JSD24

It sounds like, in your area, there are magnet schools that a student needs to apply to go to and have a certain GPA to stay & this is where he currently goes. I've been told that an IEP trumps school policy (this is how my child was allowed a water bottle when it was against school rules). So the answer is yes, the IEP could put school X as the placement & then they would need to follow the IEP. What happens after HS graduation? Will your child go to college or a trade school? Does it make sense to transition him now? IMO, if the IEP team refuses to put 'placement at school X' as an accommodation in the IEP, you need to come up with a plan to ease the transition. This would include tours of the school over the summer, meeting school staff before the 1st day, etc. (And keep in mind this could be a fight at every IEP meeting to keep 'placement at school X' in the IEP until he graduates or ages out.)

The school needs to see that an eval is needed. Assessing in all areas of suspected disability is the wording - or close to it. If they don't see a disability, they don't need to assess.

Spelling issues can be due to executive function. There are lots of rules to remember so poor EF can cause a student to forget rules. Can also be due to dyslexia where the sound/letter connections aren't sticking or issues with working memory or processing speed where the capacity isn't there or he's rushing. With your younger son, was a social skills eval like the SSIS done? Was pragmatic language assessed? What happens with a different teacher in 1st grade? Will they accommodate w/o documentation like his current teacher? Can you get the current teacher to list out the accommodations she provides so he can continue to have success at school? (The accommodations could go on a 504.)

Absolutely not. The school needs to provide instruction for students who are opted out. Plus, PSSAs generally take 2-3 hours. Your child could go in late but, under no circumstances, should they miss a full day. Have her take the test w/o accommodations. If she can't answer a question, she can guess. She could make a nice pattern with filling in scantron bubbles if she wants. It sounds like the school spent time going over the PSSA accommodations at the meeting you had. Did you put anything in writing on this? There is a saying in education: if it's not in writing, it didn't happen. You need to document soon after the meeting if you don't agree. IMO, PSSA accommodations should mirror the accommodations given on other tests. Or they could have added accommodations with it being a longer test.

I'd wait. But in the meantime, reach out to people who do IEE evals. Get costs and timelines - expect a wait. Then you are better prepared if the school comes back with OK but keep it under $XXX. You can quickly come back with: I wanted for XX to do the eval and their cost is higher. Of the 3 people I contacted, only one can do it & they don't have a background with XX which is needed to evaluate my child.

It's the school party with holding an IEP meeting so they control who is invited. You want people who know the child, know the disability or know what the school can do for the child so these folks do fit the bill. Yes, it is intimidating sometimes to both parents & school staff.

If you do not sign an annual IEP renewal, the revised IEP goes into effect in 10 days in PA unless you check 'Due Process' on the NOREP. If you are in Due Process with the school district, the old IEP (the one you agreed to a year+ ago) should be followed. Since PSSAs start in 3rd, and last year's IEP was for 2nd (my assumption), the box on the IEP for accommodations wasn't checked. Given this situation, I'd contact the Consult Line (https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/) as this puts accommodations into a gray area. (This does sound a bit like retaliation for Due Process rather than doing what is best for your child/their student.) You are right that with a speech only IEP, accommodations would go on a 504. Since parents are not required members of the 504 team, the school can do as they please with making changes to the 504. The 504 should be followed but it's not like it has a check box the the PA IEP has for PSSA accommodations. No reason you can't request a no-meet revision to the 504 and put accommodations for PSSAs on that. (This is what the school would do if they wanted to help your child.) The other thing is that PSSA scores aren't all that meaningful. They are supposed to reflect how good a job the school is doing with teaching your child - not how well your child is doing with learning. Religious opt out is always an option. It's a 3-step process. Templates here for opt out letters: https://parentsunitedphila.com/opt-out/

My school district will not use the term dyslexia in an eval report. Most don't. Neuropsychologists tend to use the terms dyslexia and dyscalculia. You can ask for a neuropsych eval but they are expensive as most school don't have one on their payroll. Do document what this teacher is doing as proof of what your child needs to make progress. IMO, progress is more important than a diagnosis.

I think this looks like discrimination based on a disability. Schools are supposed to support every student so they have assess to what the rest of their classmates have access to. He shouldn't be denied a field trip because the school failed to child find and write up an IEP with the needed supports so the child's misbehavior is accommodated.

For the issues that you requested services to address, did the school do an evaluation? The way IEPs work is the services are based on baseline data. That data comes from the eval report the school prepared. If there is no mention of an issue in the report, it's like the issue doesn't exist. You might need to be requesting an eval for the issues you see so there is baseline data on which to base the services you see are needed. In other words, look at the eval. If you don't see the issues you want addressed mentioned as issues, the eval was not in 'all areas of suspected disability' as required by IDEA. You need more evals if the school didn't assess an area of need. You can ask for an IEE at school expense if they missed an area that should have been assessed. https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

As a new teacher, you might need to do as you are told so you can become an 'old', tenured teacher. IMO, the present levels are the present levels no matter if they are at home or at school. Also, attributing a statement to the parent makes it clear that this is the parent's observation but I can see where the unwritten policy at your school is school related info only and that needs to be followed. I've also seen in my own child's IEP that services were being provided without a baseline evaluation ever being done so is was based on teacher observation that the services were needed. They eventually did an eval but that was after the IEP was in place for a year and a half. (The results were worse than I imagined.)

My school district goes over the RR and then transitions into an IEP meeting. It's one big, long meeting - same people needed for both so that's what they do. Look at the Invite. It will probably say that the RR will be reviewed and the IEP updated.

He is owed compensatory educational services given the school's delay in finding him an appropriate placement. I'm not sure what type of school has no aides. My district has close to 200 aides with ~12,000 students. No aides makes no sense. (In my state, you would be involved with the truancy officer. What's funny is they would help you advocate for an appropriate placement.)

