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Special Ed Advocacy: Nine Rules of Thumb

This article lists some important rules to follow when trying to secure educational services for your special needs child.

In this article, you will find:

Rule nine

Rule Nine: Consider How Each Step Would Look to an Impartial Decision-Maker
Consider how each action you or your school system takes will look if someday that action is described to a hearing officer charged with deciding about your child's special educational plan. This precept underlies all the others: You want a hearing officer to see that you have shared information, treated school personnel with courtesy, selected credible experts, tried any reasonable options the school system offered, and are using the due process system to seek truly important services rather than to fight over minor concerns or procedural violations that do not seriously affect the quality of your child's program.

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