School Issues with SLD/ Dyslexia IEP

[D.W.]

First of all. Thank you for this platform. I don't use Facebook and I just deleted my Twitter. I don't get to connect with other parents

We had to go through the SST "wait and see" then "wait to fail" approach. It took me and my husband is figure out the issue is dyslexia

Last Monday we had an incident with the teacher and my daughter. The school said it was an accident. My daughter is in kindergarten and said it was on purpose. Either way the teacher pushed my daughter, she hit a shelf, and got a swollen knee and the other bruised. Her counselor suggested we request a classroom change. We've been told no. 

We're not on a communication plan. Yet the school is making one person our point of contact through email. Email only. This incident and other past incidents we never get a phone call. The school acts as if this is normal. 

We've requested an in-county school change... Still waiting on a response... The person we thought was our lea is now saying they are the mediator for communication... so we don't know if they are still our lea or if someone else is

We're in Georgia... I've tried to find out if sb48 has been useful in IEP meetings or if we have to wait for 2024 to see a change. No answers from parent to parent or the ga doe.

Thankfully my daughter is getting Lindamood-bell instruction and we've seen progress but we keep mentioning we're concerned about her safety in school and we're getting dismissed. 

The school keeps saying I send too many emails and that they're too long in length. I sent 3. I only sent more than one because they didn't respond. I feel like I'm going crazy. 

Has anyone else had success? Or will nothing change until it comes to due process or a lawsuit? 

[Backroads]

I don't know if this is quite lawsuit territory, but if you believe it was on purpose, could you report this to law enforcement as assault? I know that's a huge and scary leap with a lot of risks, but it would bypass the runaround from the school and be a step before a lawsuit.

[JSD24]

With all the times my kids got hurt at school, I would get a call from the school nurse.  IMO, the school needs to be proactive with letting parents know when a child gets hurt so they can continue to monitor the situation.  In loco parentis and parents need to work together for continuity of care.

I'm sort of shocked that your kindergartener has an IEP and is identified with dyslexia.  I'm working with a mom whose child is very far behind & in 3rd grade & not making progress because none of the teachers are trained to provide remedial instruction with dyslexia.

As Lisa would say:  Is this the hill you want to die on?  (Would the other school have a teacher who can remediate the dyslexia?)  Generally, the LEA is the school district you or your landlord pay school taxes to if your child is attending traditional public school.  If your child goes to a public charter school, they are the LEA.

[D.W.]

6 hours ago, JSD24 said:

With all the times my kids got hurt at school, I would get a call from the school nurse.  IMO, the school needs to be proactive with letting parents know when a child gets hurt so they can continue to monitor the situation.  In loco parentis and parents need to work together for continuity of care.

I'm sort of shocked that your kindergartener has an IEP and is identified with dyslexia.  I'm working with a mom whose child is very far behind & in 3rd grade & not making progress because none of the teachers are trained to provide remedial instruction with dyslexia.

As Lisa would say:  Is this the hill you want to die on?  (Would the other school have a teacher who can remediate the dyslexia?)  Generally, the LEA is the school district you or your landlord pay school taxes to if your child is attending traditional public school.  If your child goes to a public charter school, they are the LEA.

Thank you! I heard from another parent one year her son got punched in the face.  Loose teeth. Still no phone call

I agree I didn't think it would get this far. I'd highly recommend cox campus science of reading based courses. It's helping me remediate my daughter and the school has Heggerty products, the teachers just aren't enthusiastic about it. Made by Dyslexia Microsoft learning course is helpful too. 

I was told all the "wait and see" stuff and I did as much enrichment I knew how to do from my memory of gifted education. They told me last year a full evaluation would find exactly what was going on. They didn't test any phonemic awareness or orthographics. They claimed dyslexia could only be identified in 3rd grade. Which is an outdated myth. 

Sorry, I meant the lea Rep as in the person who should actually lead an IEP team. I honestly don't know if these people are ignorant or gaslighting me. They keep saying they didn't know what mediation was... Yet it's the the parent rights paper they gave me.

