“All that's valuable in society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
-- Albert Einstein
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The recent coverage of “scream rooms” in Middletown has shined much needed light on the use of restraint and seclusion in public schools. It has prompted investigations by both the Office of the Child Advocate and the Office of Protection and Advocacy. It also prompted a group of attorneys and advocates, including myself, to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
We wouldn’t stand for it if children without disabilities were disciplined by being placed in a concrete room while school staff held the door shut. The practice has become acceptable, though, when it comes to children with special education needs. That is what prompted me to write an op-ed article for the Hartford Courant. It is time to ban the use of seclusion in public schools and limit the use of restraint to instances when it is necessary to prevent imminent serious bodily injury. Congress is considering such legislation – S. 2020 the Keeping All Students Safe Act – but Connecticut should not wait for Congress.
If you want to join the effort to ban seclusion and limit restraint, contact the Keep the Promise Coalition Children’s Committee.
The Learning Disabilities Association of Connecticut will soon be holding its annual “What You Need to Know About Special Education Seminar for Parents and Professionals” to educate parents and professionals about special education. This year, as always, the series will be packed with valuable information for anyone interested in special education law, especially parents of children with special education needs. If you have a child with special education needs, attend these seminars to learn about:
• Individualized education programs (IEP’s), including how to read an IEP, and how to understand current levels of performance, measurable goals and objectives, and accommodations and modifications;
• Speech and language impairments and language disabilities, including the early signs that your child may have a language based disability;
• Reading disabilities, including information on literacy instruction;
• Scientific Research Based Interventions (SRBI) and Response to Intervention (RTI) and how SRBI and RTI affect children with special education needs;
• Educational evaluations, including the latest information on identification of specific learning disabilities;
• Neuropsychological evaluations, including information to help you decide whether your child needs a neuropsychological evaluation;
• Functional behavior assessments (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP);
• Transition planning;
• ADHD; and
• What to do if you disagree with PPT recommendations and when you need a special education lawyer.
This weekly special education series will occur on Thursdays from 9:30 to noon, beginning on September 15, 2011 and running through December 15, 2011 at the Learning Disabilities Association of Connecticut (LDA of CT), located at 999 Asylum Street in Hartford, CT. For more information, visit the Learning Disabilities Association of CT (LDA-CT).
Just last week, the Governor signed Public Act 11-93, imposing new requirements intended to protect children from abuse by school employees. The law adopts recommendations made in a report issued in July 2010 by the Office of the Child Advocate and the Attorney General. The report, Protecting Our Children: Improving Protections for Children When Allegations Are Made that School System Personnel Abuse or Neglect Children, was issued after a lengthy investigation into the response of school districts, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and the State Department of Education to allegations that school employees have abused or neglected children.
I was the lead investigator for the Office of the Child Advocate and believe the new law is critical to closing significant loopholes in the system designed to protect children. As parents, we send our children to school with the belief that they are safe. While the vast majority of school employees present no safety risk to students, the investigation of the Office of the Child Advocate and Attorney General found that the mechanisms in place to protect children were woefully inadequate. It is my sincere hope that Public Act 11-93 will ensure that those individuals who do harm children will not be employed by schools.
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When the Department of Children and Families enters the life of a family member, it is often hard to know what to do. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others often want to have the child placed in their care but, for lots of different reasons, don’t act immediately. Sometimes they are afraid to get involved and possibly damage their relationship with the child’s parents. Sometimes they may believe that the child will be returned to the care of his or her parents shortly. At other times, relatives try to get involved but have difficulty getting a response from DCF. Still other times, DCF won’t approve of having the child placed with relatives who come forward. Time passes quickly and relatives learn that DCF is planning to terminate parental rights. By then, having the child placed in their care presents a number of challenges.
Whatever your situation, as a grandparent or other relative of a child in DCF custody, you must act quickly. The first and most important reason to act quickly is that multiple moves for children who have been abused or neglected has been shown to have a negative impact, especially on young children. Multiple moves can be detrimental to brain growth, mental development, and psychological adjustment. When relatives can be a resource for children, it is best for these placements to occur as early as possible after removal and for children to remain in the same home unless they can return to their parents. Secondly, grandparents and other relatives have rights but time limits apply. Grandparents and other relatives can intervene in juvenile court to ask the judge to give them custody. Because time is of the essence, though, Connecticut statutes that grant relatives the right to intervene and seek custody generally have 90 day time limits. While intervention may be possible after that, it is more difficult.
If you are a grandparent or other relative of a child in DCF care, it is important to learn about grandparents’ rights and relatives’ rights as early as possible after your relative has been taken by DCF. If a child you love has been taken into DCF custody, don’t wait to act. Contact a juvenile court attorney immediately and find out what you can do to help the child stay with family.
This is a question I have been hearing a lot lately. Why? Because the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is moving to place more children in the care of relatives.
