Steps that Parents Can Take

Steps That Parents Can Take

Sometimes parents and educators do not agree on whether the child is making adequate progress in their current setting. Parents may see their child struggling,

and schools view the child as doing fine. What can you do when team members have different opinions?

Here are 10 steps that parents can take if their child is struggling in school: four are during the early phase of advocacy, and six in the later phase.

Early phase of advocacy: (the four steps in this section can be followed in any order):

1. Raise the question with professionals who know your child. Private therapists who can help include your child's neuropsychologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, speech/language pathologist, occupational therapist, pediatrician). They may have assisted other families with this question and can comment on how things worked out. Ask their opinion about your child’s current placement and their knowledge of alternatives.

Note that teachers and other public school professionals may be less free to discuss placement options informally outside of Team meetings. The IEP team is responsible for making such decisions, and it is the school district’s responsibility to pay for alternate placements. This means that public school professionals may be cautious about saying what they think, as these decisions must be made collectively by the team -- and include someone from the district with the authority to make such referrals.

2. Obtain an Independent or Private Neuropsychological Evaluation. Special education attorneys view these expert evaluations as critical to defining what a child needs. The purpose is to get a thorough assessment of the child’s learning profile - strengths and challenges - and describe what type of education they require.

Private neuropsychological evaluations are usually more in-depth than evaluations completed by the school district. Private neuropsychologists can also conduct observations of your child at school to assess the effectiveness of the school’s methods in terms of meeting the child’s learning needs. They can also attend IEP meetings and become part of your child's treatment team. A strength of the school district’s evaluations is that they are multi-disciplinary (including speech language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, vision specialists if needed, etc.).

Private evaluations can be expensive, not fully covered by insurance, and involve months of waiting before they are scheduled. Parents can request a free Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) through their public school due to financial need or when parents want a second opinion, if dissatisfied with the school’s assessment. Learn more about Independent Educational Evaluations.

3. Request a Functional Behavior Analysis. An “FBA” is an assessment conducted by the school to understand why a problem behavior is happening and to offer solutions. This is available at no cost to the parents. This can be part of “building a case” for a more specialized/”restrictive” placement if the child’s challenges cannot be managed at school even after these interventions occur.

4. Schedule an IEP Team Meeting.Parents have the right to call the IEP team to meet at any time and for purposes other than the annual IEP Meeting. It is common practice to hold a Team meeting after parents submit a new evaluation report to the school, or after a Functional Behavior Analysis (FBA) is conducted. Parents can discuss their child’s progress and share their concerns about what is and is not working.

If parents are considering a residential placement, they should convey with honesty the degree to which they:

are struggling at home
feel unable to help the child generalize skills learned at school to the community and home settings
are unable to safely manage the child’s challenges
are worried that an out-of-home placement may be necessary.

The Team may be able to provide additional resources (e.g., in-home supports, parent training) so that every available option is tried before considering a more specialized, restrictive placement.

After the above steps are taken, the school may respond to your concerns and add services to strengthen or "max out" the child’s IEP. It may take time to see if things improve with these

additional supports.

Sometimes team members do not agree on whether a child is making "effective progress" at school. These disagreements may involve parents requesting a private school placement, and schools believing that the child is better served in the district’s program. When these types of disagreements occur, there are a number of steps that parents can take.

Later phase of advocacy:

(if parents are not satisfied with the school’s response to the steps they have taken thus far):

5. Consult with an Educational Advocate. If your own efforts have not brought about the changes you hoped for, consider hiring an Educational Advocate. This is a less expensive option than hiring an attorney and a reasonable first step in getting professional assistance with advocacy.

Reasons to consider hiring an advocate include:

You do not feel heard at Team meetings and need help advocating for your child.
The recommendations of outside experts and your child’s treaters are not given much weight in making decisions at Team meetings.
Consistent disagreement with the school about your child’s needs and services.

A skilled advocate understands your child’s disability and knows local schools and programs. They are knowledgeable about special education law, though not to the degree of an attorney. Advocates can inform parents when it is time to hire an attorney, usually when efforts at negotiation with the public school have stalled.

