Session 3 | Informed & Ahead | Problem Solving and Refinement

Hello everyone and welcome. We are so excited to kick off the 3rd session of Informed and Ahead. We have an amazing conversation lined up today, as you can see here on the screen, with 2 people who need no introduction. But it is such an honor for Parallel to be able to host and for me to be able to kick us off today. So By way of quick introduction, I am Diana, CEO and founder here at Parallel. And I know a lot of you have actually joined now multiple sessions that we've had as part of this series. And over the past 2 series sessions, we've learned so much together. And if you're just joining us for the first time today, then don't worry. I think this might be one of the best sessions yet. And we're going to make sure that the recordings from the previous sessions are also made available. So you can always go back and rewatch and share with your teams. You know, I hope it's abundantly clear, but we've really built this whole series around helping you all as administrators navigate through what we know is a very tireless job. And I want to talk about a little what we do here at Parallel. So, you know, I talk to our district partners every day about so many of the things that they're juggling from managing staff members or even Well, hiring them in the first place, to keeping parents happy, to making sure that the kids that you all are serving are both receiving the services that they deem necessary and also making meaningful progress. And I'm sure that everyone on this call can probably resonate with most of those things. And so while we've been really intentional about actually leaving Parallel as a company kind of out of these conversations, we realize we might be a little too quiet because the reality is I'm sure so many of you actually could use help on just a few of these headaches. So the team asked me to open up the conversation today and let you know that we are here to help with your staffing needs across all things special education. So namely speech, school psych, and social work, and even specialized instruction. So whether you need support with direct instruction, group sessions, or evaluations, we can help. And we have amazing, amazing staff members. Available to get started as soon as a couple of weeks. So I'm sure you don't really want to hear it just from me because I'm a CEO and I am here just trying to sell you, which is why I wanted to actually share some feedback that I heard from one of our customers literally yesterday, which I think says just about everything you need to know, which was— he was saying, I was initially very hesitant about being the first district in our state to use Parallel. But we had a breakthrough moment. Other vendors said no or gave us all kinds of excuses, but Parallel found staff without hesitation. And that's what changed my mind. Parallel didn't say no. They just went and found the best people. And the key differentiator is that when you find the right company, it will work. And since working with Parallel, we've had zero parent complaints, and I'm now pitching Parallel to our state case board of directors because of how incredible it's been. So with that, that's my sales pitch. And as you think about your needs for today and for the new calendar year right around the corner, I want to encourage you all to book some time with our amazing school partnerships team, many of whom came from similar backgrounds to yourself. And so they've lived the lives and challenges that you all are facing day to day. So let us take you out for just a quick virtual coffee chat, and we'll talk about how we can make next semester or 2027 school year off to a really great start. And lastly, I want to get back to the conversation itself today, which is that, you know, Parallel as a company exists to be your partner in supporting your students, whether that be by arming you with the most timely information, i.e., this conversation today, or actually operating as an extension of your team. I also wanted to tell you a little bit more about why Parallel exists, which is that I once was a kid not only holding a very large squash, but also a student actually receiving SPED services. And those services totally changed my potential in life, built up my confidence, and accelerated me to the point where I am literally talking to all of you today. And we want to create hundreds— well, actually, probably thousands of those life-changing relationships. And it's really in our DNA. And in fact, in a couple of weeks, we're actually going to publish our results from the '24-'25 school year, which shows that 98% of students, 98% of students working with parallel providers made on-track or actually faster progress, most in that faster progress bucket towards their IEP goals than traditional classroom expectations. With that mic drop. I'm going to move on to the conversation today. And with that, I get the honor of introducing someone who really doesn't need an introduction, but we are honored to partner with Dr. Bateman on this exciting series. He is one of the most trusted and respected voices in special education law. It is the reason why you all tuned in today, of course, plus plus our special guest, Julie. But for those of you who don't know, David has over 3 decades of hands-on experience, has handled more than 580 due process hearings, and he is here to offer practical and battle-tested insights that help districts strengthen their programs and stay compliant. So with his deep legal expertise combined with his authentic understanding of the challenges that you all as leaders are facing every day, It's making the guidance that much more actionable and relatable. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to David to give the introduction to Julie and dive into this exciting conversation. All right.

