Is it illegal to deny a child contact with a parent?

[LisaS]

Hi,

My son was being interrogated by the school Dean (disciplinarian) and he repeatedly asked for me to be called. He refused to talk at first but the man told my autistic (and demand avoidant) “you aren’t in control here.”
 

First, the school official and a recess teacher didn’t follow my son’s behavior plan IEP.

But can they deny him contact with me in a stressful situation. That is not in the IEP.

Thank you for any help. I find the forums really helpful.

[JSD24]

At school, the school staff are in loco parentis.  This means that the student's parent-parent shouldn't be needed in school because other adults can fill the role.  So to answer your question: yes, they can deny him the ability to call you.  The thing is when your child is neurodiverse, they might not deal well with a substitute, in loco parentis.  Since this seems to be the case with your child, I'd request a no-meet IEP revision where his need for you to be called in situations like this are accommodated as part of his IEP (or 504).

Non-compliance with the IEP isn't allowed.  I'd go up the chain of command on that (you can also file a state complaint:  https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Special Education/Complaints/Pages/default.aspx).  What I've found is, in the name of FERPA, everyone isn't going to have access to the IEP and the PBSP in it.  The thing is that everyone (school officials & recess teachers included) needs to follow the IEP.  Being that omniscence isn't a job requirement for working at a school, I'm not sure how this happens.  It might be a good question for the school:  Do the school official & recess teacher know what's in my child's PBSP?  It seems like the protocol to prevent my child from getting escalated to the point he needed to be interrogated by the dean wasn't followed.  What needs to happen so the PBSP can be followed 100% of the time he's at school?

I hope your son recovers from this incident where he develop other behaviors so this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

[LisaS]

Thank you. He doesn’t want to be in this situation and tries his best. 

[JSD24]

15 hours ago, LisaS said:

Thank you. He doesn’t want to be in this situation and tries his best. 

The school needs to follow the IEP/PBSP.  If they are following it and something like this happens, the PBSP might need to be tweaked.  If they are not following the IEP/PBSP then they are out of compliance with the IEP.  The school can't just 'try their best'.  They have to follow the IEP.

I remember my sp ed director saying there were no excuses for an IEP not being followed.  I agree with this 100%.