HappyCamper

@Carolyn Rowlett Thank you so much for the detailed response. We did have a meeting to review the reevaluation and they told me at the very end after reviewing everything they thought he should exit. I don't remember getting a Prior Written Notice of the exit - just that at the very end of the re-eval meeting on the documents they gave me they suggested the exit (I'll go back and look). We had two follow up meetings where I tried to argue my side of why I thought he needed continuing social-emotional support only afforded by an IEP (explict minutes of counseling), but they did not budge and said happy to start the 504. They flat out said that IEPs cannot be written with only social-emotional goals, which I disagreed with (and even sent them excerpts from some case law I found). They did tell me I had a year to do the IEE request. I guess I'm trying to weigh if it would be worth the IEE and I'm just exhausted about the whole process after years of championing my son - yes he gets detentions a few times a semester and had 3 days suspension last year (but not this), and he has very few friends. His grades aren't falling because of this (and he's doing shockingly well) so I don't know if the whole IEE is worth it at this point? I just want them to talk to him 2 or 3 times a month to check in about social drama and teasing and the bullying he receives because it builds up to an incident, and yes I think it relates to his impulsiveness not just typical middle-school awfulness. I think the school should do the counseling because they know the other players and can take action if needed.

I'm going to reply to my own comment as I read back on an earlier post when we were first fighting this - a helpful person posted the reply below. So I guess I'd modify my question above to be what does "access the general curriculum" really mean? Does that include having good social relations? You can definitely have social/emotional goals and no academic goals, as long as you can show the social/emotional disability is impacting access to the general curriculum. Think about what social/emotional goals you think he needs. For instance, does he need a goal for self-advocacy when he's feeling overwhelmed? Does he need a goal for recognizing the need to take a break on his own without prompting from teacher? Does he need a goal for staying on task while doing assignments in class? Be prepared with specifics. Ask his general education teachers what issues they are having and prepare arguments that the issues are related to his ADHD and need goals. If the school evaluation comes back showing he doesn't need any social/emotional goals, don't forget you can ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at no cost to you. If meeting regularly with the school psychologist is enough and there is no need for any goals, that could be addressed in a 504 Plan.

Hello! My 14 y.o. with ADHD has had an IEP since the 4th grade, largely because of behavioral and social-emotional issues. It was "renewed" for 3 years (last triennial) and covered 6, 7, an 8th grade. Both in 6th and in 7th he had a few suspensions for behavior and at the end of 7th after a 3rd suspension the team suggested we reevaluate him, and I agreed thinking it would translate into MORE support for his social-emotional challenges. However, after they did all the assessments they came back and said he was doing so well academically that they felt he no longer qualified for an IEP to "access the classroom" and wanted to move him to a 504. I disagreed and sent them both in writing and had additional meetings with them. I asked them to provide weekly or biweekly counseling for him and they have basically refused to put that in writing. I never signed the exit form if there is such a thing (or rather never signed the evaluation saying he didn't qualify) but they have acted now as if he was exited even thought the original IEP would cover him until the end of 8th grade. So at the start of 8th grade he had another incident with other boys (who tease him for not having a father) and is on a contract to avoid contact with them. Yesterday I got a call that my son teased another boy in PE and that boy punched him - so now my son is in in-school suspension. But at the same time he has basically straight As. My questions to this lovely group are: If you have a 3 year IEP and an evaluation for qualifying for services is done part way through, does that legally negate the in-place IEP? If I refuse to sign the (re) evaluation can the school just move forward - they never sent me any documents after the evaluation? Can a student who has an other qualifying diagonosis (ADHD) and needs basically only social-emotional support have an IEP? Or is this a lost cause - meaning only if I can demonstrate his behavior and suspensions (all resulting from impulsive decisions) affect his grades will he qualify for an IEP? I imagine there are children with ASD that might get great grades but need social-emotional support on IEPs no? Would requesting an independent evaluation help at all if he is now getting good grades (didn't in the past). Thank you for any thoughts! Stacey

Hi. I wrote a longer question below but didn't get any suggestions so maybe it was too long! Basically I would appreciate guidance on when it is ok to lose an IEP (7th grade boy with ADHD)? I still think he needs emotional social support (meet regularly with school psych) and the school wants to exit him (after eval) as they say he is accessing the general curriculum well. Can an iep have only social emotional support goals and no academic ones? Thanks

Hi all. My now 7th grade son has had an IEP for last 5 years. He has ADHD and elementary school was a mess! Early on he had both academic and social emotional goals. The transition to middle school actually went waaay better than I expected. Because of a scheduling error on the school's part he ended up in the regular classes not clustered with other iep students. Academically he has been keeping up and actually doing well in many classes. His original triennial was supposed to be at the end of next year right before the transition to high school. At the end of 6th the iep team seemed to signal they thought he didn't need support anymore but I got them to agree to see how 7th went. He has also had emotionally related mental health support each year (met biweekly with school psychologist) to work on S/E development. Well by the end of fall semester he had been suspended 2x for behavioral stuff with peers during unstructured time and had lunch detention too. We met with principal and I expressed concerns he maybe needed more support and they agree and we had an emergency meeting. They said the best route would be to advance his reevaluation a year to see the big picture and what he needs. Well, we met last week and they all say he is doing so great they think we should switch to a 504! He qualifies with a disability but they think it does not "affect him accessing the general curriculum" as he is already in the general classes. I went into the meeting with draft goal ideas to help support him with social development evidenced by the suspensions. As I understand it, social emotional falls under functional performance and I have seen many S/E goal ideas online and know good grades alone are not a reason to exit him (they were careful not to say that). I am happy that all the evaluations showed he is doing well in most areas, but they did even when he first qualified. What I want is assurance they will pull him regularly to meet with someone. They say they will write meeting with the school counselor support into the 504. I do have a good relationship with the team, but at the same time the team can change so it worries me to lose the iep safe guards as I think hormones and 8th grade may be more challenging. Can someone have an iep that only has functional performance (behavioral) goals? Sorry so long! I have not signed the exit paperwork yet.