For this month’s podcast episode, DRNC’s Communications Coordinator, Jen Andrew, interviewed Advocate Jolona Kinlaw and Attorney Reighlah Collins of DRNC’s Education Team. We had a lively conversation about student’s rights in school, and how to help your children with disabilities and others in your family navigate the holiday season.
Read more about these education team members and what brings them to this work!
Reighlah Collins, Attorney, and Jolona Kinlaw, Advocate
What brings Jolona Kinlaw to DRNC and the education team is disability rights advocacy. She has been in advocacy for almost three years and her journey began with her son, who is on the autism spectrum and has several significant needs. Jolona has learned a lot through this journey of navigating mental health, school, and medical systems. What gives Jolona hope is people’s heart to see change and their passion to include those who have disabilities and may not have a voice. What keeps her going is knowing if we stop advocating for students with disabilities, especially those who cannot advocate for themselves, they will no longer be represented or heard.
Reighlah Collins is an attorney on the education team. Her parents have always worked in disability-related fields and she has a brother with a disability. Reighlah worked at a group home for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and through experiences in law school, fell in love with education law. What keeps Reighlah going in this work is seeing positive outcomes for students. She loves helping a struggling student who has experienced exclusion get back into school and ride the bus for the first time as it is such an achievement for them. She sees how happy and so proud of themselves they are. Helping a student get to that point really her excited about doing this work.
Listen to our podcast here!
Transcript
Jen Andrew:
The content of this program is intended for people who are blind, have low vision, or print disabilities. Hello, this is Jen Andrew for the North Carolina Reading Service. For the next half hour, I will be presenting the latest Legal Matters. Today’s Legal Matters is underwritten by the Apex Lions Club serving the community since 1937 by providing services and financial support for people who are blind, have low vision, or print disabilities. To learn more about the services provided by the Apex Lions Club, go to apexlions.org.
Today, I’ll be talking to two colleagues of mine at Disability Rights North Carolina, Reighlah Collins, attorney, and Jolona Kinlaw, advocate. They’re both on the education team. Let’s start off by getting to know our guests a little better. Jolona, we’ll start with you. Can you describe for our audience your role with DRNC and what brought you to this work?
Jolona Kinlaw:
Sure. So my name is Jolona Kinlaw and what brought me to DRNC, the education team is advocacy. I have been in advocacy for almost three years and my journey began with my son. I have a son who is on the spectrum and has a lot of significant needs. So just learning through his journey of navigating the systems of mental health, school, and medical is my lived experience.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. So what would you say gives you hope? I know that working in the education field as it relates to disabilities can be difficult, as you know from your firsthand experience. What gives you hope?
Jolona Kinlaw:
I think what continues to give me hope is people’s heart to see change. I think in a system that has a lot of running parts with different roles and different needs, just people having a passion and heart to include those that don’t have a voice, to include those that are different, and to be the voice for them, I think, is what gives me hope. If we shut our voices out, then they don’t have a voice.
Jen Andrew:
Very true. And I can say from working with you both, you’re both very passionate, giant hearts, and it’s an honor to be on your team. Reighlah, ask you the same questions. Can you describe your role with DRNC and what brought you to this work?
Reighlah Collins:
Yeah, so my name’s Reighlah Collins. I’m an attorney on the education team, like Jen said, and I come to disability rights work from personal experience. So my parents work in disability-related fields, they have my whole life, and I have a brother with a disability. And then, after college I worked at a group home for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And that experience really led me to want to go to law school to do something disability rights-related. And then through experiences in law school, I just really fell in love with education law. I did a lot of work on school to prison pipeline and some civil rights stuff related to education and I knew that I wanted to overlap those two and do special ed.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. Thank you. And ask you the same question. What gives you hope as you do this work?
Reighlah Collins:
I think what keeps me going in this work is just when we see a good outcome for a student. So we have a student who we’ve been working with who’s been struggling in school, getting excluded, and they are back in school and they’re going to the school dance and they’re doing that kind of stuff, riding the bus for the first time, and it’s such an achievement for them and they’re so happy and they’re so proud of themselves. And just helping a student get to that point is really what keeps me doing this work.