I apologize. Let me just get this thing going. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with all of you today. And I appreciate where we are, and I appreciate to be able to articulate what's going on. And so we're going to go through this really quickly. I just want to emphasize, we have— start with a legal disclaimer. If you have legal questions, something to say, or it's a question for someone legally, please ask an attorney. Don't wait for— don't pay attention to someone on the internet and what they're saying about this one. But we're going to get— I'm going to— there are some things I want to cover pretty quickly. And so this is where we're going. And I'm gonna bring on Julie in a few minutes, but I'm gonna talk about some basic things before we get to that, because I'm gonna have her help answer some questions that I've received from your previous sessions that we've had here. So keep in mind as we're addressing this is we're gonna try to talk about problem solving and how to move forward and how to address this. Okay? So we've talked about foundations last time. We talked about monitoring. And please, those sessions are available on YouTube. So I recommend that you look at them and pay attention to where we are with this one. But we're talking about problem solving. What I want to emphasize, okay, this sets a tone, especially in patient. It's easy to get distracted by staffing issues, budget constraints. But the message I want to convey to everyone, and I mean this with all seriousness, is I want you to hold this thought as this session goes, as we go through this session today. The law has not moved an inch, even if everything about it feels unsteady. When systems wobble, our work matters even more. The wobble is exactly where compliance failures start, and we have to address this. Missed services, inconsistent progress monitoring, delayed evaluations. What we can do is we can address these appropriately. So this session is about anchoring your practice in the reality that compliance is non-negotiable, even in imperfect conditions. Our job— and it seems like what has happened in Washington is moving rather quickly, but here's where we're going. So here we are. All right, session overviews. We're talking about progress monitoring, talk about corrective action, and then build some routines for mid-year reviews as a part of this one. We're going to be fast and furious. We have a lot to cover, and we're going to try to address this where we're going about this one. But I want to make sure that you talk about applying data from progress monitoring and observations. Many, many districts are collecting data, and they're doing a really good job of collecting data, but very few are using it well. When you don't use it, you lose predictability, you lose consistency, and you lose accountability. So we have to think about this one. We'll also work on addressing gaps using corrective actions, professional development, and systematic changes on this one. Gaps don't close because we hope that they will. That would be wonderful, wouldn't it? They close because leaders diagnose the problems and deliberately adjust practice. Keep this in mind. I'm trying to keep this in mind for my own personal life as I do marathon training. It happens without— I have to— I can think about it all I want. But you actually have to do something in order to change. And third, we'll begin building routines for mid-year reviews. The biggest mistakes that surface typically in March and April, but that's too late to fix. What we now think is about build a rhythm of checking progress operationally, not just instructional outcomes. So keep in this mind as we go address this. All right, so here, so we previously provided for you some information here. So we gave you some, some, and I remember compliance is the floor. Improvement is the goal. Too many districts act like compliance is the finish line.

It isn't.

