Bright Path Advocacy

10/07/2026

This is another example of why you can't find a lawyer willing to take an education case.

The school district broke the law. Then it fought to keep the family's lawyers from getting paid.

In Lattishaw v. District of Columbia (D.D.C. Sept. 30, 2026), a mother proved that D.C. Public Schools denied her daughter a free appropriate public education. The district wrote an IEP with no social, emotional, or behavioral goals and no behavior support for a student who needed them. A hearing officer ordered the district to reimburse a year of private school tuition.

But winning at the hearing doesn't automatically get the family's attorney paid. Under the IDEA, a hearing officer can't award fees. The family has to go to federal court and file a separate fee petition, and the district gets to fight every line of it.

The district argued the attorneys deserved roughly a third of what they requested. When the court ruled, more than a year after the family won, it:

-Cut the attorneys' hourly rate to 75% of the standard rate because courts don't consider special education cases "complex"
-Cut the entire award another 30% because the family won one school year instead of the two they were seeking-
-Cut 75% of the time spent preparing the case
-Denied every dollar for the family's expert witnesses

Meanwhile, the district pays its own lawyers with public money, win or lose, at full rate.

This is why you can't find a lawyer.

A family's lawyer takes on a district with a full legal team and deep pockets, often with no pay unless the family wins. If the family wins, the lawyer has to go to court again, wait a year or more, and watch the fee get cut piece by piece. Win most of your case instead of all of it, and the fee gets cut again. The experts who prove what your child needs usually come out of the family's pocket for good.

Most lawyers look at that math and walk away. The ones who stay do it because they believe in it, and there aren't nearly enough of them.

Districts know this. Every cut to attorney fees makes it easier for a school to say no to your child, because they know how few families can fight back.

09/28/2026

All. Day. Long.

Before you even think about suspending a child with an IEP for behavior, start with the Functional Behavioral Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plan.

When was the FBA last updated? Is the BIP actually being implemented? Is it working? Are the behaviors telling us that something in the plan, services, supports, or environment needs to change?

Because when a child with a disability is repeatedly struggling behaviorally, the answer cannot simply be to repeatedly remove the child from school.

The adults have the responsibility to examine the environment, identify what is driving the behavior, and provide the supports the child needs to be successful.

Suspension doesn’t teach a replacement behavior. It doesn’t fix an ineffective plan. And it doesn’t make a disability disappear.

09/27/2026

09/24/2026

Two seats are waiting for the right learners. 📚

We're forming new online pairs and small groups and we have two openings we'd love to fill right away:
🕖 Ages 7 to 9 (pair): 7:00 am PT / 9:00 am CT / 10:00 am ET
🕙 Ages 13 to 16 (small group): 10:00 or 11:00 am CT (8:00 or 9:00 am PT / 11:00 am or 12:00 pm ET)
Learning alongside a peer can make sessions feel less like "work" and more like teamwork. Students are matched by age and reading level, and every session is led live by one of our highly trained instructors using the same evidence-based, NICHD-funded method as our one-on-one sessions.
Pairs are $50 per session, per student, and small groups of 3 to 4 start at just $30 per session, per student.

Don't see the right age or time? Reach out anyway. We serve kids, teens, and adults ages 5 to 75, and new groups form as families connect with us. Your interest may be what starts the next one.
👉 Book a free consultation: https://hubs.li/Q04yblqT0
📞 (352) 275-5778

09/16/2026

If you don't follow MODE, you should. Yes, I "shoulded" 🤣 But seriously friends, they are doing such amazing work. They are the boots on the ground at the capitol pushing for equality for us and our kids. I don't say it enough, thank you Missouri Disability Empowerment Foundation. 🩵💜

It is great to be back at it! Had a great meeting this morning with State Rep. Matthew Overcast, Esq. about filing a bill pertaining to one of our legislative priorities. We appreciate his expertise and desire to help families navigating their dispute resolution options from IDEA.

The next legislative session doesn’t begin until January, but everyone is hard at work getting organized so they can be ready to go when the time comes.

