En Espanol ASL Video Did you know that you may be entitled to obtain an advanced degree with VR’s assistance? All services delivered by VR are meant to help people achieve their employment goal.  If reaching your employment goal requires an advanced degree, such as becoming a lawyer, pharmacist, or veterinarian, then your Individualized Plan for Employment should include educational assistance for the advance degree. Two good sources to find out if your employment goal requires an advance degree are O*net and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. For example, Enrique wishes to become a physi ..read more

En Espanol ASL Video Welcome to our Client Assistance Program (CAP) tips series! Every day, for the next 12 days, you will learn a new fact from the ACDL CAP team. All tips will be about Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services. Vocational Rehabilitation Rights: Tip #1 of 12 Did you know that if you are a Social Security Disability recipient (SSI and/or SSDI) VR cannot ask you to contribute to the cost of your vocational rehabilitation services? Federal law allows VR to choose whether it will require clients to pay for some services. VR usually decides how much a client must pay towards their s ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* EN ESPANOL ASL Video This is the final blog post in our series discussing school discipline of students with disabilities. Today’s blog post provides tips on how to help your child avoid school discipline in the first place. Students are disciplined when they engage in inappropriate behaviors at school. For students with disabilities, these behaviors are often the result of educational frustrations. The way to reduce these frustrations is to first identify your child’s needs and then take necessary steps to ensure those needs are being met at ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* EN ESPANOL ASL Video The most recent blog post in this series went over the rules that apply to the use of restraint and seclusion techniques in Arizona schools. Today’s blog post provides complaint options for parents who are concerned that their child is being subjected to improper restraint and seclusion at school. While A.R.S. § 15-105 itself does not include an enforcement mechanism, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is authorized under A.R.S. § 15-239 to enforce any law that applies to school districts. Despite having statutory ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* EN ESPANOL ASL VIDEO Today’s blog post examines another type of informal school discipline – restraint and seclusion. Schools are more likely to restrain or seclude students with disabilities than those without. [1] This blog post provides important information about Arizona law and the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. What are restraint and seclusion? Restraint and seclusion are techniques that schools use to intervene when students engage in behavior that may harm themselves or others. Under Arizona law, restraint means “any metho ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* EN ESPANOL ASL VIDEO In Informal Discipline & How to Handle It, ACDL noted that parents of children with disabilities who require home-based instruction should advocate for their children to receive as many hours of services as necessary in order to receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). ACDL has found that many Arizona schools offer a maximum of four hours of instruction weekly to students whose placement is home-based instruction. This blog post explains that there is no legal basis for limiting instruction to four hour ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* EN ESPANOL ASL VIDEO Today’s blog post covers informal types of discipline and provides ideas about how to handle each type. First—what is informal school discipline?  Informal school discipline occurs when a school denies a student services or excludes a student from school programming without an “official” suspension/expulsion and without due process. When students face “unofficial” types of school discipline, they do not receive the same protections they otherwise would be entitled to. Informal discipline can include: Being sent home ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* En Espanol ASL Video The previous blog post in this series introduced Manifestation Determination Reviews (MDRs) in school disciplinary actions. This blog post will explain what a MDR is, why it is important, and how best to prepare for it. Generally, schools cannot discipline students with disabilities for behavior resulting from their disability, as this amounts to disability discrimination. To avoid unlawful discrimination, schools must hold a meeting, known as a MDR, to determine whether the conduct in question was a “manifestation” of th ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* En Espanol ASL Video This blog post is part of an eight-part series on school discipline. The last blog post introduced the idea that children with disabilities have specific protections when it comes to school discipline. Those protections vary depending on whether the school has identified the student as a person with a disability at the time of the conduct and if so, whether the student has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 Plan. Today’s blog post summarizes the protections that exist for students in each situation. R ..read more

By: Emma Freeburg, ACDL Legal Intern (Summer 2021)* En Espanol ASL Video Our first blog post in this series explained that there are several types of formal discipline processes that students with disabilities may face. Today’s blog post provides more information on those types of formal discipline, explains the due process rights of all students facing school discipline, and introduces the additional safeguards that exist for students with disabilities. Arizona law defines short-term suspension, long-term suspension, and expulsion as follows: [1] Short-term Suspension Instances in which a ..read more