I understand I have to pick my battles, but I feel like schools do this gatekeeping/ stonewall dance to expect parents to pull out and go to private school or homeschool.  

I'm a tax payer. So I don't understand how the school board can just let this happen when it's costly for everyone. A kid who can benefit from early identification is way less expensive than an older child that needs expensive remediation. 

I just don't get how it's 2022 and my state is still following the discrepancy method when IDEA put out guidelines in 2004 saying that's not the best practice.

[D.W.]

7 hours ago, Backroads said:

I don't know if this is quite lawsuit territory, but if you believe it was on purpose, could you report this to law enforcement as assault? I know that's a huge and scary leap with a lot of risks, but it would bypass the runaround from the school and be a step before a lawsuit.

Hard part is proving intent. I'm trying to get a school change, if not mediation

[D.W.]

On 11/2/2022 at 3:53 PM, D.W. said:

First of all. Thank you for this platform. I don't use Facebook and I just deleted my Twitter. I don't get to connect with other parents

We had to go through the SST "wait and see" then "wait to fail" approach. It took me and my husband is figure out the issue is dyslexia

Last Monday we had an incident with the teacher and my daughter. The school said it was an accident. My daughter is in kindergarten and said it was on purpose. Either way the teacher pushed my daughter, she hit a shelf, and got a swollen knee and the other bruised. Her counselor suggested we request a classroom change. We've been told no. 

We're not on a communication plan. Yet the school is making one person our point of contact through email. Email only. This incident and other past incidents we never get a phone call. The school acts as if this is normal. 

We've requested an in-county school change... Still waiting on a response... The person we thought was our lea is now saying they are the mediator for communication... so we don't know if they are still our lea or if someone else is

We're in Georgia... I've tried to find out if sb48 has been useful in IEP meetings or if we have to wait for 2024 to see a change. No answers from parent to parent or the ga doe.

Thankfully my daughter is getting Lindamood-bell instruction and we've seen progress but we keep mentioning we're concerned about her safety in school and we're getting dismissed. 

The school keeps saying I send too many emails and that they're too long in length. I sent 3. I only sent more than one because they didn't respond. I feel like I'm going crazy. 

Has anyone else had success? Or will nothing change until it comes to due process or a lawsuit? 

Update: we were told no on school change.

[HighSchoolParent]

On 11/2/2022 at 11:27 PM, D.W. said:

I understand I have to pick my battles, but I feel like schools do this gatekeeping/ stonewall dance to expect parents to pull out and go to private school or homeschool.  

 

I don't have an answer to your initial question, but this line stood out for me. I am also in a school district that stonewalls in hopes parents move or homeschool. The consequences on individual children is harsh, and the consequences on a district is equally harsh. Imagine what a middle school class is like when 15% of the kids cannot access the curriculum and there's no support for them, or need a behavior plan but don't have one? If your current school district is truly like this and if it is going to be a battle just to get basic services, I'd seriously consider moving if you can. Otherwise you are looking at 12+ years of constantly picking battles and struggling to get an adequate education.

[JSD24]

Sp ed is often like a game of chess where you see how the school moves their chess piece and then decide on your next move.  Since the school failed to evaluate what you saw as an area of need (phonemic awareness or orthographics), your next move would be to request an IEE so there are evals showing the needs of your child.  I've seen that children as young as 5.5 being identified as dyslexic and as we know, the earlier the diagnosis & remediation, the better the outcome.  With dyslexia, there are a lot of resources:  The Reading League, The International Dyslexia Association, Decoding Dyslexia, and The Scottish Rite are a few.  I would also contact your P&A group as well as https://thegao.org/.  Reading should not be a skill that only children of parents who can afford a lawyer or tutor master in the public school.  It's when parents like yourself use the system and case law comes about that we will see schools step up and put programs in place to Child Find and remediate all students.  (And yes, you are being gaslighted.  Any school that says you need to wait until 3rd grade to identify dyslexia is setting up the 15% or so of dyslexic students to fail to learn to read.)  I'm also not aware of AI programs that remediate dyslexia like a properly trained teacher can.