Michael Pennsylvania
Michael was expelled from school because he brought a knife to school. It was a pocket knife, in his back pack, which he was returning to a friend. Michael was a special education student, diagnosed with ADHD and ODD, which is oppositional defiant disorder. The team that met to expel him had to conduct a "manifestation determination"-- did he bring the knife to school in connection with his learning disability or just because he wanted to violate the school's policy? However, the analysis is supposed to be much deeper than that; was the IEP appropriate; was it reviewed at the meeting? Was his oppositional behavior even considered as an explanation?

Our firm won the due process hearing. The child cannot be expelled from school. He was reinstated immediately. Today, he is back at school and doing fine. This could have been a life changing event for him-- expulsion from the school district or back to the same school. The law gave far more protection to the child than the school district, or the parents, thought. That's why you need a special education lawyer who knows the federal statutes and state and federal regulations. A lawyer who has been to due process, and won.

D.S. Pennsylvania
My son was in a large class, with about 31 other students. He was drowning. He was not able to read or do math at his instructional level (the level he was supposed to be able to achieve). He was in the next to lowest level of special education service, which is called "resource" (21 - 40% of his total education), when he needed much more. I told this to his school district, showed them his past IEP, but still they said he didn't need more. Meanwhile, I was spending 2 hours on homework every night and still he was falling further behind. He needed more.

With the help of attorney Kline, my son got additional necessary evaluations and placement into "part time" service, which means 41 - 60% of his total education. He may even be getting an assistive listening device. I had been asking for all of this for about 3 months, but until my attorney got a meeting together, with about 10 people from the District present, nothing had been done.

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