IDEIA 2004 Press Release / Press Work Volunteers Needed
By Bob
Witanek 908-881-5275
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://APIECENJ.org
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Petition.htm
As many of you are aware, a petition has been launched supporting the strongest possible implementation of IDEIA 2004 regulations in the state of NJ. Last time I sent out information about the petition, we were just getting it off the ground. Now we have around 250 signers and the list continues to grow. We imagine that many who saw the previous messages about this effort had every intention of signing but due to time constraints were unable to get to it right away and then the idea of the petition simply slipped their minds. Thus we are sending this around to give you the opportunity to add your name and that of other adult members of your family to the growing chorus of parents of students with disabilities, advocates and other supporters who are demanding that the strongest possible rights for our children and us as their parents and top advocates be maintained in NJ code. Please do this now. Go here, read the petition and sign today:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Petition.htm
Please also help by circulating this information among your family, friends, colleagues, associates and any one else who you believe needs to be aware of what is going on around IDEIA 2004 and needs to join the effort around this issue.
Press Work Volunteers Needed
Also, the press release below will be our first foray into the print media arena
around this petition. I am sending this out to papers local to me and others
around the state. However – the most effective outreach into newspapers is for
local people to approach their local community newspapers. Most papers are more
interested in neighborhood stories. What is needed are folks who are willing to
serve as press spokespersons to their local reporters and editors. We can
change the press release to put you as the contact person and we can change the
text of the release to represent your perspective and to place quotes of yours
into it. Of course, you need to be a petition signer to best represent this
perspective. If you want to write your own press release – that is fine as long
as we are promoting the petition and this effort.
If you think you might want to do this and have never done so before – don’t fret – we can coach you in the “how to” about it. You can call me at 908-881-5275 or e-mail advocate@studentadvocate-nj.org if you are interested in helping out in this area.
Organizations
We are also looking for organizations to sign on. You can put your organization in the press release. We would like to list your group as endorsing the petition, again, please contact me at 908-881-5275 or e-mail advocate@studentadvocate-nj.org to do so.
We have 250 signers so far which is a good start. But there are about 225,000 special needs students in NJ. We need to get this base organized into a powerful and unified voice that says to the NJ Department of Education: “Hands off our rights and the rights of our disabled students – not one step backward for the special needs students and their families in NJ!”
For Our
Children,
Bob Witanek 908-881-5275
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://APIECENJ.org
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Petition.htm
Press Release:
The Student Advocate Website and
A Parents’ Initiative for Every Child’s Education
PO Box 1214, Belle Mead, NJ 908-881-5275
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
http://APIECENJ.org
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Petition.htm
Disability Families Uniting for Stronger Special Ed Law
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bob Witanek 908-881-5275
Facing the possible weakening of Special Education Law in NJ, special education families, advocacy organizations and their supporters are banding together to fight any weakening under federal special education law revisions passed as part of IDEIA 2004. Through public hearings, petition drives and a letter writing campaign, special needs families are calling upon the NJ Department of Education to keep NJ Special Education Law strong where the federal law would permit states to weaken it. The petition drive is being coordinated from a website at http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org . The petition outlines 11 specific points and calls upon the state not to weaken special education law in those areas.
The specific areas of concern include opposition to elimination of short term goals, to the idea of NJ adopting 3-year individualized education plans or “IEP’s”, to loosening laws on who must attend IEP planning sessions, to elimination of mid-year reporting requirements, to the shifting of burden of proof for discipline measures to punish disability related behaviors, to the elimination of “stay put” measures which currently require districts to maintain status quo of placement while matters are in dispute between parents and a district, to the lengthening of the time for which a student can be removed to a so-called alternative education environment, to the reduction in frequency of notification of parents of their rights under the law, to the implementation of statute of limitations whereby parents can hold a district legally accountable, to the imposition of state run mediation meetings and to the increasing the age at which transition services begin from 14 to 16.
Organizers of the petition drive believe that parents already are often overwhelmed and intimidated by all powerful school districts with unlimited resources. If anything, they say, laws should be strengthened to give parents and students greater protection and more rights in the special education process.
According to initiator of the petition Bob Witanek of the organization A Parents Initiative for Every Child’s Education or APIECE http://APIECENJ.org , “It is very possible that most parents with children in special education are unaware of what their rights are and what they are entitled to. Districts take advantage of such lack of knowledge and our children get shortchanged, segregated and scapegoated in the process. Now the federal government wants to give the states more power to take away our rights. We are calling upon the NJ Department of Education, the Acting Governor and the State Legislature to set an example for the rest of the nation that they understand the plight of families with disabled children and that they will do everything in their capacity to eliminate any weakening of NJ Special Education Law by IDEIA 2004.”