In Massachusetts, The Federation for Children with Special Needs has a list of advocates who completed their Parent Advocacy Training course and may offer low-fee services. See English and Spanish versions of A Parent’s Guide to Selecting a Special Education Advocate in Massachusetts.
Other states may publish similar lists through their Parent Training Institute. Find your state’s PTI here.

6. Request a Facilitated IEP meeting. A Facilitated Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting is a good option when communication between parents and the school team has become strained and ineffective. Both the school district and parents agree to have an outside, independent, and neutral third party or “facilitator” lead the meeting. The goal is for the team to work collaboratively to develop the child’s IEP.

The Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education offers more information about Facilitated IEP Meetings.

7. Request Mediation. When the Team does not agree or has reached a standstill, parents can request Mediation. This involves an impartial mediator helping parents and schools clarify the concerns and explore options to collaborate. The mediator does not decide how to resolve the disagreements. Instead, they foster collaboration toward mutually satisfying agreements that address the needs of the child. Mediation has a success rate of 85%.

In Massachusetts, Mediation is provided for free through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Some families learned of options they didn’t know were available to them through Mediation. Learn more about Mediation.

8. Consult with a Special Education Attorney. Some families seek an attorney after their other efforts, including hiring an Educational Advocate, cannot bring about desired changes. An attorney can represent you in a disagreement with the school when other negotiations have failed. The differences between special education attorneys and advocates are explained here.
An attorney may request a record or timeline of your child's school experiences, including your communications with the school, to get a full picture of what has occurred. Attorneys can recommend options depending on your child’s situation. For example, if your attorney believes there is strong evidence that the school is not providing your child with a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), they may recommend a Due Process Hearing (through the Bureau of Special Education Appeals) to resolve differences. If there is not strong evidence, an attorney may inform you of steps to take to determine this (e.g., additional professional evaluation, school observation) and build a case for an alternate placement if warranted.

Hiring an attorney can be expensive. Some agencies that may offer low-fee services in Massachusetts:

To find low-cost special education attorneys in your area, contact your state's Parent Training and Information Center.
There is a nationwide network of disability rights agencies, known as Protection & Advocacy (P&A) Systems. Every state is legally mandated to offer this support. Other national organizations also offer legal advocacy:
-Disability Rights Advocates -The Arc

9. Due Process Hearing. When disagreements have not been resolved through any other methods, parents or schools can file for a due process hearing. This is the beginning of a formal legal process to find a solution.

Parents are advised to have an attorney to represent them, as parents rarely win at a hearing without one. This legal process can be lengthy and expensive. Sometimes your attorney and the school district's attorney will negotiate and settle the case before it goes to a full hearing. In general, avoiding a hearing benefits parents, who are more likely to lose their case if it requires a full hearing.

Due process hearings are conducted by impartial hearing officers employed by the Bureau of Special Education Appeals. Learn more about due process hearings here.

10. Unilateral Placement. Families may choose to send and pay for their child to attend a special education private day school on their own. They decide not want to wait for the legal process to play out to obtain a referral from the public school. If parents have the means to pay the (usually expensive) tuition, they may decide that the long, stressful process of proving that the school district cannot provide an appropriate education (FAPE) for their child has been too damaging for them and their child. When parents have been living with a child who is suffering emotionally and academically, they may feel strongly that a change of schools is urgently needed.

Unilateral placement can be risky, as the burden of proof is then on parents to show that the out-of-district placement can provide the child with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The child’s functioning at the private school can be compared to that of the public school. This may involve a lengthy legal process to try to secure all or some reimbursement from the school district. Sometimes parents do not get any funding.

Some parents reach agreements with the school involving cost-sharing. This means that schools and parents agree to share the cost of the private school’s tuition and transportation. Some school districts will request parents to sign non-disclosure agreements that prohibit parents from discussing the terms with others. Technically, it is illegal for schools to request parents to sign these non-disclosure agreements. To learn more, see The Boston Globe's Great Divide team's 2024 investigation and reporting of these secretive education settlements in Massachusetts.

Note that pursuing any of the above options when trying to change a child’s placement can be a long process that takes months or even years of negotiation. This can be emotionally stressful for both the child and parents.