Lesley Alderman, writing in the New York Times, offers a roadmap for parents who suspect their child might have a learning disability. While schools are legally obligated to assess children for learning disabilities, Alderman says, “what the law promises and what the schools can realistically provide are sometimes at odds.”

“The law was created with the idea that parents and schools would collaborate on their child’s education,” says Neal Rosenberg, an education lawyer in Manhattan who worked for the New York City Board of Education when the law was first drafted. “But the relationship can sometimes turn adversarial.”

Alderman suggests that parents press for an assessment as early as possible, document their requests, be knowledgeable about their legal rights, and consider talking with a lawyer.

Bypassing the school assessment process can be effective but expensive, Alderman says, as private assessments can cost up to $5,000.

Oakland University violated federal law by excluding him, judge rules

From the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Oakland [MI] Press:

A federal judge has ruled that Michigan’s Oakland University has violated the federal Rehabilitation Act by failing to allow a student with a cognitive impairment to live in a campus dorm. An Oakland spokesman said the university will appeal the ruling, but will allow the young man to live on campus during the process.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan ordered Oakland to make a room available to 25-year-old Micah Fialka-Feldman, who has been taking classes in the school’s OPTIONS program. Fialka-Feldman pays a fee equal to full tuition but doesn’t earn grades in the program, which is designed for students with cognitive disabilities who would not otherwise be able to meet the university’s admissions requirements.

The university has maintained that Fialka-Feldman, who takes buses two hours a day to get to class from his parents’ home, is not eligible for a dorm room because he’s not enrolled in a degree-granting program.

Duggan said the university’s assumption that the young man would be unable to follow housing rules “appears to be grounded on prejudice, stereotypes and/or unfounded fear.”

Earlier posts here.

(Detroit News photo)

From the Ottawa [Canada] Citizen:

Ottawa school district officials are throwing out a report released this week, saying it contained flawed data. The report concluded that suspensions for students with special needs had risen dramatically in the past year.

Superintendent Walter Piovesan said some students with multiple diagnoses had apparently been counted twice.

The report had spurred criticism from disability advocates, who accused the board of suspending children “for being autistic.”

From the Ottawa [Canada] Citizen:

Suspensions of students with special needs in the Ottawa public schools have risen by more than 56 percent over the past year, while suspensions for all students dropped almost 30 percent over the same time period. In all, some 16 percent of students with special needs had been suspended over the past year.

The figures were included in a report to be discussed by the board of education’s Special Education Advisory Committee Wednesday. The “special needs” category covered students with behavioral issues, learning disabilities, autism and mild intellectual disabilities, as well as kids who had been identified as gifted.

“The kids who need help the most are the ones getting suspended,” said a former special education teacher who now serves as an advocate for students who had been suspended.

From the Associated Press/MSNBC:

Amazon.com Inc. has announced that it will add two features to the Kindle that are intended to make the e-book reader more accessible to users who are blind or have limited vision.

The company has come under fire from disability advocacy groups for allowing publishers to opt out of a read-aloud feature on the device that converts text to robotic speech. They say the decision will unfairly limit access for the estimated 15 million Americans who have difficulty reading printed material, including people with limited vision; dyslexia; learning or processing issues; seniors; people with spinal cord injuries, and people who have had strokes.

Amazon said it is developing audible menus and an extra-large font for people with limited vision.

Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have said they will not adopt the device until it is accessible to all students. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have launched legal challenges to the use of Kindle for distribution of textbooks.

Earlier posts here.

Minette Marrin, writing in the [UK] Sunday Times, reacts to a BBC2 documentary about a couple with Down syndrome who are deciding whether to marry. Marrin’s sister has an intellectual disability. An excerpt:

It is hard enough to be an adequate parent with supposedly normal intelligence. For someone of very low intelligence it is even harder. That is presumably why so many — 50%-60% — of babies born to parents with learning disabilities are taken away by social workers, a horrifying thing but arguably, in many cases, the least worst thing to do.

… I hate to be someone who thinks social workers may be right, sometimes, in removing a child from parents with learning disabilities. I hate to be someone who thinks it is unwise and unfair to encourage people with LDs to have babies and I certainly wouldn’t attempt to stop anyone. But wishful thinking is sometimes at odds with a sense of responsibility, as I think Emma and Ben came to feel. There are some things in life that all the love you have cannot change and cannot make better.

Related post: Pregnant woman with learning disabilities flees to keep baby

From the  [UK] Daily Mail, [UK] Times:

A pregnant woman with learning disabilities and her fiance have reportedly fled Scotland after social workers threatened to take away their baby at birth, saying the woman was not capable of raising the child.

Two months ago, the couple’s wedding was halted 48 hours before the ceremony in a dispute over whether Kerry Robertson, 17, was capable of consenting to marry Mark McDougall, 25.

The high-profile case highlights the dilemma facing social workers who must both protect the welfare of babies and vulnerable adults with disability, but at the same time protect the rights of those adults to lead fulfilled lives.

Mr. McDougall told a newspaper that he and his fiancée decided to leave Scotland after they saw the minutes of a meeting in which social workers claimed their child could suffer emotional harm if left with Miss Robertson.