JSD24

Schools are allowed to do this. People move, staff moves or switches what they are doing, students have to go where the programs they need are located. I've seen where siblings are assigned to different bus stops and their bus times are similar where one parent cannot get both students from the bus. My district does things like this all the time. They like to have bigger classes so they can have fewer teachers. They wouldn't have a class with just one student. They'd move the student.

A lot of what you mention fall under OT & the school OT should have a budget to buy things like this. (I can see a parent sending in food rewards.) An IEP is a document and documents don't have a budget. The LEA is the member of the IEP team who OKs what goes into the IEP & thereby OKs school funds being spent on things like this. If the IEP says a child needs fidgets or a band on their chair legs, the school should pay for the item & the teacher should ensure it's there & in working order. If a teacher thinks a student might benefit from a wiggle seat or chair bands and wanted to try this, IMO, they should ask the OT if they have a spare before going out & buying things. Teacher are known to spend their meager paycheck trying to do what's best for their students. I'm not sure if they can ask to be reimbursed for things like this. (Our PTO gives each teacher funds to make purchases at their discretion. Not all schools do this.) Books have been written about the inequity and lack of school funding. IMO, the back to school supply list should not include sanitizing wipes or tissues or dry erase markers but this is often the case as schools don't supply these (and I feel they should).

When a student doesn't attend school, the assumption for any educational delays is that they were not there to get instruction which is why are delayed. You are right that proving a disability caused school refusal is tough to do. If the family can afford to, my suggestion is a neuropsych eval. Some insurances will cover this. I've also heard of due process after a student has graduated. If the school's lack of Child Find caused the school refusal, there could be a case. With adult ed, disabilities need to be accommodated for so having an evaluation on which to base the accommodations the students needs would be helpful. I wish this student & their family luck in getting a GED & it opening doors to being a gainfully employed and productive adult.

Does your child have an IEP or a 504? Has the school done a special ed evaluation to see if he needs something more than general ed? (The fact that he doesn't remember the names of classmates has me a bit concerned that he might have a delay or disability.) My daughter wasn't a great communicator either. In retrospect, it was a sign of her autism. I'll give you an idea on what you might be able to say to your son: What was the best thing that happened at school today? The worst? There is info on the forum here about Ross Greene. He has a whole protocol on talking to kids & getting them to open up. This is the link: One thing I learned this summer is the more you talk to kids, the better. They learn so much about little things when you sort of narrate what you're doing/what's going through your mind. It actually helps them with reading by giving the background knowledge so they better understand what they read.

There is a saying in education: If it's not in writing, it didn't happen. I think this is happening to you. Start writing instead of talking. Request that the things you write are copied into your child's file/IEP so that the teachers can reference what's there. Also keep in mind that the school's evaluation should have covered all areas of suspected disability. If it didn't or the results are not accurate, the team will still be following that as gospel for everything your child needs. If it's not complete or accurate, you might need the school to do more testing or you might need to request an IEE. https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

So, there will be an IEP/ARD meeting when school starts up in the fall so at this point in time, you do not know what sort of support your child will get via their IEP nor what accommodations they will have beyond what's currently in their 504. There's not much you can do right now since the ARD meeting requires teachers to attend and, right now, they are off for the summer. On the other hand, there are things that can be done. First, you are seeing school refusal/anxiety at home. This can happen when a student realizes they are different from classmates & fear being bullied/teased because they are different. Being pulled for services can also be a 'difference' that students get teased or bullied for. The real question becomes: Is getting the support they need going to help the anxiety? Obviously, it will take time to bring your child up to speed/catch them up to where classmates are. The other side of this is your child having access to the curriculum while they are catching up. Audiobooks & and directions read to them and speech to text software or access to a keyboard are things that can help with access while special ed instruction catches your child up. If the school's report says your child needs an IEP, the school should follow their report. I'm curious if the anxiety was looked at & if that's in the report. Talk to your child on how they feel about getting an IEP & the right support for their learning disability. This way, you can advocate for support that will not cause the anxiety to go up. Second, I'm assuming you gave the letter the doctor wrote to the principal & they documented this need in your child's file. The school should use all the data they have to come up with the right supports for your child. This letter is data that needs to be considered & accommodations should be granted. Your child leaving school early in the past is also data that this was an accommodation in the past (even if this accommodation wasn't documented on the 504 like it should have been). It's part of the data that should be in your child's file that's used at the ARD meeting. What is currently in the 504 should be incorporated into the IEP. Third, if you will be helping your child with missed work, you want to be on the same page as the teachers. This might mean that parent training is needed in the systematic reading protocol the teachers will be using. This can & should be in the IEP. Lastly, with knowing that your child will not be in the school building beyond 3:30, make sure that the special instruction your child will be getting isn't scheduled for when they will be out of the building. I've seen where a student was to get help 1X per week and they were pulled for outside therapy 1X per week and guess when their sp ed class was scheduled? (If you guess when they were pulled for therapy, give yourself a point.) As a postscript, make sure the special instruction they put in the IEP is something that's evidenced/researched to help students with "the characteristics of dyslexia and the related disorder of dysgraphia." Also look at the progress monitoring reports that you'll be getting. Students need to progress more than one year every school year to catch up to classmates. If progress is slower than this, the remedial instruction might not be a good match for your child's disability. You don't want a child who is 2 years behind to stay 2 years behind or worse, become 2 and a half years behind when they go into 4th grade. Also, make sure that the 3:30 thing is well documented. You don't want to end up in a truancy situation because of after school therapy. You might need excuse notes for everytime you get her at 3:30. This is the school's "game" so make sure you are playing by their "rules" - ask what's needed and follow what they say. (Ask in writing & hope they reply in writing so you have written proof of their policy. If not write them an email 'confirming our conversation on Aug 12, 2023 as to how to document XX leaving at 3:30 everyday' so you do have it in writing.)

