Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

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• IEP Information

Legal Assistance & Advocacy Resources

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA) is an independent, nonprofit, §501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization of attorneys, advocates and parents. Our primary mission is to secure high quality educational services for children with disabilities. COPAA is premised on the belief that the key to effective educational programs for children with disabilities is collaboration -as equals- by parents and educators.

Family Network on Disabilities of Florida, Inc. is a statewide network of families and individuals who may be at-risk, have disabilities, or have special needs and their families, professionals, and concerned citizens. Our mission is to ensure through collaboration that Floridians have full access to family-driven support, education, information, resources, and advocacy.

Parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys go to Peter and Pam Wright for accurate, up-to-date information about special education law and advocacy for children with disabilities. You will find articles, cases, newsletters, and resources about dozens of topics in the Advocacy Libraries and Law Libraries.

Legal-Explanations.com provides the free legal resources written in plain English. This website currently contains over 2,500 legal definitions.

The National Task Force on Equity in Testing Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals

Eye on Washington eZine
The Eye on Washington eZine by the National Association of the Deaf will bring you advocacy news and alerts about Federal laws and regulations affecting deaf and hard of hearing people.

Legal Rights: The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
Ordering information and exerpt from book about interpreting competence

Deaf & Hard of Hearing in Government
DHHIG is a national non-profit organization whose purpose is two-fold. It serves as an employee support group for Federal employees who are either Deaf or Hard of Hearing and as a resource organization for the nationwide Federal government. DHHIG coordinates and collaborates with external forces such as OPM, EEOC, U.S. Congress, the White House, President?s Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH), National Association of the Deaf, Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, and other entities.

Are Doctors Required to Provide Interpreters for Medical Visits and Other Medical-Related Situations?
The National Association of the Deaf answers this question

Police and Law Enforcement Agency Responsibilities to Deaf Individuals
State and local law enforcement agencies have a federal mandate to ensure adequate and appropriate communication with deaf and hard-of-hearing persons.

Disability Rights Advocates
Founded in 1993, Disability Rights Advocates is a national and international non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities. Operated by and established for people with disabilities, DRA pursues its mission through research, education, and legal advocacy. DRA's mission is to ensure dignity, equality, and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities throughout the United States and worldwide.

California Center for Law & the Deaf
The mission of the California Center for Law and the Deaf is to protect and advance the legal rights of deaf and hard-of-hearing people to enable them to live independent, productive lives, with full access to the rights, privileges, entitlements, services, educational and employment opportunities available to others.

The Rocky Mountain Disibility & Business Technical Assistance Center
The Rocky Mountain Disibility & Business Technical Assistance Center is one of 10 regional centers funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a division of the U.S. Department of Education. Our mission is to provide technical assistance, materials, training, and referrals on the Americans with Disabilities Act and on accessible education-based information technology. Our region covers the states of Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Disability Discrimination in the Workplace
With the protection of the ADA, a worker who, despite a disability, is able to perform the essential functions of his job, is entitled to reasonable accommodation from the employer, if needed. If you feel that you have been a victim of disability discrimination, it is important that you know your legal rights, and the actions you must take to prevent loss of your right to a remedy.

Network Consulting: Florida's ADA & Handicap Accessibility Experts
This whole site is dedicated to the Americans with Disabilities Act and ADA compliance and Americans with Disabilities Act research!!!

Representing Deaf Clients: What Every Lawyer Should Know
Compliance with anti-discrimination laws, finding a qualified interpreter, tips for working with interpreters in legal settings, and other accomodations

Monheit, Monheit, Silverman & Fodera, Attorneys At Law
Monheit, Silverman & Fodera is a law firm dedicated to the protection of individual rights. This site consists of over 50 web pages. You have the ability to submit legal questions to any of the attorneys at the office. Or, if you are looking for a referral to an attorney in your state, feel free to ask. In order to contact us, we have provided a number of ways that will fit your schedule.

Schneider & Wallace, Attorneys At Law
SCHNEIDER & WALLACE is a dedicated group of California trial lawyers committed to continuing the work of the civil rights movement through individual and class action litigation. We handle matters in the areas of employment discrimination, disability access and access to education. Our emphasis is on cases arising under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Our partners have tried numerous cases in both Federal and State court and are frequent lecturers in the area of civil rights litigation.

IEP Information:

Departent of Education IDEA homepage
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997, IDEA'97 Home, United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

Hands & Voices is a non-profit, parent-driven national organization dedicated to supporting families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We are non-biased about communication methodologies and believe that families can make the best choices for their child if they have access to good information and support. Our membership includes families who communicate manually and/or orally. From American Sign Language to cochlear implants, our organization represents people from all different approaches to, and experiences with, deafness or hearing loss. We have local chapters comprised mainly of parents along with professionals.

The Clerc Center has been mandated by Congress to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative curricula, instructional techniques and strategies, and materials. The aim of the Clerc Center is to improve the quality of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and youth from birth through age 21.

Helpful information about deaf education and early childhood for parents

Babyhearing.org is brought to you by a team of professionals at Boys Town National Research Hospital - Audiologists, Speech-Language Pathologists, Teachers of the Deaf, Geneticists, Doctors and Parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children.

This website is a great resource about IDEA, IEPs, and special education.

This page by the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind Outreach Services offers excellent resources for parents.

Ensuring that the IEP addresses all the needs of your child can be a tricky, stressful, and sometimes overwhelming task. With a deaf/hoh child there are a myriad of options: residential schools, self-contained classrooms, mainstreaming, etc. Often there are related services like interpreting and speech therapy. If you are new to the IEP process, rest assured, there are plenty of parents that have already been down the path. Many of them have been very successful in advocating for their deaf/hh children. This page was created in an attempt to pass some of the expertise of the "more experienced" parents on to those among us who feel we can improve the educational situation for our children. This page contains links to some actual IEP's sent in by parents. The names of the children have been removed for the sake of privacy.

The goal of PEPNet is to assist postsecondary institutions across the nation to attract and effectively serve individuals who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

This page outlines important information about Schaffer v. Weast, a critical court case about the burden of proof in a situation when an IEP may be deemed inappropriate.

Ideapractices.org
The IDEA Partnerships, working together for five years, inform professionals, families and the public about IDEA '97 and strategies to improve educational results for children and youth with disabilities.

Federal Resource Center for Special Education homepage
This section contains links to on-line resources including the new regulations for the 1997 Amendments to the law, training materials, interpretive memos from the U.S. Department of Education, State Improvement Grant (SIG) information, and more.

Education Administration Online
This is your one-stop reference center for all of your special education needs. You stay connected to everything happening in the special education community with Special Ed Connection's daily articles, judicial and administrative decisions, state specific pages, SmartStarts, and more. News, practical advice, best practices, case decisions and more are posted to the site daily.

Public Laws that Affect Deaf Education
Information and resources about public school laws

IEP Ideas for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children
The IEP samples here were designed for individual children. The cookie-cutter approach to deaf education will, in most circumstances, end up being a dis-service to deaf/hoh children. Also, I'm sure there are many possible service options which are not necessarily addressed here. This source in by no means complete. Use what you find here as food for thought when addressing your child's IEP development.