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Subj: THE SPECIAL ED ADVOCATE, MAY 5, 2000 (V. 3, NO. 15)
Date: 5/5/00 12:21:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: webmaster@wrightslaw.com (Wrightslaw)
Sender: owner-special-ed-advocate@wrightslaw.com
To: special-ed-advocate@wrightslaw.com
The Special Ed Advocate Newsletter is sent by permission only. If you wish to unsubscribe at any time, please follow the directions
at the end of this e-mail. Thanks!
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The Special Ed Advocate
The Online Newsletter About Special Education and the Law
May 5, 2000 Vol. III, No. 15
Visit us today at http://www.wrightslaw.com
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1. NEWS! WHITEHEAD RETALIATION CASE AGAINST HILLSBOROUGH FL SETTLES
2. EFFECTIVE PARENT ADVOCACY: STAND!
3. RETALIATION: THE CALIFORNIA “ENEMIES LIST”
4. CD-ROM OFFER FROM WRIGHTSLAW
5. LAW LIBRARY REORGANIZED - NEW LINKS
6. EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS! SPECIAL EDUCATION CONSUMER SURVEY
7. SUBSCRIPTION ONFORMATION
8. CONTACT INFORMATION
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1. NEWS! WHITEHEAD RETALIATION CASE AGAINST HILLSBOROUGH FL SETTLES
In April 1998, we heard a rumor that a Florida jury had just awarded $600,000 in damages to parents of a disabled child.
After we contacted the parents and their attorney and confirmed the facts in the case, we sent out our first Alert:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/news_Whitehead_980403.htm
The Whitehead case was front page news in the FIRST issue of THE SPECIAL ED ADVOCATE newsletter, published on April 21, 1998.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/nwltr/1998/nl_98_0421.html
And this was a very good newsletter!
We asked Laura Whiteside, attorney for the parents, to write an article about “The Inside Story of the $600,000 Jury Verdict” for
the Wrightslaw site. She graciously agreed. This link will take
you to “The Inside Story” by Laura Whiteside:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/ltr_whiteside_980606.html
The case began when the parents asked the school district to provide the one hour a week of speech language therapy that the
district agreed their child required.
When the district refused, the parents requested a due process hearing.
The Hearing Officer ruled in their favor, finding that Hillsborough County School District was not providing the child
with a free appropriate public education, and that the district had discriminated against him and retaliated against his parents.
The school district refused to implement the Hearing Officer’s decision. Finally the parents brought suit in federal court to
enforce the order and get services for their son.
To read the family’s Press Release (in pdf), which includes a history of the case, and a personal statement by Keith and Nikole
Whitehead, go to
http://www.wrightslaw.com/news/2000/whitehead_newsrelease_000503.pdf
On May 2, 2000, the Hillsborough County School Board voted to approve the settlement of Whitehead v. HCSD.
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2. EFFECTIVE PARENT ADVOCACY: STAND!
While their case was unfolding, Keith and Nikole Whitehead established a non-profit organization called Statewide Advocacy
Network on Disabilities (STAND) to help families of children with disabilities in educational planning.
STAND offers free information and assistance to families who are attempting to negotiate the special education maze. For more
information, contact STAND, P. O. Box 1836, Tampa, FL 33601-1836 or call (813) 258-5700. The President of STAND is our good
friend, Mark Kamleiter, Esq., whom we spent time with during the last COPAA Conference.
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3. RETALIATION: THE CALIFORNIA “ENEMIES LIST”
The verdict in the Whitehead case made us aware of other instances of retaliation against parents. In California, school
districts maintained and circulated the names of special ed
parents who were viewed as "enemies" of schools because they advocated on behalf of their children.
The article about the California Enemies List is at
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/Enemies_List.html
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4. CD-ROM OFFER FROM WRIGHTSLAW
Many people have written and called with questions about the WRIGHTLAW CD ROM OFFER.
The OFFER ends in less than one week. Don’t procrastinate! SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED.
Follow this link for the html page about the CD-ROM OFFER.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/news/2000/promo_00_0503.htm
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5. LAW LIBRARY REORGANIZED - NEW LINKS
When you visit the Law Library, you’ll see that we’ve reorganized this section of the site.
Main entrance to Law Library is at
http://www.wrightslaw.com/main_lawlibrary.htm
There are four areas in the Law Library:
Legal News: http://www.wrightslaw.com/lawlibrary_news.htm
Caselaw: http://www.wrightslaw.com/lawlibrary_caselaw.htm
Statute & Regulations:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/lawlibrary_statute.htm
Articles & Reports:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/lawlibrary_articles.htm
WE NEED YOUR HELP: When we reorganize an area of the site, we make the site more user-friendly. The downside is that we
unwittingly create “broken links.”
If you find a broken link, please send an email to brokenlink@wrightslaw. In the subject line of your message, write
BROKEN LINK. Please tell us where you were and what you were looking for so we can fix the link. Thanks!
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6. EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS! SPECIAL EDUCATION CONSUMER SURVEY
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) wants to hear from you!
You can participate in their comprehensive planning process by completing their on-line Special Education Consumer Survey. This
is your opportunity to provide input, and help shape activities
that will link best practices to states, school systems, and families to improve results for infants, toddlers, and children
with disabilities.
Here is the web address for the Special Education Consumer Survey:
http://www.osepplanning.org/index.htm
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7. SUBSCRIPTION ONFORMATION
The Special Ed Advocate is a free online newsletter about special education legal issues, cases, tactics and strategy, effective
educational methods, and Internet links.
As a subscriber to The Special Ed Advocate, you’ll receive announcements and "alerts" about new cases and other events. Back
issues of The Special Ed Advocate are in the Newsletter Archives at the Wrightslaw site -
http://www.wrightslaw.com/main_newsletter_archives.htm
TO SUBSCRIBE to The Special Ed Advocate, go to
http://www.wrightslaw.com/subscribe_nltr.htm
and follow the instructions on that page.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE to The Special Ed Advocate, send an email to
majordomo@wrightslaw.com
In the beginning of your message, insert the following words EXACTLY, with hyphens, all lowercase
unsubscribe special-ed-advocate
If you want to unsubscribe, DON'T add anything else to your message. Majordomo is a computer program that automatically
processes newsletter “subscribes” and “unsubscribes.”
If you have problems, please read these directions again, then follow the directions exactly.
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8. CONTACT INFORMATION
Pete and Pam Wright
c/o Wrightslaw & The Special Ed Advocate
P. O. Box 1008
Deltaville, VA 23043
Phone: 804-257-0857
Website: http://www.wrightslaw.com
Email: webmaster@wrightslaw.com
The resources at this website are copyrighted by the authors. They may be used for non-commercial purposes only. They may not
be redistributed for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Peter W. D. Wright.
It is not necessary to obtain our consent to link to our website or copy, print and distribute our articles and newsletters for
nonprofit purposes so long as the material is reproduced in its
entirety and credit is given to Pete and Pam Wright and "wrightslaw" including the URL -
http://www.wrightslaw.com
Copyright 2000, Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr Wright. All rights reserved.
END