Jen Andrew:
That’s such a beautiful story. Thank you. I think we can all relate to understanding how important it is to be included and be part of your community. Reighlah, can you describe your role in the education team and the kind of cases you take at Disability Rights North Carolina?
Reighlah Collins:
Sure. So disability rights education team, we have a specific focus on students who are excluded from school for reasons related to their disabilities. And school exclusion looks a lot of different ways. So it might be frequent suspensions, and that’s formal and informal suspensions, might be modified day schedule, a home bound placement, alternative school placements or referrals to juvenile court for school-based offenses. And our goal on the education team is to get these students back in school with the supports and services they need to succeed and stay in school. So in order to do this, we provide a variety of services.
We work hard to provide high quality education materials like training videos and fact sheets about special education rights, different types of special education issues and options for resolving disagreements with the school. We also provide trainings for and in collaboration with parent and advocacy groups about special education rights. We provide referrals to parent advocacy organizations like ECAC or the Autism Society that can provide further parent education and advocacy assistance or other legal organizations that take special education cases on behalf of children.
We help parents and advocates file formal and informal appeals to enforce special education rights. We represent individual students on systemic legal issues, and that means issues that impact multiple students in the same school district or statewide. And we also do a lot of policy work, so working on changes to laws and procedures that are harmful to students with disabilities. I know we typically do not attend IEP meetings with parents, but we can assist parents with filing their own state complaints and we can also provide referrals to advocacy organizations that do provide this type of in-person IEP meeting support. So a good time to call us would be if your child with a disability is being excluded from school and you’re interested in learning more about informal and formal dispute resolution options to resolve that issue. However, even if your child’s having a different special education issue, you can always call us for resources and referral.
Jen Andrew:
Your team recently added a number of really helpful and informative videos to Disability Rights North Carolina’s website. Can you tell us a little bit about them and how they might help parents and students?
Reighlah Collins:
Sure. So the education team’s been working really hard for a long time on creating a series of training videos about special education and discipline rights. And these are short informational videos that are intended to be really accessible to parents. We’re really happy with them. These videos are currently only available in English, but we are working on getting them translated to Spanish, as well. And we do have many paper fact sheets already available in Spanish. So I can just give a really brief overview about what types of videos we’ve created. There’s a video on Child Find and IEP referrals, which covers the school’s legal obligation to identify all children living within their district who need special education. This obligation is known as Child Find and the video also covers how a parent can request that the school evaluate their child for an IEP. We have a What is an IEP video, which discusses the different components of the individualized education program, or IEP.
We also have a number of videos related to challenging behaviors in school, ways to potentially address those behaviors, and what discipline and special education protections exist for children whose challenging behaviors result in school exclusion, like suspensions or restrictive placement, as I mentioned before. There’s a Behavior is Communication video about how a student’s challenging behavior at school is often their way of communicating their unmet needs and how the school has a legal obligation to meet a student with a disability’s unique behavior needs to enable them to attend school with their peers. Our video on suspensions and manifestation determination reviews, or MDRs, covers the school’s legal obligation to follow certain disciplinary protections, including conducting an MDR after a student with an IEP has been suspended for over 10 days in one school year.
An MDR is held to determine if the behavior resulting in suspension is related to the child’s disability or the school’s failure to follow the IEP. This is a really important discipline protection because if the behavior is related to the child’s disability, the child cannot be suspended and must be returned to school in the placement they were in prior to the suspension. There are a few exceptions to that general MDR rule I just mentioned for drugs, weapons and serious bodily injury, and these exceptions are addressed In an additional video.
We have a video about informal removals which discusses how children with disabilities are often informally excluded from school and how the school still has a legal obligation to follow certain disciplinary protections for students with disabilities in the circumstances, such as the right to an MDR. The informal removal practice we see most often is a school calling a parent to pick their child up early from school for behavior reasons without counting this early pickup as an official suspension. And these types of exclusions count just like a formal suspension for MDR purposes. Our FBA video covers functional behavioral assessments or FBAs. FBAs are an evaluation tool used to help identify and understand a child’s behavior. The results of the FBA are then used to create a behavioral intervention plan or BIP. We also have a video about BIPs and these are written plans that are part of a student’s IEP that help provide supports, tools, and skills to the child and school staff to help reduce challenging behaviors in school.
