What should I do if school refuses requested services when there is documentation to back it up?

[Suzanne]

I attached a copy of the parent concerns letter that we will be sending to my grand-daughter's IEP team over the weekend. We are asking for a 1 on 1 paraprofessional educator and a few other things in the letter. The school she attends is known for not being receptive to parents requests for their special needs children. If during the IEP meeting, they say something to the affect of "My child is diagnosed with ASD and ADHD, and therefore she will take too much time meeting the requirements to graduate kindergarten and further grades." I want to be able to reply to that intelligently, rather than out of anger. Our fear is they will say we are asking too much and try to get out of most of it or throw in the towel or who knows what.

I have read tons & tons of the info on your blog and links posted in your blog. And still learning, which I suspect is what I will be doing for years to come. I totally understand "a knowledge base/skillset I wish I didn't have to have".

I think I may need to be more specific on what we want the paraprofessional educator to do. Could really use some insight on that and anything else that jumps out.

2023-08-02-ParentConcernsLetter.docx

[Jenna]

Sorry I can't open the attachment, but Lisa has a post on parent concerns letters, including samples and many helpful tips at https://adayinourshoes.com/parent-concerns-on-the-iep-parent-letter-of-attachment/. Is there an IEP meeting already scheduled, or did you request an IEP meeting in the letter? Be sure to include data from private providers, preschool, community activities, etc.  to support your requests. Good luck.

[JSD24]

What are the credentials of the person providing the documentation who told you your child needed a 1:1 at school?  I'm also not sure how she will catch up to classmates if she only attends school in the morning.  Was she offered ESY during the summer given the delays you list in your letter?

In my area, parents can red shirt their kids and enroll them in K at age 6.  I've seen this with students with IEPs as well as gen ed students.  I'm assuming this is what you want where the school feels she can go from preschool into 1st grade.  Did the school do a K readiness assessment?  IMO, this is what's needed to place your child into K rather than 1st grade.

When a parent makes a request on how something should be handled with their child with special needs, they should be prepared with data from a professional to backup the request.  Asking for half day school because your child has daily ABA therapy from noon to 4 isn't something I'd tell a parent to do.  Can the school provide an ABA therapist to help in the classroom?  This might be a good compromise.

I read your other question Posted Thursday at 02:57 PM and it's pretty much the same as what you asked here so I'm only answering here.

[Suzanne]

In this situation, she has already completed 1 full year of half day kindergarten with ABA therapy in the afternoons. She continues to do exceedingly well in ABA Therapy at the clinic. What she gets and learns at the clinic, FAR EXCEEDS the majority of what she gets from school. If we take her out of the clinic and send her to school for a full day, the amount of ABA therapy she will get every day will be cut in half or more. Not to mention the credentials of the 2 possible ABA therapists available at the school have not received any praise from any of the parents of children who have received ABA therapy from them. In every case, the parents had to seek additional ABA therapy outside of the school environment. So our motivation for using the School ABA Therapists in lieu of clinic she currently attends is not choice in her best interests.

I have never heard of a kindergarten readiness assessment, so I'm guessing that was not done in between preK and kindergarten. As for an IMO, I don't know what that is.

The school she attends is NEVER going to just "Offer" an extended school year for any special needs child. Like a 1:1, there will have to be a lot of documentation accumulated and used to argue for it.

As for the documentation I am using to ask for a 1:1, it comes from her teacher's assessments, the OT's evaluations, and other documentation collected by the school during the past year. Not to mention, our consistent ask for this since the end of her preK class (April 2022).  

[JSD24]

I didn't realize that the request is to retain the child in K.  There is data that retention doesn't help.  Students who are retained tend to drop out where they don't graduate HS.  My school has a policy on this and the decision is made over time starting around February with trying to provide additional instruction to catch up a student who is failing.  It's hard for parents to overrule a schools decision to promote a student.  What might make more sense would be to homeschool so there is flexibility in the schedule to do ABA if this is what's helping the most.  ABA can work on some of the academic areas this child is behind in.  With missing 50% of the school day as well as being academically behind, placing a child into 1st grade doesn't make sense.  With missing this much school, a lack of academic progress will be blamed on lack of attendance.  Depending on state laws on absences, truancy might be where the half days lead.  You need to do some homework to see what the law in your state is on this.  I've seen parents get in trouble with weekly therapy & a child missing an hour of school each week.   (What happens a year from now?  Will this child be ready for 1st grade by then?)

I'm pretty sure that IDEA requires all students with an IEP to be considered for Extended School Year.  My kids had IEPs and it was discussed at their IEP meetings - my daughter always qualified because she was so far behind from where she should have been.  Some states require students to regress over the summer to qualify where in K, there is no track record so the school can't anticipate regression.  (With a student that had an IEP in pre-K there should be info on summer regression.)

If you do homeschool for this year, the current IEP will lapse and a new eval would need to be done before a new IEP could be written.  My suggestion is to request an IEP eval in Feb or Mar the year you plan to have the child return to public school.  This allows time for the eval & meetings so an IEP can be in place on the 1st day of school.

IMO is shorthand for in my opinion.  I'm curious what state you are in.  There are some that are a lot harder to get sp ed services in.  This sounds like one of them.

[Lisa Lightner]

There are tips in here on how to make sure that a para on an IEP is meaningful. (I see too many just there as babysitters)

https://adayinourshoes.com/one-on-one-aide-paraprofessional-iep-special-education/