JSD24

When the breaking of school rules happen, it's generally followed by the school following discipline guidelines which can include expulsion/a switch to alt ed (since school is mandated). The only exception to this is when the rules were broken due to a manifestation of a disability or the school not following interventions to prevent behavior in the IEP. The change of placement of a student with an IEP is required to be a team decision. In other words, you need an IEP meeting to move a special ed student to an alt ed school. If your child doesn't have an IEP, you can request a special ed evaluation to see if they qualify. If the school says they don't qualify, you can request an IEE at school expense. Lisa has info on MDRs on her website: https://adayinourshoes.com/manifestation-determination-hearing/ I've seen where an academic issue wasn't supported and the student had behaviors so you might want to look beyone the behavor to what's the root cause.

The rules vary by state if parents need to be notified about restraint or seclusion. I believe there are timelines on notification in some states. Definitely look up the rules in your state and consider filing a complaint with your state DOE if the school didn't follow the rules. One thing you can ask is to see the calm down room. In some schools, these are equipped with sensory items that can aid in calming down. In other schools, they look more like prison cells. If your child tends to be more upset at home with being secluded earlier in the day, you can request, as an IEP accommodation, that you get an email or text when the room is used so you can help him process the trauma of being restrained and then secluded. (It's a way to get the school to let you know how often it's used and if it's used often, you'll know the BIP isn't working and needs to be tweaked.) In most states, there are explicit rules that students need to be monitored at all times including during seclusion. Pretty sure that adults need to be with students at all times except for in bathrooms & locker rooms. Guy Stephens has a lot of info on this on his website. He runs the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. He started this after his child was traumatized by being restrained. https://endseclusion.org/ He's also on Facebook. Restraint and seclusion should only ever be used when a child is a danger to themself or others. The BIP should prevent him from getting to that point if it's the right intervention. Ross Greene is someone I consider to be an expert on behavior. This is more info on his approach to managing behavior:

The school will not change their eligibility category without an evaluation report. Have you shared the neuropsych report with them to 'consider'? Schools are required to consider outside evaluations but they do need to have a copy of the report in order to consider it. Schools can use an outside eval to change the disability category if they want to. Also, if the school's eval wasn't accurate, you can ask for an IEE at school expense. You might want to do the IEE rather than having the school do another eval. Most districts will not do an eval if the last one was done within a year which is when an IEE at school expense comes into play. Your child was reevaluated. You paid for the neuropsych to do the reeval. The school should be able to use this report to change the disability category. There shouldn't be a need for a 3rd eval.

What is the school doing to promote communication? IMO, if you can get him communicating, you can more readily figure out why he elopes and fix the root cause and that will stop the elopement. If you want some encouragement with communication, watch Spellers on YouTube. My friend's son is in this movie. He's autistic and non-speaking and was identified as intellectually disabled by the school. Once he started communicating, it seems like the school was wrong about him being intellectually disabled (personally, I feel he's gifted). His part starts at 46 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1rcLyznK0

If an OT quits without giving notice, how is this service implemented on the IEP moving forward until the school hires a new OT? They should be giving notice. Most school contracts require 60 days if they want to be paid for accrued vacation & other benefits. It's possible they did give notice but families weren't told. There needs to be an OT present for OT services to happen. If the family knew beforehand, they could ask for 'parent training' so the student gets a bit of OT at home. Are they required to continue services by outside agency? No. Does the school keep track of missing services until the school hires OT? They should be tracking this. Can a family request outside services to be provided and paid for from the school district until someone is hire? They can ask but the school is not obligated to pay. You may find that outside OTs have a waitlist for an afterschool slot. (If you expect the school to pay, you really need to have that in writing or it could be on the family to pay for this.) Using insurance for getting outside OT might make sense if continuity of services is important but there's still waitlists to deal with. (I was looking for OT for my son and we got in for a few cancellation sessions. I'm in PA & my son had Medicaid & they paid for OT. Turned out that he has dysgraphia and that's why his handwriting was bad.)