This week is Veto Session, where the legislators return from their hometowns to review the governor’s veto’s from this past session and determine if they should seek to override any of his decisions.

09/15/2026

I can see some advantages to this for some of our kids. For some, we will be working on race car driver and gamer for another few years while we wait on maturity. 🤣

Have you read the updates DESE made to the Missouri State plan? There's some pretty solid improvements in there, including this one about planning for the future.

Starting in the 2027-28 school year, postsecondary transition services must be in the IEP before a student exits 8th grade instead of waiting for the IEP that will be in place when the student turns 16.

Why this matters: your child enters 9th grade with a plan for the future that's already built around their goals. Course selection, electives, relevant life skills, and future planning pathways get chosen on purpose. Transition assessments happen while there's still time to act on what they show. And your student gets extra years of practice collaborating and preparing for their own future.

Earlier planning = fewer wasted credits, fewer junior-year scrambles, an understood diploma vs. certificate pathway, and better outcomes.

🔗https://dese.mo.gov/special-education/compliance/state-plan-special-education

08/31/2026

Starts at 9am. Join if you can to show support for this family.

Day 1: Open Due Process Hearing

For years, a student with autism has been on what was supposed to be “temporary” homebound instruction.

This followed years of seclusion, restraint and suspensions at school. And despite her significant needs, she remains without an appropriate path back to meaningful, supported education.

Her mother is asking for more: a residential placement with ABA and appropriate educational services designed to address her needs.

Special School District of St. Louis County is proposing that she remain on homebound, receiving limited virtual instruction and related services, with her mother as her only source of in-person support.

On Monday, the evidence begins.

This public hearing will ask a fundamental question under IDEA: Is this enough to provide this child with FAPE?

This mother has spent years fighting for appropriate support for her daughter. They should not have to face the next part alone.

Day 1 • Monday, August 31 • 9:00 a.m. CST • WebEx

Log in. Listen. Show up for this family.

Day 1 WEBEX LINK:
https://stateofmo.webex.com/stateofmo/j.php?MTID=mda7342b937c431415bd962f03f007b41

Day 2 Link (10am CST start) : https://stateofmo.webex.com/stateofmo/j.php?MTID=m57ba0801e89f896deb963f91284f2751

Day 3 Link (9am) https://stateofmo.webex.com/stateofmo/j.php?MTID=mb900cc05c5e5e5a3f2eeaa832e67a9be

WEBINAR PASSWORD: (for public attendees)
DESE260821

33732608 when dialing from a phone or video system

08/26/2026

💗💜💗💜

Thank you Dolly! We're remembering this amazing singer-songwriter, author and literacy advocate. https://buff.ly/T19gKY3

08/22/2026

Let's support this family as they seek appropriate placement.

A due process hearing is the legal process Congress created for families and public schools to resolve disputes over a child’s right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE).

And sometimes, providing FAPE requires far more than changing a few services in an IEP.

When a student’s disability-related educational needs cannot be appropriately met in a less restrictive setting, a school district may be responsible for funding a residential placement if that placement is necessary for the child to receive FAPE.

That is the issue at the center of this hearing.

The parent is seeking a residential placement with ABA and appropriate educational services. The Special School District of St. Louis County is proposing a very different program: limited, virtual-only homebound instruction and related services, to be facilitated entirely by her mother. The proposed program includes no behavioral supports and no in-person educational or therapeutic support from school personnel.

The hearing will address whether that proposed program provides this student with FAPE, or whether her needs require the more intensive residential program her parent is seeking.

Because this due process hearing is open to the public, members of the public have an unusual opportunity to observe the IDEA dispute-resolution process firsthand. These hearings are normally private. However, a parent has the absolute right to open their hearing to the public. Please support this family in their pursuit of appropriate services. The hearing will not be recorded, so it can only be observed live via WebEx.

Times are CST.

Day 1 WEBEX LINK:
https://stateofmo.webex.com/stateofmo/j.php?MTID=mda7342b937c431415bd962f03f007b41

WEBINAR PASSWORD: (for public attendees)
DESE260821

33732608 when dialing from a phone or video system