Compensatory Services as a plan to address shortage of special education teachers.... is this even legal?

[SWeb]

I was googling compensatory services and came across Lisa's website where she said, "Bottom line is this. You, as the parent, have to initiate an action of some kind. And start the comp ed discussion. It is very unlikely that a school district is ever going to say, “Hey, we f*cked up. Here, have some comp ed for your trouble.” That sounded about right to me, but the weirdest thing happened at the end of last year though and my school system basically said exactly that  

What happened in a nutshell, was that the SLP had to go on medical leave midway through the year and they weren't able to find another SLP to replace her. Toward the end of the school year, I got an email that said:

Dear Parent/Guardian,

You are receiving this correspondence because you are the parent or guardian of a student who receives speech and language services at ****** Elementary School.  The ***** Speech Language Office has been working with ***** Elementary School since the start of the school year in order to support consistent services for students.  

Due to uplifting the schedules and services, an audit was conducted. Based on this audit, we discovered that your child should receive compensatory services for the number of missed sessions identified by the audit. Please attend to the attached Compensatory Education Recovery Services offer. The offer is available for use outside of the school day. 

Well that was surprising.... (This part may or may not be relevant: I replied trying to get more information and to get info about my other son. No reply. Called and left message, no reply. Got another letter for same first son that was the same but had the hours listed as 5 instead of the original 24. I emailed asking for clarification, no reply. I'm still in the midst of getting to the bottom of that.)

Today, before school has even started..I got an email:

Subject: Special Education Note to Parents

August 21, 2024 Dear Parent, Welcome back to school! We are excited for the upcoming school year and are looking forward to seeing everyone soon!   Your child's education is very important to us. We want to inform you that there are two teacher vacancies on our special education team that may impact the delivery of special education services for your child. It is our responsibility to ensure your child receives services aligned with their Individualized Education Program (IEP). A schedule for services and support to be provided has been developed. However, there may be some missed services due to the current special education teacher vacancy.  We must address any missed services due to the special education teacher vacancy. At the end of each quarter, a review of any missed services and your child's progress will be reviewed. At that time, a plan for making up missed services that may include compensatory services will be developed.

I'm furious of course because the school system is shirking its responsibilities onto the parents so I will need to figure out how to fit 2 kids' SLP and OT hours into our schedule outside of the school day.

Unrelated to myself personally, this seems like a very slippery slope to me.... Having been a teacher at a Title I School, I've seen kids struggle with a speech issue because we couldn't get the parents to even come in for a meeting. School is supposed to be the safety net to catch those kids falling through the cracks... vision, dental, vaccines, hearing clinics abound and a steady source of food. I'm sure many families are going to get their compensatory services letter, and not have a clue what to do with it and their kid will not get needed services.

Bottom line, IS THIS LEGAL??  We do work with an advocate, but do I need to look into a lawyer as well?

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[Carolyn Rowlett]

I would advise first calling your state department of education (special education department) and asking what they think.  You don't want to start a fight or pay for legal expenses if you don't have back up from the state.  States have been very lenient toward school districts during this special education teacher shortage.

One thing I would ask for personally is if the offer could be used DURING the school day.  School districts contract with outside providers all the time and provide services during the school day - sometimes via Zoom.  See if you could work something out.

We do not provide legal advise on this site, but a couple of things jumped out at me.  First, they are referring to it as an "offer."  Does this mean if the parent can't arrange for services to be provided outside of school that the school district is off the hook because the parent "rejected" the offer?  That doesn't sound right.  (Not to mention that transportation should probably be "offered," as well.)  Second, you make a good point about other parents who don't have the resources or aren't savvy enough to understand this "offer."  Is the school district going to follow up with all parents to confirm that minutes were actually provided?  After all, the school district is the entity that owes the child the minutes and has to show proof that they were provided.  (Another question to ask the state.)

As far as the school district's failure to respond to your communication, first, I would not call.  That leaves no trail of your attempts.  Second, when you do not receive a timely response from the person you emailed, go up the chain of command - principal, special education director, superintendent, school board.  You might also consider attending a school board meeting and asking your questions - preferable getting other parents similarly situated to attend.

[JSD24]

If they are advertising an opening & have no applicants, they are doing all they can to provide FAPE so they are in compliance with special ed.

Audits & reviews are one way schools are found to be out of compliance with special ed.  They are supposed to police themself but this doesn't tend to work.  Not enough staff with the DOE for audits to find all of this.

Not sure why they would change the hours.  (I've also seen where audits missed things and this resulted in corrections to what was initially determined.)  There could have been sessions that happened that were not noted at the time of the 1st letter.