The better route is to get the school to see that your child needs an OOD placement as LRE. The IEP can have a private school as the placement if that's the only place where the appropriate services are offered to meet the needs listed in the IEP. (Ohio & Florida have some scholarships - not sure about IL.) Schools pay for schooling. States pay for other things.

Get the state involved. File a complaint. I worked with a family where the child was severely autistic and could barely leave the house. (It took 6 weeks of working with her daily for her to go to the pool in her complex.) They ended up in court for truancy but I think the judge sided with the family because the fine was $5. Every state has an advocacy center. Some have an 'Ed Law' agency. There are disability rights groups as well as the Arc who might be able to help you. I'd document what's going on. (In this case, the parents never got an invitation to an IEP meeting & the school changed the placement w/o them participating in the meeting.) PA has a Consult Line where you can call/email and get questions answered. If you provide where you live, we could provide a better list of resources. BTW, retaliation is hard to prove. If the school wants to pull the IEP, that often happens when the school eval isn't complete/accurate. This is when an IEE is needed. Schools don't see what parents are going through to get their child to school when they are refusing. And when the child's at school, they mask so they aren't bullied. Child looks fine & parents look negligent but looks are deceiving.

PA has a consult line that parents can call or email & be called back a few days later with answers to questions. This might be your best solution to this situation. https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/

IEP services should come with transportation. In my area, IU teachers & therapists will come to preschools & daycare facilities so long at the care center or school is within the appropriate feeder area of the sending school district and in some cases within the IU feeder area (I'm not exactly sure what their rubric is for going to where a child spends their day but they do not go into the child's home). The inability of parents to bring a child to the IU for services isn't considered. I've seen where families who rely on public transportation and cannot afford an Uber or bus to get their child to the IU for the services in the IEP go without services. Where does your child spend they time when you and your husband are working? Why isn't the IU coming to this location to provide the services on the IEP? EI (birth - 3) tends to offer more services to children that what the IU does. 3 hours/week of IEP services (services staying the same despite some progress) would also be itinerant. EI uses more of a medical model where the IU uses an educational model when determining services. There is nothing you can do to push the needle to show that your child is all of a sudden more disabled and needing more services than they had through EI. I know when my child had speech services, we were expected to reinforce what his SLP did by doing exercises at home which is how repetition happened. Given you disagree, what data do you have that shows he needs more services than the offer of FAPE on this IEP? This is what's key to more services: Data showing more services are educationally appropriate. Given how minimal the IEP is, you can exit your child from special ed and pursue outside services. In PA, your child should qualify for Medicaid and they would cover services 100%. Your other option is to not sign the IEP and go without and not do outside services either. Many children his age who are on the autism spectrum do extensive ABA therapy. These are often the students who are educated in delay or autistic support classrooms. If your child does not have an IEP when you go to register them for kindergarten, do request a special ed eval around February or March where you want him to start kindergarten later that year. This current IEP would lapse by the time he's old enough for K if you don't sign for preschool IEP services.