Recently, NJ Special Education Director Barbara Gantwerk sent a letter to all of the school districts asking for feedback on IDEIA 2004 as to how it should be implemented. Members of the APIECE organization responded by sending a letter to Ms. Gantwerk calling upon her to send a letter to all of the special needs parents in the state asking them for input. According to the letter from the APIECE members:
“It is telling to whom your letter was addressed and to whom it was not addressed. Your letter was not addressed to the advocacy organizations like SPAN and ARC and dozens of advocacy agencies and organizations around the state. Your letter was not addressed to students with disabilities and their families whose lives and full potential will depend on how you and your department implement IDEIA 2004. Notably missing from your web pages on IDEIA 2004 is any at all information in Spanish. Is that another community you would prefer to exclude from the review process for IDEIA 2004? . . . We call upon you to address a new letter to the advocacy community, to the students and to the parents, families and allies of students with disabilities. The letter should make clear that the those provisions that are weakened by IDEIA 2004 need not be weakened in NJ. We call upon you to provide Spanish translation at the website of the IDEIA 2004 and a draft of the new letter to families and advocacy organizations should be provided in Spanish. The letter should be mailed to all of the parents of IEP students in the state.”
At the website where the petition drive is based, signers and supporters of students with disabilities are also invited to write letters to Barbara Gantwerk, the Acting Governor of NJ and state legislators. The website provides tips on how to craft such letters and asks petition signers to commit themselves to getting such letters out.
In the first two weeks of the petition drive almost 250 signatures from throughout the state have been gathered. Petition organizers state that they are only starting to get the word out. According to Mr. Witanek, “We are getting a very enthusiastic response, not only from families of children challenged with disabilities, but from many other sectors around NJ.”
Organizers state that in addition to
the petition drive, the will be organizing workshops, more parent hearings,
calling upon the state legislators to hold public hearings and possibly
organizing rallies and trips to Trenton to pressure against weakening of NJ
Special Education Law.
Mr. Witanek states, “We need to impress upon those in Trenton that many of our
children’s very survival as well as their ability to blossom toward their full
potential often depends on the rights of parents and students to advocate
against the powerful school districts. Through this process, we are identifying
our constituency and organizing ourselves into a more potent powerful force and
should our leaders in Trenton let us down, we will be preparing our appropriate
measures to carry our efforts forward. This effort is a continuation of civil
rights struggle and if we are determined to carry forward according to the
examples that have been set by those who have traipsed down this path before, we
have the wherewithal to prevail. If not today – then at the crack of dawn
tomorrow!”
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Ask the Advocate
NJ Complaint Form (MS Word)
(PDF)
On Line Public Hearing on IDEIA 2004
Survey on NJ OSEP Complaint
Process
Past Activities
IEP Wkshp
Rec. Programs for
those w/ Disabilities
An Evening of Educational Advocacy
September 8, 2005 Edison, NJ
What The Student Advocate Has Done for Our Children
Lately . . .
NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee
Minutes of IDEIA 2004 meeting on Thu., May
26
Student Rights Radio
Discussion, October 31
Effort to
Reach Gubernatorial Hopefuls and Acting Governor / Candidates
IDEA: An Update
Dec. 5, 2005
Middletown
January 18,
2006: Hold a Candle Light for Our Children's Rights
50 Strong For Our
Children
No. Jersey Radio Interview Aired, 1/22
Petitioning for Rights Children: Legal in Princeton
Interview on NJ IDEIA Rights
- Racial Disparities in Sp-Ed
Call
is Heard in Montgomery Twp: Inclusive Recreation
NJSAU Minutes 2/18/2006
Playing and Singing for
Our Rights, 4/1/6
Better IDEA Laws for Special Education
Students?
Better IEPs? Anything is Possible!
April
1 Report: Student Advocacy Union - Fundraising Concert
Mobilization for Rights
of Our Children, May 17, 2006, Trenton
Nationwide Internet Radio Rally for Sp-Ed Parent Rights
9pm EST, Sat. May 20
Parents’ Rally @ Statehouse in Trenton Thursday, June 8, 2006
Piscataway Parents Mtg, June 19, 2006