Teacher resigned, school digging heels in, refusal of proper FBA..etc, etc..

[Andrea S]

My son(5th gr) is in the Life Skills class at his middle school. He has escalations/ outbursts at least 2-4 times a day with most of them ending in being taken to the “blue”(padded) room. He has been considered a harm to himself and to others. Has been sent to the nurse on at least 3 occasions for concussion checks.. one was so bad that the nurse called me to come get him to take him to the Dr. for clearance.  

at the last IEP I asked that an FBA be conducted and they said we should “wait and see” and that they were already doing they’re own Behavior Plan. We have a IEP mtg to go over what they have put together /collected right before Christmas break. Along with OT sensory eval, and AAC/ AT eval. 

the teacher put in her resignation and her last day is Friday. She let me know she is leaving in large part due to her teaching values not lining up with the Schools administrations’. She was constantly shot down whenever she asked about having a 1:1 for him or for looking into a different placement. They always told her not an option. 
 

my ultimate question is.. why would they be digging their hills in so bad but at the same time doing all this “behavior plan / data collection” nonsense. Why wouldn’t they just do an FBA to begin with? They have a district BCBA on staff. 
Any and all advice welcome. 
thanks so much!

 

 

[JSD24]

Schools can do a behavior plan in gen ed w/o parent permission - it's like RTI/MTSS for an academic issue with a gen ed student.  What they seem to be doing is delaying doing a full sp ed FBA by doing this.  Just that USDOE has rules saying this isn't allowed.

Here's the letter stating that rule:  https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/osep11-07rtimemo.pdf

My best advice is to file a state complaint.  He doesn't have access to his education when he's in the seclusion room.  Also, these have been shown to cause trauma in students.

He's in 5th and doesn't have AAC?  I'd be frustrated and self-harming if I didn't have a way to communicate.  I'm so sorry to hear that this school doesn't seem to be providing FAPE to your child on so many different levels.

If your state has facilitated or moderated IEP meetings  - where someone from the state comes to the meeting - I'd try to put this into place for future IEP meetings.