Denise Brooks, Parent of Debbie, a Down Syndrome Child
Debra, my daughter, a Down Syndrome child, accidentally left a small pocket knife in her backpack which she accidentally brought to school the next day. The school found the knife and tried to have her arrested and expelled. I heard about Dr. Closson through a friend, called him and he came to her rescue.
Dr. Closson made sure she was not arrested, not expelled, then he made the District offer Debbie what should have been given without asking, her educational rights. Up to that point in time there was no benefit to her education. In fact, she was going backwards. Dr. Closson discovered she had been deliberately placed in a Severely Learning Handicapped Class to accommodate the School and not in my daughter's best interests. It was an inappropriate placement and Debra was miserable. Dr. Closson made the District mainstream her with a full-time aide and made the district generate a course of study that would benefit her now and in the future.
Now Debra is a happy girl. Since that time, the District has made no attempt to misplace her, harass her or retaliate against me for demanding my child's rights. I highly recomment Dr. Closson. He is a passionate and effective advocate for disabled children who gets things done quickly.
Dave and Chris Philips, Parents of Sam an AD/HD child
Sam was diagnosed with AD/HD in the third grade. Like most ADD children, he talks out of turn, squirms in his seat and says and does some inappropriate things from time to time. In fourth grade we put him on Concerta and hoped that would do the trick. It didn't.
We asked his school's administrators for help, but their only answer was to suspend him for behaviors that were directly related to his ADD. By the time we called Dr. Closson our son was in the bulls-eye of the suspension target as the administration seemed intent on expelling him. We were told we had rights under the 1973 American's with Disabilities Act (Section 504) but the first meeting we attended we were steamrolled by administrators, psychologists, people from the Special Ed department as well as his own principal.
Then Dr. Closson got involved. He immediately called another 504 meeting and told the district and the school that they had been violating our son's rights. Dr. Closson made the District give Sam meaningful accommodations that made it possible for him to excel. Long story short, Sam was never suspended again. Since that time, our son has moved onto middle school where he has nearly straight A's and a spotless discipline record. It is not an overstatement, Dr. Closson saved Sam's education.
Lauren and Bob Wickwood, Parents of Xavier an Autistic child
By the time we met with Dr. Closson the tension, anxiety, and the mistrust over the district's questionable intentions to help our son were driving our whole family crazy. Our son Xavior is a high functioning Autistic boy with lots of potential. Nevertheless, he has lots of behavior issues and the school’s only answer was to suspend him or send him home early. Our pediatrician recommended we see Dr. Closson. We were told that Dr. Closson has an excellent track record in making sure Autistic kids are accommodated and he would help the district "understand their responsibilities" under various State and Federal laws. He did.
What took us two years and six frustrating meetings to try and accomplish, Dr. Closson was able to complete in just under a month. He wrote up a whole new IEP, one that spoke to our goals, needs wants and desires and he made sure it was implemented with appropriate standards that were both objective and measurable. At first the district was resistant, but soon saw the light. Dr. Closson knows the law and made sure the district understood our rights to offer our son a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. Now, Xavier is sitting along side his intellectual peers, participating in class and is very well behaved. Dr. Closson convinced the district to make sure Xavier got his rights. Thank you Dr. Closson.
Jerry and Gloria Fields, Parents of Nick, Unlawfully Expelled
Our son was involved in a fight; a fight he didn't start and did everything he could to avoid. The district we are in doesn't seem to care who starts the fights and suspended Nick for 5 days and put him on social probation for 45-days. That was at the beginning of his Sophomore year. He was involved in another fight four days before the end of the year. He was at a dance, a fight broke out, he was hit by another student and responded again only to protect himself. He was immediately suspended, and because it was his second fight in one year, the District began expulsion proceedings.
We called Dr. Closson to represent Nick at his expulsion hearing. Thanks to Dr. Closson and his knowledge of the law in this area Nick was found completely innocent, his expulsion was reversed and all records regarding the expulsion including the second suspension were expunged completely. We believe that Dr. Closson made all the difference between getting expelled or being found totally innocent.
