lclark

I am trying to work out some kinks with my son's program this year. He is an eighth grader, with a 504 plan (ADHD). His science teacher has kept him after school 3 times this fall to complete unfinished labs. BACKGROUND: My problem is that this teacher does not seem to care about accommodating student needs. It is his second year with her (small school, so there is only one science teacher for the junior high school) and ended last year with my son experiencing such anxiety on science days that he was experiencing headaches and stomach aches on science days. She also played a big part in my daughter, with autism, becoming so overwhelmed without the accommodations in her IEP being provided during junior high school that she shut down and was moved to an out-of-district placement. Anyway, my son has had to stay after school to complete labs (he has no study hall). He says a big part of the issue is that he does not have a lab partner. the other students have lab partners, but his moved away. Now he has to complete the labs by himself. Something I've noticed about him when he is doing homework, is that he works a lot more efficiently with a "body double". He asks me a question, I reply with, "what do you think you have to do?", then he figures it out and keeps going . . . Is it appropriate to ask for an accommodation stating that he works with a lab partner? How would I phase that to make sure she places him with a non-distracting, relatively good student? (while science is currently his lowest grade, he is still on the high honor rolls and wants to remain there for the year) Thank you for your suggestions. I have to be careful because the home-school connection had been damaged while trying to get the staff to comply with my daughter's accommodations and modifications. We've been through the state complaint process. The decision came out in my favor, but the district still denies that they have done anything wrong. Thank you

Thank you for your response. She did have "group counseling" on her IEP, but the group disintegrated as many kids stopped participating. Most of the failures were supports for her lagging executive functioning, which led her to be overwhelmed and frequently shut down. Her outside therapist wants her participating in a therapy group. My insurance will cover it, perhaps I should ask for mileage reimbursement, since it is 50 miles each way. Being constantly disconnected at school did not lead to her developing flourishing friendships.

Are there any advocates out there that can help me get my mind straight before our state-mandated CSE meeting? I was not given a lot of time. Thank you

Thank you.

Hi, we are in NY. My daughter is in 9th grade and will be 15 in a couple months. Was she supposed to have a transition plan in her IEP this year? I thought I just recently read that in NY, a plan is supposed to be in place during the year in which the student turns 15. The only thing her IEP says about the future is that she wants to be a singer . . . That is inaccurate. She will not sing any more because she's gotten in trouble so much for singing when other people did not want her to. She even dropped chorus back in 6th grade.

Sorry about the length, but I wasn't sure what to leave out. We are in NY. My daughter spent 2 very traumatic years in junior high school. She had an IEP due to SLD in math and writing, along with ADHD and an anxiety disorder. In the summer between 7th & 8th grade she was diagnosed with ASD. She was supposed to get accommodations for organization, breaking down assignments,etc and modifications for the workload in math and writing. I had battled the school both years because she was not receiving the accommodations and would end up scrambling at the end of every marking period to make up missed work, which added to her anxiety. She would frequently shut down and just pace around the back of the room rather than completing her classwork, which would be framed as her "choosing not to do her work.". I tried to be proactive each marking period and say "this will be the marking period where we teach her to use her agenda to keep track of assignments. We tried an FBA, but the school focused on how to get her to stop pacing, while I tried to focus on what made her feel like a caged animal. Anyway, my daughter is now in an 8:1 class located in another District's HS, but run by our county's BOCES because she "wouldn't do any work" and "exhausted the continuum of services (except for actually following her IEP)" in our district. However, I had filed a complaint with the NY State Ed department with 6 charges of the district not providing my daughter with the accommodations and modifications on her IEP. The State agreed with me on all 6 counts. Now the District must have a CSE meeting to see "if compensatory services are needed to remedy the District's failure to provide the accommodations, modifications, and supports . . ." In the IEP. FINALLY . . . my question:. What types of compensatory services may be appropriate? How does one remedy two years of trauma? My daughter's EF skills were lagging when she entered Jr. HS, now they are non-existent. She will not even enter the building - not for public swim time, not for planetarium shows, not for her brother's concert. Will the District get away with just saying, "she's not here, we're paying for her to go to BOCES so that's all that's necessary"? I tried to contact an advocate through a local nonprofit who accompanied me to the last CSE meeting, but sh hasn't responded (it's been 5 days.) How do I prepare for this meeting? Thank you for suggestions.