For example, this website looks into factors for consideration in developing the IEP, IEP contents, the IEP team, notice of Procedural Safeguards, and information on moving to a new school district. This website contains parent tips for each of the sections that I mentioned above!! Also changes to the IEP process that was made by IDEA 2004 are examined. This is a great tool for advocates, parents and school staff to use has a reference.
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/2978


A site that found that a great amount of information about diagnostic testing was on District Administration website. This particular site goes into detail about diagnostic testing. It explains what formal assessment is and how it is more than just the student passing or failing. Formal assessments give teachers and administrators information they need to determine the right way to accommadate students that needs help in instructional areas. This website also talks about personal and group targets, differentiated learning, and computer based format testing. Also the authors of this website explore No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Go check it out at: http://districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1490&p=2#0

This third website that I found is called Science Daily. This particular site reports the lastest research news. The link that I am going to provide will connect you with a report that is titled "Standardized Diagnostic Test for Learning Disabilties Developed." I found this interesting because it deals with Israli students. Dr. Evelyn Shatil from The Center of Brain Research and Learning Disabilities and Professor Baruch Nevo from the Department of Psychology at the University of Hafia have developed a standardizes test for identifying and diagnosing learning disabilties that is available in both Hebrew and Arabic. This test diagnoses reading and writing disabilities, difficulties with second language or math, and intelligence. This article discusses the two basic problems in the way they do their testing. I found this very interesting because I compared it to "our" way of testing. It is defferent, but then again they are concerned about the same things that Americans are concerned with.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070222102533.htm

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

The following website gives information about what exactly Assistive Technology is. It is the site for AccessIT, which is also known as The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education. AccessIt believes that access to information technology is vital to people with disabilities to enable them the oportunity to participate in today's technology full world. You can learn a great deal of information on this website not only about AccessIT, but also resources available through AccessIT, examples of accessible information technology in education, resources available, who can benefit from AccessIT, and staff and collabrators.

Go check it out at: http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109


Tobii Assistive Technology, Inc. (Tobii ATI) is a premier developer of innovative hardware and software solutions for people with disabilities. The company is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Its close proximity to many of the nation's top teaching hospitals and education institutions helps foster close research and testing relationships with several of these facilities.

Tobii ATI has released a range of new alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) solutions that help individuals with speech impairments communicate. You can check out the entire website at http://www.assistivetech.com/corporate/apout_tobii/company.aspx


Education World is a website that contains a vast variety of amount of information about how assistive technology can be used in the classroom. This site contains lesson planning ieas on how to incorporate AT into the classroom, professional development ideas, technology intergration, and school issues. It also offers information ranging from gifted and talented to severe and multiple disabilities. You can check out the wonderful website at http://www.education-world.com/special_ed/assistive/index.shtml