What is FAPE, and How Do I Help My Child With a Disability Receive It?

Do you have a child with a disability who receives special educationnservices? Does your child with a learning disability still strugglenacademically, even with the services? This article will give parentingntips on what FAPE is, and how you can help your child receive it.

FAPE stands for a "Free Appropriate Public Education." Below are twondifferent definitions for FAPE:

1. The definition of Free Appropriate Public Education under IDEA isnspecial education and related services that are provided at publicnexpense, meet state standards, are appropriate, and are provided innconformity with an IEP. IDEA can be downloaded at http://idea.ed.gov.nn2. The United States Supreme Court several years ago issued a legalndefinition of FAPE. It is defined as special education and relatednservices that are designed to meet the child’s unique needs, givesnmeaningful benefit, and has been given at no charge to the parents.
Case law which is state federal and Supreme Court rulings, can benfound at www.wrightslaw.com. FAPE is one of the most difficult concepts for parents and specialneducation personnel to understand and agree on. The Supreme Courtnstates that children with disabilities must receive meaningfulnbenefit, in order to receive FAPE. In a more recent Supreme Courtnruling (N.R. vs Kingwood Township), the court decided that the IEPnmust allow the child significant learning and give meaningful benefit.
For Example: If your fourth-grade child is reading at a first-gradenlevel, and disability educators want to write a goal that his readingnlevel increase three months in one year of special education, that isnnot allowing your child to receive significant learning. Your childnwill continue to fall further behind his grade and age appropriatenpeers. Once a child is behind academically it is extremely difficultnto catch up with his/her peers.

You can help your child receive FAPE by doing the following things:

1. Have high expectations for your child. With appropriate instructionnyour child should be able to keep up with their age and gradenappropriate peers.

2. Make sure that your child is receiving appropriate instructionnfor their areas of disability. If your child has a learning disabilitynin reading, there are curriculums that will help your child learn tonread.

3. Make sure that your child’s teacher is trained in the appropriateninstruction. Some reading programs recommend that a teacher bencertified in the specific method, in order to use the methodneffectively.

4. Make sure that your child is receiving the appropriate instructionnfor a long enough time that will help them make progress.A lot ofncurriculums recommend amount of instruction time; make sure thesentimes are followed.

5. Make sure that the curriculum that is being used is research-based.
This means that there is research that proves that the curriculumnworks to help children learn.

By following the above suggestions you will be on your way to ensuringnthat your child receives a free appropriate public education. You mustnbe assertively persistent and vigilant if your child is to learn andnhave a full life!