District will not hold IEP meeting

[kalei_83]

Hello

The district I live in, but not the district my child is enrolled in, will not move forward with an IEP meeting.  We did a Zoom call under the impression that it was the IEP meeting.  When we went to it, they said that they will not have the official IEP meeting until our child is enrolled in their school.  We did not get a report or assessment, IEP draft nothing.  This does not seem right.  Even if our son does not go to a school in the district, aren't they legally obligated to fulfill the IEP meeting and do a report/assessment themselves?

My son is in a private school and the district there did the assessment and stated he has a disability and qualifies for services.  They sent their report to the district we live in but we have had no progress with them. 

I want to file a complaint with the state because I believe our district is violating my sons' rights.   

 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

My answer is going with the assumption that you voluntarily placed your child in the private school and it was not an out-of-district placement agreed upon by an IEP team in your home district.  If that is not the case, please reach out again because my answer would likely be different.  There may also be a difference if your child was found eligible prior to or after placement in the private school.

When a child is enrolled in a private school, it is the responsibility of the district in which the private school is located to conduct evaluations, determining eligibility, and developing a plan for special education services.  Also, it will most likely not be called an IEP, but rather a "services plan."  You do not have the same rights to special education in a private school setting that you have in a public school.  Funds are allocated to public school districts for providing special education services in private schools in their district, but they have a lot of flexibility in how they spend those funds.  Any meeting you have with the school district to develop the plan should include a representative from the private school.

I would suggest reaching out to your state department of education for specific guidelines in your state. 

[kalei_83]

Thank you for this information.  We placed him in a private school that he has been in since preschool.  He will be going to public school starting next year so he will need an IEP in place for that, but we would like one outlined so the private school he is at now, can have a plan for him with goals.  The district that the private school is in has handled all the evaluations and assessments.  They sent their findings to the district that we live in.  They asked where he goes to school and said since he isn't in their district they cannot move forward.  That does not seem right.  They did not do anything with the assessment.  

[JSD24]

Things like this don't work the same way in every state.  I know that in Delaware, the school district the private school is in does the eval & writes the IEP.  Pennsylvania works differently.  The district you live in does the eval & the IEP no matter where the private school is located.  (I didn't realize there was a scenario where one district would do the eval & another would write the IEP.)

I have also seen where 'enrolled' means that you show the school that you live in the district because they will only write an IEP for families who pay school taxes to them.  Enroll does not mean attend in this situation.

What you might want to do is verify with the school what the process is to get an IEP written so a private school can use it as the framework to provide a service plan to the student.  Also, my advice is to communicate via email so you have a paper trail of what's going on.  If they do call you, write an email summarizing the call to verify what was said.  If you do file a state complaint, they will want evidence of what happened.  You'll be able to copy the email to show this.

I feel you need to do a bit of follow up with the school that received the evals - to see if a step in the process was missed - before you move forward with a state complaint.  I've seen where not everyone is aware of the nuances of all situations.  I'd make sure the pupil services director/head of special ed as well as a special ed supervisor gets copied on email correspondence when you ask your questions.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Call your state department of education (special education department).  A quick phone call could let you if you're being told the correct information (one school district does the evals and another does the IEP).  If that is, in fact, the case in your state, I agree with JSD above that you need to do more follow up and loop in more people before filing a state complaint.

[JSD24]

7 hours ago, Carolyn Rowlett said:

Call your state department of education (special education department).  A quick phone call could let you if you're being told the correct information (one school district does the evals and another does the IEP).

DOE or parent training center?  I'm not sure if every state has a hotline to the DOE for these types of questions but I do know there is a parent training agency set up in every state.

If the poster mentioned which state they are in, it's easier to come up with state-specific answers.