The 97 tools

Most tools open with the governing rule and why it matters, free to read. Membership unlocks the exact move, the scripts, and the state notes.

PART I - THE SUSPICION

• Tool 1: The One-Page Letter that Creates a Provable Evaluation Request free
• Tool 2: The “Let’s Try RTI First” Stall - and the Sentence that Ends It
• Tool 3: What to Write Down Tonight: the Home-Evidence Log a District Can’t Wave Away free
• Tool 4: The Pediatrician’s Letter that Turns a Hunch Into a Referral
• Tool 5: Child Find: the Duty Your District Owed You Before You Ever Asked
• Tool 6: The Private-School and Homeschool Route to a Public Evaluation

PART II - THE EVALUATION

• Tool 7: The Consent Form Trap: What You’re Signing, Line by Line (and Why the Clock Starts at Consent)
• Tool 8: Sixty Days, Not “When We Get to It”: the Timeline Tracker with Every State’s Real Number
• Tool 9: The eight assessments to ask for by name (and the three most often left off)
• Tool 10: How to read a psychoeducational report in 20 minutes: the 4 numbers that matter
• Tool 11: Percentiles, Standard Scores, and the “Average Range” Dodge
• Tool 12: “She’s Passing, So She Doesn’t Qualify” - the Sentence That Answers It
• Tool 13: The IEE: How to Make the District Pay for a Second Opinion
• Tool 14: Choosing Your Independent Evaluator: Three Questions Before You Sign Anything

PART III - ELIGIBILITY

• Tool 15: The Thirteen Classifications, Translated Into Kitchen-Table English
• Tool 16: Discrepancy, RTI, or Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses: How Districts Decide, and How to Push Back
• Tool 17: The OHI Category Most Parents of Children with ADHD Never Hear About
• Tool 18: Autism vs. ED vs. OHI: What the Label on the Line Does and Does Not Change
• Tool 19: When They Say “Not Eligible”: the Ten-Day Letter that Keeps Every Option Open
• Tool 20: The 504 Consolation Prize - When to Take It, When It’s a Trap

PART IV - THE DOCUMENT

• Tool 21: The Twenty-Minute Anatomy Lesson: What Each Section Legally Promises
• Tool 22: Present Levels: the Paragraph the Whole Document Hangs on
• Tool 23: “As Appropriate” and “Opportunities for”: Hunt the Weasel Words, Replace Them
• Tool 24: Frequency, Duration, Location: the Three Fields that Make a Service Enforceable
• Tool 25: What a Blank Box Means at a Hearing (Nothing Good for the District)
• Tool 26: Prior Written Notice: the Paper They Must Hand You - Every Single Time
• Tool 27: The Draft-Written-Before-the-Meeting Problem, and the Request that Fixes It
• Tool 28: The Shrinkage Check: Comparing This IEP to Last Year’s in Fifteen Minutes

PART V - THE GOALS

• Tool 29: The Goal Autopsy: Five Tests Every Annual Goal Must Pass
• Tool 30: “Will Improve Reading Skills”: Forcing a Baseline, a Number, and a Date
• Tool 31: Who Measures It, How Often, with What Tool - Three Questions Per Goal
• Tool 32: The Copy-Paste Scandal: Catching Last Year’s Goals Wearing This Year’s Dates
• Tool 33: What FAPE Demands After Endrew F. - and the Sentence to Quote at the Table
• Tool 34: The Goal-Bank Tell: Spotting a Goal Written for No Child in Particular

PART VI - SERVICES, LRE, AND PLACEMENT

• Tool 35: Related Services a to Z: Ot, Pt, Speech, Counseling - What to Ask for by Name
• Tool 36: Push-in vs. Pull-Out: What Each Costs Your Child in Minutes and in Dignity
• Tool 37: The LRE Ladder: Every Placement From Full Inclusion to Residential, and Who Decides
• Tool 38: “We Don’t Offer that Here” Is Not a Legal Answer - the Reply that Proves It
• Tool 39: The 1:1 Paraprofessional Request: Build the Case Before You Ask
• Tool 40: What “12:1:1” Actually Buys: Ratios Decoded
• Tool 41: When the Right Placement Is a Private School on the District’s Dime: the Burlington/Carter Playbook

PART VII - ACCOMMODATIONS AND MODIFICATIONS

• Tool 42: The Bright Line Between Accommodation and Modification - and the Diploma It Decides
• Tool 43: Forty Accommodations Worth Asking for, Sorted by What They Fix
• Tool 44: State-Exam Accommodations: the Separate Paperwork with Its Own Deadline
• Tool 45: “He Gets that Anyway, No Need to Write It in” - Yes There Is, and Here’s Why
• Tool 46: The Assistive-Technology Evaluation Nobody Offers Until You Ask

