As an attorney who specializes in representing families with special needs children, I do lots of presentations to parent groups, social workers, schools specializing in educating children with special needs, workshops and residential homes. The biggest portion of the presentation is always devoted to a question and answer session. Often times I will get a question from one parent about a specific subject and some of the other attendees will be absolutely amazed because they have never heard anything about what that parent is asking. While it is no surprise to me that parents and caregivers are hungry for information, what does surprise me is how little accurate information is out there. The resource I bring to the meetings is specific knowledge about the laws relating to special needs children but much more importantly my role becomes educating the parents about the misinformation that I encounter at each presentation I make. In many instances, this misinformation may come from a family attorney who steers the family in the wrong direction quite innocently because he lacks understanding of this unique area of the law. On the other hand, I find that parent groups and transition planning committees consisting of parents with special needs children are a wonderful resource for parents because there is likely someone who may have already gone through something that helps the other parents who haven’t. I have frequently been able to put parents in touch with groups of this kind and I hope to do more of that as my practice develops. I see this blog as my opportunity to educate a wider audience about little known parts of the law that may be helpful to their unique situation. I also hope that this blog and my new website can serve as a resource for social workers, advocates, attorneys and residential home managers to answer the questions they receive from the families of special needs children and dispel any misinformation they may have.