1. Q: Can I file a complaint against the principal because she is rude, nasty and refuses to listen to me because she says my child's true problem is that my child is not motivated?
A: There is no law that says the principal has to be polite. He/She may be nasty but hasn't violated the law. If you can identify the principal's actions as being adversarial during an IEP meeting, then you can write a complaint. The IEP team meeting is supposed to be a non-adversarial meeting. If the principal or another district individual makes the IEP team adversarial by name calling, behaving in an unprofessional and directly confrontation manner that stops collaboration and you can prove it with documentation, then you have a state compliance complaint.

As an individual person, you can write a uniform complaint against a district personnel for violating your child's rights. If you feel a district employee has done something personally and knowingly to violate your child's rights, then you can file that uniform complaint. A uniform complaint is a local district complaint that will produce an investigation of a person's actions. This investigation, if the person is found guilty, can produce a corrective action that stops the individual from violating your child's rights.

There is also another civil legal procedure you can use called the "Gebser" letter. If a district official has personally and purposely violated your child's rights, you can write a Gebser letter asking that person to stop immediately. If that person will not stop, then you can take that official to civil court and sue for damages. You will need an attorney and the Gebser letter has ten pieces of important information you need in order to establish your case properly and win in court. You will also need an attorney who is able to file a civil case.

If the principal is part of a district or IEP team action that has violated your daughter's rights, you can gather the evidence and file a state procedural safeguards complaint alleging the school violated your daughter's procedural rights. A procedural right is one in which the district has to do or not do something. It is a simple "did you follow the procedures or not" question. If the school failed to follow procedures correctly, you have a state complaint. Other than the three aforementioned options, you can't really do much about jerks.

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