Did your child's school provide very few services and supports that are written in their IEP during distance learning? 

Are you interested in learning more about the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) complaints and requesting compensatory services for your child?

You can watch the replay of last week's show or listen to the podcast.

Please note: Marcie is unable to take any more parent requests for her help to file an OCR complaint. However, look below to find some essential tips you can use about filing OCR complaints.


 

 

 

Education Advocate Marcie Lipsitt gave some excellent tips during our show, and I promised I would share those with you.

1. Scan and email your OCR complaint instead of faxing it. Federal fax machines have been known to fail. And then if you don't keep a copy of your transmission, and they say they haven't received it in 14 days, it will close your case.

2. Anyone can file a civil rights complaint. You do need the permission of the parent. The parent has to sign the consent or has to give you written consent, that you can sign it, but certainly, anyone can do that.

 

3. Break down civil rights complaints into allegations.

 

4. Marcie contends that when a district didn't put forth a good faith effort to provide instruction during the school closure, it's a civil rights violation. Your district did not begin to meet the obligation during the school closure.

 

5. After you file the complaint, watch your email and phone because an OCR attorney will reach out. They can reach out anywhere from two days to two months just to talk to you and to either ask you questions because they're evaluating your complaint to see if they're going to open it.

6. The OCR office can instead of thoroughly evaluating it if they see there's enough evidence they can offer a rapid resolution, which is a process before a complaint is formally opened for investigation.  Accept their offer of rapid resolution.

 

7. If parents and the district both say yes to rapid resolution, then the Office for Civil Rights schedules a resolution session that an attorney from the Office for Civil Rights attends.  Right now, they're doing them virtually through zoom.

 

8. During the rapid resolution meeting, you're negotiating the resolution. In advance, you talk to the OCR attorney about what you're hoping for.

9. OCR will take new evidence, as long as they're investigating. The earlier you get it to them, the better.

 

10. If a parent has really strong evidence, the parent can scan and email that with the actual consent itself.

 

11. Your regional OCR office will always reach out to you. You have to watch for emails and phone calls because if you don't respond to them within 14 days, they will close your complaint.

 

12. If you get questions from OCR, you do have to answer them.

 

Thurs. July 16th, 2020 

Parents Tell All: Special Ed. in The Spring, Raising The Bar For Fall