JSD24

I would follow up and ask them how they can accommodate his disability when notes aren't available. It's not like he can turn off the disability to accommodate the availability of notes. Will they allow a recording device? (IMO, the school should record the class and then play it for software that does closed captioning so there is a written version of what was said. It can then be printed out or your child could be given a soft copy.)

Have you asked them directly? You can close your letter with: Please copy and paste the above into the parent concerns section of the IEP. Not sure if they are concerned about plagiarism with using a parent's exact words...

The school is missing something. I'm aware of a student who needed a unique accommodation: Reminders to use the bathroom every 2 hours during the school day. This was needed for medical reasons throughout their attendance in K-12. IMO, the school bought the wrong IEP software package because it doesn't comply with IDEA & state regs on IEPs. Your district, from my perspective, is asking you to contact your state's Ed Law Center or Disability Rights group and develop a class action lawsuit against the software company and any of their clients. This company is selling a defective product. The product needs to be recalled. I hope you wrote an email after the meeting to clarify that the software cannot accommodate customized accommodations. I'd want this in writing so the attorneys at the Ed Law Center or Disability Rights group have proof of what's happening in your district. There might also need to be a different process to pick IEP software. My district had an open house where sp ed families got to check out the options before they settled on an IEP software package to go with. I'm not sure how well they listened to the families' feedback but at least they had a seat at the table.

Not reasonable IMO. Schools have an IEP team. The team serves the student. Communication, in theory at least, can start with any team member. Services should be performed by whomever has the expertise to deliver the service. You might be great with teaching dyslexic students and so-so with teaching social skills. Makes sense that you do small group reading instruction for students who are part of your caseload as well as students assigned to other case managers and another teacher who has expertise in social skills teach groups who need that no matter who is the case manager. There are other sp ed services where teacher credentials aren't enough - like doing a sp ed evaluation. The rule is that these are personnel issues and the school gets to decide which employees do which tasks. I feel you'll get in trouble with complying with this family's wishes. Also, what happens if you get sick & take time off? The IEP still needs to be followed. I'd want the family to waive FAPE in the event you are not available to provide services (there's a new wave of COVID circulating). You don't want to expose the school to a lawsuit if you aren't available to provide services to this student. In my district, the sp ed supervisor would speak to the school's solicitor to see if this can be done.

At school, the school staff are in loco parentis. This means that the student's parent-parent shouldn't be needed in school because other adults can fill the role. So to answer your question: yes, they can deny him the ability to call you. The thing is when your child is neurodiverse, they might not deal well with a substitute, in loco parentis. Since this seems to be the case with your child, I'd request a no-meet IEP revision where his need for you to be called in situations like this are accommodated as part of his IEP (or 504). Non-compliance with the IEP isn't allowed. I'd go up the chain of command on that (you can also file a state complaint: https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Special Education/Complaints/Pages/default.aspx). What I've found is, in the name of FERPA, everyone isn't going to have access to the IEP and the PBSP in it. The thing is that everyone (school officials & recess teachers included) needs to follow the IEP. Being that omniscence isn't a job requirement for working at a school, I'm not sure how this happens. It might be a good question for the school: Do the school official & recess teacher know what's in my child's PBSP? It seems like the protocol to prevent my child from getting escalated to the point he needed to be interrogated by the dean wasn't followed. What needs to happen so the PBSP can be followed 100% of the time he's at school? I hope your son recovers from this incident where he develop other behaviors so this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

What services does your child need? Does any one building in your district or another one that's closer than this placement have what he needs? If the services he needs are only available 50 miles away, that's LRE. A public school does not need to create programs for your child in their district. They simply need to provide FAPE. It seems like FAPE doesn't exist since 50 minutes is too far - longer than he can be in a vehicle. I'm not sure that comp ed is the solution for this but I think that might be the only legal remedy in this situation.

An aide - where he's in the gen ed classroom w/ a helper who isn't a sp ed teacher (helper might be working w/ a few students) - might be how the new school handles coming up with a parallel to the old IEP. Resource room or self-contained classrooms would not have the level of LRE that's in the old IEP. You'll need to do your best at advocating if an inclusion classroom isn't something the new school currently does. Always good to have more than one option to suggest when meeting with the school.

