LRE vs. "We Don't do that here"

[Guest]

Any advice appreciated.  I'm going to simplify this because it's been a long ugly battle with our school. My dyslexic 9yo (NY) was declassified because we refused the IEP we were given. The only option they gave us was to move her to a different school for ICT. I believe this is retaliatory because we've known since 1st grade she is dyslexic and they refused to acknowledge us. My problem with this, besides obvious, is the teachers are no more credentialed than the OG she's getting via RTI. We asked she stay at her school with MS reading and they declined, said it's not a sped service so she doesn't need to be classified.  Told me to sign revoke consent or she wouldn't be allowed in the school.  IM NOT MAKING THIS UP, I WISH I WAS.  Is this acceptable to either A) pull a child from their home school based on diagnosis because the committee has decided that the only program for dyslexics is ICT which her school doesn't have (and we dont want) B) declassify and take away the IEP because the parents don't agree. I have filed ocr and state complaints which they chose not to investigate.

[EmilyM]

Is dyslexia the only issue of concern? I don't think NY recognizes it. But obviously that's no reason to ban your child from school.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Dyslexia is listed as a disorder under the definition of specific learning disability in the IDEA, so I don't know how NY doesn't recognize it.

I don't know what ICT or MS is, but pulling a child from their home school right off the bat for instruction appropriate for dyslexia is a violation of least restrictive environment.  They obviously have an OG program if they're using it for intervention, so I don't understand why they can't use that for special education.

To answer your questions:  A) No, this is not appropriate.  If they don't have a program for dyslexic students, they need to purchase one (and provide the requisite training for their teachers); B) No they can't "declassify" (if by "declassify" you mean take away eligibility) because you don't agree with the IEP.  They can only take away eligibility status if the data shows the child is no longer eligible.  However, I'm a little confused on the timing.  It sounds like you have already consented to services at some point (since they're asking you to revoke consent), so this must not be the initial IEP?  Is this a revision?  If so, was a meeting held?  Did you receive a PWN for items you did not agree to?

You may need to get an advocate or an attorney involved since your state complaints are not going anywhere.  Or from a practical standpoint, if you like the instruction your daughter is receiving via intervention and she is making progress, maybe you just continue with that until and if she starts not making sufficient progress.  Then you can start the IEP process again.  This is not to say that the school is right in what they are doing - just that if you can't force them to do the right thing, look at options you can live with for a while.  They are correct that you do not need special education status to receive reading intervention, but that does NOT mean that an IEP is not appropriate now or in the future.

 

[JSD24]

Just because a student has a medical diagnosis of dyslexia, it does not mean that they are sufficiently behind to qualify for an IEP when they enter school.  (At least this is what I've seen as the school's perspective.)  With no state education standards (in most states) for preschoolers, a student needs to be in 2nd grade before they can be 2 years behind which seems to be the benchmark to get an IEP.  This is why your child went to the neighborhood school up to now.

Schools are allowed to not have every program in every building.  (Teachers in different buildings might have to same training but the programming - what they do - is different.)  It looks like Integrated Co-Teaching is what the school has deemed 'appropriate' as far as IEP services go.  With this not being in the local school, they are wanting to place your child in a different building with all new classmates.  This definitely is allowed in IDEA.

I'm assuming that MS reading is a reading specialist who does Tier 2 & 3 RTI intervention at the neighborhood school.  This is general ed intervention and the evals the school did says she needs special ed.  This is why there is an offer of FAPE - IEP services the school says your child needs.

You have 2 options.  (1) You can sign the IEP and send your child to the building that has appropriate instruction for dyslexia.  I'm assuming they do something in addition to ICT like one of the O-G based IEP level interventions.  The IEP will come with progress monitoring which is not required with RTI.  (2) You can keep the status quo and have your child stay in gen ed with gen ed Tiered interventions.  Just because an eval exists and an offer of FAPE was made and turned down by the family should not mean that your child cannot continue to get RTI and stay in their neighborhood school.

From what I can tell, your school district is following special ed protocols with providing your child with an offer of FAPE which is probably why OCR & NY dept of Sp Ed is not following up with your complaints.

I wish the system worked differently.  You cannot have your cake & eat it too in this situation.  When I refused FAPE for my son, my district wanted a form from me that was signed in front of 2 witnesses before they would stop the speech therapy he was getting and not making progress with.  I wanted to take him to an outside therapist & didn't want him missing 20% of the class he was pulled from to get therapy - he struggled with missing class (and, my bad, we didn't have help in place so he was better able to make up the missed instruction given his ADHD).  My suggestion, if you really want option (2) is to see about getting your child outside O-G based tutoring so your child can get instruction at a level called for based on their disability.

An advocate or sp ed attorney might be able to help you reach a conclusion to the differences you and your school are having.  I know of a family where their youngest child (they have 5 kids) was identified as dyslexic.  FAPE, for him, was a placement in a private school ~45 minutes away by bus.  He would have liked to stay in district & go to the schools his siblings went to but then he wouldn't have been taught to read in the way he needed to learn.