It is the bare minimum, and we have to address this. The resources that we've listed, we provided for you as part of previous sessions. The IEP tracker, the internal audit form, and the walkthrough form are tools to help you see your systems as it actually functions day to day. Now, how you think about it and how it operates is important, not how you hope it operates. how it actually works. The key question is, what does your data reveal? Your system is sending you signals constantly. If you don't read those signals, you'll miss opportunities to intervene early. These tools help expose patterns. They help expose inconsistent services. They help expose weak goal alignment. They help expose poor documentation. So we've, we've provided some documents for you that will be incredibly beneficial to help as part of this process. So when you, when you examine your, your data sources, it becomes impossible to pretend a problem doesn't exist. And that's the kind of transparency that prevents compliance issues before they become legal ones. So that's what we're addressing as a part of this one. Okay? So emphasize data as a leadership tool. All right? Data is often framed as a compliance requirement, but in reality, it's one of our most powerful leadership levers. And we have to remind ourselves of this. It drives coaching conversations. It exposes where resources are misaligned. It shows which schools or classrooms are actually improving and which are stagnating. It tells you whether the interventions you invested in are doing anything meaningful. We've talked about that previously. As leaders, you have to model data-informed decision-making. If you treat data as optional, as bureaucratic paperwork, your staff will also, and then you won't be surprised when progress monitoring falls apart or instruction isn't matched to need. So we need to do a better job of matching what we're doing as a part of this one. The message in green Pay attention to this one. We've highlighted that for you, and I've got some— the staff at Parlo has been amazing about making me look pretty here. Thank you, Robin. I greatly appreciate it. But you need to hear this. The data is here to support your work, not to evaluate your worth. When staff understand that data helps districts stay compliant, identify needs, and prevent crises, they're far more likely to engage honestly rather than hide problems. So what do we do with this? Okay, triangulate data sources. All right, you cannot understand your system by looking at a single data point. Triangulation is how you get an accurate picture. Student-level data tells you, are students progressing, attending, exhibiting behavior changes? System-level data tells us, are services being delivered? Are caseloads reasonable? Are timelines being met? Staff-level data gives insight to what is PD impacting What's happening in classrooms? What are their retention patterns telling you? When you layer these all together, root causes become visible. For instance, if student progress is low, and this happens, and service delivery logs show inconsistent minutes, that's one root cause. Behavior incidents are climbing and classroom walkthroughs show untrained paraeducators, that's another. If a building is struggling and you see high turnover and weak PD attendance, that's a third. Triangulation stops surface-level problem solving and forces you into real issues. So keep this in mind. So now that you started triangling, you've heard me use this phrase before, but keep in mind is spotting red flags. Okay, it's spotting red flags. There are patterns that should stop you in your tracks. Okay, no, no progress notions meet repeated quarter after quarter. That's an immediate signal that sends something what we need to do as a part of this one. So put this in mind as we address this and pay attention to where we're going in this. Okay, missed services or inconsistent delivery also poses a problem. So keep that in mind. You cannot defend missing minutes. So keep that. So linking data action. Collecting data is useless unless you act on it. This is where slide where data where the slide talks about where leadership becomes a tool. And think about this first. Push your teams to use the data. Not just store it, not just turn it into a chart, use it. And so keep this in mind as we're here. When you find weak areas, put require corrective action. Next, connect your PD to actual gaps. And finally, you need to monitor whether interventions actually work. That is too often what we see. I see districts doing great interventions, but then they don't monitor whether it actually solves, mitigates, or alleviates any of the issues as a part of this. See too many districts who place, for instance, a staff— a student with a one-on-one aide, but then they don't determine, does this actually solve the problem? Keep this in mind as we address this. Okay, so spotting red flags early here, linking data to action. What I want to talk about here is collecting data, move from this and move beyond this, right, and address this. All right. So putting the data into daily practice, start data meetings with What support does the data tell us about some needs? Okay, think about this. You're building a culture. If staff think the data is being used against them, they will hide the truth. They will log things inaccurately. They will avoid asking for help, and your entire system becomes risky, and that becomes what— so staff lead, you need to make sure you instead frame the data as tools for improvement, not surveillance. Recognize staff growth by getting driven by data insights. Redirect blame-based comments towards root cause analysis. Model vulnerability. The why it matters is important. This is what we need to emphasize is why this matters. You build trust and psychological safety, and this is what happens when we talk about this one. If a district supports instead of punishes, it's a district that stays out of legal trouble and actually improves outcomes, and that's what we're striving for as a part of this one. So, so here, see this? Build trust. Reduce defensiveness. Create staff who understand where we are with this one. Okay, but these are, these are ways we can talk about what we can do to address this. The last thing is why it matters. Pay attention to what's in green again. They made me look pretty by analyzing where we are with this one. They put this here, but this is the highlight. This is the emphasis. This is what helps all districts with where we are with this and help everything. Okay, so building systematic routines. Okay, biggest mistakes that districts make is they treat data work as an event instead of a routine. Systems don't improve from once-a-year review or reactive scramble when something goes wrong. They improve because leaders build predictable structures that force the work to happen regularly. Monthly data meetings keep everyone honest. They prevent problems from simmering under the surface for 6 months. If a student is showing no progress, You should know that within 30 days, not just at the end of a marking period or quarter, or worse, at the annual review. Consistent templates are necessary because inconsistency breeds errors and causes missing information. When every school uses a different form or every teacher documents differently, your system loses reliability. Templates create a shared language, shared expectations, and predictable quality. And regular progress reports to principals tighten the accountability. We've talked about that previously, but what I want to emphasize here is embed these routines into school improvement plans. If you don't formalize them, they fade the moment the year gets busy. When it's written into school improvement plan, it becomes non-negotiable and supports the building leadership. Keep this in mind as we address this one. You need to think about how we can do this and have systems of regular things like this one. Keep that in mind. So next one, data equity. What most districts overlook— data without disaggregation hides inequities. If you look at overall outcomes, everything might appear fine, but the second you disaggregate by disability category, race, and language, the gaps will become painfully obvious. You want to ask 2 essential questions: are outcomes equitable across groups? For instance, if your white students with disabilities are making steady progress, but your multilingual learners with disabilities are not, that's a systematic problem, not an individual problem. Our second question: are certain students overrepresented in restrictive settings or discipline? If some boys with IEPs are disciplined twice as often and are placed in substantially separate programs at disproportionate rates, that's a major compliance and civil rights issue. So keep this in mind as we talk about this one. This is an abstract. OCR, in the old days we had OCR, is— but has been hammering districts on these issues. Don't worry, the point is simple. Once you see patterns, you have a responsibility to act, and we need to ensure what we're doing is a part of this one. Okay, so how to sustain the work. Okay, systems collapse when only one department owns the work. Sustaining improvement requires integrated data analysis into everything. professional development, evaluations, coaching cycles, program reviews, and school improvement planning. Technology should be working for you, not adding more work. Dashboards, digital IEP systems, real-time alerts can dramatically reduce errors and missed deadlines. If your systems are making compliance harder instead of easier, something needs to change. We need to do this. The last point of the goal is— of this is data-informed leadership doesn't just improve compliance, it builds systems that are stronger, More predictable and more supportive for staff. When staff feel supported and clear about expectations, implementation improves and legal risks drop. Keep that in mind as we talk about this one. So now that we understand this, let's talk about what are some of the litigation trends in special education in the past 6 months. And every trend comes directly from recent IDEA Section 504 and OCR investigations. These cases are signals, early warnings that show what issues are gaining traction nationally. Litigation trends don't show isolated mistakes. They expose where the field is struggling systematically. When the issues show across states, districts, and courts, it means that vulnerabilities are basically baked into the system, not just the result of a single staff member's error. The purpose of this section is not to scare you. It's to equip you. If you understand the patterns driving litigation, you can strengthen policy, you can strengthen training and data systems before your district becomes the next big case study, right? So think of this as a blueprint, blueprint for reducing risk and improving student outcomes. Okay, big one. Child fine. Child fine. This is one of the biggest trends I'm seeing. Districts are using RTI and MTSS as a reason to delay evaluations. And courts are not tolerating it. Neither are state education agencies. SEAs are finding— are issuing findings at unprecedented rates about this one. RTI and MTS are instructional supports, not gatekeeping functions. They do not pause or replace child find. They do not justify waiting 6 months to evaluate a student who is clearly struggling. Okay, the systematic fix is straightforward. Make it explicit in policy. And training that MTSS does not equal delay. Second, create automatic referral triggers. If a student goes through 2 intervention cycles without progress, an evaluation referral should be automatic, not optional. Then conduct quarterly Child Find timeline audits so you catch delays early and train principals. I'm doing— I'm working really hard on this, guys, but we need help with this. But train principals and MTSS teams. They make frontline decisions often. that help with this. Okay, this is one of the riskiest compliance areas, but fixing it should be a top priority. Okay, and this is why we're striving to fix it, kind of like what I did to my dog a few weeks ago. We want to strive to fix these things. Okay, more dyslexia and structured literacy. Courts are increasingly holding districts accountable for failing to use structured literacy for students with dyslexia. This is becoming a FAPE issue, not just a programmatic concern. If a student has dyslexia but the district is offering generic reading interventions that do not align with structured literacy principles, that's a denial of FAPE. Judges are saying this plainly. Keep this in mind. So make sure that you're adopting this and tracking whether this is actually working to solve or mitigate the issues. This must be put into policy and practices. So keep that in mind as we talk about this one. But wait, there's more!

