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would PWN help in anyway when school is trying to kick us out?


charcola

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My child is an alternate curriculum student receiving inclusion support in a jr. high in California. Alternate curriculum students normally have 2 options: either be in a general ed. full time with 3-5hrs/week of inclusion support OR be in a autism alternate class (the only alternate curriculum class offered in SDC in CA). However, we were able to request to be in our own blended program (SLD class (mild to moderate SDC) for 4 core academic subjects + gen ed for electives & PE) the 1st year in jr. high to take advantage of smaller/slower SLD class for  easier academics.  However, at a recent IEP, the school offered us an 'autism alternate class' instead of SLD and asked us to move to a different school for the following reasons:

1) SLD is a core curriculum class and generally does not accept 'alternate curriculum' student whose academic level is a lot lower than their 'core' students.

2) due to low academic level, my child needs more modification but SLD teacher seems to be burned out doing so, and inclusion support teacher who is supposed to provide these modifications is not allowed to support us in SDC as she is also a special ed teacher and it would be considered a 'double-dipping' (having 2 special ed teachers in 1 class), so this puts a lot of pressure/burden on SLD teacher.

3) My child has missed many classes this year and had some elopement/yelling behaviors outside of classroom due to anxiety and clashing with 1:1 aide; school says this is disruptive and causes safety concerns

4) Because of such low academics, and even lower functional living skills, the child should focus on living skills moreso than academics in autism alternate class, not in SLD, to prep transition into adulthood.

(my take)..while much of these are understandable, I still feel current placement is the best placement for my child as full time gen ed. will be too overwhelming for her, and yet, autism alternate class lacks appropriate social opportunities / good peer models / and has too many behaviors that my child would often imitate on or get distracted on. Academics is not our priority, but social interaction and having peer models to look up to in a typical class environment are our priorities, and we've taken steps to help reduce my child's anxiety (through med, change of 1:1 aide, front-loading of class material, etc) and already saw an improvement in her behavior so I feel we should be given another chance to do better, especially now that my child is better warmed up to the school during this 1st year in jr. high... rather than being sent away to a new school/program.

IEP just finished & I was given a copy to sign on with this offer we don't agree to. I'm not sure how to go about this issue.. and was wondering if PWN would help us in this case in anyway.

Any thoughts or advice would truly be appreciated.

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It sounds like CA is different from where I am (PA).  We get an IEP & we also get a NOREP (which is PWN) and it's the NOREP/PWN that parents sign.

I found this on CA & PWN:  https://serr.disabilityrightsca.org/serr-manual/chapter-4-information-on-iep-process/4-17-what-is-prior-written-notice-pwn/

It looks like you'd need to request a change of placement & have the school say no in order for PWN to be of use.  What you really want is 'stay put'/no change the the current IEP or placement.  I believe in CA, parents hold the cards with moving the IEP process forward because you need to sign that you are OK with the IEP for the new IEP to be implemented.  I'm not exactly sure how the process works but my feeling is that you should write a parent concerns letter.  You want your child to stay where they are because you just changed up support and you don't feel things have been in place long enough to say it's not working and your child should change schools.

I'm hoping someone with a better handle on how things work in CA answers this too.

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I am in California.  If you agree with services but not with placement, there should be a box you can check saying I agree with all parts of the IEP except, and then you can write in your statement. You can write a letter stating your concerns and request it be attached to the IEP.  They can not move her to another placement unless you agree.

Edited by Alisaadvocates
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