JSD24

Per the way IDEA is written, if you ask for a reading goal (and services to meet the goal) this should go on the PWN if the school says no. If they say yes, I don't think PWN is required. If you are asking for more of the same service your child already gets, what you are asking doesn't seem to fit with something that needs a PWN. (I feel how much of something falls under 'professional judgement' and they have the professionals to determine this. If there is no progress with the service, then you have data that something different is needed & that might be worthy of going in PWN.) https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-prior-written-notice-pwn/ My district would write out the PWN before the meeting. Not sure what crystal ball they have where they know what we might discuss & I might ask for for my child.

Given that the school can change a 504 w/o parent input, they can write the whole 504 however they wish. Predetermination doesn't apply with 504s.

They can hold him to the same behavior contract as classmates. Given a behavioral disability, IMO, they shouldn't. IMO, the IEP/IEP team should be able to modify this where he has about the same chance of going as a classmate. This would be the way to accommodate the disability. Also, all teachers should be following the IEP.

Lisa Lightner who runs this platform is an advocate in PA. She might be able to help. I could list out the names of several attorneys who can help but they don't work the whole state so I don't want to do that. We need to have an idea where you are so we can make sure the person we suggests will work where you are. (Without knowing where you are located, I'd rather not throw out names.) COPAA has a list. Not sure if this could be something to go to the Consult Line to get info. (They are part of ODR.) Disability Rights PA might also be able to help.

Posted before I finished. If they are an American style school, they should be doing progress monitoring of IEP goals which would allow them to do annual updates. What they might not be able to do is evaluations (done every 3 years) but they should be able to write an IEP if they are styled after an American public school.

Since COVID, there are some people who are certified school psychologists who are willing to do evaluations via the internet. Since they do not work for a school, this would not be free but it could be covered by insurance. The IEP itself can only be written by a school/school district. IMO, they are asking for the impossible. I know of no school that would evaluate and write an IEP for someone not living in their district. Sp ed is short handed. There is a shortage of teachers & school psychologists. You are not going to find someone willing to do this for free. With sp ed evals, you need to be trained in how to do the eval so that you are following the test protocol & getting accurate results. Their teachers are not going to have this background.

Was written expression identified as an area of need when the school evaluated him? If it's not assessed, the assumption is he's on level so no remediation or progress monitoring is needed. Since Endrew v Douglas County was decided by SCOTUS, the new benchmark is 'significant progress'. He went from 75 to 85 in reading - that's significant. What are his scores in written expression? Did he go from 75 to 80? (That might be significant.) Start by looking at the school's data before you spend good money on lawyer fees. If they missed evaluating written expression, your next move should be to request that the school evaluate that area. If they are providing instruction & he has goals in this area, how is the school measuring progress? Goals should be measurable. I'd expect progress in reading and writing to be parallel. If he moved 10 percentiles in reading, I'd expect at least half of that in writing.

The note should be easy to get. I agree that this might be fallout with parents who are just too lazy to toilet train where there are students who have a disability (like yours) who have a more legitimate reason for there being a delay with this. I didn't find anything saying that school playgrounds have to be accessible. Also, there doesn't appear to be all that many accessible playgrounds in the state: https://www.accessibleplayground.net/playground-directory/?cn-s=&cn-cat=37&cn-pg=1

This is a duplicate post. The other post looks to have more info so I answered there.

My thought is very simple. The school is saying he is emotionally resilient and will have little issue with changing schools. Where's there data on this? According to the way rules are written, schools can generally do things like this. There is nothing that says they need to consider a student's resilience or mental health status when making this sort of decision, so they are in their right to transfer him because there is nothing that says anything to the contrary. I see this as the ball being in your court and you needing to strategize how you will return it back to them. If you are concerned that he will have 2-hour long meltdowns if he has to attend the school they've picked, mention that you have concerns about school refusal and request that the school evaluate that this would be OK (that he can handle this without tantrums and other disruptions to your household) given that you see his emotional dysregulation/disability being a big factor with making a huge change like this. Do this in writing so you have it documented in a paper trail. Write this out as a parent concerns letter. (More info here on writing a letter: https://adayinourshoes.com/parent-concerns-on-the-iep-parent-letter-of-attachment/.) Request support to help him make this transition. I know that some of the things that can help are being able to explore the building over the summer or in off hours, meeting with staff. Playdates with other students (this would depend on the other student's families being OK with this). Also request an evaluation that this isn't going to trigger anxiety and school refusal. My perspective is they decided to make this change and you need to move forward from where you are which is him attending a new school where he's unfamiliar with the floor plan, staff and classmates. You need to plan your strategy from here. My thought is that if he doesn't cooperate with touring the new school & meeting his new teachers (things that are in the IEP because you requested the school support him with this transition), you now have data that shows this is causing him anxiety which is something they didn't consider when changing his placement.

In PA where I live, online schools are not associated with school districts unless the district has their own online school. These schools are chartered by the state and anyone in the state can attend. In other words, you cannot transfer to the online school another district has but you can go to the other in-state cyber schools. Rules definitely vary by state. To answer the OP's question. The transfer deadline is 1/15. If you want to transfer for fall 2025, you might be able to. This has info: https://education.mn.gov/MDE/fam/open/index.htm The links on this page look to have additional info - I didn't open them. Your question about transportation for special ed isn't specifically addressed - it does say that families transport most of the time. This might be an exception.

Rules like this are often state specific. My state has public virtual charter schools but these are not 'schools of choice'. I'm not sure how a school of choice works. Knowing where this is would allow for a state specific answer.

An IEP doesn't stay current forever. If the public school will implement it 6 months from now depends on if things are the same or different. My advice is to bring the eval & IEP to the private school and work with the school to come up with a plan for them to provide support to this student. Private schools don't do IEPs but they can write out a service plan. I've seen private schools use the public school's IEP to do this. It gets parents & school on the same page. It also lets the parent know that if a service the child needs like specialized remedial instruction for dyslexia that the private school doesn't offer, the parents know they need an outside person to do this.

I really don't have an answer for you. Just wanted to say my son had similar issues. His diagnosis is ADHD/dysgraphia. He never wanted to use the accommodations in his IEP. He saw himself as typical and saw the accommodations as cheating. He also didn't want his classmates to view him as different/disabled. I think he was afraid this could end up with him being teased/bullied/shunned. When he got closer to graduation and could see himself living a life after graduation, this is when he started to realize he needed to do better so he could graduate with his class. He graduated in 2022. I can see your child using their accommodations if they had peer models that had similar accommodations. He'd have this is he was attending a school where everyone had dyslexia...or a summer camp where they bring dyslexics together. At 15, he's not seeing the importance of being able to write well.

This would be a no in my area. You pay taxes to your local district. They are responsible for your child's education. There would need to be a contract between these 2 districts for this to happen. In most cases - no make this almost all cases - you would need to move to the other district for them to educate your child. If open enrollment is available in your area and this is the mechanism that allows your child to attend another district, look at the rules for open enrollment. I'd assume they would be available on a website. If your child is experiencing emotional abuse due to how they are being treated by their en loco parentis, I would think this would be grounds to have your child's placement changed but the vehicle to do this is a lawsuit/due process which is not fast nor inexpensive. (I'm not aware of case law that sets a precedence for this.)