This guide is designed for use by school, district, and state education agency staff to improve the effectiveness of efforts to collect and use discipline data, including reporting accurate and timely data to the federal government. It explains the importance of collecting discipline data, identifies key considerations for agencies implementing…

Special education, for students ages 3 to 21, is guided by federal and state requirements. The federal requirements are referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The state requirements are referred to as the Ohio Operating Standards for the Education of Children with Disabilities (Ohio Operating Standards). IDEA…

As technology has leaped forward to provide valuable learning tools, parents and policy makers have begun raising concerns about the privacy of student data that schools and systems have. Federal laws are intended to protect students and their families but they have not and will never be able to keep up with rapidly evolving technology. School…

Special education, for students ages 3 to 21, is guided by federal and state requirements. The federal requirements are referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA protects the rights of students with disabilities and the rights of their parents. The state requirements are referred to as the Ohio Operating Standards…

A written state complaint is used to communicate that a public agency (such as your child's school) has not followed the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and to request an investigation of the problem. This publication describes Written State Complaints generally for Part B of the Individuals with…

There is no question that students who experience homelessness, like all students, are entitled to be educated. A federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, requires states to provide homeless children and youth with the same access to free appropriate public education as is available to other students. The Act also requires…

More than 53 million children and 6 million adults in the United States spend their days in elementary and secondary schools. Reducing environmental risks inside these buildings is critical to maintaining the public health. Almost all of New England's children will spend a large portion of their childhood in school. To help children stay healthy,…

This publication presents changes and modifications for 2007-2008 to the "International Rules for Precollege Science Research: Guidelines for Science and Engineering Fairs." It is written to guide fair directors, teachers, scientists, parents, and adult volunteers as they pursue their work of encouraging students to explore and investigate their…

In this handbook, single parents will find a description of the basic steps to follow in child support enforcement and a discussion of the enforcement methods that get the best results. Specifically, section I explains how to apply for child support enforcement services and tells what they cost. Section II discusses the necessity for locating the…

This manual is designed to help advocates, including parents, obtain special education for children with disabilities residing in New Jersey. It explains the requirements of the federal statute governing special education--the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)--and the federal regulations implementing IDEA, as well as the state…

This fact sheet uses a question-and-answer format to summarize information for parents of a child with mental retardation on planning for guardianship. Questions and answers address the following topics: what guardianship is; deciding whether a son or daughter needs guardianship; different types of guardianship (guardian of the person or property,…

The article provides excerpts from the executive summary of the Eleventh Annual Report to Congress of the Education of the Handicapped Act (Public Law 94-142). Editors' comments note the variability of services among the states and the existence of serious problems in monitoring compliance with the law. (DB)

This publication attempts to answer common questions that parents, teachers, administrators, and others have about mediation as a means of resolving conflicts between parents of a child with a disability and the school district. Four real life stories are used to show how experienced mediators use a variety of methods to help participants work out…

This guide is intended to help Ohio parents to participate more fully in the development of their child's Individualized Education Program (IEP). The guide addresses the following aspects of the IEP process: the vision statement; present levels of performance; the need for specific performance statements (with examples of bad and good statements);…

This summary plan description offers guidelines for participation in a pilot program that provides short-term emergency care for children of Con Edison managers who are under 13 years old. The plan offers professional, in-home child care that can be used when usual arrangements have collapsed. The summary plan description addresses the following…