Rochelle’s Special Education Tips
Is There a Connection Between Special Education and the Mueller Investigation?
Well, no, there is no direct connection between Special Education and the Mueller investigation. But any experienced special educator could be on Mueller’s investigatory team connecting the dots and seeing if the rules were followed. It would be a no brainer for most special educators who are involved in tasks much more complex than following a money trail. In fact, special educators would be superb investigators, particularly if you already do compliance work. There are so many intricate rules, all of which need to be followed. You need to maintain a comprehensive, well documented paper trail of your decisions (the IEP, 504 Plan, and the PWN) and you need to be able to prove that you were timely in sending notices and holding mandatory meetings. Your documents need to be clearly written and items such as the Services page need to be thorough so that an investigator would understand exactly how services are to be implemented. Some agencies, such as MSDE and OCR, seem to take the word of complainants over the word of educators unless there is a document confirming a particular action. “Prove it” is the name of the game.
It is hoped that this Tips is not going to inspire you to take early retirement to join the Mueller team. Please do not. Your work in Special Education is too valuable to our youth.
Rochelle’s Special Education Tips (“Tips”) are designed to be helpful and thought provoking, but should not be considered legal advice as they may not be accurate for use in all situations. Tips are based on my opinions and positions in accordance with federal and Maryland law and my over 35 years of experience in the special education legal field. – Rochelle S. Eisenberg, Esquire
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Tips may be reproduced for distribution within the educational institution, the individual school or school system and is for use by their staff. Additional distribution must be approved by author.
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