I'm in a Facebook group that covers that area. I haven't heard much in the way of complaints about Pennsbury SD. I can't answer your questions but the group on Facebook is Main Line Special Needs Parents. You might want to ask them. Compensatory services might end when you move.

I would write a parent letter of concern as the school staff seems to be unfamiliar with PTSD, dysgraphia, an auditory processing disorder, and an autoimmune disorder and suspected FASD might look in the classroom. Trying harder is not possible when a student has delays due to a combination of these disabing issues. What's needed is either accommodations or special instruction so they can try starting to overcome their disabilities. You might want to send them this: https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/71143834_3039163332824480_4003938731475075072_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=PfKpj8ZwlsUAX_wWUvD&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfD72qiyDMIWTFb4tAJcD9JhV8G0Rn-gAfUs53oLA-nDbA&oe=650C4829

I would go to Lisa's website and look at her list of goals. Every child is different. My son had issues with ADHD & APD but he needed an IEP - not a 504. If you feel the 504 needs to be clarified, request a meeting & have it tweaked. https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-goal-bank/ Any IEP goal can be changed into a 504 accommodation.

I was to a conference and attended a few sessions on UDL. It's a good thing. It normalizes accommodations where students who do need them don't stand out. Makes kids less self-conscious. That said, if graphic organizers are UDL, you might still want this on an IEP. If the student goes to another school or class where this is not UDL, they will not have the accommodation they rely on. I see this as normalizing an accommodation - not diluting it. If a gen ed student is having an off day and decides to use UDL, let them. If they can do A work with UDL & B work w/o, why not use UDL? I'm taking a class that has lecture as well as subtitles. I'm finding I understand better when I read & hear. Should I limit myself to lesser understanding & not read along? (Should I play the video 2X to listen to understand better?) What would you do?

BTDT. I requested that my son be evaluated for dysgraphia a few times throughout his school career. The school OT said no - he's not dysgraphic. Fast forward to 11th grade and the issues he has aren't well explained by the evals the school has done so I requested a neuropsych evaluation. The neuropsych said he was dysgraphic & I think this is something outside of what a OT can diagnose. In a perfect world, an IEE is where you find the evaluator w/o looking at the school's list. That said, the school sometimes has some good people on their list. The neuropsych that evaluated by son was contracted by the school for when parents made a request like I did. IMO, the eval was as good as if I had picked the evaluator. It was a school eval - not an IEE - but it got the results my child needed. I would also make sure he's accommodated for this. He might need a scribe or Assistive Technology if his handwriting is delayed. He needs to have what he needs so he has access to school. If he cannot write, he needs accommodations for this.

My kids are all out of HS but I wanted to acknowledge your post. I feel that your best bet is to make your child aware of what's in the IEP as far as both special instruction (you should be pulled out once a week for A and twice a week for B) so you have info that the IEP is being followed - do the same for accommodations. I know my son was very self conscience about being different, missing class to get services. You might want to talk to them about this - my son felt it was unfair for him to get extra time for assignments. The one thing I didn't have in his IEP that I regret is that we knew he'd be missing class to get speech therapy but he also had ADHD & figuring out how to make up the work in the classes he missed for speech became a problem. I should have had someone tell him what he missed so he wasn't failing that class. If your child says they didn't get pulled once a week for A and twice a week for B, you can ask the therapist what is happening. It's possible the therapist pushed into the classroom instead so get the story from the therapist before complaining the services didn't happen. Also ask your child if there are accommodations they need that they aren't getting. If they don't have time to write down assignments, there are ways to accommodate this (photo w/ a phone/ipad or email from the teacher). With MS & lockers & changing for PE, make sure your child can do what's needed. Practice, practice, practice at home. I hope he has a great year!