I'm in PA & providing PWN happens automatically after the IEP meeting because what gets signed by parents to OK the IEP is the PWN. I would write something with KISS in mind: Dear IEP Case Manager- Can you please provide PWN for the request for captioning of instruction via CART that was discussed and requested at XXX's IEP meeting on June X, 2023. Thank you, I know exactly what your child needs. I'm HOH & I do OK in meetings & in lectures but I'd do better if I had hearing aids. I have to work harder to absorb what's being said. You are correct that her implants do not provide equal access. They provide access but it's not equal to what non-disabled students have.

Schools follow the IEP. Ask for work samples to be required as part of progress monitoring. If she's getting 4 out of 5 correct, have the ICT teacher send you a copy of those 5 math problems. The other thing that can be done is a sp ed assessment. Ask the school to evaluate her math ability to see how things are going since the ICT teacher's data is incongruent with state testing, MAP and iReady results. Something has got to be inaccurate. Students who are getting B's shouldn't be scoring well below basic. Another option you can do is print out some unmodified problems and have your child work through them. Save a copy of what she did & note how long it took her to do. (I know PA has sample questions on the website that lists state standards.) If she's meeting goals of 80% on modified tests, what's the next goal? 90%? Unmodified questions? And for Carolyn. They might not have saved the passages but they can tell you their protocol. They used an online test of some sort. What's the name of the website? What grade level did they pick? (I remember a story from an advocate about a teacher who gave the same passage each time. Student had unbelievable progress but the testing was invalid.) You can also make up an assessment yourself. Write a passage that's ~100 words. (With 100 words, the math on words/minute is EZ to calculate.) Have the child read it. Look at the state standards or get help from a librarian to make sure it's at grade level. Your results might not be all that accurate but it'll be better than the nothing the school provided. Here's an example of how you can do this: Here's more:

Schools follow the IEP. If it's not in the IEP, the school doesn't need to do it. That said, document, document, document. Write an email: Consultant suggested X. School said that they would do X but this wasn't added to the IEP. I am concerned that without this being in the IEP, my son will not get X at school. Please take my parents concerns in this email and copy & paste this into the parent concerns section of the IEP. Thank you. This is how you can document what was said at the meeting & get it into the IEP.

K these days is like 1st or 2nd grade when I went to school. Kids need to focus & learn. You don't say what state you're in. Every state has standards that students need to learn. Do a search: standards in ___ (your state). Read them over for K. Do you feel your child will be able to learn all this a year from now with how she's progressing? If the answer is no, another year of preK is probably the right choice. I tend to be for staying with same-age classmates. IMO, there's more benefit to extra sp ed post HS than pre K. With some students, they just aren't ready for this and you need to lay a good foundation to build on. With a 40 second attention span, I just don't see her meeting K standards unless this changes a lot over the summer. (You said she's at a 24 month level. These standards are for age 60+ months. That's a huge difference.)

Your child has to go to the school that can follow the IEP. In my district, we have 11 elementary schools. If you need emotional support, only one of those school offers this service. If your child needs this, they go there - no matter where in the district you live. It's similar for ASD support (4 schools), MD support (1 school), life skills (1 school). I was working with a parent in another district. Her child is severely dyslexic. They have 0 people trained to treat dyslexia in her district. (I have a feeling they are not identifying these students & when they do, they aren't getting the researched based remedial programs required under IDEA.) She's looking at her child going to a private school as that's the most appropriate placement given the severity of the disability. If a school doesn't have what your child needs, it's not LRE. IDEA doesn't consider what's best for your child from a social/emotional perspective. They look at the student getting what they need/following the IEP. You might need to waive a service or 2 (ones that you neighborhood school lacks expertise in) if you want for your child to go there. This is the angle to use to sell the neighborhood school as the right placement for your child. (I waived FAPE for my son. I had to sign paperwork in the presence of witnesses. It took awhile for the school to prepare the paperwork. I don't think this happens that often. BTW, it was the best thing for my child. I took him to 1:1 speech therapy - school did group - and he was cured in 4 months. He had over 4 years of school therapy with little progress. He moved his tongue laterally. That was his speech problem. The school therapists didn't see this in group therapy.)

I think this is very typical. In the education world, they look at access to getting an education. Medical therapists look at this as well but also look at access to the rest of the world. Given the different criteria, you'll often find that outside therapy is easier to qualify for as well as being more comprehensive. EI tends to use a medical model.

This page has resources in KY for sp ed: https://education.ky.gov/specialed/excep/Pages/FamParRes.aspx Hopefully you can get answers from here.

