JSD24

Is it possible to switch up his routine? It might take a few weeks to get where his nap isn't overlapping with school. They cannot offer a seat in a classroom that doesn't exist.

With schools, services and accommodations are based on need - not diagnosis - but you do need a disability/diagnosis to qualify for an IEP or 504. Outside evals are 'considered' by the school. They don't need to be followed. With speech, you'd think that the scope would be the same inside & outside of school. You want to look at intelligibility. How many correct words out of 100 = percentage of intelligibility. My assumption is a child's rate of speech errors would be the same independent of their location. I'm not sure if there is a different threshold for when they intervene in school vs when medical insurance covers SLP services. With screenings, they are quick and less accurate where evals take more time (cost more for the school to do) and you get more accuracy - provided it was the right eval done in the right way and the child met the criteria for who the eval works on. I would ask how much worse would they need to have done on the screen for the school to move forward with a full eval? If they missed the full eval by a few points, you can argue that the outside services are why they are doing this well & they didn't take that into account when they determined that moving forward with an eval wasn't needed. I remember talking to a mom where the SLP told her, off the record, that her son did qualify but if they gave him therapy (this was for pragmatics due to autism) they would need to take time away from a child who was nonverbal. If this is your school's situation, I don't see this being a good situation to put your grandchild in because it could lead to retaliation. I've seen where outside services are more intense and there's a lot more progress & more quickly than with school therapy. They might be doing your grandchild a favor by pushing you to outside therapy so long as the cost & getting there isn't a big burden.

I'm not sure how they can meet in one room and be on Zoom. I was in a Zoom meeting with one other person also at this meeting. We had a lot of feedback. (Typically we have a device called an Owl - photo below - which allows everyone in the room to participate. The school might be justifying the cost of a device like this by continuing to offer Zoom meetings.) https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91K0Q957irL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg

When you get the invite: I'm good with meeting Tuesday at 2. My internet isn't the greatest so I'd rather meet in person rather than on Zoom where I'm sure I'll miss some of what's said. Please let me know where I need to show up. Thanks...

The last page of this has a template for requesting a sp ed eval: https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/getting-a-special-education-evaluation.pdf You need to start there. The other thing is that a couple hours a week to remediate a student who has SDL in reading is predetermination which isn't allowed with IEPs. Many programs are daily for 40 - 60 minutes in order to see progress. You wouldn't want this for 60-120 minutes per week if you want to unteach bad habits of relying on accommodations & make up for the delay in Child Find.

The teacher is going to be the loudest voice in saying if an eval is needed or not - at least it should be. They are the one dealing with the day-to-day. My thought is to wait & see. Once your granddaughter is comfortable with school & the teacher, behaviors might get worse where they will say she should have an eval. You can also request an IEE at school expense. https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

I don't find this surprising - what the para did - your son is a great self-advocate. Paras don't have access to read the IEP. They only know what the teachers tell them. If the teacher doesn't tell them or the para forgets what's in it, you'll have an IEP that's not being followed. (In my district, they rotate paras and I'm not sure how the paras keep all the IEPs straight.)

I think you need an IEP meeting. He's not the 1st 3 year old who needs to nap. I'd ask them what happens when a child gets to school in the afternoon & is ready for a nap - how do they get IEP services? What are you going to do when the clocks 'fall back' next month? He'll be getting up at 4. Maybe he can get a nap in before he needs to head to school in the afternoon if he says with getting up at the same time. I have a suggestion that might not be easy to do. When you change the location - like when you go on vacation - that can disrupt the habit a child has. Can you go away for a few days to see if you can reset the routine? The suggesting for adjusting a child to the time change is to move the routine in the desired direction by 20 minutes a day (I generally do every other day). See if you can shift the routine.

The only time I've seen a school transport to ABA therapy is when the therapy starts soon after school dismissal and therapy is the after school 'daycare' location. It needs to be in the feeder area for the school for this to happen. Keep in mind, the doctor is looking out for your child's medical needs and the school looks at educational needs. You'd need to show an educational need for this sort of medical therapy to get this to happen.

It really should be on the school to make sure he's got the assignments listed in some sort of assignment book with sufficient detail so he can do the homework. My son's IEP had the teachers checking his assignment book...until the teachers were required to post assignment on Schoology and he stopped using the assignment book. You need an IEP meeting so the school can figure out what's the right thing that's needed to help him organizing his assignments. It seems like the AT evaluation he had to figure out what device he needs to get written work done is no longer sufficient given the increased workload he has in MS. IMO, the AT eval needs to be redone so he can be rematched to something else where he can deal with the additional writing. Has he been assessed for dysgraphia? It's more common in people with ADHD/ASD. They might not have assessed this where the school/IEP isn't supporting all the areas where he needs support. You need to step back. The IEP should be supporting what he needs to get done for school. (I know you don't want him to fail because it's on you to pick up the pieces should that happen.) You need to work with the school to get the IEP where it supports all his needs so that you can be a parent and not his paraprofessional/tutor because the IEP isn't FAPE.

