Below please find a list of helpful secondary sources available on Westlaw:
Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy: The Special Education Survival Guide
In this easy-to-read book, you will learn how to devise a master plan for your child's special education. This book includes dozens of worksheets, forms and sample letters that you can tailor to your needs.
This book provides an insider's view of the special education process for parents. The authors reveal the stages of identification, assessment, and intervention, and help readers to better understand special needs children's legal rights.
Special Education and the Law: A Guide for Practitioners
This revised 2007 edition provides current information on Section 504, Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), and the reauthorization of IDEA 2004.
Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition
This book provides a clear roadmap to the laws and how to get better services for all children with disabilities. This Wrightslaw publication is an invaluable resource for parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys.
Whether you are the parent of a child with special education needs, a seasoned educator, or a professional advocate, you have questions about Individualized Education Programs, (IEPs). In this comprehensive, easy to read book, you will find clear, concise answers to frequently asked questions about IEPs. Learn what the law says about IEP Teams and IEP Meetings, Parental Rights and Consent, Steps in Developing the IEP, Placement, Transition, Assistive Technology and Strategies to Resolve Disagreements.
Here are several law review articles that will prove helpful to parents looking for information about IEPs and IDEA:
"Broken Promises: When Does a School's Failure to Implement an Individualized Education Program Deny a Disabled Student a Free and Appropriate Public Education" -- Citation: 28 Buff. Pub. Int. L.J. 71
This article contends the materiality standard, while a permissible interpretation of IDEA, is inconsistent with the purpose of the Act to ensure students with disabilities receive a meaningful educational benefit. Instead, this article suggests that courts adopt a per seapproach to implementation cases. Whenever a school agrees in an IEP to provide certain services or supports the law should require it fully implement those services.
"The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- The Ninth Circuit Determines that only a Material Failure to Implement an Individualized Education Program violates the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" -- Citation: 61 SMU L. Rev. 495
PRIOR to 1975, Congress found that the educational needs of millions of children with disabilities were not being fully met. In response, Congress created what is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) “to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.” One of the most significant mechanisms for achieving the goals of the IDEA is the creation and implementation of an individualized education program (“IEP”) for each disabled child. The United States Supreme Court has articulated the standard for assessing an IEP's content. However, only the Fifth Circuit and the Eight Circuit have addressed the standard for assessing an IEP's implementation.The Ninth Circuit dealt with this issue for the first time in Van Duyn v. Baker *496 School District 5J, holding that only a material failure to implement an IEP violates the IDEA. The Ninth Circuit's holding was in error because it contradicted the IDEA and its goals. The court should have found, as the dissent did, that failure to implement any portion of an IEP violates the IDEA.
"When Close Enough Doesn't Cut It: Why Courts Should Want to Steer Clear of Determining What is -- and What is Not -- Material in a Child's Individual Education Program" -- Citation: 41 U. Tol. L. Rev. 375
This article illustrates the development of special-education law, viewed through the lens of the Individual Education Program, and the implementation debate. Part II of this article discusses the history of special-education law by focusing on IDEA and its many amendments. Part III focuses on the Individual Education Program, the backbone of IDEA, and the importance of the IEP document in the special-education context. Part IV introduces the circuit split and the IEP implementation debate, as well as the two schools of thought on just how much “compliance” is required. Part V proposes and Part VI applies a theory that the interpretation debate has promoted an educational void, rather than flexibility. This theory is premised around the belief that the last-agreed-upon IEP is the plan that must be completely implemented and that deviations from this plan should be evaluated based primarily on the intent of the actor. Part VII proposes, perhaps, the next “hot button” special-education question, as it necessarily results from the question that this paper is designed to address. Lastly, Part VIII recognizes the substantial role of IDEA and, while it may not be an ideal solution, its substantive and procedural rights are of paramount importance, particularly to the parents of disabled children.
"Making an 'IDEA' a Reality: Providing a Free and Appropriate Public Education for Children with Disabilities Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" -- Citation: 45 Val. U. L. Rev. 595
First, Part II of this Note discusses the history of the IDEA and the different standards used to evaluate IEP implementation failures. Second, Part III analyzes the problems with the standards adopted by the Third, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits. Finally, Part IV proposes two alternatives to resolving the current inconsistencies surrounding the evaluation of IEP implementation failures.
What Every Teacher Should Know About IDEA 2004 Laws & Regulations
This handy booklet provides everything teachers and administrators should know about IDEA 2004 and its practical implications. It includes concise descriptions of the statutes, with a side-by-side comparison of the "old" regulations and those issued by the Dept. of Education in 2006.
Guide to Writing Quality Individualized Education Programs (2nd Edition)
This bestselling guide helps users reduce the complexity of IEP development to seven basic steps, based on the requirements of IDEA 2004. It helps prepare teacher candidates with excellent IEP-writing skills, and gives inservice teachers an accurate resource for their continuing professional development in this critical area.
Features include step-by-step instruction for IEP development, using explanation, modeling, practice and formative feedback for self-guided individual or group learning.
The introduction of the second edition provides a quick overview of special education and the requirements of IDEA 2004. Additionally, the second edition is based on new case studies with complete IEPs for four elementary and secondary students with mild/moderate and severe disabilities, including transition planning. It also provides practice in differing requirements for students taking alternative assessments and features “Answers to Tricky Questions About IEPs” that teachers often encounter.
