OCR Ruling on 504 Ineligibility--Gloucester

[ajasfolks2]

Original thread link here:

http://allergy.hyperboards.com/action/view_topic/topic_id/4795

Opening Post

McCobbre 6/6/2008

I will post more later, but this is a bit of a landmark moment for us in that OCR investigated a complaint against a school district because the SD said the a child with LFFAs (PA & TNA) was not diabled and did not qualify for a 504. The child had two letters from a doctor and reaction history.

OCR ruled that the SD discriminated against the student.

I included a copy of it in our 504 request. Pete Wright has posted it on wrightslaw.com. Scroll down to the fourth paragraph when you see Peanut Allergy.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/sec504.index.htm

Here's a direct link to the Resolution/Closure Letter.

http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/504/OCR.va.peanut.pdf

[ajasfolks2]

Follow on posts:

notnutty 6/6/2008

McCobbre:  This is a very good find indeed.     I quickly looked through the decision and it appears that the OCR is strongly advising the school to qualify this student based upon the evidence presented. 

They have not said that the student is eligible, but are requiring the school to look at the evidence, again...even though the evidence has not changed.  What else is the school to do than to qualify?  If they do not find the student eligible this time, the school has to provide the OCR documentation of the decision.

Thank you for posting!

McCobbre 6/6/2008

And thank you for summarizing! I had to get to work.  This is really an important case.

McCobbre 6/12/2008

wrightslaw.com has put this case on their blog.  This page should be printed for every 504 Committee member prior to the eligibility meeting and then stapled to a copy of the Resolution Letter.

Seeing it made me cry.  Wow.

http://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/?p=58

artlvr 6/13/2008

I want to apologize in advance...please forgive me. I have much to learn.

Can you help me understand what Wrightslaw is and how it is significant to schools/school districts? Is this some type of "law" or guidelines they have to abide by?

Again, sorry for my ignorance on this matter.

McCobbre 6/13/2008

No apologies necessary.  Wrightslaw.com is a resource website for special education advocacy run by Pete and Pam Wright.  They're located in Virginia (and not far from Gloucester County), but the resource is for all the U.S. 

Pete's an attorney, and Pam is a child psychotherapist by training if I am representing things correctly.  They spend their time helping people advocate for special needs children.  He takes some cases as an attorney in this area, too (for instance, I considered him as a possible attorney for us if things didn't go DS' way at his 504 eligibility meeting--if we needed an atty.  He might not have represented me, but he was on my list of attys--and it's obvious he knows so much about SpEd law). 

The website they've compiles is really a tremendous resource.  You can find all manner of case law there (willing to be you can find some cases involving autistic children). See:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law.articles.htm

They have books, too:

• Special Ed Law
  
• From Emotions to Advocacy
  
• No Child Left Behind
  
  They've made a DVD to help parents advocate for their child during Due Process
  
• Surviving Due Process: Stephen Jeffers v. School Board
  
  
  With regard to the OCR Ruling on Gloucester County Schools, what they've done is simply ( ) put up information about the case and offer commentary to help us understand its import.  And this is of great import to us.
  
  To my understanding, it's not a precedent per se, but a school knowing about this could be a really powerful thing.  If a school sees that another school was ruled against by OCR for denying FAPE by denying 504 eligibility for peanut/treenut allergy, then maybe it will head off a pronouncement of ineligibility.  I don't know for sure, but I'm thinking this Resolution letter was helpful in my school district understanding that a LTFA really does qualify a student for a 504.  After all, if OCR ruled this way once--and I have the same (or more) documentation than the student in the case--OCR could rule that way again. 
  
  OCR doesn't typically get invovled in eligibility--but this time they did.  I'm betting they've seen plenty of cases--and now they've made a stand. 
  
  It's a really good thing for us. 

artlvr 6/13/2008

Thank you so much for clearifying this. There's many things I have to tend to at the moment (like a VACATION!!!!--Lord knows my family needs one). As soon as things slow a bit I'm going to dig into Wrightslaw.com.

Again, thank you for all your help!

ajasfolks 9/25/2008

Re-raising as very timely and useful for many here.

ajasfolks 10/8/2008

Re-raising & will link to other thread with the 504 Plan that correlates to this case.



Link to plan:

GLOUCESTER - OCR Case: *** Section 504 Plan ***
<<Edited to change to link for same thread HERE>>

McCobbre 4/11/2009

This is a little OT, but in my job, I send direct mail on behalf of my nonprofit organization, and we're a state-wide org.  As I check my data, I always see several folks in Gloucester.  I also mail to churches in Gloucester.  Every time I think: "Are you the one I need to thank?" or "Does the person I need to thank go to this church?" 

It's a humbling experience for me.

ajasfolks2   9/2/2011

Bump.

End original thread.

[Macabre]

Raising.