It is 'best practice' for home and school to be on the same page. This would include an AAC device. IMO, the home & school AAC should be identical except for the login. Forcing a student to switch between different vocabulary layouts is creating problems for the student. If he were to say something nonsensical, is it because his muscle memory was using his other device or does he need instruction to correct a mistake? (I've seen where another student damaged an AAC device. What happens when this is something the family owns? Who pays to fix this?) Let's for a minute imagine that your child didn't need AAC and was scripting in the classroom. What would the school do as an intervention so he wasn't disrupting instruction? This is what your child should get too. (I think the answer is that the school would do an FBA to see if there was an antecedent to when he scripted. They would also be providing Specially Designed Instruction in proper classroom behavior. They can't tape a child's mouth shut at school & removing his access to his device has this same effect.) I could see a teacher asking him to place the device face down if he was disrupting class - much the same as telling another student to be quiet until the teacher finished instructing the class. If face down isn't helping, he doesn't have the capacity at that moment to take in information because he's focused on scripting. The lack of focus needs to be addressed. Does he need a sensory break? Is he hungry? Again, what's the antecedent? Make sure the school/IEP is looking at the root cause and not just a symptom. Address the root - not the symptom.

This happens way too often. You have 2 options with a teacher not following the IEP. 1st is to go up the chain of command - case manager & principal are the people to contact. Having documentation of what the teacher said would probably be a good idea otherwise it's a he said/she said situation. (There's a post with suggested wording ^.) The other thing to do is file a state complaint. I was told by my Pupil Services Director that there is no excuse for not following the IEP. Too many teachers have the same attitude as this teacher & I'm not sure why. I can see a teacher backing off on an accommodation when they feel it's not needed anymore but they shouldn't be ignoring it. There are students with medical accommodations embedded into the IEP & this teacher is putting those students lives at risk should they end up in their class.

I'm in PA & they have a form for the invite: https://www.pattan.net/Forms/INVITATION-TO-PARTICIPATE-IN-THE-IEP-TEAM-MEET-3. If I knew where you lived, I could see if your state has something similar.

I had to join TN parents so I could reply to this. (I'm in PA - not TN.) It took me a while to get to a screen where I could write a reply. You might not get a lot or responses because of this. IEP services are based on data. This data comes from the school evaluation showing that the student is lagging in an area when compared to others their age. What I've seen & experienced is, with ASD, students lag with social skills & pragmatics. I've also seen where the schools aren't assessing these areas. So they do an eval & it shows there are no needs because the areas you see issues aren't tested. This happens because parents don't speak 'school' and don't know what to ask for. If you have concerns with academics (because of the score on the ctap), ask for the school to evaluate that area too. You need to look at the school eval. If it's under 12 months old, the school will not do another eval. If they missed an area of need, you can ask for an IEE at school expense or you might be able to get the school to test the areas they missed the 1st go around. Have you provided copies of the outside evals to the school? Did you meet to discuss them? Sometimes a school will take an outside eval and provide services based on that rather than ding their own eval. If the 504 isn't working, you can request a 504 meeting and add accommodations. Communicate with the school in writing so you have a paper trail of what happened when.

Ross Greene's CPS protocol can help with inflexible thinking. Here's more info: I would document how long the homework is taking. If he spent 25 minutes on one worksheet & 20 on the other, write that on the worksheet. Also, make sure you are communicating with the teacher in writing. Send them an email: XX spent 50 minutes on last night's homework but didn't complete it. Please tell him he doesn't need to finish it or he'll want to do that before working on tonight's homework. Can you tell him that it's OK to not finish the homework? Better yet, can you tell him that after working on the homework for 45 minutes, he's done and needs to take a break & play? He seems to perseverate on getting the homework done no matter how long it takes. This creates an imbalanced 'work/life balance' for him. I'm trying to figure out how to help him stop this cycle.

Why is he being pulled out? Is this their idea of explicit instruction in social skills? What are the goals attached to this service? If you feel that the Specially Designed Instruction doesn't match the goal, write a parent letter of concerns. Is this part of a research/evidence based curriculum?

Lawyers will provide a free 15 minute consult. It might be worth having one look at the wording in the IEP. It's not FAPE if he has to have a parent on the trip and that accommodation is going to cost you $1500. FAPE should be free to families. If he needed a paraprofessional to go on the trip, the school would pick up their tab. You're saving them money because you are providing your time at no cost. I'd ask them what costs will be covered. If you don't ask, I'm positive they won't offer to help with the added cost of him needing a 1:1 chaperone. PA Consult Line is another place to ask what financial help the school should provide so his accommodation can happen. https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/ I'd put it in writing if you ask for financial help: XX has on his IEP that a parent must attend field trips so he has access to them given his disability. This year, the trip is to NYC and the added cost for a parent to attend with him is around $1500. Since schools are required to provide FAPE to students with IEPs, how does XX School District cover this? Should I pay my way and then send receipts so I can be reimbursed or will XXSD pay directly for XX's accommodation of having a parent attend? What costs will the school cover? I'm assuming I will need to pay for my own meals but the school will cover transportation, lodging and admission fees. Please let me know so I can figure out my finances. Thanks. My wording is inspired by Lisa's recent article on not being soft with parent correspondence with the school.

