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Law in Delaware Helps Parents of Kids With Special Needs

Delaware In Delaware, Governor Jack Markell signed a bill into law that will help parents of children who have special needs to be better able to advocate for them. The law requires schools that deny services to kids who have special needs to reimburse parents for the expense of proving that the child does have a specific need.

The bill, that is now a law, was originally called House Bill 365. It was quickly passed through both the Delaware Senate and the Delaware House of Representatives. Once a bill passes through both the House and the Senate for a particular state, it is sent to the Governor. The Governor can either choose to veto the bill or to sign it. If the Governor signs it, the bill becomes a law.

The law helps parents to advocate for their child’s education. It is designed to help parents who find themselves in situations where their child’s school has refused to provide for the child’s special needs because the school doesn’t believe that the child has a particular special need. It is to prevent children from being denied educational services that they should be receiving.

In the past, a parent had little ability to fight a school’s decision to deny their child the educational services that he or she should be getting. The parent could go through a hearing process. The process itself requires parents to hire experts, or to pay out of pocket to have certain diagnostic tests done. Parents that couldn’t afford to pay for those things were unable to go through the hearing process. Obviously, this isn’t fair.

The new law changes things. Now, if a parent feels that their child is being denied the educational services that he or she requires, the parent has more options. The parent can have their child seen by doctors, can consult experts on their child’s needs, and can have appropriate diagnostic tests preformed. If the results show that the parent was correct – that their child does have a particular special need, and, therefore, should be receiving certain educational services, the school has to reimburse the parent for the cost of the tests and visits with doctors and experts.

This law puts back into place a previous law that existed in Delaware until 2006. The previous law gave parents the same ability to advocate for their child, and the same financial protections to do it properly, as the new law does today.

Image by Bobby Hidy on Flickr