Archive for December, 2010
The Law is Generous to Students with Learning Disabilities
Posted on Dec 15, 2010 04:45:59 PM
If anyone wants information on special education, they should probably have a chat with my friend Teresa, who with her 18-year-old son Matthew, has probably seen more of the world of special education resources than anyone else – offices, counselors, the rule books, the ins and outs. Her son, when he was born, had congenital orthopedic developmental problems and some urological deficiencies as well. When he was in elementary school, new problems seemed to surface each day. They were able to put a name to a couple: he had ADHD, and he had terrible dyslexia. And Matthew’s mother soldiered through the whole process, battling the system, trying every possible way to bring the boy every kind of therapy that would help him with a fair chance in life. What she discovered was that as well as it was that students with learning disabilities had the right of subsidized or free services in the public school system to help with their situation, those services aren’t ever handed to a child on a platter. They are always hard-won. If you don’t have the resources you need to send your child to a private school, you do need to be as pushy and as wily as Teresa had to be.
The thing is, Teresa’s struggles aren’t the exception: they are the rule. When parents of students with learning disabilities finally make it out of the woods after 12 years of struggling with the public education system, they feel they’ve really achieved something – like they just succeeded in wringing blood out of a stone. More than 5% of all school children in this country, millions actually, wait on the public education system for help with special education needs. And the government spends thousands of dollars for each child each year. They know that if they don’t, society will be burdened with far more in the end.
The responsibility of the federal government in helping students with learning disabilities is laid out in The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the theme it works on is a pretty inspiring one – every child with learning disabilities in the nation is to be granted an education that is appropriate, and is to be granted that in an environment of the greatest freedom possible. The law doesn’t make it the responsibility of the system to find out what best suits your child though – it is up to you to find out which among the resources available to your child, would work the best.
The very first step you need to take in all of this is to really understand what rights you have, and what services you have a right to demand. Those rights and services happen to be pretty far-reaching. For instance, you can demand that the school system prescribe a free learning disability evaluation for your child; and you can demand a reevaluation anytime you want. And when the results come, according to the law, you the parent are an important part of the team that decides on the direction your child’s education will take – you, along with a special education instructor, a representative of the school district, a teacher of your child’s, and a school administrator. The law not only makes sure that nothing is thrust upon you, it states that you have an absolute right to demand a custom-made plan for your child, that is formed in consultation with an expert. For students with learning disabilities – you could ask for occupational therapy, speech therapy or even a full time personal nurse in the classroom for your child – you have the right, if you can demonstrate to them that valid medical opinion requires it.
More often than not, either willfully or out of ignorance, the school district will assert that you do not have the right to lots of these services. You’ll need to download and print out a copy of the law if you wish to go and speak to them about demanding a new service for your child. They might argue that he only needs occupational therapy twice a week, and you would prefer four times. If you see that your child isn’t progressing on the experts’ plan as well as they hoped, you have the rights to right away demand a reevaluation of the whole arrangement. As much as the school district has experts on the law, they don’t really care for your child as much as you do. If you read up on the law as much as they need to, there’s really no questioning your authority. You’d know what was best for your child.
A Primer on 529 Plans – your Best Shot Saving for your Child’s College
Posted on Dec 7, 2010 02:43:06 PM
We are friends with this young family that lives close by; they have three little daughters, all under 8, and it’s a family that anyone would want to model theirs on. To me, the most remarkable thing about them is not just that they are perfect; it is how they are perfect right down to their sense of financial responsibility. Their daughters are young and they don’t need to start worrying yet about being ready with a fat endowment when they decide to get married or anything; but the time that they will need to pick a college is maybe only 10 years away, and it’s already making them nervous. For about 6 years now, they have been socking away $500 a month in 529 plans for college (it’s been built up to $30,000 already). They had the foresight to look up college costs perhaps three weeks after their first daughter was born, and they right away got around to it without putting it off.
There is no other savings channel that could possibly give them all that 529 plans do. They lock in their college costs at today’s prices, their money grows – and everything is tax free. They won’t be able to cover all the costs of their kids’ education by the time they grow up; but they have the right idea, and they’re doing the best they can. 529 plans certainly seem to attract a great deal of fierce loyalty from families with young children. According to the Financial Research Corporation of Boston, 529 savings plans are going to attract about $250 billion of investments by next year. And that is up from practically nothing just 10 years ago.
Here’s a quick rundown of what makes a 529 plan what it is. To begin with the curious name, as you would expect it, comes from the section of the tax code that sanctions the plan. These plans come in two flavors: college savings plans and prepaid tuition plans. Depending on the state, you’ll get an option in one or the other, and sometimes you’ll get both. Prepaid tuition plans are the ones that will allow you to lock in your college costs at today’s prices. For instance, if you live in Florida and have a child who will need to be in college in five years, the belief is that a four year degree at a University of Florida college will cost about $48,000 then. With your prepaid 529 plans now though, you could freeze it at today’s prices, which would be $35,740.
If you go with state-sponsored prepaid 529 plans, they ask that you sign up right away to one of several major established state institutions. If you pick an independent 529 plan, you get your pick of several smaller independent colleges. Prepaid plans can be somewhat bothersome. Most states don’t offer them, and when they do, they require that you be a citizen of that state to be eligible to apply. And they can be expensive too – not entirely suitable for people who want to save slowly, or just a part of what is needed. The most popular 529 option lies in the savings plans. These let you begin to save for admission to colleges in every state of the country today. And they are pretty easy to set up too. The great thing about these plans is, that it’s completely up to you when you make your deposits and how you choose to see your money invested.
If you worry that sort of thing, with a 529, your child gets no say over how to spend the proceed when it finally comes due. When they have no legal funds to their name, they become eligible for financial aid. And also, in some cases, the fact that the child has no right over how the money is spent keeps me safe from careless choices (say, spending the money on a week at the Bahamas). 529 plans can be real winners in other ways too. Over the years, you can make deposits that amount to as much as a quarter million dollars; in states like Colorado, the state will contribute up to $500 each month to your account, and you get all kinds of tax breaks as well.
Of course 529 plans can be a bit of a pain for the number of choices they give you with all kinds of features (like how they will invest your money). And if you happen to use the money to not pay for college costs, there’ll be a penalty. The way they invest your money can often become an area of serious disagreement. For instance two years ago when the markets plunged, ahead of the recession, some 529 plans tried to follow their normal plan oblivious of the economic environment. For accounts that were nearing maturity, they tried as usual to shift investments from low-risk mutual funds to more conservative investments (like income securities). In doing this, they went and sold their mutual funds on the market when it was very low. Everyone tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen. They sold at the bottom of the market.
529 plans, like anything else you trust others with, depend on how bureaucratic their administrators can be. Even if you’re completely enthusiastic about investing in your child’s future in this way, you need to be aware that if you are hoping for Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits, paying your child’s entire college education bills with a 529 bounty can disqualify you. Well, nothing is without the downside.