Leaderboard

Not reasonable IMO. Schools have an IEP team. The team serves the student. Communication, in theory at least, can start with any team member. Services should be performed by whomever has the expertise to deliver the service. You might be great with teaching dyslexic students and so-so with teaching social skills. Makes sense that you do small group reading instruction for students who are part of your caseload as well as students assigned to other case managers and another teacher who has expertise in social skills teach groups who need that no matter who is the case manager. There are other sp ed services where teacher credentials aren't enough - like doing a sp ed evaluation. The rule is that these are personnel issues and the school gets to decide which employees do which tasks. I feel you'll get in trouble with complying with this family's wishes. Also, what happens if you get sick & take time off? The IEP still needs to be followed. I'd want the family to waive FAPE in the event you are not available to provide services (there's a new wave of COVID circulating). You don't want to expose the school to a lawsuit if you aren't available to provide services to this student. In my district, the sp ed supervisor would speak to the school's solicitor to see if this can be done.

At school, the school staff are in loco parentis. This means that the student's parent-parent shouldn't be needed in school because other adults can fill the role. So to answer your question: yes, they can deny him the ability to call you. The thing is when your child is neurodiverse, they might not deal well with a substitute, in loco parentis. Since this seems to be the case with your child, I'd request a no-meet IEP revision where his need for you to be called in situations like this are accommodated as part of his IEP (or 504). Non-compliance with the IEP isn't allowed. I'd go up the chain of command on that (you can also file a state complaint: https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Special Education/Complaints/Pages/default.aspx). What I've found is, in the name of FERPA, everyone isn't going to have access to the IEP and the PBSP in it. The thing is that everyone (school officials & recess teachers included) needs to follow the IEP. Being that omniscence isn't a job requirement for working at a school, I'm not sure how this happens. It might be a good question for the school: Do the school official & recess teacher know what's in my child's PBSP? It seems like the protocol to prevent my child from getting escalated to the point he needed to be interrogated by the dean wasn't followed. What needs to happen so the PBSP can be followed 100% of the time he's at school? I hope your son recovers from this incident where he develop other behaviors so this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

Just 6 weeks ago, I was interviewed about this class action lawsuit by the Inquirer, regarding aging out of school at 21 or 22. Last night, I received an update from the Public Interest Law Center. Hi Lisa, Exciting news! Our lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s IDEA age out policy has settled. As part of the settlement, PDE has changed its policy to allow eligible students to receive a FAPE until their 22nd birthdays. The policy also applies to students who aged out at the end of the 2022-23 school year under the old policy. Depending on the circumstances, these students may now be eligible to re-enroll until their 22nd birthdays. As part of the settlement agreement, PDE is contacting all student and families who may be eligible to return to school until their 22nd birthdays with this letter (attached). PDE also issued this notice (attached) to all LEAs, IUs, and Charter Schools, as well as this guidance. Please spread the word about this to your networks ASAP! This is time sensitive with the start of the school year almost here! If a student wants to re-enroll, they should contact their LEA. If they encounter issues, PDE has provided the following email to contact: RA-PDESPECIALED@pa.gov. Thanks again for your help raising awareness about this issue! Policy Change: https://www.education.pa.gov/Pages/IDEABFAQ.aspx.. Letter: https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Special%20Education/IDEIA-IDEA/Age%20of%20Eligibility%20Policy%20Notification%20Letter.pdf.. Original article: https://www.inquirer.com/news/age-out-policy-special-education-dept-of-education-lower-merion-20230712.html..

Wow! That is great. Especially appreciate the study guide 3-5 days in advance. Our school would only agree to provide notes if the wording "when available" followed. Thanks for your reply.