PART VIII - THE MEETING

• Tool 47: The Two-Sentence Email That Stops an IEP Meeting From Being Scheduled Without You free
• Tool 48: The Meeting-Week Countdown: What to Send, Request, and Print, Day by Day
• Tool 49: Who Must Be in the Room - and the Excusal Form You Don’t Have to Sign
• Tool 50: The Recording Question: Your Rights State by State, and the Script for Asking
• Tool 51: Bring-a-Friend Rules: Advocates, Evaluators, and Grandma Are All Allowed
• Tool 52: The Parent-Concerns Letter: Getting Your Version Inside the IEP Itself
• Tool 53: “We’ll Table that” and Six Other Meeting Moves, Decoded and Countered
• Tool 54: Don’t Sign at the Table: What Consent Means in Your State and How Long You Really Have
• Tool 55: The Same-Day Follow-Up Email that Turns a Verbal Promise Into Evidence

PART IX - BEHAVIOR

• Tool 56: The FBA Request Letter - and How to Tell an FBA From a Checklist with a Fancy Name
• Tool 57: Reading a BIP: Replacement Behaviors, Not Just Punishments
• Tool 58: The Daily Behavior Sheet that Makes the School Keep Your Data for You
• Tool 59: Restraint and Seclusion: What to Ask for, in Writing, the Same Day free
• Tool 60: “He Just Needs to Want It” and Other Clues the Plan Is Blaming Your Child
• Tool 61: When Behavior Is the Disability Talking: Building the MDR Case Before You Ever Need One

PART X - DISCIPLINE

• Tool 62: The ten-day rule: counting suspensions the way the law counts them (including half-days)
• Tool 63: “Come pick him up” is a removal: logging the informal suspension free
• Tool 64: The Manifestation Determination Review: the most important meeting you’ve never heard of
• Tool 65: The two MDR questions - and the evidence that answers them
• Tool 66: Weapons, Drugs, Injury: The 45-Day Placements and What They Don’t Erase
• Tool 67: The Expedited Appeal: Discipline Timelines the District Hopes You Miss

PART XI - DATA AND THE YEAR

• Tool 68: The Progress-Report Decoder: “Progressing Gradually” Is Not a Measurement
• Tool 69: The Work-Sample Folder: a Kitchen-Table Data System in Ten Minutes a Week
• Tool 70: The Records Request That Gets the Raw Data Behind the Report Card
• Tool 71: Regression and Recoupment: The ESY Case You Build Over Christmas Break
• Tool 72: ESY Is Not Summer School: the Standard, the Deadline, the Request Letter
• Tool 73: The Teacher-Email Cadence that Builds a Year of Evidence Without a Single Fight
• Tool 74: When the Graph Goes Flat: the Letter that Reconvenes the Team Mid-Year

PART XII - TRANSITIONS

• Tool 75: Early Intervention to Preschool: the Meeting at Age 2½ that Decides Year Three
• Tool 76: The Kindergarten Cliff: Keeping Services When the Building Changes
• Tool 77: Building-to-Building Moves: the Transfer Packet You Assemble, Not the School
• Tool 78: Moving Districts or States: What Transfers, What Doesn’t, and the Comparable-Services Rule
• Tool 79: Transition Planning at 16 (or Earlier): a Plan that Must Say More Than “Will Attend College Fair”
• Tool 80: The Diploma Decision: Standard, Alternate, and the Exit that Ends Services Forever
• Tool 81: Age of Majority: the Rights-Transfer Letter and Keeping Your Seat at the Table

PART XIII - SECTION 504 AND RECORDS

• Tool 82: The 504 Plan, Explained: Different Eligibility, Fewer Required IEP Procedures
• Tool 83: When Section 504 Fits and When an IDEA Evaluation Is Needed
• Tool 84: FERPA: The Records-Request Template and the 45-Day Clock
• Tool 85: What Counts as a Record: Emails, Test Protocols, and the Notes They Say Don’t Exist
• Tool 86: The Amendment Request: Correcting the File One Wrong Sentence at a Time
• Tool 87: What a Full Records Review Reveals That No Meeting Ever Will

PART XIV - THE FIGHT

• Tool 88: The dispute ladder: seven rungs from polite email to federal court
• Tool 89: The magic words: “I disagree, and I am requesting Prior Written Notice”
• Tool 90: The State Complaint: Free, No Lawyer Required, Answer Due in 60 Days
• Tool 91: Mediation: What to Bring, What to Say, What Never to Sign the Same Day
• Tool 92: Due Process: The Filing That Must Be Right the First Time, and the Two-Year Clock
• Tool 93: “Stay Put”: The Most Powerful Phrase in Special Education Law
• Tool 94: The resolution session: the settlement talk the district must hold within 15 days
• Tool 95: Advocate vs. attorney: what each costs, what each can legally do, and when
• Tool 96: Attorney’s Fees: Why a Winning Parent’s Lawyer Can Cost the District, Not You
• Tool 97: Finding Counsel in Your State: COPAA, Parent Centers, and the Questions to Ask Before You Hire