TPP 232: Education Attorney Catherine Michael on IEPs, 504s, and Accommodations During Covid-19
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
48 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 1 day ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What are the biggest challenges parents face with IEPs and 504 plans during COVID‑19?
So what I'm hearing from parents around the country, and I think this is what you're hearing too, is that, you know, you try to talk to a parent in another district and what's going on there is completely different from what's going on in your district. And I think parents don't know where is up at this point, what do I need to do and what am I even entitled to?
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber. In this episode, we are doing a deep dive into the subject of parental and student rights, or from another perspective, the legal obligation that schools have to provide for a child's education and what that means during the COVID nineteen pandemic. To talk us through this subject is attorney Katherine Michael, who specializes in education law for both general and special education matters. Through her law practice, Catherine has spent nearly two decades advocating for the rights of all students and helping parents navigate the education and legal system to ensure the needs of their children are met.
She's also the author of the forthcoming book The Exceptional Parents Guide to Special Education, written to help parents understand their child's education rights and simplify the complexities of education law. When I knew Catherine was coming onto the show, I reached out on the Tilt Together Facebook page and asked for questions you had about advocating for your children during this pandemic. And wow, did you have questions? Thank you to the many of you who sent in great questions. Catherine provided so much valuable information on everything from accommodations and supports during remote learning, IEP requirements, evaluation, situations, homeschooling rights, best practices for dealing with schools, and much, much more.
This episode is jam-packed and is essential listening for any parent of a differently wired child, even outside of a global pandemic. All right, and now here is my conversation with Kathryn Michael. Hello Catherine, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm really glad to be here with you today. I think this is such a important conversation for I think it's always an important conversation because you have such expertise in an area where a lot of parents are really scrambling or or feeling lost in in terms of what opportunities or possibilities are available for them. But in this time in the world with such unusual school scenarios, I think this is especially relevant. So I'm really excited to get into it with you.
Well, I'm you know, I'm happy to talk about this topic 'cause I think we're actually feeling lost in a lot of ways. in all the changes we've had over the last year. And I think um that there are a lot of things that parents need to know and ways that they can be documenting this. And um I'll give them a bunch of different tools that they can use to make sure their children are getting services. But I mean this is a really important conversation for us all to be having right now, um just depending h on how long the pandemic goes on and what options are gonna be available even going into the future.
Yeah, absolutely. The landscape is changing and probably will continue to change as opposed to going back to exactly what it looked like before. Before we get into, you know, I have a lot of questions and I actually crowdsource some questions for my community, but can you just take a few minutes and do a more personal introduction of yourself and what you do? I've already read your formal bio, but I always love to hear my guests in their own words share what they do and why.
Yeah, so I am an education attorney and I work in three states. I work in Indiana, Texas, and Michigan. Um, I have a law firm called Connell Michael Kerr and our attorneys are actually licensed in a number of other states beyond the free states that I'm licensed in. So we cover Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Minnesota. Um, we have contacts in Massachusetts, um, New York.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the biggest challenges parents face with IEPs and 504 plans during COVID‑19?
0:00–7:10
2
How have school districts’ remote and hybrid models changed the delivery of special‑education services?
7:10–13:20
3
What legal rights do parents still have under the IDEA when schools go “one‑size‑fits‑all”?
13:20–20:23
4
How can parents request emergency IEP meetings and enforce accommodations right now?
20:23–26:37
5
What options exist for evaluations and assessments when schools limit in‑person testing?
26:37–32:14
6
When is homeschooling allowed without losing special‑education services, and what supports can still be provided?
32:14–37:13
7
How do due‑process complaints and administrative hearings work, and can parents recover attorney fees?
37:13–42:56
8
Where can parents find resources, legal help, and Catherine Michael’s upcoming guide for navigating special education?
42:56–48:01
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids