A new legal clinic will help families navigate the education system for children with autism, and virtual appointments are now available.
The legal clinic will help answer parents’ questions about special education, advocate for Individualized Education Programs and set up special needs trusts for federal benefits like Medicaid, said Sarah Kovit Hanna, executive director of The Positivity Spectrum.
“We’ll be able to provide the services completely free in a virtual legal clinic environment," she said.
Navigating these processes can be difficult for families, Hanna said. IEPs, for example, outline the support services school districts must provide students with disabilities, but sometimes students are denied the accommodations they need, she said.
“We’re seeing a lot of students not getting all of the services that are required to have a free and appropriate public education," she said.
The clinic will also help families create comprehensive estate plans to ensure their children are cared for in the future, Hanna said.
Special needs trusts protect adults with autism from losing federal benefits for their care, she said. Adults with autism or other disabilities can only have $2,000 worth of assets to qualify for the benefits, which can become a problem if they have a job or inherit money, she said.
"All of a sudden, you've gone from having services and participating in your community and being medically protected to having nothing at all and having to find those services for out of pockets costs," Hanna said.
Parents can fill out an intake form on The Positivity Spectrum's website with their questions or concerns to be reviewed by the clinic, she said. If a family needs help advocating for an IEP, for example, the legal clinic can help moderate discussion between the family and the school district, she said.
"If the school district is not providing those things, then our legal clinic will step in, work with the family, talk to the school district and then call for an IEP meeting with the school district," Hanna said.
At the IEP meeting, legal counsel can explain why the student needs certain accommodations and any legal requirements the school must fulfill, she said.
The work the clinic will do is all the more important now, she said, as parents head into the first full school year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.
"We're not necessarily going to get the funding back, but we are going to ensure that children are not left behind, and that the services that are being cut in the schools aren't the federally protected services that these students need," Hanna said.
The virtual clinic, run by law students and special education attorneys, will be available to families in the autism community across Northeast Ohio, Hanna said.