Dyscalculia.

Yeah, you thought we'd just talk about dyslexia? Wait, no, hold on. We're also going to be talking about dyscalculia. This is rising. Math litigation is increasing fast and most districts are nowhere near prepared. Dyscalculia and math LD cases are being filed because districts have reading systems in place but nothing comparable for math. Most states don't have competencies or coursework for individuals to teach about math. They have all these competency and coursework relating to reading but very little related to math. The systematic failures include lack of numeracy screeners, limited math-specific STI options, and tendency to lump all students with learning disabilities into one generic category. We can't do that. The fixes are clear. All right, how about this one? Add numeracy screeners and math-specific progress tools. Train staff on differentiated math interventions, not just more practice. Separate LD analyses for reading and math. They are different disabilities with different profiles. And last, trigger IEP reviews if math progress stalls. Don't wait until the IEP meeting. Math is about to become the next big wave of litigation. Yeah, you can count on that, pun completely intended. So keep that in mind as we address this one. Okay, next, failure to revise IEPs when data show non-progress. We've talked about this in previous sessions. I'm not going to harp on this too much, but this is a textbook FAPE violation. The IEP team sees— if an IEP team sees no progress but the IEP never changes, courts have been very clear. When data shows non-progress, the district must revise the IEP. Some systems treat the annual meeting as the only time to adjust services. That's not it. We need to do better. We need to do better to ensure what's going on this one. If you do not change the IEP when students are having problems, you cannot argue that you provided FAPE. That's the issue about this one. Okay, wait, more. 5, procedural violations turning substantive. We're seeing a shift. Courts are increasingly treating procedural violations as substantive harm. Missing team members, Copied IEPs, boilerplate goals. They now directly equate to denial of FAPE because they undermine the integrity of the IEP process. And what we have to think about this one, you cannot handwave away a missing general education teacher or a copied goal. It's no longer a technical error. Courts are saying these errors fundamentally change the educational program as a part of this one. So the trend is growing fast because these violations are easy to prove and hard to defend. So keep this in mind as we talk about this one. Make sure we— one of the aspects of FAPE, Is, are we procedurally following the law? Because the thought process on this is fair procedures means fair outcomes. We have in special education what's called a due process hearing. Have we followed the processes about this one? We need to do a better job of ensuring what we're emphasizing about this one. Last, documentation failures. Missing service logs. It's easy to document, but it's compliance failures. You can't defend something if you can't guarantee that the child actually received the services. You can't adopt this. You can't say this is happening. So we need to make sure that we're requiring staff to submit logs, understand what's going on, make sure we're developing random acts to ensure that kids are getting the services they're supposed to be getting. But we spend a lot of time writing these IEPs. Make sure we're implementing the little suckers, implementing them, that the kids are getting the minutes that they're supposed to be getting. If the kid is supposed to be getting 2 hours a day of services, make sure the kid gets 2 hours a day of services. Okay. LRE decisions. Placements influenced by staff shortages are being overturned. And I want to emphasize staff shortages. That's not defensible. But it's supposed— staff shortages are real, but they're not legal justification for placement decisions. Courts are overturning placement because the school didn't have the staff to support a student in general education. Nope. We need to do a better job of supporting these kids. I published a piece in the National Association of Elementary School Principals in October about how to make staffing decisions— I'm sorry, placement decisions. But it talks— but it starts with talking We're talking about the need, not the label. We need to emphasize this as a part of this one. Then last one here, mandate reviews for any shortened school day. Anyone here from Oregon knows that I supervised that class action lawsuit that was against the Oregon Department of Education when the kids were put on shortened school days. We have to think about what we can do to provide appropriate services for these kids and how to move them forward.

Okay.