I agree with Lisa. If recess dysregulates her due to the noise, etc, that's a great reason for her to do something else. Does the school have a sensory area? What about a library? Would it make sense to give her a job - like helping a teacher make copies or change out a bulletin board - where she gets a little activity. I wouldn't push her to spend the time learning. Research shows that breaks make you more productive so finding something that's fun for her might make for the best alt recess activity to put in the IEP as an accommodation.

I didn't realize that the request is to retain the child in K. There is data that retention doesn't help. Students who are retained tend to drop out where they don't graduate HS. My school has a policy on this and the decision is made over time starting around February with trying to provide additional instruction to catch up a student who is failing. It's hard for parents to overrule a schools decision to promote a student. What might make more sense would be to homeschool so there is flexibility in the schedule to do ABA if this is what's helping the most. ABA can work on some of the academic areas this child is behind in. With missing 50% of the school day as well as being academically behind, placing a child into 1st grade doesn't make sense. With missing this much school, a lack of academic progress will be blamed on lack of attendance. Depending on state laws on absences, truancy might be where the half days lead. You need to do some homework to see what the law in your state is on this. I've seen parents get in trouble with weekly therapy & a child missing an hour of school each week. (What happens a year from now? Will this child be ready for 1st grade by then?) I'm pretty sure that IDEA requires all students with an IEP to be considered for Extended School Year. My kids had IEPs and it was discussed at their IEP meetings - my daughter always qualified because she was so far behind from where she should have been. Some states require students to regress over the summer to qualify where in K, there is no track record so the school can't anticipate regression. (With a student that had an IEP in pre-K there should be info on summer regression.) If you do homeschool for this year, the current IEP will lapse and a new eval would need to be done before a new IEP could be written. My suggestion is to request an IEP eval in Feb or Mar the year you plan to have the child return to public school. This allows time for the eval & meetings so an IEP can be in place on the 1st day of school. IMO is shorthand for in my opinion. I'm curious what state you are in. There are some that are a lot harder to get sp ed services in. This sounds like one of them.

In my area, a preschooler who needs speech would have an IEP and a teacher/speech therapist would come to them at their private preschool (because we don't have public preschool where I live). There has to be a way to have an IEP in preschool - it's required under IDEA. Definitely request a special ed eval and list the areas of need: speech, OT, anxiety, sensory processing and a medical diagnosis of ADHD. (How are her social skills? With this combo, social skills will often lag.) The last page of this has a template to request an eval: https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/getting-a-special-education-evaluation.pdf

Diagnosed with what by 2 neuropsychologists? Was speech & OT evaluated by the school as part of a preschool special ed IEP? The criteria for school speech & OT are different from medical speech & OT. I would definitely look at putting a 504 in place at school. Additionally, I would request a special education evaluation be done to see if your grandchild qualifies for special ed services. (The written request needs to come from a person with educational custody which might not be you.) School staff generally are contracted to work ~186 days per year so they are not available to meet for IEP or 504 meetings during the summer. I tend to tell parents to ask for a sp ed eval in February or March of the year they will be entering the public school system since IEP evals take 100 (or more) days given the rules on how state sp ed laws are written. I would request the sp ed eval look at speech & OT given that is the outside therapy this child current gets. Depending on what the neuropsych eval says, it might make sense to ask for other things to be evaluated. You will need to share when & what evals are done because you cannot repeat the same eval within 12 months & get valid results. It might make sense to share a copy of the neuropsych evals with the school. Some will take an outside report and use it to provide IEP services rather than the school doing an eval.

What are the credentials of the person providing the documentation who told you your child needed a 1:1 at school? I'm also not sure how she will catch up to classmates if she only attends school in the morning. Was she offered ESY during the summer given the delays you list in your letter? In my area, parents can red shirt their kids and enroll them in K at age 6. I've seen this with students with IEPs as well as gen ed students. I'm assuming this is what you want where the school feels she can go from preschool into 1st grade. Did the school do a K readiness assessment? IMO, this is what's needed to place your child into K rather than 1st grade. When a parent makes a request on how something should be handled with their child with special needs, they should be prepared with data from a professional to backup the request. Asking for half day school because your child has daily ABA therapy from noon to 4 isn't something I'd tell a parent to do. Can the school provide an ABA therapist to help in the classroom? This might be a good compromise. I read your other question Posted Thursday at 02:57 PM and it's pretty much the same as what you asked here so I'm only answering here.