We also have a video about home-bound and modified day placements, both highly restrictive placements that isolate students from their peers with and without disabilities and the general learning environment. And this video explains the school’s obligation to first consider what additional resources the school could provide to help address the child’s unique needs in the school setting before removing them. And lastly, we have two IEP dispute resolution videos that cover dispute resolution options for challenging an IEP team decision or the special education services a child is receiving. Dispute Resolution part one covers informal options, like communicating with school and district staff, calling the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Facilitation and Mediation Dispute Resolution part two covers formal options like filing a formal state complaint with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and due process petitions.
So I know that was a lot, probably more than you wanted, but like I said, we’re really happy with how these videos turned out and we’re thrilled to now be able to provide these resources on our website for anyone to access because they address many of the issues we frequently hear from parents who call us.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. Thank you for all of that information. That was super helpful. I know from having my own experience with kids in the school system, and one of my children has a disability, as well, that often it’s really stressful when you’re trying to determine the best thing for your child. So I know having something like a video where you can maybe watch it a couple times or just to make sure it’s that time of day when you’re going to be most receptive to information. So thank you. A lot of us are preparing to see family and celebrate holidays in the next couple of weeks. So as we move into the holiday season, what are some tips you might have for parents?
Jolona Kinlaw:
Speaking personally, I would say enjoy your break. Oftentimes for parents when school is out or when there is a break, it’s not necessarily a break for us. And so I first just want to encourage parents to just be present with your child and try to think outside the box. So some tips that I’ve thought about and I’ve even asked some other parents just so it’s not just my opinion, but one is that establish a routine for the break. It doesn’t necessarily have to be as detailed as school, but have some structure in place. For example, it could be as simple as having a visual schedule for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or if your child is using visuals, sometimes giving them visuals of family members that you anticipate seeing for the day or pictures of going out and shopping at Walmart, whatever your child is used to or whatever tools you have in place at school or at home that you use to kind of give them a foreshadow of what the day is going to look like.
I know for some kids, social stories are really important in explaining the breakup of their day and how it will look different compared to school. I know for my son, he wakes up anticipating that we’re going to get dressed and we’re going to get on the bus. And so when that doesn’t happen, sometimes I have to explain that we’re kind of on a break in a way that he can understand. Another tip that a parent actually helped me come up with was take some time to reflect on your child’s strengths, needs, and challenges. And sometimes how we can do that is think about on the previous holidays what went really well and what didn’t. I know for me, I’m always trying to make it less stressful for myself. And so sometimes we find ourselves avoiding certain circumstances or avoiding certain families’ homes because we’re like, how are we going to get this wheelchair without a ramp? How are we going to prevent meltdowns when there’s 50 people coming towards you wanting to hug and greet you?
And so sometimes if you’re able to be proactive, you can kind of plan ahead of how to get around those things so you don’t have to completely avoid the event altogether. Sometimes arriving a few hours earlier is very helpful just so that your child can get used to the space or find their area that they’re going to hang out in. If you have wheelchair accessibility needs, go ahead and figuring out what’s a good time or working with the members of that house in terms of how to get the chair into the space that you need so that you don’t have to completely avoid that or try to figure out when there’s a bunch of people already there and then there’s 50 people trying to help you. And so just little things like that, how can you make the time more stress-free and where you can really enjoy it. Because I know a lot of us, when we’re trying to be present, we’re actively trying to figure out how to problem solve or prevent meltdowns behind scenes.
Another example too would be figuring out what kind of holiday activities or sensory-type activities that you can do with your kids at home. I know for me, sometimes I don’t want to do things because I’m like, Kayden’s not going to understand, but never assuming that they don’t and really learning from their perspective. So sometimes when we cook and we do things and I know my son’s going to get it all over the place, so what, as long as he’s having an enjoyful moment and we’re being present and it doesn’t have to look like everybody else’s moment. I think for parents, we’re always worried about what other people may think or if my child has a bad moment, how is that going to upset the other people? But remember, your child first, your needs first, and then everybody else. I think that’s really hard to try to keep up the forefront, especially around the holidays.
