Free Appropriate Public Education

During this four-part series, which we do once a month, we have been focusing a lot on ABA and IEPs.

First part of our series was finding your seat at the IEP table, and we spoke a lot about the shared language, FAPE, Least Restrictive Environment, related services, instruction, and some different roles that BCBAs can play.

We also then went on to do a supervision unit, which is supervision eligible for CEUs, and we focused a lot on field work, RBT, staff competence when it comes to school collaboration, and how that works as an IEP team member.

Our third part was all about ethics, and yes, ethics eligible for CEU, but very interesting because we talked a lot about scope of competence, consent, cultural, mutual relationships.

And so You know, my feeling is that before a parent, you know, sort of opts to take such an extreme measure and take on educating their child, that they go through the process of you know, let's try to work with the district to ensure that my public school district provides my child with

a FAPE, Reappropriate Public Education.

And one of the biggest pieces that I recommend is look, your school district has a right and they're going to evaluate your child and make and determine your child's needs and develop an IEP.

But sometimes when a student is complex and has a variety of issues, a more comprehensive evaluation is very helpful in guiding educational programming.

Look, the reality is that what a lot of this boils down to is that if your school district has players and personnel that are open and willing to work with you, that is more than half the battle.

They have themselves have to be willing to be creative.

And within the confines of the law, I mean, we need to also remember that school districts are required by law to provide a student a FAPE.

And there are some services and supports that might be beneficial to for your child, but might go beyond what a district is legally obligated to do, to provide.

And your child, this is like my favorite statement to train parents, your words to make people stand up.

poop their pants a little bit is my child is entitled to a free and appropriate education called FAPE, F-A-P-E.

If you say that or put that in writing, you're going to rustle some feathers and that's okay.

But your child is entitled to these things.

And in the process, we were begging the district to do something and they wouldn't.

But do you think we're going to call all the parents of the kids who were displaced and be like, hey, your kid wasn't receiving FAPE today? Of course we're not.

But everyone who has worked in the schools knows this.

We all know this.

Federal laws mandate that all these students receive a free, appropriate public education.

One more time, that's free and appropriate public education, or FAPE.

It's a key principle in IDEA, a central concept in special education, and you're going to be hearing it a lot throughout this podcast.

The

A in FAPE, appropriate, means that all students have the right to make meaningful, not just minimal, progress toward their goals.

But Beth's experience was that even when you go to a school with a lot of resources in a wealthy suburb on Long Island, and even when your mother is a literal professor of special education, it can still be tough to get the inclusion and the services you deserve.

the bullying Beth experienced became a major motivating force in her life.

I am sorry that, that free advocates are few and far between and that advocates cost money.

I am sorry that FAPE is not free, and I have spent the past almost twenty years of my life, you know, fighting to change this.

But there are no shortcuts in, in this.

There just aren't, and people don't wanna put in the boring work, right? Like, you can't just go to Planet Fitness once.

Federal laws mandate that all these students receive a free, appropriate public education.

One more time, that's free and appropriate public education, or FAPE.

It's a key principle in IDEA, a central concept in special education, and you're going to be hearing it a lot throughout this podcast.

The A in FAPE, appropriate, means that all students have the right to make meaningful, not just minimal, progress toward their goals.

But Beth's experience was that even when you go to a school with a lot of resources in a wealthy suburb on Long Island, and even when your mother is a literal professor of special education, it can still be tough to get the inclusion and the services you deserve.

the bullying Beth experienced became a major motivating force in her life.

Federal laws mandate that all these students receive a free, appropriate public education.

One more time, that's free and appropriate public education, or FAPE.

It's a key principle in IDEA, a central concept in special education, and you're going to be hearing it a lot throughout this podcast.

The A in FAPE, appropriate, means that all students have the right to make meaningful, not just minimal, progress toward their goals.

But Beth's experience was that even when you go to a school with a lot of resources in a wealthy suburb on Long Island, and even when your mother is a literal professor of special education, it can still be tough to get the inclusion and the services you deserve.

The bullying Beth experienced became a major motivating force in her life.