A former official from Montclair Public Schools publicly voiced his displeasure about our firm on Facebook. We thank him for the compliment. For the past two years, we have been involved in heated litigation with the Montclair Board of Education. On behalf of two clients—the parent of triplets diagnosed with autism and the parent of a preschool-aged girl who is blind—we have fought to ensure that the board is fulfilling its legally-required duty to provide a free and appropriate education to special education students, and for the parents’ right to know if the services their children were offered are comparable to those provided to other children. S…

Procedural violations of the IDEA alone are usually not a basis for a court to find a student has been denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE). A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeal for the 2nd Circuit, however, found multiple procedural violations, did deprive a student of educational benefits he was entitled to under the law. K.T., a now twenty-year old autistic student, began attending a public special education school in the Bronx, New York in 2009. His mother, L.O., filed for due process in December 2011 after K.T. began to refuse to attend school. L.O. claimed the three IEPs developed for her son were inappropriat…

Money. I promised to return to this. I am very familiar with the leading advocates and parent-side special education lawyers in Northern New Jersey. Based on that knowledge, I can tell you that the average non-attorney parent advocate charges about half the hourly rate of the average parent-side education attorney. Assuming that you have all the money in the world (and you don’t, or you’d just pay for your child’s education needs and forget about it), you should still pick the right professional for the job based on the factors discussed above. But if, like most people, you often have to make choices to fit your budget, you should co…

Having described these roles, I repeat the question, and then briefly flesh out my answers. Should you hire an advocate or an education lawyer? My answer is “it depends.” It depends on three things: First, at what stage is the disagreement or suspicion between you and the school district? Second, at what stage is in the IEP process are you? And third, what is your desired outcome, and how willing and able are you to compromise? 1. The stage of the disagreement. Perhaps I’m assuming too much. Maybe there’s no disagreement yet. Maybe you’re just confused and want to better understand your rights…

The Role of a Non-Attorney Parent Advocate. Unlike attorneys, no certification exists for non-attorney parent advocates. (I’ll just use the word “advocate” from here on.) But many advocates have years of experience and training. You should choose one who has such experience and training. And you should not hesitate to ask a potential advocate what […]