EmilyM

We're in the weird situation of an online school where the student is already at home with the teachers. But the student meets daily with the teachers for mini lessons and communicates with them. So we really can't say "stay home". It's going to be several months of overlap, so that's a lot of time to miss.

To give further info on this, the IEP was written in a traditional in-person school with the plan to have a buddy teacher ready, or the opportunity to stay home and complete Google Classroom that day.

Is there any good way of handling maternity leave when an IEP states "no substitute teachers?" It's one of those years in my grade where both teachers, myself include, are in the family way. Student was placed in my colleague's class, but medical stuff and family stuff went down, and so now she is off for most of the year for her maternity leave. She was promptly replaced with a long-term sub, but Parent was pretty upset about the situation. Because the other teacher and myself work closely together, there is an unofficial view of a team of teachers being there for all the kids. Now that I'll be eventually going on maternity leave, parent isn't happy again because, tragically true, it's throwing off and upsetting the kid again. Now, it's important to note this is a virtual school, so while you might think most of the school work is done with the parent anyway and the substitute thing shouldn't matter all that much, the kid still very much needs the stability. A teacher taking a day off at our school tends to be a lot less of a hassle than at your usual school, so the situation of the IEP statement never really was an issue, but the long-term situation of a new sub is pretty similar. Is there a real way to have all this balance with the statement of the IEP?

I hate to make it the family's problem, but is it possible they have someone in the home or a friend who could handle the transportation?

Sadly, not from what I understand about Missouri's laws, especially if at that point the kid is no longer in school, technically.

Looking at Missouri law, you may be responsible for transportation to and from school if it doesn't mesh with the typical school schedule. You also may have very little law on your side on trying to create the best part-time schedule. There's also the chance of too many years in the school more than you want to deal with, combined with potential delays in curriculum. The pro is you'll have plenty of time in the day for ABA therapy. It's not the worst plan if you're willing to extend the school years.

Random question: is it ever possible to petition an exception to AOM?

You're absolutely right, but I am concerned about what behavior was leading to a suspension. I've taught k-2 for years and we've never had behavior to the point of suspension. I like to think that has to be for an extreme case. If a kid is injured, for example, ignoring the injury and only doing a class discussion is worrisome.

That discussion that teacher had is still a consequence. How do you define the word? The thing is, other students shouldn't be problematically impacted by another student, even one an IEP.

I hate ISS. It's little more than a consequence trying to not inconvenience anyone. If the child in question is a danger to others in the classroom, they need to be removed in the moment, not have some vague consequence down the road. And, if the child is being a danger to others, something isn't right in the plans. Granted, of course there's a first time observing anything, but it means creating a new plan. The teacher in me hates the idea of parents getting their kids out of consequences (if your child was being aggressive, I'm sorry, but there needs to be an expectation that's not okay), and it's very difficult to get an IEP to trump school rules. I think you would be in your right to discuss alternate consequences (not removal of them) while a new plan is being worked up.

Personally, I've never cared for the opportunity to retake an assessment at X score because without careful planning it rarely seems to be more about mastery than getting the score, but no matter how you shake it, I don't see how FAPE is being denied to other students. I think if you can collect proof this is being used for the goal of content mastery, that may help your case.

I'm assuming this is a public preschool. Are there other alternate locations you might be able to use to get in for the am?

I don't know about morning placement (I can see legit if it's full, it's full) but there ought to be ways to include the nap need. I've seen many an afternoon preschool that still does naps.

Is 1 pm when school gets out, or is ABA replacing a portion of the school day? From a school perspective, this is a pretty difficult situation for a school. I don't see a school seeing replacing part of a school day (if the ABA is disrupting school) because it's likely not reasonable to the teachers and staff tasked with providing lessons and services during that time. Lisa is correct as well that this puts the ups and downs of ABA on the school if they're tasked to it in the IEP, and I can see that being considered unreasonable. I mean nothing more than searching for information here, but is this transportation more about the student's schedule or the parent's? (If it's about the parent's schedule, you might be able to rope in community or insurance services for transportation.)

I think that's very sensible, especially when you may often be in the mindframe of "how is their disability impacting them?" It's good advice to stop and think about what is the disability and what is no more and no less being a kid/teen and an individual at that?

If I may continue with humor, this sounds like a potential game of "ADHD or Typical Teen?"

In a lot of ways, breaking down tasks is a natural strategy many older teens and adults do for themselves, often without even thinking about it, and is actually an important skill for college. The thing is, a college class likely wouldn't arrange it for the student. So, I'd go with it, with a focus on teach her how to do it herself (though that may be more of an IEP accommodation than 504...) One difficulty you do seem to recognize is that she has gotten the 504 at an age where many other students in her shoes are working on reducing/taking charge of their accommodations.

Was there a PWN explaining why? I don't like to think of a 504 as "the minimum" because it really is its own thing. I like RTI in and of itself so I suppose its nice it is offered, but there should have been reasoning as to why there was no qualification for the IEP.

RTI and similar processes cannot be used to delay evalution IEP/504.

Like I said, I'm a general teacher. Happy to do whatever my role is. However, this year I have a parent who had a bad experience with the SPED team at her kid's last school and said she wants as little to do with them as possible. I've notified the sped team and they're trying to be as great as they can, but the parent is resistant. She says she wants all services and communication to come through me. Is this a reasonable request?

And if so, is it considered a reasonable accommodation? In the casual world, I've heard various complaints about IEP accommodations assigning another student to help them. Some say it stresses the student helper out too much, and even one story said the parent pulled the kid from school as the kid shouldn't be doing a teacher or para's job. But it's also seemed a good idea in popularity fit quite some time, so what's the current view?

My brother and his wife are going through this. What happened was the district had to rearrange staff for various reasons and the programs changed schools. It seemed to be nothing more than district rearrangement. Is this program still at the original school?

Fortunately adult ed in our state is insanely cheap.

My understanding is that it would have to be explicitly stated in the IEP how these would meet a goal and the school is only obligated to pay for what meets a goal. Usually I see the parents sending the prizes or snacks to the school, unless the plan ties already into a management system the teacher is already funding herself. If the alternative seating is specifically defined in the IEP as necessary, the school would pay for it. If not, it'd be whatever alternative seating is available.

Last I heard the family couldn't get a case together. They're going the adult ed route.