Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog

Recently, I had a consultation with a parent of a child suffering from attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who shared some of the lessons she learned over the years in advocating to obtaining appropriate special education supports for her child in her local school system: 1.  To make her case that her elementary school student with [...]

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A New Jersey appeals court ruled that the state has no obligation to pay for transportation that would allow a 25-year-old man with autism to attend an adult day program because he is on the waiting list for a Medicaid waiver and a comparable program is available closer to his home. J.J. and L.J. on [...]

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photo © 1975 The U.S. National Archives | more info (via: Wylio) If you have a special needs child, you should be familiar with the federal laws and state regulations that outline the educational rights that your child is entitled to. For example, from the age of 3 to 21, a child with special needs [...]

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Special education law is complex. However, I believe that the following cases provide a favor of the issues involved in special education law. In selecting and summarizing the cases, I utilized a number of resources available on the internet. One particularly useful resource was The Right to Special Education in New Jersey – A Guide [...]

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The ultimate purpose of the special education laws is “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 to prepare them for further education, employment and independent living.” Special education laws give families of [...]

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Under the law, each public school child who receives special education and related services must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The IEP guides the delivery of special education supports and services to the student with a disability. The IEP is designed to insure that a child with a disability who attends a public school [...]

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FAPE And Your Disabled Child The federal statute governing special education, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal regulations implementing the IDEA, and the governing New Jersey regulations, mandate that all disabled children between the ages of 3 and 21 who reside in New Jersey have available a “free appropriate public education”, or [...]

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In a case pitting the family of a special needs high school student against the school district that had been ordered to pay the student’s hefty private school tuition, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, when schools do not appropriately identify and provide services to students with disabilities who require special education and related services, [...]

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The economic stimulus bill, which President Obama signed yesterday, dramatically ramps up spending for a broad array of social programs for needy and disabled Americans. The bill raises federal spending for schools that serve largely low-income students from $14 billion to more than $27 billion. Federal support for special education, an area where local school [...]

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