Wrightslaw: From Emotions To Advocacy - Success Stories - How I Got the School to Provide 140 Hours of Compensatory Education for My Son

Success Story:
How I Got 140 Hours of Compensatory Education for My Son

dad and boy One evening my wife and I were talking. She mentioned that the school released the special ed kids earlier than the regular ed kids.

In fact, the school released our son 27 minutes earlier than they released non- disabled students every single day. I recalled reading about this practice on the Wrightslaw site.

What did I do?

I filed two complaints. I filed one complaint was filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) as a violation of Section 504.

I filed the second complaint with our State Board of Education. Althought our son's IEP stated he would receive six and one half hours of special education each school day, he was never in school longer than six hours and five minutes.

How did I do it?

I downloaded the OCR Complaint against Virginia Beach Public Schools from Wrightslaw. Using this complaint as a template, I customized it to meet our circumstances and filed the complaint via email.

What did I accomplish?

The school stopped this practice for our son and 12 other students with autism.

Additionally, we were able to get the district to provide 140 hours of extra instruction for our son. Twenty-seven minutes a day added up to 81 lost hours of instruction in the 180-day school year. (The school began this practice two years earlier.)

What did I do wrong?

I was impatient. I should have contacted other parents of children with disabilities whose kids attend school in the district. Early release of special education students is a district-wide problem. My complaint only addressed our son, his fellow students, and his school.

I should have taken steps to ensure that the other 12 children received additional tutoring - compensatory education.

Nevertheless, the strategy was successful. Our son will receive 140 hours of tutoring at the district's expense.

Thank you and Pete for making so much valuable information available to parents.

Your books, Wrightslaw: Special Education Law and Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, have been life savers - these books helped us to develop a meaningful IEP for our son.

Al from Acworth

Links

OCR Complaint, Supporting Documents, Resolution Letter from OCR & Press Release. See what an actual OCR Complaint looks like, read the documents that supported the parents' position, the resolution letter from OCR, and the News Release about this case.

Wrightslaw: Special Education Law includes the full text of the IDEA, Section 504 and FERPA statutes and regulations; Pete Wright's commentary about the IDEA, and a casebook of decisions in special education cases by the U. S. Supreme Court. Note to the Reader: Wrightslaw: Special Education Law went out of print in Spring 2005, after IDEA 2004 was reauthorized. Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition will be published after the U. S. Department of Education publishes the federal special education regulations, probably in the Spring or Summer of 2006.

Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004 includes the full text of Parts A and B of IDEA 2004 with analysis, commentary, cross-references and references.

Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy teaches parents how to advocate for their children. Learn about your role, common obstacles and how to resolve them, evaluations, how to measure your child's educational progress, SMART IEPs, letter writing and paper trails, school meeting strategies, and more.

Section 504 & Discrimination Page. Includes articles, information about accommodations and modifications, cases, news, free resources, more.

Success Stories. Learn how other parents used information from Wrightslaw and common sense to find creative solutions to problems and get better services for their children.

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