It sounds like CA is different from where I am (PA). We get an IEP & we also get a NOREP (which is PWN) and it's the NOREP/PWN that parents sign. I found this on CA & PWN: https://serr.disabilityrightsca.org/serr-manual/chapter-4-information-on-iep-process/4-17-what-is-prior-written-notice-pwn/ It looks like you'd need to request a change of placement & have the school say no in order for PWN to be of use. What you really want is 'stay put'/no change the the current IEP or placement. I believe in CA, parents hold the cards with moving the IEP process forward because you need to sign that you are OK with the IEP for the new IEP to be implemented. I'm not exactly sure how the process works but my feeling is that you should write a parent concerns letter. You want your child to stay where they are because you just changed up support and you don't feel things have been in place long enough to say it's not working and your child should change schools. I'm hoping someone with a better handle on how things work in CA answers this too.

When Keystones were first introduced in 2013 (my daughter's class was the 1st class to take them - she was class of 2014), there was a project based assessment that substituted for passing Keystones. They tried it & realized you needed to pay teachers to oversee these projects & schools didn't have the funds or personnel to do this and that path faded away as implementation dates for keystones being a graduation requirement kept being pushed back. I'm pretty sure that this wasn't one of the alt pathways that was part of Act 158 of 2018. My school district just started offering the ASVAB as an alt pathway. What's cool about this option is the ASVAB also has a companion part which takes how the student did and comes up with career suggestions that match the things they are good at (per the test) with potential job pathways. Graduating based on meeting IEP goals is an option but these students are generally not headed to postsecondary schools or a career with a lot of opportunity for growth. There's a class you can take that counts as passing the Keystone but I don't feel that doing this really shows mastery of the subject.

In my district, we have RBTs who can push in behavioral interventions when a student is in gen ed classes. I don't see how this methodology would work with students who have emotional disabilities. I don't believe this is best practice. I'm surprised with reporting them to the state that they haven't pulled the teacher's license. (If reported to the school, they might not do much if the teacher has tenure.) One approach would be to show your child needs a firm but calm approach without swearing. Then you have the teacher follow the IEP/find a placement that fits his needs.

You're on point with this. I wouldn't look to change an IEP that covered Jan 22 - Jan 23. Every goal should have a service/specially designed instruction to help the student meet this goal. If the goal is to remain calm in triggering situations, there should services to help the child meet this goal - just like you would expect services to teach a child to read if that was their goal. (If they had the skill, they wouldn't need an IEP with this goal. IEPs are all about SDI - specially designed instruction - to meet goals.) There should be mention of the person & place associated with these services as well as a timeframe: Speech services once per 6-day cycle for 45 minutes provided by the SLP in their office. With emotional regulation, the school social worker or someone with clinical expertise & credentials might be providing services. https://adayinourshoes.com/emotional-self-regulation/ (They should be taught when the student is calm & receptive to learning not alongside of someone de-escalating the situation.) If last year's goal will continue as a goal & there was no detail on how the services were provided, I think they should correct this for the current IEP. The old IEP has lapsed. No use spending time on it. I do feel you are in your right to ask how often a goal was worked on, with whom and if it was in the classroom or during a pull-out session. The current IEP should specify what's being done going forward. The situation might fall under something that can be fixed with a state complaint.

Rules like this vary from state to state. I'm pretty sure in my state, PA, that a gen ed teacher would only be required if the topic was moving your child to gen ed for some amount of time. So, no, this isn't typical. (It might be CYA on the part of the school because they were found to not have this when it was needed. IMO, you shouldn't hesitate to sign this.)

In my state, I believe there is a 2 week wait for homebound services to start. There is also a shortage of teachers willing to do this as they do it after school. Some schools offer cyber instruction in cases like this so don't be surprised if this is their solution. (It tends to be a max of 10 hours/week with a teacher coming to your home.) Cyber tends to be more hours. I'm not sure how they can accommodate sp ed instruction since the teacher would need to be sp ed certified.

My children are all high school graduates but my feeling at IEP meetings was that if the school did not see the need to remediate my child, it would fall on me and I have a lot less resources than a school district. I have anxiety and would often take anti-anxiety medication in order to get through an IEP meeting. I'm busy right now but will look at contacting you when things settle down.

Did they have evaluations that documented their position that he's met goals/isn't disabled any more? There should be a trail of him meeting goals and testing out of special ed. You can ask to see their info on this.