Our MS student has been diagnosed with ADHD, major depression, and generalized anxiety. She became increasingly school avoidant over the course of this year. School staff counseled us to take a hands off approach, allowing her to miss her first three classes of the morning. (Electives and PE) Here we are seven months into the school year and she has attended only 40% of her classes.
She was not in special Ed in the fall term. finally finally finally, after five months off delays and 10 days of last minute testing, they determined that she was special ed and we have started the IEP process. We had our first meeting which started late and was interrupted so we have another one planned.
The district representative has said that the school avoidance is the family’s problem and the district has no obligation to help this child until she can get herself to school on time. I said that she has three diagnoses which contribute to her school avoidance and therefore it should be included in the IEP. They should not make her solving this problem a prerequisite to getting help. We don’t believe it’s appropriate for the district to be involved in how she gets to school but we feel that her school avoidance is at least 50% about what happens once she gets there and that the school has some responsibility to help address this.
we talked to a special Ed advocate, but she agrees that it is the family’s responsibility to solve the school avoidance. I’m wondering what other peoples experience is with this, does it seem reasonable for us to expect the school to help address this problem especially when they have enabled it for seven months?
What ideas/strategies can you suggest a school cd try, to help a middle school student who is school avoidant?
Also, Is it acceptable for the school district to expect families to sign a very rough/incomplete draft IEP they’ve never seen before, at the conclusion of a one hour meeting where they mostly talked in special ed speak? What are our options if we need more time?
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Our MS student has been diagnosed with ADHD, major depression, and generalized anxiety. She became increasingly school avoidant over the course of this year. School staff counseled us to take a hands off approach, allowing her to miss her first three classes of the morning. (Electives and PE) Here we are seven months into the school year and she has attended only 40% of her classes.
She was not in special Ed in the fall term. finally finally finally, after five months off delays and 10 days of last minute testing, they determined that she was special ed and we have started the IEP process. We had our first meeting which started late and was interrupted so we have another one planned.
The district representative has said that the school avoidance is the family’s problem and the district has no obligation to help this child until she can get herself to school on time. I said that she has three diagnoses which contribute to her school avoidance and therefore it should be included in the IEP. They should not make her solving this problem a prerequisite to getting help. We don’t believe it’s appropriate for the district to be involved in how she gets to school but we feel that her school avoidance is at least 50% about what happens once she gets there and that the school has some responsibility to help address this.
we talked to a special Ed advocate, but she agrees that it is the family’s responsibility to solve the school avoidance. I’m wondering what other peoples experience is with this, does it seem reasonable for us to expect the school to help address this problem especially when they have enabled it for seven months?
What ideas/strategies can you suggest a school cd try, to help a middle school student who is school avoidant?
Also, Is it acceptable for the school district to expect families to sign a very rough/incomplete draft IEP they’ve never seen before, at the conclusion of a one hour meeting where they mostly talked in special ed speak? What are our options if we need more time?
Thank you!
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