Trust and accountability
Editorial method
Published August 19, 2026
The Manual gives legal education, not case-specific legal advice. Its value depends on accurate authorities, clear boundaries, visible dates, and corrections that remain visible after publication.
How a legal proposition reaches the Manual
- Define the exact proposition. We separate what a law requires from what a school, agency, hearing officer, or practitioner commonly does.
- Start with primary authority. We prefer statutes, regulations, official agency materials, court opinions, hearing rules, and current forms. Secondary sources help locate issues, but they do not replace the controlling source.
- Check jurisdiction and date. Federal rules, state rules, local practice, and a case-specific order can differ. State pages show a checked date. Time-sensitive content must identify the jurisdiction and source date.
- Test the practical statement against the source. We ask whether the source supports the actual sentence a parent will rely on, including deadlines, exceptions, and who must act.
- Separate rule, judgment, and example. The Manual labels legal requirements, practical recommendations, and illustrations so readers can tell them apart.
- Review the parent-facing move. We check that the suggested record, request, or question does not overclaim the law, promise an outcome, or invite unnecessary disclosure of child information.
- Publish the source and consequence. Substantive changes enter the dated update log with the product, authority, and practical effect so members can review changes by product and state.
Sources and links
Where practical, the Manual identifies the authority close to the proposition it supports. A citation shows where the rule came from; it does not prove that the rule resolves a reader’s specific facts. Links can move or change, so the source title, jurisdiction, and date matter too.
What “checked” means
A checked date means an editor reviewed the cited authority and the page’s material legal propositions as of that date. It does not mean the law cannot change the next day, that every agency follows the rule correctly, or that the page answers a particular case. Readers should recheck urgent deadlines and current forms with the responsible agency or qualified counsel.
Content-status labels
Every label describes what appears on the page. It does not predict an outcome or replace a reader’s current-law check.
- Complete free tool
- The full published unit appears on the public page. No action section from that unit sits behind the membership gate.
- Reviewed preview
- The public page shows the reviewed opening portion and an exact outline of the sections available in the member edition. It does not call the preview the complete unit.
- Member edition
- The signed-in reader shows the complete online unit covered by the member’s product license. The label does not authorize copying or redistribution.
- Authority checked [date]
- An editor reviewed the cited authority and the page’s material legal propositions through the printed date, under the meaning of “checked” above.
Correction reports use five separate workflow labels: received, reviewing, accepted, not changed, and published. The correction page explains the path and lets a reporter check a private receipt.
Corrections
Anyone can submit a correction without creating an account or giving an email address. The form issues a private receipt code. We classify the report, check the cited source, record the review status, and publish accepted substantive corrections in the append-only update log. We do not silently rewrite a published historical update. If an earlier update needs correction, we add a new correction entry.
Independence and limits
Earlville Media LLC publishes the Manual. Schools, districts, agencies, and payment or hosting providers do not control its editorial conclusions. The author’s professional background informs the work, but the site does not create an attorney-client relationship, review a family’s confidential record, or guarantee a result.