Frequently Asked Legal Questions about
Attention Deficit Disorder
The following are some questions commonly asked by parents when investigating the possiblity of retaining an attorney when it appears that a child is not receiving appropriate special education services. Parents who are considering this step are encouraged to download and read Pete Wright's analysis of the Supreme Court decision in Carter.
CONTENTS
- Recent changes to this FAQ
- What is this document?
- List of Questions
- Answers
- Credits
This is the HTML version of the Legal FAQ file for Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD). FAQ stands for Frequently Asked
Questions, and fortunately for you we have also included at no
extra cost the Answers to those Questions.
The purpose behind maintaining this document is to keep discussion
forums concerned with Attention Deficit Disorder free from as much
repetition as possible. Not many people are keen on answering the
same question over and over, especially if it comes up daily. It is
hoped that by keeping a list of the most common questions for users
to refer to, the quality of discussions will be much higher.
Also available is a
plain text version of this FAQ. Look for it to be posted about the
same time as this one.
Both the plain text version and the HTML
version are available from the following locations:
- FTP://ftp.mcs.com/mcsnet.users/falcon/add ADD File Transfer site
or through periodic posting to the ADD-PARENTS list and the alt.support.attn-deficit newsgroup.
- Q1 Do you need access/copies to my child's files
with psychologists and/or psychiatrists that have treated him?
- Q2 Do you want/need signed consents to speak with them?
- Q3 We have requested complete copies of cumulative
and confidential records from the school. Still waiting to hear from
them if they will do it.
- Q4 Do you need anything signed to request it from
them if they won't give it to us?
- Q5 Do you want/need consents to talk with anyone in the district?
- Q6 I am not sure how in-depth your review will be
or who you might wish to speak to and would like to ensure you have
everything necessary from the start.
I need their evalulations and test scores.
Not yet. After I review info I will know who I may need to talk
to and then I have a generic release form that covers all states which
I can either fax to you or put on-line so that you and others can use it.
By Federal law, you are *absolutely entitled* to ALL of your child's
records! Period.
I will have you sign and deliver, in person, my standard form
directing that they mail the info direct to me to avoid polarization of this
issue, even tho you personally are entitled to them w/o having to go thru an
atty! When a school system refuses to release records to a parent, that
refusal is illegal. However, rather than setting the battleline on that
issue, I insert myself as the lightening rod, and force the issue, thus
removing the parent from the front line of the battle. I can step in and
step out. You, as a parent, will always be in--so it is important to use
your lawyer as the lightening rod/SOB, as indicated ("I am only doing what
my lawyer said" with an innocent, ignorant smile).
Probably, but not yet, need to evaluate data and see who are
critical players. Normally I do not have live conversations w/ the school
officials in the beginning or middle stages of a case, but do after their
anxiety has gone up.
I am not sure yet, test data will be my primary key to future
steps! That is why it is so important to me that I have all data,
beginning from before child was perhaps born and at a minimum, from
first piece of diagnostic data available.
As you saw from my Carter analysis, these cases MUST be prepared for
trial before entering into negotiation, and, from there, the cases
have a high probability of being settled favorably for the
parent/child or litigated with a successful outcome.
Is your attorney mentally preparing you and himself for trial or for
accepting settlement at any cost? Smell it out. I would like your
perceptions of him before I talk with him. I have trained him on
a number of occasions, only his name was different but his good
intentions were the same. However, as the trial date neared,
anxieties surfaced. If that's the case, I probaby can walk him thru
that normal developmental stage!
This article has been downloaded from the ADD Forum on CompuServe, and may
be distributed freely as long as the contents of the file are unchanged.
Because the CompuServe ADD Forum is new, we are frequently asked how to
join CompuServe and get on the forum. Call 1-800-524-3388 and ask for
rep #464. Outside the US/Canada call +1-614-457-0802.
ADD Legal FAQ /
Steven Foust <peregrin@enteract.com> / Oct 1, 1994