Image via WikipediaWe will be running two new series on these pages soon.
One will ask you to take on the role of the hearing officer or the judge. We will set forth a thorny fact pattern and then let you apply special ed law principles to them and decide how you would rule. In recent trainings, I have been getting a good reaction when I throw out some hypothetical fact scenarios and use them to explain some of the legal concepts. Remember though that special ed law is closed to metaphysics than it is to contract law. There may not always be a "right" answer. There may be as many correct answers as there were disparate rulings on the last case to be decided by the Supremes. Remember the dialectic of special ed law: it is new law and at the same time the law is changed periodically creating a cycle of uncertainty. Yet we persist.
The second series will be an updated version of one we ran a few years ago. The series will go into some detail in explaining Procedural Safeguards. This is one of the areas that I work with a lot, and I feel that a refresher is occasionally important. The Individuals With Disabilities Act contains a series of important procedural safeguards, many of which are misunderstood or misapplied. I hope that this series will provide useful resource information to the many diverse special education stakeholders who read this blog.
If you have any reactions or suggestions as we go along, please leave a comment or contact me. I love to hear from you.
