Declining progress on progress monitoring RTI

[JennaTN]

I Just received the progress monitoring report for this school year so far. Yes, in March. My son was doing poorly but showing minimal growth up until early Jan when the IEP team decided to move his intervention to the self contained yes class for one on one intervention with that teacher. Since then, oral reading fluency, word recognition, and math computation has declined significantly. I requested a change, but the team does not agree with me that there is a problem. He is the 2nd grade, failing at 1st grade intervention in both reading and math. Since everything is data based, shouldn't this data show them that the intervention is not working?! What do I do?

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Were you involved in the "IEP team" decision to move his intervention?  You should have been.  Where was the intervention happening previously?  What was the reason for the change - to try to get more than "minimal growth?"  Or did it have something to do with the school's staffing or scheduling?

If the progress monitoring data shows growth up until the change in placement and decline after that for an entire quarter, this should be enough data.  Did you make the request in an email?  Maybe you need to request an IEP  meeting so you can ask them point blank:  How can you say there isn't a problem when YOUR data is showing a decline since the change in placement?  How long does he have to show decline before it's considered a problem?  If they still refuse, ask for a Prior Written Notice to be sent to you after the meeting specifying the denied request and reasons for the denial.

Other steps you could consider are getting an advocate and sending an email to the special education director with your concerns.  And make sure from now on that you receive progress monitoring on a quarterly basis (I assume that is in the IEP).  Also, keep in mind that the growth he makes should be more than his peers in order to close the gap (i.e., if he only makes a year's worth of progress in a year, as his peers are as well, he will never close the gap).  If he isn't making sufficient growth, the IEP isn't working and needs to be revised.

[JennaTN]

Yes I was involved in the team decision. I will admit I was not as informed last when this change was made. I was under the silly impression that they were doing what was in the best interest of my child. I now realize that they just didn't want to deal with him and how much support he needs. The progress monitoring showed very minimal growth from Aug-Dec, had IEP meeting Jan 7th. He was getting small group intervention with the interventionist.  They said he would be better suited with the special education classroom so he could have the one on one intervention with the teacher. I thought wow yeah that sounds great. We have an IEP meeting set for next Tuesday to discuss this. And they won't discuss anything until then, which I understand. 

I sent the director of sped for the district a letter stating all of my concerns today.

I attached his progress monitoring sheet so you can see. My biggest concern overall is that he is in a general education class for 2nd grade, gets pulled out for 2 hours for remedial intervention and misses 2nd grade curriculum instruction, yet he is tested on 2nd grade work as well as takes the benchmark testing at the 2nd grade level as well as TCAP. So now we are in March, we have zero knowledge at 2nd grade level, barely any of first grade. He is supposed to be getting accommodations, but I'm not sure they are being implemented properly. It's appalling to me that the whole team knows this and has the same dang data I do, yet they are okay with how things are currently going. I have tried to find an advocate, I can't find one, so I have been researching all I can do advocate for myself. I have a lawyer but have no utilized her in this process as of yet. 

Edited Wednesday at 02:12 AM by JennaTN

[Carolyn Rowlett]

There is a lot going on here and hard to advise without more info.  Could you possibly call me at 816-547-5467?  I am an advocate that works in Missouri and Kansas and sometimes other states.  This would be outside of A Day in Our Shoes.  It would be me as an advocate giving you my free one hour consultation.

[JennaTN]

Yes, that would be amazing! What time would work best?

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Text me and we'll schedule something offline.