And then in terms of preparing for when school comes back, one thing that can be helpful is collecting data. Depending on how long the break is and if there are concerns of your child regressing academically, but not just academically, also functionally, there’s ways that you can kind of take data and there’s some things that you can potentially advocate for in the school setting. And I think Reighlah’s going to give us some more information on that.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. Yeah, Reighlah, do you want to speak a little bit more about what to do when children go back to school and what to do over the winter break to kind of prepare for that?
Reighlah Collins:
Sure. So during winter break and when a child comes back to school following winter break are a great time to be taking notes and collecting data about whether your child regresses during breaks from school. This information can be really helpful at the end of the school year when it’s time for the IEP team to make a determination about whether the child should receive extended school year services during summer break. So extended school year services, or ESY, is special education and related services that are provided beyond the normal school year, usually over the summer break, like I said. These services are provided in accordance with a child’s IEP and like all special education and related services, the services must be provided at no cost to the parent.
Extended school year services must be available as necessary to provide a child with a free appropriate public education or FAPE. So before the end of every school year, the IEP team must determine, on an individual basis, whether ESY services are necessary to provide the child with FAPE, and to make this determination, the IEP team will consider these questions.
One, whether the student regresses or may regress during extended breaks from instruction and cannot relearn the lost skills within a reasonable time. Whether the benefits a student gains during the regular school year will be significantly jeopardized if they’re not provided with an educational program during extended breaks from instruction. And lastly, whether the student is demonstrating emerging critical skill acquisition that will be lost without the provision of an educational program during extended breaks from instruction. And this is not, like Jo said, this is not just about academic progress and regression, it applies to behavioral and functional progress as well.
In our experience, it’s not uncommon for schools to say that a child does not qualify for ESY services because they do not have the data to show that the child regresses over extended breaks from school. That’s why it’s helpful to gather that information all school year. So when the child returns from summer break, winter break, spring break, et cetera, you can take notes about what you’re observing at home and when the child returns. And if you have a particular concern, you can ask the IEP team to collect specific data as well. For example, if you notice that your child has an increase in challenging behaviors after extended breaks, which is common because there’s a lot more demands at school than there is at home usually. You can ask that behavior data be collected about that increase and how long it takes following a break for those challenging behaviors to subside. And taking this data should really already be happening if a child has challenging behaviors in school. But asking, just to be sure, is good practice.
And the last point I’ll make about ESY is that schools often create a set ESY program over the summer that they try to make every child follow. Like they’ll say ESY is being offered Monday through Wednesday for one hour a day for three weeks or something. But what ESY services a child receives must be an individualized decision based on the unique needs of the child. The school may not unilaterally limit the type, amount, or duration of those services.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. That’s really helpful. I wondered if I could ask a follow-up question. When you’re talking about collecting data, is there a particular way that that data would be best received? Is it just notes or anything specific?
Reighlah Collins:
Yeah, any way that you can collect that data is fine. It’s all helpful because it’s just the information you’re going to be using when you’re making an argument that your child receive these services. Because like I said, often they’ll say, oh, there’s no data to show that they regressed. So even if you just have observational notes that you took over break and that you brought up with them at the IEP meeting following the break or something like that, that’s better than nothing. And data that the school takes should be more official. Really, one model for behavioral data collection that schools often do is called ABC data, which is antecedent behavior consequence. And it’s taking data on what happens before the behavior, during the behavior, and following the behavior. And that data is really helpful for contextualizing behaviors because behaviors don’t happen in a vacuum. And so when we have that data about before and after, it really helps give us insight into what might be triggering the child or what the function of the behavior might be. And so that’s just one example of the type of behavior data that schools can collect.
Jen Andrew:
That’s right. That makes a lot of sense. I’m imagining a scenario that you’re at this very crowded holiday dinner and maybe someone has a meltdown and if you can kind of go back and see it was really loud or that lights were too bright and I’ve heard you say that behavior is communication.
Reighlah Collins:
Yes. Yeah, it’s a helpful practice even in your own home if you’re trying to figure out what might be triggering your child, doing kind of that analysis, it is a good model.
Jen Andrew:
Definitely. Absolutely. Your team recently participated in a number of webinars. Can you tell our audience a little bit more about them and how people can find out more?
