Educational Consulting and Forensic Services

Families sometimes question whether the special education or other services that their child receives are appropriate. In these cases, families often turn to ORL and ask us to evaluate those services.  After the evaluation we then render our opinion about how those services might be augmented or improved.

Some children without Autism may have significant difficulty in the academic areas of reading, writing, or math.  While most behavior analysts do not have extensive training or experience in improving academic skills, several of ORL’s staff members are not only behavior analysts, but also have specialized training in academic intervention.  When public schools are unable, despite their best efforts, they often turn to ORL to guide students’ academic intervention.

When families want to try and answer the question, “What are my child’s skills and how does my child compare to other children?” they often turn to ORL to help find an answer.  ORL can come in, get to know your cild and family, and then assess the child across any areas of concern or importance.  These areas include language skills, social skills, skills associated with daily living, cognitive skills, and academic skills.  Once ORL completes the assessment process, our staff will write a comprehensive report that explains the results of the assessment.  We also give families and educational staff concrete recommendations for how to address any weaknesses areas uncovered through the process.

Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA’s) help us understand why someone misbehaves.  When family members want to know how to improve the problem behavior of their child with a disability, ORL can help.  We do this by completing an FBA and then designing behavior support systems that will help reduce or eliminate the problem behavior.

Sometimes families question whether the special education services that their child receive are appropriate or as comprehensive or robust as they need to be.  ORL’s experts are available to help evaluate you child’s IEP.  This will help you know whether and how it can be improved. Our staff members will even attend your child’s IEP meetings and act as active member of the team advocating for what your child needs.

Sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts families and school districts just can’t resolve disagreements without turning to a third party such as a mediator or an Administrative Law Judge.  When this happens, ORL can work with you and your attorney to provide fact and expert witness testimony to help families achieve the outcomes they want to achieve for their child.