SEA complaints. People are not filing OCR complaints. They're filing state complaints. We pass out the procedural safeguards notice like candy, and parents are reading this, and they're now realizing that they can find us, file a state complaint. So keep this in mind as we're addressing this one. And we have to think about what we can do to articulate what's going on about this one, but treat findings from any— as anything about this as systematic improvement tools that help us understand what we can do as part of corrective actions. Because as I came up with this phrase a few years ago, some of you have heard it, it's gone viral, it's on the TikTok, is where there's smoke, there's fire. With it, there's this happening to one child, it's happening to another, and we need to think about this as a part of this and what we can do to improve the services for these kids as a part of this one. So what I have for you is some checklist to what you can do in November to get ready. Hey, I'm about to bring on Julie with some questions you guys have posed, but I want to make sure that you see what we can talk about this one. Some, some basic, uh, we got 10, 10 quick, 10 quick guides here that we can pay attention to. Mid-year IEP audits. I'm not going to go through each one of these because they're fairly self-explanatory, but what we have is review IEPs for measurable goals and are we delivering it. Second, review the progress monitoring data, ensure consistent collection and parent reporting. Have someone review those before they go out. Address implementation gaps early, identify missing or inconsistent services, and then correct it. Get the kid the right services. Then if you're not getting it, audit for missed minutes and then plan for how you're going to make those up with the parents as a part of this one. But then review the caseloads and ensure that when LRE violations are not causing significant problems as we're addressing this, make sure we're doing this. Plan mid-year professional development. Focus on what— focus right now on measurable goals. Focus on data-driven instruction as a part of this one. We can do a better job of addressing where we are with this. Keep this in mind. Conduct targeted walkthroughs. We gave you a form for how to do this one. Make sure you're observing classrooms and ensuring the SDI is being engaged with quality. Please get that out to principals so they can understand, and assistant principals, with what's going on. Make sure you also have consistent communication systems that we can articulate what's going on. And then also make sure that general education teachers are implementing their roles and responsibilities as part of IEPs and 504s. Keep that in mind as we talk about this one. And last, celebrate and retain staff. I said something to a special ed director in Dubois, Pennsylvania the other day because she was doing a great job and I was candid. She doesn't hear that enough, but I want to make sure that people hear that, that when I talked to her the other day that she was doing a great job because she truly was. We don't say that enough to staff that we're working with, and we need to do a better job of implementing this one. Okay, so keep this in mind. So IDEA, you may not be aware of this, but in 9 days we Is it 9 days? Yeah, 9 days. We have the 50th anniversary of the law. The law is 50 years old. Some of you don't remember 50 years ago. Do not raise your hand. That just pisses me off. But what's interesting about this is we have a law that's been around for 50 years. And so we have to think about this one is evaluating what we can do to address this. It's changed over the years from an access act, getting kids in the door, to now kids are expected to make progress. And we need to emphasize this as a part of this one. And we need to make sure that we're providing progress for these kids. Okay, so keep this in mind, but it's 50 years of age. I say this because my brother-in-law was legally prevented from attending school for the first 17 years of his life. He's labeled as having autism and severe intellectual disabilities due to the, to the rubella, which used to— we did not used to have a vaccine for. So when we talk about this one, it's a law that has changed the lives of millions upon millions of kids. So keep that in mind as we address this one. Okay, evaluating substantial limitations. I want to talk about— it's not about labels, it's about evidence. So I want to emphasize this one. But what I want to do right now is I'm going to pause. I'm going to bring up some questions. This is a place to tie everything together. What we've— you guys have been submitting questions about data routines, legal trends, and leadership practices. And what I want to do now is I want to reinforce that these are not theoretical. This is a moment to just ensure what we're talking about this one. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to stop sharing and I'm going to bring on Julie. And so we can talk about some of these questions about where we are with this one.

Okay.

And address and try to address some of these questions. Those of you who don't know who Julie is, Julie, I'll share real fast.

Okay.

Okay. You can see who she is here. She's been active in the field of special education for— wow, how's that, Julie? Is that well put? But she's a featured speaker on many case conferences and very active in what we're doing relating to special education. We may make sure that we give you her website so you can link to her if you have questions.

All right.

So, Julie, All right, I am. See if we can see you. All right, all right. So thank you for coming on. I appreciate this one, and I appreciate the hurried introduction. I appreciate you allowing this one. But some of the questions that have come to me after these basic sessions, and I just wanted to have a little discussion back and forth on this one. I'm just basically compliant on preventing noncompliance from what you're seeing, and because you, you, you, I've seen you. In many places, because Julie and I travel, we see each other in multiple locations. What you're seeing nationally, what are the most common compliance missteps that districts make, and which ones are really, you think, are leading to real legal exposure?