Given she has 2 years to figure out how to get herself organized, she might benefit from specially designed instruction via an IEP in addition to accommodations. Being seated away from distractions in the classroom might help - in other words, away from her BF. Having the teacher give her reminders to stay on task can also help. They can work with her during study hall to stay on task & get her work done. Colleges can offer the same sorts of accommodations. An IEP or 504 will help during school hours but it seems she has needs at home. A therapist can help her with things outside of school - like if she's focusing on her phone rather than doing homework. IMO, this is where the distractions will be in college. She'll be going to parties and meeting new people but her dirty clothes pile will be out of control & she'll be behind in getting reading done for classes. Psychologists/therapists can help with this. She can be taught strategies so she can be better organized - both with her things & her time.

A good teacher will trial an accommodation and then ask for it to be added to a 504. With no required 504 team members, it should be pretty quick to get a meeting. You might need to gently remind the school that you want to schedule so you can move forward with your child getting the help they need.

There was one prescription med for ADHD that was taken off the market. It was high in Omega 3. You can get Omega 3 over the counter & it might help. Caffeine can also help but it wears off quickly. I'm not as sure about anxiety. B12 can help or B complex. Do check with your doctor or pharmacist about this as I am not licensed to prescribe. I'm suggesting you speak to someone with a license about these OTC remedies. They should be able to suggest the right dosage.

Sometimes what a school says is 'policy' is not what the district has written as policy. That said, I'd ask to see a copy of their policy. If district policy say no 3rd parties can come & observe, I feel this is a violation. How can you get an IEE (at school or parent expense) if no one can go into the school & observe? This becomes an issue for the Disability Rights group and/or the dept of ed in your state as it violates the rights in IDEA. I'd ask them about policy in your letter since schools don't write laws. IMO, there are laws that say a 3rd party can observe but I'm not a lawyer which is what I suggest reaching out to disability rights - they have lawyers.

It's possible that the added support of RTI is helping your child enough where a higher level of instructional support (an IEP) isn't needed. The thing is that RTI doesn't require progress monitoring so how do you know how much it's helping? I'd see if you can get them to progress monitor so you can see if your child is closing the gap with this level of support. 504s provide accommodations. I'm taking a dyslexia class and the instructor (Sally Shaywitz who is a dyslexia expert) says that extra time on tests is something every dyslexic student needs. Based on this, I'd see about getting a 504 so your child has extra time. If they can't read at a level where they have access to math, science & other textbooks, audiobooks is another accommodation to request. They might also need things read to them or a scribe (or AAC) if spelling gets in the way of their success in school. With accommodations on a 504, they will also be able to get the same accommodations on PSSA & Keystone exams. (With the reading parts of these, you can't get the test read to them because this is a test of reading comprehension but the math & science parts as well as instructions can be read.)

IMO, a verbal assessment when it comes to lists of things would make a great accommodation. The ability to use talk to text AAC would be another way to show mastery of information w/o testing her spelling ability which tends to be poor with this disability. Measurable IEP goals could measure accuracy, fluency and comprehension. You might need to advocate for different, measurable goals so you can figure out what sort of progress is going on.

I pulled some info on Ohio and most of ESY is about regression/recoupment. (https://www.ocecd.org/Downloads/ESY Disability Rights Ohio 20132.pdf) To determine if regression/recoupment is a factor, the student needs a track record but returning to school for 1st grade can help you establish this record. You look at the goals. Let's say there is a behavior goal that X will be able to wait one minute for the teacher to finish with another student before they start acting frustrated. Let's say in June, your nephew could wait 40 seconds and now they can only wait for 10. You now need to look at recoupment. When does this 10 go back to 40? If this goes back next week, he's recouped in a week & this doesn't meet ESY criteria. If it's November & he's not back to 40, I'd say he needs ESY. You need to do this for every goal in the IEP. You also need to the progress monitoring reports to have measured data. "Making progress toward goal" as the level of progress and you can't tell about regression/recoupment. The goals on the website tend to be measurable so I'll post a link. https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-goal-bank/ When it comes to emerging skills, if he was starting to say 3 words in April and this grew to 6 in May, that's an emerging skill. It would also need to be an IEP goal for the school to look at to say he needs ESY for an emerging skill. (IMO every non-verbal student needs communication goals of some sort: AAC, PECS, ASL or S2C if you're OK with something that's not evidenced based.) If there are issues with measuring goals, now is a good time to advocate for the school to provide data that's empirical and not subjective. Unfortunately, that will only help with ESY next summer. Keep in mind that data on regression/recoupment can be taken whenever there is a break at school so get them to take data with fall, winter & spring breaks.

The school needs to follow the IEP/PBSP. If they are following it and something like this happens, the PBSP might need to be tweaked. If they are not following the IEP/PBSP then they are out of compliance with the IEP. The school can't just 'try their best'. They have to follow the IEP. I remember my sp ed director saying there were no excuses for an IEP not being followed. I agree with this 100%.