Tim and Jan, Parents of Phillip, a Down child
After doing some reading on the subject, we found that our son was poorly place, his I.E.P. goals were subjective and completely subjective. Phillip was making absolutely no progress nor was he receiving any real benefit from his education. Luckily, we got Dr. Closson's name from a college instructor who believe he may be of help.
We went through 4 separate I.E.P. meetings as Dr. Closson attempted to secure our son's rights. After some friendly persuasion and some talk about going to OCR and Fair Hearing the District quickly responded to Dr. Closson's request and made sure our son was mainstreamed, that all his goals were appropriate, that all of his goals were objective and measurable and that my son was receiving a real benefit to his education. Even though there was twice as much work involved with two extra meetings, Dr. Closson charged his usual flat rate. We recommend Dr. Closson without reservation, he's a pro who gets it done.
Cheryl and Robert, Parents of Desmond, an AD/HD kid
Desmond like other ADD's squirms in his seat, speaks out of turn and can be disruptive at times. The school continued to punish Desmond for what Dr. Closson calls manifestations of his handicap. Desmond had been suspended 9 times in one year for doing the normal things ADD's do and was on his way to being expelled when we met Dr. Closson. At the very first meeting my wife and I stopped being harassed and intimidated by the principal, staff and teacher as Dr. Closson took over the meeting's agenda. By the end of the first meeting Desmond had a proper 504 plan that made it impossible to suspend him for being who he was. We recommend Dr. Closson 100%.
Marie Hernandez, a Single Parent of a child with RAD
Not many people know about Reactive Attachment Disorder. It is a very serious mental disorder that requires full time attention to Max who came to our home 9-years ago through adoption. Then, my husband was alive and I had plenty of help in making sure Max had the kind of supervision he needed to focus on his studies.
By the time Max was in the fourth grade it was obvious that I needed more help from the school. The school, the district nor the county wanted to help. And without my husband in the picture I felt I was being consumed by Max's care needs while I struggled to make a living. I heard about Dr. Closson and called him hoping he might be able to help. He did, and didn't charge me a cent. He told me that in some cases children need help regardless of their parent's ability to pay. Anyway, Dr. Closson got Max the kind of special education that Max needed to be successful in school. Because of Dr. Closson Max makes mostly B's and A's and has dreams of being an engineer.
Jason and Sue Lemke, Parents of a child with Asthma
Long story very short, our son has Asthma and was not being accommodated in anyway. We asked about the 504 program and the school said they didn't have one and could really help us.
We called Dr. Closson who made one phone call and all of a sudden everyone wanted to help us. Within the first fifteen minutes of our first 504 meeting Dr. Closson got Derek the interventions and accommodations he needed. What's more, Dr. Closson attended the meeting by phone. He read the administrators some passages from special education law and that was it. Thank you Sir.
Suzanne a Single Parent, of Drake a child with Autism
I met Dr. Closson through our pediatrician who said his diagnosis would be of no use until the District did what was needed to allow my son full participation in regular school. All the doctors have told me the same thing: Drake is brilliant, Drake is a genius, Drake can do anything he wants but he needs to be mainstreamed with the brightest kids at his school. Instead, they had him warehoused in an inappropriate placement where he was actually being harmed by his so-called education.
My Doctor, who evidently knows Dr. Closson very well, had Dr. Closson call me and tell me that he would be happy to examine my case and take it if he thought he could help. Two hours after I dropped off my son's I.E.P. I got a call from Dr. Closson who told me that he could help and would have Drake correctly placed by the end of the month. Dr. Closson called a new I.E.P. meeting then conducted the meeting himself. He told them that unless they placed my son in advanced placement classes and provided him with a one-on-one aide he would turn them over to OCR .
The Assistant Superintendent showed up to the meeting and gave Drake everything Dr. Closson said he should have. Dr. Closson not only got him an aide, he made the district pay for extra tutoring so Drake could catch up with the rest of the class. Everything we wanted we got. I could have never done it with Dr. Closson's help. He's a wonderful man who has a real passion for helping special needs children.
