NORTHEASTERN, PA, July 28th, 2015: McAndrews Law Offices, P.C. is eager to announce that they have successfully secured another win before a Special Education Hearing Officer in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. Heather Hulse, J.D., M.S., M.A., a shareholder at the firm and the operator of their Scranton, Pa office, has over fifteen years of experience in the field of special education and represented the family in this recent case.
The final decision by the Hearing Officer involved awarding full days of compensatory education to a student diagnosed with high functioning autism who was unable to attend school due to his significant anxiety. While the School District argued it could not be responsible for failing to provide services to the student because the student failed to attend school to receive services, the Hearing Officer found “the District had an obligation to effectively address that issue.”
As one of the final conclusions, the Hearing Officer stated that the District’s development of an incentive plan failed to address the student’s underlying anxiety that prevented his school attendance. Specifically, the Hearing Officer found that “an incentive plan to increase school attendance would be no more likely to succeed than an incentive plan to encourage an orthopedically impaired child to climb the steps to a school building—other supports must be put in place to overcome the involuntary effects of a disability.”
McAndrews Law Offices, P.C. offers free consultations for all special education matters. Call 610-648-9300 or 570-969-1817 to set up your appointment.
On Tuesday, Sep 29th, 2015 at Kings College, the Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) will be hosting two of McAndrews Law Offices’ attorneys, Ms. Hulse and Joseph McGettigan, Esq., for a presentation on child abuse. Ms. Hulse will be discussing children’s educational rights in regard to bullying matters and Mr. McGettigan will speak on his experience prosecuting serial child sex abuser, Jerry Sandusky. Visit www.McAndrewsLaw.com for all of their upcoming events and presentations.
About MLO: McAndrews Law Offices, P.C. provides families of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the Washington, D.C. area, and New Jersey with exceptional legal representation while focusing on special education, estate planning, elder law, and the protection of vulnerable victims of abuse. MLO was founded in 1983 by Dennis McAndrews, Esq., a native of Moscow, Pennsylvania. The firm currently has 18 attorneys with 6 offices. For more information, visit McAndrewsLaw.com.
####