Jolona Kinlaw:
Sure. Absolutely. So the presentations and webinars that we’ve been doing is based on legal issues and dispute resolution options. The presentations helps parents, professionals, and advocates identify legal issues as well as understanding their dispute resolution options. This information is provided based off the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Section 504, or Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. And the purpose of this information is to help professionals, parents, or advocates be able to understand that in terms of the school providing children with free appropriate public education, or FAPE, in their least restrictive environment through the services provided through their IEP. It helps these individuals understand how to identify legal issues based on the laws and then how they can go about to dispute their claims or problems that they’re having.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jolona Kinlaw:
So one thing that we have found helpful is providing these webinars with different communities. One that we’re looking at is the military family or the military community and how the presentation can assist them with their specific needs. Also, we’re looking at doing it with the NC Start, Head Start, and so obviously their needs may be a little bit different compared to advocates that may be helping in a regular school setting. So what we’ve found is working with different communities or working with different organizations that maybe advocate for students with different types of disabilities, we can kind of cultivate the information that’s related to their specific needs, which I think is helpful in terms of just broadly presenting it, making sure that we can meet those specific needs of the community too because it may look different. Well, not that the law will look different, but the way that you strategize or advocate or go about it may look a little different.
How you can get in touch with us is contacting our main line and looking for our names and maybe leaving us a message. Our main contact number is 1-877-235-4210. And you can look for Reighlah Collins or Jolona Kinlaw and then just express interest in terms of collaborating for a potential webinar. And I think that’s it.
Jen Andrew:
Thank you. One thing I wanted to ask, if you don’t mind us circling back, I heard you talk about ways to help your child over the holidays or family gatherings. Let’s say I’m a concerned family member and I’m hosting an event, is there anything either of you, in your experience, can think of that would be helpful for that family member that wants to create a welcoming and calm environment for your family?
Reighlah Collins:
So one suggestion I have is just reaching out to the parent of the child with a disability or the adult with a disability and just asking. And I think sometimes just expressing that you want to create that environment can go a long way to making people feel welcome. Just asking if there’s anything specific you can have at your house that might make it more welcoming, maybe like a room that’s quiet that you know is going to be set aside if somebody needs some space, just as one example. I think just talking to them, the parents and the person with a disability, whether a child or adult, are the ones that know their needs best. And so I think asking them instead of assuming is the best way to make sure that they feel welcome in your home.
Jen Andrew:
Excellent. Yeah, and this is really great advice for everyone, I’m thinking. Checking in with folks and talking about expectations is just a really good way to move into this sometimes difficult season with a little bit more ease.
Reighlah Collins:
And I just have one more thing to say and it’s just … Like I said, I have a younger brother with a disability, and so I remember being a teenager and him being pretty young and melting down at the holidays and stuff, and I was a teenager, so it was embarrassing. But I’ve come a long way, obviously, and he’s come a long way, and we’re really close now, but I just want to say people with disabilities are allowed to exist in public spaces and in your home and other people’s homes, and they don’t have to not have a disability to be there. So I think just remembering that over the holidays, it might not look like it does in the movies. It might not be perfect, and it’s okay. It’ll be okay.
Jen Andrew:
Absolutely.
Reighlah Collins:
It’s okay if they have a meltdown.
Jen Andrew:
Absolutely, it is okay. Yes. I think it’s an important reminder that, according to recent statistics, one in three people in the state of North Carolina have a disability, and I’ve often heard the condition of being able-bodied is temporary. So it’s always good practice to think about guests in your home and yourself and checking in with what makes a calm, happy environment for you too. So thank you both. I really appreciate both of you talking today. It’s always a pleasure and so great to hear about what your team is doing.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of Legal Matters. I’m Jen Andrew reading for the North Carolina Reading Service. Today’s episode is underwritten by the Apex Lions Club, serving the community since 1937 by providing services and financial support for people who are blind, have low vision, or print disabilities. To learn more about the services provided by the Apex Lions Club, go to apexlions.org.
The content of this program is intended for people who are blind, have low vision, or print disabilities. This broadcast is readily available as a podcast on our website, ncreadingservice.org. If you have any comments or questions, please give us a call at 919-832-5138. Thank you for tuning in and so long until next time.