Your child is not receiving FAPE which is required. IMO, homebound or cyber school might be appropriate for his placement. Schools in the US are not allowed to ignore the issues that have resulted in his truancy and lack of instruction. I feel a lawyer should be involved given how inept the school seems to be at determining your child's needs and meeting them. I'm not sure if an IEP goal to get a GED is a possibility. His autism and trauma are not being appropriately addressed by the school. Also, the pain he feels is real. The mind/body connection can cause pain to exist when there are emotional issues.

Your volunteer friend may have violated FERPA by telling you that your son eloped from the classroom. I would tread lightly with moving forward. I think you need to write to the teacher & cc the principal as well as the sp ed director/supervisor. Mention your concern for his safety. Reiterate that you feel a 504 plan might be a good interim way to put a plan in place while the school looks at determining if your child qualifies for an IEP. A student needs to have a disability to qualify for either an IEP or a 504 and from what you've written, he may qualify. He is not being adequately supported at school if he's eloping. He needs more than the school currently is providing him.

The "60 days to do an eval" varies by state. I'm in PA and it is 60 calendar days. Most states do no count summer break - not part of the calendar for the purpose of 60 calendar days in PA. Yes, it is confusing and a huge learning curve to climb but we are here to help. Putting things in writing - on paper or via email - creates a paper trail so you can count the days from your request as well as having documentation of the school's response...in case there is a question in the future. Do write your request ASAP so you get the clock ticking. The last page of this has a template for your written request: https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/getting-a-special-education-evaluation.pdf This format should work in any state.

My daughter is 2E and stayed for an extra year after she met her graduation requirements. She spent the year on a college campus and took a class per semester. There was a sp ed teacher overseeing this - I think there were 6 in her group doing this. The class & other on-campus services was 3 days per week. The other days, she did a job shadowing program. Her main area of need was social skills. She was measured to be in the ~2nd percentile in 10th grade the one time they evaluated her social skills. It's an IEP team decision about staying until age 21. The program she was in was designed for students with autism but there are lots of other programs out there. You need to have a need for the extra IEP services. Again, it based on if the IEP team feels it's needed.

IQ tests are known to be less accurate if given before the age of 8. What age was your child with these 2 tests? 16 points is one standard deviation. I can see a little variance (5 points) but not this much. Why didn't they do the same test as they did last time?

This is a duplicate posting. Not sure why the same thing was posted twice. Actually this same post is in this forum 3 times.

Everyone in school is spread thin so I think they wanted to to try to get you to be creating less work for the therapists. IDEA does require progress monitoring. In my state, these are done when report cards come out. If you feel you need info more often, you can ask for an IEP meeting & request more frequent progress reports s an accommodation. You'll need to justify why you need this more often than other parents. You can also request parent training so you can better assist your child at home with the speech & OT she gets at school.

In Chester County, there are a lot of public charter schools. PASD must bus your children to any charter school that is within 10 miles of PASD as the bus drives. I'm not sure which fit this profile and I'm also not sure which might have an opening in K. A friend of mine recently switched her child from CCDC to an online charter school. She's 2nd grade. That's also an option and these being public schools, they would need to follow her IEP which a private school doesn't have to do. Private schools can also expel a child for any number of reasons. IMO, this isn't going to be a good choice for your daughters. Have you reported the incident where you were not informed by the school of your child attempt to self harm to Children, Youth & Families? Chain of command does include any oversight agencies. IMO, you need to do this so there is documentation as to why you withdrew your children from this school. This is child neglect (and endangerment) because the en loco parentis failed to inform the parent of the nature and seriousness of what happened at school. (How did things get that far? Where was the adult supervision?) You want to make sure that the powers that be follow up to make sure corrective action is taken by the school so this doesn't happen to another family. The medication combination also has me upset. Uppers & downers together in a 6 year old. Yikes! Was an FBA done when behaviors escalated? That's the correct action to take. The process puts data together to add a PBSP to the IEP. This sounds like what should have happened when behahios got worse at school. They cannot change the IEP w/o data on which to base what new support is needed. What did the suspension paperwork say? There's a movement not to suspend younger students. Philly schools have rules about this - I wish others did too (better yet would be a statewide rule). I kept my twins in the same classroom so they could look out for each other. I'm not sure what I would have done if one seemed OK with going to the neighborhood school and the other wasn't served well by the same school. (I kept them together because their older sister had lots of issues and we didn't get enough help from the school with her 504 & GIEP. They missed that she had autism until she was in 8th grade. I have medical issues & tried to keep things simple & keeping them in the same classroom made things a bit easier for me. My medical issues started when my twins were 4 & my oldest was 12.) It's late as I'm writing this. I will think some more about this. I think you have other posts I haven't read.

With a speech only IEP, only an SLP and LEA is needed for an IEP meeting. If this is the case where one of your children only qualifies for speech then a sp ed teacher isn't needed. The SLP is the case manager & will write the IEP.

IDEA allows the school to change placement w/o the IEP team deciding for 10 days. After 10 days, it's looked upon as a change of placement where the IEP team needs to decide if this is appropriate.

I look at special ed (IEPs & 504s) as a contract that the school makes with a student & their family to provide more than what they provide in general education. Anything your child needs beyond what his classmates get should be spelled out in the IEP or 504. It's up to you to figure out what your child needs & bring it to the team so it can be added to the 'contract'. Having data to support the need is key to the school adding it to the IEP.

Travel training assessment will look at your child crossing the street, riding the bus, etc. With freezing, I'd ask for an FBA. IMO, it's a sign of overwhelm & shutting down. Recess & hallways can also be looked at through an FBA.