Well, David, you know, you sent me these questions ahead of time, let's admit it, but we didn't really prepare. I will tell you that you've covered a lot of the things that I had Thought about for sure, which makes me feel comfortable that it confirms all of the things that I've seen in my— and actually, there was some grace given. I've actually been doing this 39-plus years, and it'll be in 6 months 40 years. And of course, I always tell everybody I started when I was 2. But I will tell you that when people ask me, as a school attorney for as long as I've been around, What's the best way to stay out of legal trouble? I think compliance is important, and we're going to talk about that for sure. I just want to emphasize that I really feel like, and I really liked your comments with respect to also focusing on outcomes, because I feel like sometimes our monitoring and our assessment of how we're doing as a school district is focused on dotting i's and crossing t's rather than looking at our data regarding the outcomes for students. But I do come from a compliance perspective, as we discussed when I talked to you about some of the questions that, yeah, my world is all about compliance and actually training on compliance. So I will tell you that though it doesn't show up in the case law, the number one issue that I deal with on a daily basis From a compliance perspective is discipline. That is, you know, we don't see it litigated too often because generally school districts have made mistakes and they settle those cases out, and we don't really see a whole lot, which is phenomenal. It has always been the number one issue, but I see that as the most common misstep. A lot of it relates to, though, the staggering increase that we have seen as it relates to mental health, mental illness, a lot more of that. COVID did us no favors in that regard. Providing more mental health has now become the responsibility of schools in many, many states. So we're moving to not just looking at behaviors, but the root of those behaviors and trying to provide support for that. As well, but also in terms of discipline itself, training our school administrators to do a better job as it relates to following the, what I might refer to, rules of discipline, which are very complicated. And I find that the best way to do that for our school administrators is to provide information that's understandable One thing I find is that school administrators don't understand what is behind all of those rules. Where did the 10-day rule come from? Where did the manifestation terminate? Why do we do that? And I feel like administrators that I visit with and I have the opportunity to train most commonly will say, I'm so glad I understand the why of it, because I think I can do better now that I understand the why of it. I would say with respect to number 2, with discipline being the number 1 issue and behavior as well, and programming appropriately for behavior, and, uh, really, uh, going ahead and accepting the fact that schools are also saddled with mental health, uh, as far as I'm concerned, uh, IEP process and content mistakes Right up your alley in terms of what you were saying. I was checking things off and like striking things off of my list as I was going through in terms of the ones that are what I refer to as fatal process mistakes particularly.

Mm-hmm.

And I, you know, I feel like the Supreme Court gave a directive in the Rowley case to Looking at the appropriateness of IEPs and first looking at process and then looking at content. And that's actually how I do my training. And starting with the fatal procedural mistakes, all of them focus on meaningful participation of parents in the decision-making process. And so I focus a lot of that, a lot on that in my training in terms of making sure that not only are parents present, But they're actually participants.

Yep.

And documenting that and showing that we really did take extra care and effort in making sure that parents truly were meaningful participation— participants. From a content side, I couldn't agree with you more about the D word, data, all the way around. In terms of making sure that everything that is in that IEP content-wise relate to the needs of the student, but also the data that reflects that, so that we can defend what we're working on. That is important. I just got off the phone right before I signed on with someone that was pretty obsessed with that label issue, and the label really isn't what we need to be concerned with in terms of content focused on the label. It's content focused on what the data tells us that the child needs from a legal perspective. And so I couldn't believe— I couldn't agree with you more. And a hybrid issue, I guess, overall, you could have the best process and best content, but from a compliance issue, if we're not implementing, then that's problematic as well. And you did mention the reality of staffing shortages. I will say that in terms of implementation, things have become very difficult for schools and having to, you know, write an IEP. And this is a common question I get these days. Julie, do we write the IEP based on what we know we can do, or do we write it based on what the needs of the student are? Well, obviously we know the answer to that. But many times these days we're faced with significant staffing shortages. Again, COVID did us no favors in that regard. And so a lot of implementation failure relates to that. But I think it's important for schools to own up to that and talk to parents about the fact that we're having— we're struggling. Bring them into the hiring and retention and finding training, all those kinds of things, so that parents don't find out on the ball field that their children aren't receiving services. And go ahead and talk to parents about the fact that we're going to be looking at the possibility of compensatory services once we hire staff. I feel like some of the administrators that I talk to are fearful that parents are going to find out their children aren't receiving services, and I usually say, oh, they're going to find out all right because you're going to tell them. And that's the best way to Deal with that major issue as it relates to IEPs. So those are— I like that.

I love how you said that, because one of the things I think we need to pay attention to, and as you just very nicely articulated, is, is that we can handle anything as long as it's not a surprise, and that there are no surprises. We keep people fully informed, treat the parents as equal participants in the process. It's not an us versus them Well, we're there for the child as a part of this one. All right.

Absolutely.

All right. Let's just go to another one. I appreciate how you chimed in very nicely and brought that together. It's just basic. What are the hallmarks of a legally defensible IEP in your mind?

Oh, boy.

Okay. In one sentence or less. Now go. Okay.

Well, I'm finished.

Yeah, go. That's tough.

And when you sent that one to me, I was like, ooh, how do I summarize that? Because I spend generally a full day, would love to do a full-week boot camp on that one.

Yeah, likewise. That would be fun.

Yes. The kinds of things that are legally challenged, or I guess the way to look at that, the things that are most frequently challenged in terms of litigation. And I've had the opportunity to actually co-present with what I might refer to as one of our frequent filers here in Alabama, one of the parent attorneys. And in a friendly manner, we can get together and train rooms full of teachers actually together. And I've learned a lot from her, confirming a lot of what I already experienced in terms of what those common attacks are, so to speak. On IEPs, you know the the the the single most I think legally defensible IEP issue is back to the meaningful participation on the part of parents because from a process perspective it's number one. It really is when you're talking about content. Obviously, the content needs to be databased. And there needs to be support for the fact that that content and continuing that content, but hopefully at a different level, demonstrating that the student is progressing. I couldn't agree with you more in terms of the progress monitoring piece, making sure that an IEP is developed in a way that there can be progress monitoring. I remember a couple of years ago, I actually heard from a special education director that once the child became eligible, they were no longer going to get the kind of stuff they got during the RTI or MTSS process because they weren't progress monitoring. And I said, who told you that? Oh, we've got some work to do because that cannot be the philosophy. But it wasn't just her. When I go around and I talk about this, So I get a lot of head shakes about the belief that progress monitoring stops when a child becomes eligible for special education. But in, in that regard, I think that the present level statements are so important because if the pro— if we haven't done a good job with present levels, which I call when I'm training content people, special ed directors— I mean, special ed Well, directors and obviously teachers, when I'm training them, I talk about present levels are, in my mind as an attorney having to defend what's going on, that's point A. Where is the child presently? And unfortunately, sometimes present levels aren't present at all, and they're not based on current data. And, you know, we're really not sure where the child is when that IEP begins in initiation and implementation? And if it's not accurate, then how am I going to be able to demonstrate movement to point B if point A is off? And so I would say, and among all of the, you know, measurability of goals is the next biggie. But, you know, essentially I would say that those are hallmarks in my mind.