As the parent of a gifted student, you do not want your child doing too much helping with peers because they are not learning anything new when they are assigned to do this. (Gifted students can & should make at last one years worth of academic progress - they might be capable of more being gifted - so you want to make sure they are also meeting goals.) Teachers often cannot convey how things should be taught with a peer versus a professional paraeducator. That said, I feel it is very appropriate for the whole class to have a buddy that they work with. Someone who reminds then not to forget their glasses or lunch. If a student needs help carrying their belongings, I can see different students having a rotation to provide this help. I'm not sure what the current view is. I have a feel that different schools have different experience with doing this which might be favorable or unfavorable. Having students help peers is a good way to teach empathy, inclusion, kindness and other social/emotional concepts so I think it's good to have students watching out for peers and helping from time to time. You don't want to pull a gifted peer too often to tutor so you don't want this as the gifted student's 'job'. Keep in mind that the helper student will not be privy to the IEP & its goals and their job at school is to learn so relying too heavily on one peer shouldn't happen in a school.

Medicaid started allowing this during COVID and they have since got this extended now that the emergency is over. Pay isn't great - I've been quoted $13-17 per hour but I'm sure this can be a game changer to many families. The person I spoke with says they have gotten each parent authorized to provide 50 hours of services per week to their child. Some agencies have a max of 40 hours per parent. Contact your Medicaid provider to see what agencies in your area do this. Parents need to be trained/certified and the training is free. https://www.phlp.org/en/news/pa-to-continue-paying-parents-as-home-health-aides

I have seen this done. I'm in PA & an IBHS agency can write an IFSP that provides ABA support at school. This can be done because Medicaid pays for this. (If parents are paying, it's not free and therefore not FAPE.) In other words, it depends on how this is funded if this would be allowed. If you are paying for ABA, the best you can do is invite the ABA therapist to an IEP meeting so they can tweak the sort of 1:1 support your child gets at school. They can write a letter saying that your child needs a certified RBT as an aide. The school can also hire this ABA therapist to work with your child at school. This process can take a while because vendors of services like this need to be OK by the school board at a school board meeting. If this therapist has done this in other schools, they might know the process in your state better than I do. I'm not even sure which state you live in.

IDEA lists Emotional Disability as a disability that can qualify a student for an IEP. Common sense says that someone with ED might be emotionally dysregulated at times. Schools cannot make a manifestation of a disability as a Level 1 offence. I'm assuming your child has an IEP and ED is one of the disabilities listed in it. Lisa has more on this. https://adayinourshoes.com/emotional-disturbance-category-iep-criteria-accommodations/ My suggestion is writing a parent letter of concern stating that you are concerned if your child's ED is not properly supported at school via their IEP, they might become dysregulated. You do not wish to see your child disciplined due to a Level 1 offense because of a known manifestation of their disability because the IEP wasn't followed or was not adequate to support their need in a situation that was unanticipated by the IEP team. Make sure your concerns are copied into the IEP. Hopefully, the IEP team will meet and figure out a way to prevent your child from getting disciplined because the IEP didn't support them.

I think you might need to call the sp ed director to see what's up with moving forward. You can also try calling the person who does account payable. They do input so checks can be processed and might know the procedure for getting an IEE OKed.

You need an eval that shows a service is needed to have an IEP but you might be able to put accommodations into the 504 for better participation in PE. Ask for the PE teacher to come to a 504 meeting to see if they have suggestions on what can be done to modify PE where she's doing more than bench sitting. If they don't have suggestions, an eval for APE might be the next step.

APE is for any student who cannot access a typical PE class. You see capable students who can't deal with an echoy gym having APE as well as students who have physical limitations who needs to have modifications to the curriculum to participate more fully. https://adayinourshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/IEP-goals-and-objectives-bank-printable.pdf Does the school have a teacher who is certified to do APE? I think an IEP is needed to have APE - it's specially designed instruction due to a disability.