While placing children with relatives is a policy that should be supported and praised, the sad reality is that sometimes what is best for individual children gets lost in pursuit of a lofty policy goal. As a result, some foster parents are learning that children who have been in their care for extended periods of time are going to be removed. In some cases, the children have been with their foster parents for a year or more and are being placed with relatives with whom they have had little or no contact. Foster parents are rightfully worried about how these changes in placement will affect children. The impact of multiple placements on children in foster care can be devastating to their emotional well-being. Indeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued policy statements warning against multiple placements for children who have been abused and neglected, particularly when those children are young.
So, can DCF take your foster child?
Generally, the answer is yes, DCF has the authority to make placement decisions for children committed to their care. That does not mean, however, that foster parents have no ability to protect the children in their care. In fact, the law provides foster parents with rights. Absent an emergency, foster parents have a right to written notice 14 days prior to removal. Depending on the circumstances, foster parents may be able to have an administrative hearing to object to the removal. It is even possible in some cases for foster parents to present their case in court.
If you are a foster parent and DCF tells you they are removing a foster child from your care, you should contact a foster parents’ rights attorney immediately. You have a very limited amount of time to take action to try to prevent the child from being subjected to multiple moves.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York recently decided that when bullying affects a special education student’s opportunity to receive an appropriate education, schools have a responsibility to address bullying, take steps to prevent it from occurring in the future, and provide appropriate special education and related services under the individual education plan (IEP). T.K. and S.K. v. New York City Department of Education. The Court explained that school districts “must investigate if the harassment is reported to have occurred. If harassment is found to have occurred, the school must take appropriate steps to prevent it in the future. These duties of a school exist even if the misconduct is covered by its anti-bullying policy, and regardless of whether the student has complained, asked the school to take action, or identified the harassment as a form of discrimination.” The decision is important because it makes clear that bullying must be addressed under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) if it affects a special education student’s opportunity to receive an appropriate education and is an issue that should be discussed in PPT meetings.
It is important to note that children who do not have disabilities are also protected from bullying by a variety of civil rights laws. If your child is being bullied at school and the school has failed to stop the bullying, you may want to contact an attorney to discuss what steps you can take to ensure that the school meets its obligations under federal and state laws.
The Connecticut legislature’s Committee on Education will hold a public hearing today to consider Raised Bill 6326, An Act Concerning the Response of School Districts and The Departments of Education and Children and Families to reports of Child Abuse and Neglect. If passed, the bill would implement the recommendations of the Child Advocate’s report, Protecting Our Children: Improving Protections For Children When Allegations Are Made That School System Personnel Abused and/or Neglected Children. The report detailed the results of an extensive investigation into the response of local school districts, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and the State Department of Education when school employees abuse or neglect children. Attorney Ghio, who led the investigation for the Office of the Child Advocate, strongly supports this legislation and believes it will help protect children from would-be predators.
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The State Department of Education has extended the deadline for responding to proposed revisions to the special education regulations.
Any member of the public can comment on the proposed revisions to the special education regulations either by testifying at a public hearing or submitting written comments to the State Department of Education.
Public hearings will be held on November 9, 2010, from 4-8:30 p.m. in Conference Room 3 at CES in Trumbull, CT located at 40 Lindeman Drive, Trumbull and again on November 17, 2010, at the State Office Building, 165 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT from 4:30-8:30 p.m. in Room 307A.
The new deadline for written comments is December 1, 2010. Comments should be submitted to Attorney Theresa C. DeFrancis, Bureau of Special Education, P.O. Box 2219, Hartford, CT 06145.
The Connecticut State Department of Education has proposed amendments to the special education regulations.
Two public hearings on the proposed regulations will be held. The first hearing will be held on Monday, August 30, 2010 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at 25 Industrial Park Road, Middletown, CT, Room MCR3. The second hearing will be held on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 25 Industrial Park Road, Middletown, CT, Room MCR3.
The public hearings are open to all members of the public and provide parents, advocates, and others with an opportunity to weigh in on the proposed changes and to propose changes of their own. If you testify in person, you should bring a written copy of your testimony to submit to the State Department of Education.
If you can’t attend a public hearing, you can submit written comments to Attorney Theresa C. DeFrancis, Education Consultant, Bureau of Special Education, P.O. Box 2219, Hartford, CT 06145. The deadline for submitting written comments is September 22, 2010.
The Learning Disabilities Association of Connecticut will be holding a series of seminars on learning disabilities and appropriate educational programming for children with difficulty learning. The seminars will include information about reading disabilities, speech and language impairments, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, educational evaluations (including neuropsychological evaluations), special educational law, the IEP process, due process hearings, and more.
The series begins on September 16, 2010 and will occur on Thursdays from 9:30 to noon at the Learning Disabilities Association of Connecticut (LDA of CT), located in Hartford, CT. For more information, visit the Learning Disabilities Association of CT (LDA-CT).
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