Law Office of Grace Clark

10/22/2021

Welcome to your site! This is your homepage, which is what most visitors will see when they come to your site for the first time.

05/06/2021

Are you considering requesting a 1:1 aide for your child? When you’re prepared with information about aides before your IEP meeting, it’s a lot easier to advocate for your child’s exact needs. Here, Special X will walk you through the process of requesting an aide with expert tips from Law Office of Grace Clark and special education advocate Dr. Sarah Pelangka of Know IEPs?:

If you believe your child requires a 1:1 aide in order to access a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) and execute certain tasks, you have the right to request one during your IEP meeting. If it is determined that a 1:1 aide is required for your child to access FAPE, the district is required t...

04/27/2021

What to do if your child can't tolerate a mask?

As kids return to in-person school, I’ve heard numerous stories about kids being excluded from their classrooms, or even their schools, due to their inability to wear a mask. The California Department of Education recently reminded schools that students with disabilities must not be excluded from their regular educational environment if their disability prevents them from wearing a face covering.

10/19/2020

I AM OFFERING PARENT COACHING SESSIONS

I have heard from many clients that a parent coaching session prior to an IEP meeting has been extremely helpful in preparing to advocate for their children. Excellent preparation is the key to making sure your IEP meetings are productive. This is especially true right now as we waffle between distance learning, hybrid learning, and full-time school.

Please reach out to me here or through my web site if you'd like to schedule a coaching session before your child's next IEP meeting. 1.5 hour zoom coaching session is $200.

www.specialedattorney.org

10/15/2020

What will happen if you file for due process, requesting compensatory education for portions of your child’s IEP that were not adhered to after the schools closed last March? Here is a summary I wrote for SpecialX about how it worked out for one family with a child in LAUSD.

Key takeaway: A recent court case, Parent on behalf of student v. Los Angeles Unified School District No. 2020050465, is significant for our families because the student who brought the suit received less than half the number of minutes required by her IEP during distance learning, and she also rece...

09/23/2020

It’s worth putting time and energy into creating a distance learning plan that works for your child because we might be here for much longer than we thought.

Covering the seismic changes to U.S. education, from preschool to K-12 to universities, that are taking place during the coronavirus pandemic.

09/17/2020

While speaking about legal rights, district collaboration, and FAPE during our recent Distance Learning 2.0 panel, special education attorney and Special X legal consultant Grace Clark shared why it’s important and helpful to collect data about your child’s learning progress at home.  Key t...

09/16/2020

I had the pleasure of chatting with CCUSD’s Director of Special Education Dr. Diana Fannon, and special education advocate Dr. Sarah Pelangka of Know IEPs?, in a panel discussion hosted by Special X. We talked all about special education in the time of Covid-19, distance learning, and amending IEPs. Check it out!

We had an incredibly informative conversation last week with special education attorney Grace Clark, special education advocate Dr. Sarah Pelangka, and CCUSD’s Director of Special Education Dr. Diana Fannon that made us feel more confident about distance learning and our kids’ IEPs.  If you...

09/11/2020

No school in L.A. County will be allowed to reopen until at least November, but all campuses can host small in-person classes for students with special needs as long as no more than 10% of students are on campus at a time.

09/10/2020

This is an interesting look at the long term economic impacts of learning loss.

“The typical current student might expect something on the order of 3% lower career earnings if schools immediately returned to 2019 performance levels. Disadvantaged students will almost certainly see larger impacts. And, with the forecast of further disruptions in normal school operations, the costs only grow. For nations, the impact could optimistically be 1.5% lower GDP throughout the remainder of the century and proportionately even lower if education systems are slow to return to prior levels of performance.
These losses will be permanent unless the schools return to better performance levels than those in 2019”

09/09/2020

What does FAPE mean now? I recorded this explanation for Special X as a reminder that just because services look different, they should not be less.

This is "Distance Learning: What is FAPE?" by Special X on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.