Well, I appreciate it. I know that I've seen the advertisements for your all-day seminars on IEPs. So I appreciate the fact that you were able to try to truncate that down. But hitting the good points there is because if we can just get individuals to hit the big ideas that you just mentioned, we would solve a lot of the lawsuits that I'm involved in, a lot of the lawsuits that you're involved in, and kids would be making progress. We'd have better communication, we'd have better tracking, and it would— it's not only just legally defensible, it's better for the kids. And that's what— and I think that's what the mantra that you and I have when we do our sessions. I've seen you present multiple times. And yeah, and so that's our mantra is it's better for the kids and we need to pay attention to this one.

Well, and it's the outcomes piece and, you know, all that focused monitoring. I know that's our next topic, but talking about the whole monitoring and, you know, even from the federal level, You know, I've been around long enough to see this movement toward focus monitoring, but then getting back to the dotting i's and crossing t's, which may or may not matter. And that's one concern I have about the, you know, state-level stuff and moving to the state.

Yeah, and as we— as you heard me say, we're going to be shifting towards more state involvement, and the states have historically looked more at the crossing of the t's, dotting the i's, or do you have the right people in the rooms kinds of things. So So this switch to monitoring, let's just talk about that just briefly. And I appreciate that. And those of you who know me and know Julie, we could talk about this for hours and give you examples that would cause you to have sleeplessness and prevent all sorts of issues. But we're not trying to do that. We're just trying to give you basic advice that will help you and your teams move forward. And articulate it in a manner that you can then take back to your teams as you lead them as a part of this one with resources that are beneficial to them. So let's just talk about monitoring for a second. Just talk about compliance. What are some things that you would recommend to a special ed administrator or someone to help address compliance problems early before they become really blown-up issues?

I love it when I work with a district that does its own internal self-assessments on a regular basis. I think that's helpful. I think we all do better when we know that somebody's going to check our work, and maybe not even announced. But again, there's nothing really under the law that says that that's something that's required. But I I also, and I think I heard you mention this, I'm also very impressed when I find local building administrators who regularly request from all teachers, including special education teachers, requests for student progress. I loved your comment about not waiting until certain marking periods, and I'll tell you, I used to see progress monitoring taken seriously right before the annual review for an IEP, and then all of a sudden there's been no— I was around before progress reports were required. I celebrate—

You're dating yourself there. I know, I know.

No, I started when I was 2 though, so let's remember.

Yeah, that's okay.

Yeah, right. So I, you know, when there weren't those annual goal progress reports, uh, I would sit at IEP meetings sometimes, and for the first time people were looking at the fact that the student hadn't made any progress until we sat down in the springtime for the review. So I celebrated the inclusion of the requirement for progress reports, because as a lawyer, it's, you know, I, I have a better chance of defending what this school is doing when we have data to show progress throughout the year. So I was thrilled to see that, but I still think that, um, sometimes those progress reports don't really reflect a whole lot, to be honest. When I sit down with teachers on occasion and say, tell me Like how you came up with this as your report? What was the basis of this 3 that you circled on the scale of 1 to 5, or however it's done? Oftentimes they'll— they're not able to tell me that. And I think just regular— I love seeing local school principals and/or their designees making sure that teachers are reporting to them student progress. Thank you.

I appreciate that. You've— I, I've, I've been singing that song for years now and just trying, because it benefits the building-level administrator to know what's going on in the classroom. And then when they see the parent in the parking lot or in the hall, when the parent's dropping off their kid, they can articulate about what's going on instead of saying, who is your kid? They've heard what's going on.

And I think that's a really important point.

And it's, and it's a passive activity for principals. It doesn't have to be an active one where they just sit there and learn about what's going on. So I appreciate this.

I can't stress that enough with school administrators. I do it every time I have the opportunity, that how important that is just from a good customer service PR perspective, if nothing else. Yeah.

Oh, we got— so we got time for one more. And this is, this is again, you and I talked, we've talked big issues previously, we talked small issues. This is bringing the big issue to home. Is with so much uncertainty about what's going on in OSEP, and then they fired everyone except for 4 people, one happened to be a security guard. With all that staffing and monitoring changing and not sure what's happening there, how can districts ensure continued compliance if federal oversight weakens?

Yeah, I know there's a lot of angst about what's going on at the federal level. Nobody likes change, for sure. I want to try to see silver linings of the future, but we can't perseverate on that. One of the main questions that I'm getting these days is, oh, well, since OCR sort of diminished in number and regional offices and everything else, can we just sit back and relax? I'm like, absolutely not. Because what's happening is, I was at a meeting of— a national meeting of lawyers a little 2, 3 weeks ago, and what we were finding is a lot of the investigators are going out and practicing law.