Lillian and Carl, Parents of Jimmy, a young man with Downs
By the time we were introduced to Dr. Closson we had been given the runaround with the District so long that we just gave up. Jimmy's 16-year triennial was coming up and we were told by a friend to seek Dr. Closson's help in getting Jimmy the course of learning that he would need to be successful and as independent as possible.
The district (which will go unnamed) jumped through the roof when they heard Dr. Closson's name mentioned and immediately took on a whole new attitude. The district must have had at least 15 people at the meeting as Dr. Closson told them about all the violations of the law they had been a party to. By the end of the meeting, Dr. Closson got Jimmy mainstreamed and made sure that the rest of his education (until he was 22) was going to benefit Jimmy and provide him with the best chance of being as independent as possible.
Both my husband and I, now in our forties, were very concerned about what might happen to Jimmy if we were no longer here. Dr. Closson gave us the piece of mind we needed to know that Jimmy was going to be as self-sufficient as possible and he made sure that several different agencies would be working with Jimmy to prepare him for life beyond high school. Dr. Closson said there is no reason that Jimmy can't go on to Junior College and is already arranging that transition. We can't say enough about Dr. Closson's good work; he has given us real hope and lifted a ton of weight off our backs.
Jan and Richard Demming, Parents of Charles, an Autistic Child
Charlie, is a brilliant and loving child who presents signs of Autism was continually getting teased and bullied at his new high school. Even though we had an IEP that called for positive talk and self-esteem support, it appeared the school just didn’t give a damn.
For what seemed like an eternity they allowed a number of boys to continue to tease and annoy my son without any end in sight. We heard about Dr. Closson through a good friend and called him the next day. Within a week of our call, Dr. Closson got back to us and told us our problem is solved and Charlie will not be harassed ever again. Quite frankly, I don’t know what he told them but whatever it was it worked. We got calls and letters from the school apologizing for our inconvenience and assured us nothing like this will ever happen again. We highly recommend Dr. Closson.
David and Lonnie Crew, Parents of Mike, a kid who gets in trouble here and there
Our Mike isn’t a bad kid but he does get into more than his share of trouble on a fairly regular basis. It’s all minor stuff, the kind of stuff 30-years ago wouldn’t have drawn the attention of anyone.
Anyway, in one semester Mike got in a fight on the way home from school, got caught smoking twice in the bathrooms and glued someone’s locker shut as a prank. You’d think the way they treated him he was a common criminal. One administrator called him violent who was committed to campus terrorism, Stupid stuff. At any rate, he was suspended a number of times and the district tried to expel him, and did expel him. We called Dr. Closson because we were told by a local attorney that the district had made a number of technical errors and that Closson was our best bet to get his expulsion removed.
Dr. Closson appealed Mike’s case to the County and told the County Board in a legal brief that the district had made 26 due-process errors that made it impossible for Mike to get a fair hearing. The County Board of Trustees agreed. They reversed Mike’s expulsion and made the district expunge all records that indicated an expulsion was even attempted. Mike is now at a good university and owes his education to Dr. Closson.
Camille Farris, Single Parent of Jessie, a child with depression and emotional issues
Since Jessie’s father died things have not gone well for Jessie, she was already a vulnerable child who flipped out completely when her dad passed away. She did everything she could to sabotage her own life and education. By the time I called Dr. Closson she was going to be expelled for smoking, drinking and cutting class.
Dr. Closson said the district had made a mistake by not offering her federal protection for the disability of depression under the American’s with Disabilities Act. He invoked her 504 rights, stopped the progress of the expulsion and had Jessie returned to class. He was kind enough to offer Jessie some fatherly attention and get her on track in school.
That was two years ago. Jessie is now a in her last year of high school and will go on to college where she hopes to go into psychology and help students who need help. I think Dr. Closson had a lot to do with that as he told her that we are all here to look after one and other. Thank you Sir, I don’t know what we would have done without you.
We have changed the names of the aforementioned clients to protect their privacy. If you would like talk to some of our clients about their experience or outcome by utilizing Dr. Closson’s services, just let us know.