Education Rights

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SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

Your child has rights when he is being recommended for suspension or expulsion. To understand those rights, read School Discipline: Suspensions and Expulsions.

If your child gets special education services, or may be eligible to get those services, read: Expulsions and Suspensions of Special Education Students.

HOMELESS STUDENTS

If your family or your child is homeless, your child still has the right to attend school without interruption. And you or your child has a right to choose which school he should attend. It's important for you to know that homelessness is broadly defined, and can include being doubled up with relatives or friends. It's not just if you are living in a shelter, motel, car or campground.

For more information, see:

Homeless Students Rights to Attend School

Educating Homeless Chlidren and Youth
This Guide is written by The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

WHERE CAN MY CHILD ATTEND SCHOOL?

Sometime it's not clear where a child can go to school, especially if he's not living in his parent's home. Read this information for teens: What School District Do I Go To?.

TRUANCY

You are responsible for getting your child to attend school. Find out more about Maine Truancy Laws.

My Child Wants to Drop Out of School: What Should I Do? There are alternatives for older students. Read this.

SPECIAL EDUCATION

If your child has a disability, she may be entitled to education services to address her disability under a federal law called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). This law can be very confusing for parents.

Artist: Rose Contributed by Shaw House

Parent Special Ed Support Groups:

• SPIN: 1-800-870-7746
• GEAR: 1-800-264-9224
• Maine Parent Federation: 1-800-870-7746
• Southern Maine Parent Awareness: 324-2337
• Western Maine Parent Awareness: 539-4080

For some good introductory information, check out the following resources:

Special Ed, a New Language
This piece helps you learn and understand the key concepts and acronymns of the IDEA, such as PET, IEP, FAPE and LRE.

IDEA: When Parents and the School Disagree
This explains the procedures used when parents or adult students and schools disagree on special education decisions for eligibility, evaluations, placement, services, or manifestation determinations.

Expulsions and Suspensions of Special Education Students

Understanding the Special Education Process: An Overview for Parents
A national group, Families and Advocates and Partnership for Education, posts this basic information about the IDEA '97 in Spanish, Somail and Hmong. However, they caution that some of their information had not been updated.

The Maine Parent Federation, and its major project SPIN (Special-Needs Parent Information Network), provide information, referral, support and training to parents of children with disabilities. Their Fact Sheets address many common questions about Special Education rights and procedures.

The Maine Department of Education posts Maine Special Education Regulations, a due process request form, resources for parents, and links to other Special Education information.

There is another law for children with disabilities called Section 504. It is an anti-discrimination law that is different from IDEA. To learn about Section 504, read Section 504 Education Law.

Congress is making changes to IDEA that will be effective in July 2005. We will be updating our materials and adding more materials that address those changes. However, they may not be finished by July 2005, so be sure to check the date of the client education materials you are reading.