• Tip #3 What I learned from Marcy, another of my favorite clients

    Here’s another vignette –a short, very short story, gathered from my many years of teaching, being a hearing officer, school attorney…Continue reading on Medium » This was originally posted on Medium
  • Tip #2 — What Mother Teresa taught me — more about WHY

    Here’s another vignette –a short, very short story, gathered from my many years of teaching, being a hearing officer, school attorney…Continue reading on Medium » This was originally posted on Medium
  • Today’s Tip # 1 — WHY, why, why

    It’s been a while since I posted here at Medium.com. I’ve missed doing that. So, I’m back!Where have I been writing? Over the last year or so, I’ve written weekly posts — actually, three sets of Tips, called Tuesday Tips — that I’ve shared with my email audience. Each set had 13 entries. So far, that’s 39 Tips!Now, I’d like to share them here at Medium.com, because many people have asked for them — to enjoy and hopefully, even benefit from them. I’ll start with the last set.This was [...]
  • “The Elevator Theory of Special Education” — as it appeared in Education Week 27 years ago.

    Almost to the day! 27 years ago, my Education Week Commentary appeared. It was very widely read. Clearly, it hit a mark! I felt optimistic. It was quite a thrill.Even thereafter, for years, when I traveled around the country as a speaker, consultant, and special education law expert, I saw that article on many, many bulletin boards in schools! Clearly the Commentary resonated with educators and administrators.This was originally posted on Medium
  • The SAT’s long, sad, & predictable slide.

    The SAT will now be all digital. It’ll be a shorter (two hours instead of three), simpler and, “perhaps easier test.” (Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2022). Its reading passages will be shorter. Calculators will be allowed for all math tests.Watching this formerly purpose-driven, standardized test become ever more compromised and irrelevant has been sad, though predictable.In the 1950’, the SAT did its job magnificently for my family. My brother and I were elementary school immigrants to [...]
  • Here’s Tuesday Tip # 3 — Get rid of those acronyms! Use PLAIN ENGLISH!

    Here’s Tuesday Tip # 3 — Get rid of those acronyms! Use PLAIN ENGLISH!Here’s the First Set’s third Tuesday Tip — taken from my book, IEP and Section 504 Team Meetings… and the Law (available on Amazon and at Corwin).Enjoy!As a teacher, administrator, or other service provider, you have a choice! Either abandon those acronyms and initialisms outside the meeting door or provide a list like this FREE one, with explanations.This was originally posted on Medium
  • Here’s Tuesday Tip # 2 — Why do we have 504 meetings? What is their purpose?

    Here’s Tuesday Tip # 2 — Why do we have 504 meetings? What is their purpose?These Tips are taken from my book, IEP and Section 504 Team Meetings… and the Law (available on Amazon and at Corwin).Enjoy! CorwinTuesday Tip #2Why do we have 504 team meetings? What is their purpose?Please see Tip #1 about the IDEA’s meetings!This was originally posted on Medium
  • Tuesday Tips!

    Hello friends and colleagues,I created Tuesday Tips in 2021 and emailed them to subscribers each Tuesday for 13 weeks through MailerLite.com. If you’d like to subscribe (it’s FREE!), please let me know at miriam@schoollawpro.com.The Tips are designed for special and general educators, administrators, parents, and others who may be interested. They are practical and provide guidance for our schools.Because they’ve been very popular — especially during these challenging COVID times, I’ll [...]
  • Social distancing — the birds sure know how!

    Are there lessons for us here? For my naked eye (I’m not an ornothologist, biologist or environmental scientist). This is what I see!Birds share. If a bird arrives and there’s no room, another bird may leave to make room.Birds take turns. Or, the bird looking to land may leave.This was originally posted on Medium
  • Build TRUST — Lessons learned during COVID for Special Educators

    Miriam Kurtzig Freedman, JD, MA12 hours ago·5 min readYears ago, when my Boston law firm hired me, Bob, the hiring partner, gave me a piece of advice: Return phone calls the same day, even if just to say that you got the call and will be in touch later.This was originally posted on Medium