Do you feel like the school world is built to deny your child the education they need, and want? First, remember that an advocate is a bandage for the wound, right now. But we must all remind--demand--that Congress fully fund the IDEA.

Not everyone has been left alone, rudderless, in a windy ocean. When a school district provides virtual educational access to nondisabled students, then disabled students must be able to virtually access, too. Accommodations may be needed in times like these, more than ever before.

: Parents often believe that they are required to take their child from school when a "meltdown" occurs. Parents may also believe that their child is entitled to having an entire classroom cleared to avoid injury to others during a behaviorally violent event. No. There are better means, and schools can be expected to follow better practices, suited to the educational needs of the child. Read about it in this brand new federal court decision

This story is not about Joe Biden. It's about a very brave boy with the courage to hang it all out in front of millions of people. And it's about the rest of us, to help us listen to what he has to say instead of the way he says it. And with the right supports, his IEP will not be a life sentence, but the door to a better life.

Many people are being pressured by school districts to decide, sometimes for the entire future school year, whether they want their children at school full time, or at home with remote instruction full time, or any variety of middle compromises during our time of horrifying pandemic. That puts a immense pressure on families to assume a lot of risk of unknown outcomes, and particularly, huge risk of educational and health loss on children, themselves. If children are our most precious, then let’s think long and hard. If you discover you made the wrong decision, there may be ways to back it out, but that, too, costs time. It may require professional assistance, as well, lest the problem only compound.

Wrightslaw webinar: "Special Education in a Pandemic"

Tennessee will provide grants to parents to pay for tutoring for young children. Rhode Island will expand its online courses for elementary and high school students. New York will train nearly 200,000 teachers on conducting remote instruction.That’s how some of the 11 winning states plan to use their portion of $180 million in federal education department grants.

BOSTON (AP) — Virtual instruction. Mandated masks. Physical distancing. The start of school will look very different this year because of the coronavirus — and that’s OK with the vast majority of Americans.

Mo. DESE now approves LAUNCH as a virtual school partner for many Missouri school districts this fall. At a link on the DESE website, you can find LAUNCH's short, short list of "modifications" to its virtual school classes.

When the student burst out of the school and bolted through the parking lot, workers followed closely but did not try to grab him. Clutching his teddy bear, the 18-year-old scrambled to the top of a brick pillar at the school gate. He spit in the adults’ faces, yelling that he was going to hurt himself.