Retaliation against parent who is school employee

[AutismMomma711]

My son has level 3 autism and is functionally non-verbal. I discovered over the summer that the SLP and Sped teacher basically stopped providing my son's services right before spring break. I have documented proof that he missed 15 hours of speech therapy. I don't have any physical proof about the missed SPED pull outs, but my son's general ed teacher and his para have both told me that he missed a significant amount of SPED last school year. We had an IEP meeting to request compensatory education, and the school agreed to that. I brought along my father-in-law (an attorney who is not in practice) and my son's former ABA consultant. My husband is an administrator in another building in the district. Three days after the meeting, the superintendent of the district attempted to reprimand my husband for "bringing a lawyer" to the meeting and told him they would have had counsel at the meeting if they had known we were bringing a lawyer. My father-in-law has participated in meetings with us before and he was there as a grandfather and not as an attorney. I know my rights and that I can bring whomever I choose that has special knowledge of my child. What can I do about this retaliation? Ethics complaints? Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

My advice is to not do anything.  First, because I don't think it would accomplish anything  The one thing you have to focus on during this procedure is "will this action benefit my child?"  If not, then it is probably not worth pursuing and your energy would be best spent elsewhere.  It sounds like you got what you wanted (compensatory services) - I wouldn't "poke the bear" unnecessarily.

Second, let's say regardless of whether it helps your child, you still what to pursue something because of your husband.  Perfectly understandable.  However, I don't think this would accomplish anything in that regard, either.  Was there a harm (which a claim of retaliation requires)?  Your child got what he needed.  And unless your husband was demoted, experienced a salary decrease, or is being treated differently in some way (provable and that causes harm) by the school district as a direct result of bringing his father-in-law to the meeting, there is no retaliation.  You would only accomplish ticking off the school district again, which wouldn't do your son or your husband any good.

Third, when an attorney attends a meeting, regardless of the relationship to the child (and regardless of retired status - I'm guessing he doesn't leave his attorney hat at the door when he discusses this situation with you), it's hard to distinguish between the two.  Since the Department of Education has highly recommended that parents inform school districts if they are bringing an attorney, if you were to pursue this issue, it would likely be found that the school district was within their right to tell your husband that they need knowledge of this so that they can bring their own counsel.

Fourth, when you say "ethics complaint," do you mean with the school district itself?  That will be very hard to do against the superintendent, especially with the reasons I've outlined above.  And a complaint via another avenue such as OCR, etc., will not go very far with these facts.

Sorry that this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's probably what you need to hear in order to keep actual retaliation toward your son from occurring.  Even actual, harmful retaliation is something that is very hard to prove, so you just need to avoid pushing the school district to that point if at all possible.

[JSD24]

So this was the 7th (or so) meeting grandpa attended and this is the 1st time the district is saying anything about this.  IMO, it might be where your husband questions:  When he attended meetings in the past, his former occupation was not mentioned as an issue.  Why is this an issue now?  Given that I am not in a position to attend my child's IEP meetings, I've had my dad attend in my place.  He knows my child, his grandson, and attended the IEP meeting as a family member.  This is what IDEA says about who can attend IEP meetings:  (vi) at the discretion of the parent or the agency, other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child, including related services personnel as appropriate

Would the school be willing to schedule meetings at a time where your husband can attend?  (If your FIL worked as a special ed attorney, I could see the school complaining.)  I feel it is reasonable for grandparents to come to a meeting - especially if dad can't be there.

I'm in PA & we have a consult like we can call with questions like this.  Other states have disability rights groups or The Arc as well as Parent Centers who can help with questions like this.  It might make sense to file a state complaint or it might make more sense to drop the issue depending on if real retaliation takes place - you don't want to escalate this if it might make things more difficult for your husband.  Are they going to transfer your husband to a school that's 20 minutes farther from your home?  Not provide comp ed for missed sessions?  This would be retaliation IMO.

In my area, there was a practicing special ed lawyer who had a child with an IEP.  I'd be curious if the school attorney attended these meeting.  It does change the tone of the meeting when legal council is present.

Carolyn's reply posted as I was composing my reply.  I agree with her:  It might be that your husband, as a school administrator, should have been aware of the 'rule' that you should be letting the school know when a lawyer attends an IEP meeting even if they are not wearing their 'legal council' hat but their grandpa/family member hat.

[AutismMomma711]

I see what yall are saying, but this is not the first meeting that my father-in-law has attended. He has been with me to multiple meetings. He is not a practicing attorney. He works at a bank. Everyone at the meeting with me has been before, and it has never been an issue up until this point when I found out the school stopped providing services. Now, my husband is being treated differently in his job and they are threatening his job. 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

It really doesn't matter in the eyes of the school district whether he's retired, never practiced special education law, etc.  He's an attorney and like you, the school district has a right to be informed and to bring who they want (within limits, of course, but bringing their attorney because a parent has an attorney with them is reasonable).

They may be treating the situation differently because you caught them doing something wrong and now they're scared.  But that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it.  Just because they didn't assert this right in the past doesn't mean they can't now.

How is your husband being treated differently and how are they threatening his job?  The facts you presented in your first post were not enough, but if there are more facts that support these two accusation, you might need to consider action.  But unless it's very serious, in the best interest of both your son and your husband, you need to seriously think about taking further action.  I know it sucks; I get it.  But it could be worse.  And you'd be fighting Goliath, which is a difficult, exhausting, and expensive battle.  Unless there is a real concern that your husband will loose his job or his work environment is unsustainable, your energies are best spent in getting your son what he is entitled to.