When I hear behavior, my suggestion is generally Ross Greene. https://forums.adayinourshoes.com/forums/topic/221-ross-greene-–-collaborative-proactive-solutions/#comment-834 She needs to learn that practice makes perfect. I'm sure that Tom Brady has thrown more bad passes than most people. This is how he got good with them. We learn from our failures. My husband knows to check the oven before turning it on because I sometimes stash dirty pots in there. He learned this by not checking and the house smelling bad. He's learned from his mistake.

RTI isn't working unless the observation data shows things are getting better. IMO, doing RTI for longer than a semester or so with the student not catching up is a red flag. The student, most likely, needs an IEP if the RTI has gone on this long. Parents need to request a special ed eval and see what the areas of disability really are. If they don't move forward with an IEP, they will at least have a good baseline outlining what the student needs. What is it going to take to convince the parents that the student needs more than gen ed is providing them? This behavior continuing is going to get this student kicked out of school & put in alt ed. Early intervention is best. How about they pay for a tutor if they a set against an IEP?

I look at this as the school doing CYA. They know this child needs an IEP so they need to say this to parents who have withdrawn their child from school. Special ed rules can conflict with gen ed school age requirements. If this student's file gets pulled during special ed monitoring, the school needs the revocation letter in his file for their paperwork to be complete. He's not truant from school since he's withdrawn from school but he's truant from IEP services & DCF investigates truancy (they are the 21st century truant officers). In other words, I see this as the parents having withdrawn their child from school which would be OK if he didn't have an IEP. The school must follow the IEP so the parent either needs to put the child somewhere where this can happen or they need to formally refuse special ed services in writing for the student's file. Option 4 gets the school out of the IEP loop. Make the school happy by signing the paperwork they need for their file. It's not retaliation. It's CYA. It keeps the district out of trouble with the state dept of special education. They aren't following the IEP as required by law if he's not going to school.

Data collection is generally done as part of an evaluation. On average, evals take 60 days - depends on state regs. With the written evaluation in hand, the team meets and decides on support for the student (or not if they don't meet criteria to get help). Special ed level data collection would require parent permission. Is the data collection & intervention trials part of RTI/MTSS where there are no timelines for placing support in place? RTI & MTSS are part of general ed intervention where data collection & support trials would not need parent permission. If I was the parent, I'd be asking for a copy of the observation results report as well as requesting a team meeting to see what the next step can be. The school should have a 'child study team' of some sort that works with gen ed students who need RTI or MTSS. If this is a special ed eval, they missed the timeline for completing the eval & moving forward and a state complain can be filed. Given how you have described this student, they need a special ed level of evaluation for learning disabilities. Having a LD & not getting the support you need can lead to frustration that comes out as punching classmates. The 'in your face' thing is the punching where this ends up being the school's focus and the root of the issue (the LD) isn't looked at. In cases like this, supporting the LD can fix the behavior. (Documentary, The Kids We Lose, covered this issue.)

To me, it sounds like medical neglect if the student has a history of food lodging in the throat and the school lacks the equipment needed, per a doctor letter that they have a copy of, to deal with this. There are agencies that will look into medical neglect in situations like this. Your state does offer facilitators for IEP meeting where they might help in getting you & the school on the same page. Would the school agree to this? https://www.cadreworks.org/cadre-continuum/stage-iii-conflict/facilitation/facilitated-iep-team-meeting-massachusetts and https://www.mass.gov/info-details/facilitators-for-iep-team-meetings Not sure if MA has a consult line that parents & advocates can call to help resolve situations like this. I did find this group located in Boston - they might be able to offer guidance: https://www.massadvocates.org/ I also found this: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/education-resources

Looking at what can be asked for as far as accommodations go for someone with Prader Willi. This would be at a community college so commuting from home, not living in a dorm. I know this is a rare disease. Hoping that someone has BTDT and had success. Food seeking is the issue, not academics.