Yeah.

And so you want to substitute OCR complaints with due process hearings. I can tell you that I don't. I don't recommend that at all. Also, too, I have talked a lot about, okay, what if, what if all of it falls to the states to sort of take over the monitoring and all the compliance stuff? You know, there's so much now historically that's been put out by the federal government that has been adopted adopted by the states, it's gonna— I don't think they're going to reinvent the wheel. Now, there may be some situations where, and there's some discussion about some of the regulatory requirements that are very old maybe being rescinded and that kind of thing, but it's not gonna be anytime soon. The litigation's gonna take us a long while, and I think we go business as usual, which should be doing what's in the very best interest of all of our students. Particularly in this case, students with disabilities. And I like to kind of be the voice of reason sometimes, like we were, David, during COVID you know, calm down. We still need to do what we've been doing.

Yeah.

And it's gonna be okay. It's just gonna be— it's gonna be okay. I'm certain it is because of the quality of the people that I work with. Yeah, there may be mistakes, but frankly, in my world, they're not intentional mistakes ever. And, you know, we move on and continue forward no matter what happens. Wait for the litigation, wait for the news, but continue to do from a compliance perspective everything we know to do. But the best thing we can do is focus on good progress for students generally.

Yeah. Julie, thank you. I really appreciate this, and I really appreciate what you are trying to do out there. And I mean this with all sincerity. And you and I, we've seen each other in many different states, in many different venues. And the message is clear, is that the kids deserve an appropriate education, and we need to do what we can to support them. So I appreciate this. We will make sure that everyone has access to your website if they want more information about you and how to contact you.

Thank you.

But I appreciate, I really appreciate people taking time from their day to come listen to this and for you to be a part of this. So thank you so very much.

Well, thank you, David. I appreciate it. I know we could talk all day.

Oh yeah, Julie, Julie, you and I could go around on this. We have on panels before. And so we've had to cut each other off because they've limited us one time. I think it was a fire drill one time that limited us, but it was pretty easy. But it was trying to be. So, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring this home and go from here. So thank you, Julie. All right. Okay.

Thank you, David. I appreciate it.

Yeah, so I'm gonna share my screen again just to get you back to this and so understand how to connect us and where we are with this one. But I just want to just add concluding with just a few concluding remarks. But what I have, please. No one expects perfection from teachers, but we do expect consistency, honesty, and discipline to take the next right steps, even on days when you're exhausted or frustrated. Special education works when general education educators lean into these everyday habits and teachers lean into this one. Classrooms are messy. Things happen. So what we have to think about is that the work is that we do isn't dramatic. It's daily implementing accommodations reliably, documenting what actually happens, communicating concerns early, and trying different strategies. And for that, I want to applaud everyone. But realize this one. Lastly, and I'm going to— I'm going to— I'm going to— just one more statement, then I'm going to turn it over to Blakely for one final comment. I have partnered with Parallel because they share the same goal I do, to make special education work better for districts and students. The issues I see in due process and across districts nationwide— staffing shortages, compliance pressures, and burnout— are the very challenges Parallel is hoping to solve. If any of these topics resonated with you, I encourage you to connect with them. But I'm very— but I see, and I want to make sure you emphasize, I see a very distinct future where I will continue to work with the staff at Parallel to build on what Diana said at the beginning: ensure students with disabilities receive a FAPE. You should work with them also. A quick call will help and open the doors as a part of this one. So keep that in mind. I'm going to turn it over to Blakely, who has some concluding comments, and then thank you so very much. Please reach out if you have questions.

Well, hello everyone. I promise I know everyone is ready to go, but before we go, I just wanted to launch a short poll to find out, um, who on this call Today would like more support for your districts. And while you guys are answering, I just want to say a huge thank you to David for leading the series this fall. It has been an absolute honor to partner with David on the series, and we have a lot more exciting programming in the works, so stay tuned. We'll be announcing our spring series. We find that it's lonely at the top for special education leaders, and we are here to support and come together as a community. We have, we have had thousands of registrants for this Informed and Ahead series, and thank you all for being here. We found David because Crystal on our district partnerships team today was talking to a director who mentioned how David was instrumental at their districts, and so that conversation led to us bringing David on for this programming. That being said, I know we kind of say all the time, like, meet with our team, meet with our team. We know you're busy. We know That's the last thing you want is another meeting on your calendar. But in the chat, if you go to the Zoom chat, we've put in the link. We would love to have a conversation because even if it's not about, you know, solving a staffing shortage today, it could lead to a conversation about programming for the spring that, you know, David, you could determine the theme for us. You never know what can come out of these conversations. So the link is in the chat. Take 2 seconds to fill it out, find 15 minutes on your calendar, and I know you'll love meeting with our team. David, Julie, thank you so much for, you know, being with us this fall. And with that, I'm going to close this out so we end on time. But thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Bye, everybody. Bye, Julie.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me, David.

Have a happy— I'm sure our paths will cross soon. I'll send you that analysis that I talked to you about. Okay.

Thank you. Happy holidays.

Thanks. All right. Bye.