LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – One student at a time, a local law firm is working to help special education students in the Las Vegas Valley receive the education they’re entitled to.
Under federal law schools are required to provide a specialized plan for special needs students who’ve been determined to need them.
The law firm, IEP Defenders, makes sure that requirement is being met, for no cost to families.
“Our focus with IEP defenders is helping children realize their weakness can become a strength, and we give them these little lightsabers to remind them that they can be like a human lightsaber,” IEP Defenders Founder Sam Castor said.
According to the Clark County School District, for the 2023-24 school year 40,809 special education students were enrolled.
This represents about 13% of the district’s total enrollment, but it is the 100% focus for IEP Defenders.
“Our focus is to work ourselves out of a job,” Castor says.
Since the firm started about nine months ago, Castor says they’ve helped about 70 students with issues ranging from their school not following a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), to ignoring the child’s disability overall.
“What it comes down to is there are not enough special education teachers, there’s not enough training for those teachers,” A woman who spent 20 years as a special education teacher and administrator in CCSD said. She wanted to remain anonymous because she still works in the district.
She said staffing shortages are directly impacting the quality of special education because those positions are sometimes filled by long term subs.
“They have the heart, they’ve taken the job, they want to be there, but they don’t have the training and it’s showing,” she said. “As humans, we all deserve the opportunities to reach our full potential, and I would say there’s so many barriers to students with disabilities to do that.”
Castor said they’re hiring attorneys every month to break down those barriers, and he wants to spread the word that IEP Defenders is there to help.
“If you’re a parent with a child with special needs, don’t wait, call us, and let’s see if we can help you, it doesn’t cost anything, we’re focused on finding solutions as quickly as possible,” he said.
CCSD said they’re using several strategies to increase the number of special education teachers in the district, including:
- Using state funding to offer an extra $5,000 in pay for licensed special education positions
- Using Alternative Routes to Licensure and the Paraprofessional Pathways Project to hire 100 special education teachers over the last two years
- Using the Critical labor Shortage Designation to hire retired employees into special education positions
“As the District continues recruiting for these positions, we will continue to support our classrooms to ensure that they are staffed, including licensed substitute teachers, as needed,” A spokesperson for the district said in a statement.
For more information about IEP Defenders, click here.
Copyright 2024 KVVU. All rights reserved.
