Lesson 3 Disability Law

My post this week is going to focus on the IDEA parental rights for those who have children with disabilities. These stuck with me because of their importance for my future work with children from the range of birth to 8 years old.

I want to work with younger children and because of that, it is likely that I will be one of the first people to recognize developmental delays and red flags. Knowing the laws that protect parents and their children will help me to be an advocate.

Before this week, I had no idea that I would need the consent of a parent before I even assessed a child for a learning disability. I wasn't aware that they could then get their own testing done and that I would need their approval before placing their child anywhere other than a general education classroom. This leads into a discussion on least restrictive environment. The least restrictive is the general education classroom. The most restrictive is being taught in the home. Interventions, such as a paraprofessional or other professionals that come into the general education classroom add to restrictions in the environment. If one of my students struggles to learn social skills and to apply them, then having a para-educator sitting right next to him isn't going to help him to develop in that area. It may be necessary to have someone attend school with him, but ultimately, our goal as educators should be to have the least restrictive environment. Other restrictions include pulling the students out of the general education classes for portions of the day and attending a special class instead of a general education class. 

Before coming back to school at BYU-Idaho, I worked at a high school in American Fork. From this experience, I saw how hard my teachers worked to get all of our life skills students into general education classrooms as much as possible. I want to work for this goal too.

Under the laws of IDEA, parents have access to the records of their child's file and a knowledge of everyone that has looked at them. While I was working as a para-educator in American Fork, I saw the importance of this law. We had several students come into the life skills class to assist our students in their learning. Each of them signed a confidentiality form saying that they wouldn't talk about the students disabilities or about their behaviors. It is against the law to break confidentiality. If I want to be employed in the future, then I am going to have to keep this law.

Parents have the right to redefine their child's IEP through a Due Process system. This is important to understand so that when I work with future parents, I remember that their input is valuable because of their relationship with the school and their child. The parent will probably want what is best for their child. This leads me to the principle of IDEA known as FAPE ( free appropriate public education). 

Cases dealing with FAPE have helped to define that what is appropriate isn't always what is best. I want what is best for my children and future students however, this law isn't about that. It deals with getting what is appropriate.

FAPE is hard for me to fully understand because as a future parent, I am certain I am going to want what is BEST for my children, especially when they come to earth with limitations on their opportunities already. However, it is also important for me to remember that what I think is best, might actually harm them in the long run. For example, I might think having push in services for a child would be the best thing for them but socially, this isn't always the case (in fact rarely). 

I am grateful to understand about the informed consent laws because as I work with parents, I don't want to be flying by the seat of my pants, trying to figure out what I need to do. I can be organized and call them 10 days before a meeting is scheduled about their child and can talk with parents in collaboration to a lasting relationship with them. 

This week reminded me of the importance of understanding the rights of the parents as well as the rights of the school district that I work in so that I can be an advocate for those who can't advocate for themselves.