With a special ed evaluation, schools are (supposed) to access in all areas of suspected disability. This results in an evaluation report that shows present levels in these areas. If a student is sufficiently behind, they need to have specially designed instruction (SDI) that is evidence/research based to bring them up to the level of typical classmates. This is provided that that nature of the disability will not prevent them from doing this. IMO, every deficit area needs to be addressed either with SDI or the student needs to be accommodated. I can see where there are not enough hours in a day to provide SDI in all areas but the ones without SDI should be accommodated. And sometimes you do need both. A student in 5th grade who reads at a 3rd grade level needs SDI to improve reading skills. They also need accommodations like audio books and instructions read to them so they have access to 5th grade textbooks in science, social studies, etc. An area might not be addressed if it's not part of the state standards. For example if your 2nd grader cannot read an analog clock & this skill is part of the 3rd grade standards, the 2nd grade IEP isn't going to have SDI so this gets taught. Does this answer your question?

Dear School- The testing that has been done to date does not provide a reason why my child, XX, is in 7th grade but is only capable of doing math on a 1st grade level. I would like for assessments do be done that provides the reason for her being 6 years behind her classmates in this area. Prior evaluations have identified autism, ADHD, anxiety & panic disorders, sensory processing disorder, adjustment disorder with anxiety & low muscle tone which do not explain this. (I agree with you about the dyspraxia. The hallmark of autism is a lack of neural pruning at age 18 months. The extra connections individuals are left with will leave them with clumsiness, dyspraxia or apraxia which could look like low tone but it's really neurological in nature.) With knowing the nature of her math disability, we will be better able to have specially designed instruction as part of her IEP. This will help her attain the ability to have functional math skills. She needs to work to attain better time awareness as well as budgeting/money management skills. Please use this email as my permission for XXX School to do the necessary assessments to determine the nature of XX's math issues. Feel free to copy the above. Wording things this way show how your child will benefit from additional math assessments. As far as switching her to a curriculum that doesn't cover any 7th grade math, I'm not sure if that's allowed. IDEA says that students need to be exposed to grade level skill standards. She may need to be 'exposed' but I can see advocating for her to be taught a stronger functional foundation in math. Let the exposure be in small doses that are appropriate to her present level skills.

Just want to give some perspective. Your child is making progress with MTSS. She's average per testing. They indirectly offered a 504 by referring you to the 504 coordinator. I'd ask for written progress monitoring like you'd get with an IEP on the 504 in addition to extra time and instructions read to her on tests (if you and the 504 team feel this will help) as well as what the team suggests. Go through the progress monitoring reports. If you see the gap closing (she was a year behind, now 9 months behind - this is what I mean by the gap closing), then MTSS is the level of intervention needed for her to catch up - you know this because you see the gap closing. If the gap isn't closing, request the IEE. If this happens a year from now, the school might want to reassess rather than pay for an IEE. Work with them. BTW, I wrote this before reading Carolyn's response. Did they assess writing & spelling? You can ask the school to 'please show which assessments were done that looked at writing and spelling which are 2 areas I have concerns with'. (Feel free to double check the assessment really looked at this. The info should be readily available online.) If they didn't look at this, ask them to assess these areas or you can skip the assessment & ask them to progress monitor these via the 504 'to make sure she's keeping up in these areas'. Sometimes you need to play the school like you play a game of chess. Have a strategy. Be OK with sacrificing your pawns. Keep your eyes on winning the game which is what matters in the long run.

For Christi: Once an evaluation is written, the actual paperwork used to write it is generally shredded. I'd be very surprised if the questionnaire that was filled out by school personnel existed at a point in time when the parents requested this unless this was asked before the school filled it out. I'd also say that this is part of a child's educational records and parents are entitled to see it. I'd definitely verify that parents were given the parent version to fill out. Keep in mind that kids will often mask at school which will result in things like the BASC having different results with home & school. Not sure how seeing what the teacher filled out could invalidate using this tool in the future. I'd ask to see the instructions that go with the BASC where this is said. For Linda: Are the accommodations the type of accommodations that need to be implemented all at once or are they situational? Situational (where these are done in reading, those are done in PE and this group is for field trips) are going to be easier to keep on top of. If a student needs this many accommodations, does it mean they need a 1:1 so that the IEP can be followed? It is reasonable that the school accommodate all students according to IDEA and Section 504 where 25+ accommodations for one student is needed. Keep in mind they should be based on the student's needs and not the ability of a teacher to follow what's written. This is one reason why placement is always the last thing to decide on when it comes to IEPs.