JSD24

Sitting outside of the classroom doesn't sound like he's able to have the same access to instruction (Can he see the board? Does the teacher use gestures that he can see? Is the teacher's voice loud & clear where he's sitting?) that the classmates get. How is he expected to learn the same things if his instruction isn't the same? Might be better for him if he watched a livestream of the classroom than listening from the hallway. This sounds like a civil rights violation to me. Is he always noisy? Does this describe him at home? When he is like this at home, what's the antecedent? Could this be the same at school? I'm not sure how anyone can do an FBA to determine what in the classroom is the triggering antecedent to his disruptive behavior if he's not in the classroom where they can observe him. I'm hoping they will do additional observations so there will be data showing what in the classroom triggers him when he is in the classroom. (FBAs can be dynamic where they get added to.) If this doesn't happen, an IEE would be needed. Was there any biting, hitting, kicking, eloping from learning area or from the property during the FBA? What did they say was the antecedent to those? Why isn't he in the classroom in the morning if the behaviors happen in the afternoon? Pretty sure that "in general ed" means in the same classroom as the rest of the class & not in the hallway near the classroom. What does the IEP say as to where he's educated? Does your state have a place for parents to ask questions like this? - The answer to this looks to be yes. They have a Education Program Specialist (EPS) who can answer questions. More info here: https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Special-Education/Dispute-Resolution/EarlyResolution_Information-sheet.pdf.aspx I think you need to call & clarify that what they are doing is in line with IDEA & state regs. Lastly, how is the BIP teaching him better behavior? Are they teaching him ways to calm down? Does he have a place to go to regulate when he becomes dysregulated in the classroom? He's going to pick his place & end up eloping if he doesn't have a place in the building where this can happen. Picking him up and taking him home is a suspension. How does the school record this on his attendance records?

In his acceptance speech, he says he'll be there for every American citizen. These are his exact words: Every single day, I will be fighting for you, and with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America. That's what we have to have. From: https://www.npr.org/2024/11/06/nx-s1-5181584/trump-celebrates-historic-win-in-speech We are a diverse group who include the disabled person he mockingly imitated as well as 'losers' who have life-long injuries from defending our freedom. From what he said he's changed from when he was last president - based on his actions. Maybe we need to remind him of the diversity of citizens that he will represent from 2025 - 2029. This is from the 1/6/21 transcript (https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country. And I say this despite all that's happened. The best is yet to come. So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. He also said: I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Maybe the people who were there misinterpreted what was said. I wish he'd stop saying 'fight' and raising his fist. I saw this as aggressive & it was a turn off.

There's only one social skills assessment that I'm aware of. It's the SSIS - Social Skills Improvement System. I'm assuming there are other assessments out there that I'm not familiar with. I did find an article that listed other assessments: https://blog.difflearn.com/2024/05/23/picking-the-right-social-skills-assessment/ The AFLS is something I'm familiar with and I believe it looks at a lot more than just social skills. My child's experience was they taught her 'skills'. I'm not sure if what skills were picked really addressed the deficit areas because there was little progress. You want to teach the skills that they don't have and in a way they will grasp and know when & how to apply them.

Was social skills assessed? That's where my child scored really low due to autism. I'd also change up how you ask her about school. Instead of 'How was school today?' ask 'What was the best part about school today?' and after she answers, ask 'What was the worst part?' With autism, communication seems to always be impaired to a degree but a different type of question will generally not get you the 'knee jerk' it was good/great. You might want to read up on afterschool restraint collapse as well as masking. Lots of autistics go through school masking where this is something they are always thinking about at school.

They need to keep accurate records with billing Medicaid. If the child was out sick or on a field trip where they weren't in the building, this is Medicaid fraud if no services were rendered which is a serious misuse of taxpayer funds. Medicaid is administered at the state level so you would need to go to the state with a complaint. I know where I live (PA), I can go to my state rep or senator with these sorts of issues. In other states, state legislators are part-time positions and they don't get involved with things like this. I assume that you could go to the state dept of health & human services or the ed law center in your state with a complaint. My state has a Health Law Center that could help with this. Realistically, Medicaid should audit this school since the lack of records increases the likelihood that bills were generated for students who didn't receive them. Often, the log is a list of students who got services where the names of other students need to be redacted. Since this takes time, I'd understand that there could be a delay in getting those records to you but they wouldn't be saying that they don't exist - they exist in a form that cannot be shared with a parent w/o editing. Therapists shoulf be keeping progress notes too. Those aren't shared with parents but are used to prepare progress reports that are part of the IEP process. (This might be where billing info come from.) With the week they did testing, I'd email and request clarification. If your child's IEP says 30 minutes of reading daily but they actually only spent 15 minutes with 1:1 testing that week, this would be a violation of the IEP. They need to do what the IEP states and the only time there is an exception is when the student is out due to illness so, technically, they should get services on days when there field trips and assemblies but the reality is that kids need field trips and assemblies when they are happening and IEP services don't happen. The IEP should probably say that in Sept, Jan and May, there will be one week where the reading interventionist is testing students rather than providing service minutes. It's a CYA type of thing. I know my son's IEP says that services start Sept 10 where school starts in August because they are figuring out schedules when school starts plus they do a 4-day weekend with Labor Day.

This is what I found on this document on pg 73: https://www.alabamaachieves.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2019-Mastering-the-Maze-Process-1.pdf: • Results of the most recent evaluations/assessments/tests (typically within the past year): Include all information on evaluation/assessment/test results that are helpful to develop the IEP. It is not necessary to repeat information from the Notice and Eligibility Decision Regarding Special Education Services. The information should be written in meaningful terms so the parent, IEP Team members, and service providers have a clear understanding of the results. Standard scores, Level 3, percentiles, age, and grade equivalents, can be misleading. For example, stating a child scored a Level 3 in the average range should be easy for all to understand. Be consistent. Use terms such as above average, average, or below average to make test results more meaningful for those not familiar with scoring. Interpretation of Evaluation Results (standard scores with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15) o 116 and above = Above Average o 115-85 = Average o 84 and below = Below Average o Example: In reading, John scored a 95 (standard score) in the average range. It doesn't say about including info older than a year old but if I was to be filling out this form, I would want to mention when testing was last done or when the next testing is due. IDEA requires triennial testing so if it is noted that testing was last done in April of 2023, seeing this makes the IEP team aware that it's due to be done again in April 2026. If the student you see in real life doesn't match what's in the evaluation report, IMO, it's a sign that an eval might need to be done sooner than required.

Was social skills evaluated? Why not a speech only IEP with goals & services for pragmatics? I'd request progress monitoring in the areas they will be working on. Looks like they aren't doing anything about pragmatics.

Following how their rules are spelled out, they can deny a parent access to a school building. It is assumed that the parents know that an ID is required - my district swipes your drivers licence but they can also type in a name - so they should be prepared by bringing an ID. On the other hand, common sense says they know him and he'll be supervised while in the building so he's a low risk for abusing children or causing a disruption in the building. These rules all started after Jerry Sandusky abused children in a camp situation. From what I understand, other people were aware of this and didn't say anything. From what I'm aware of, Mr. Sandusky would have been able to get the needed clearances so he would have been able to work, unsupervised, in the same situation giving him access to children if this situation happened today. I guess the hope is that if you see something, you say something - this is what will prevent this from happening again. Maybe the school policy should state that in the case of a person known to the school and that person not having ID and being supervised while in the building, that person can be admitted to the building at the discretion of staff. (Add common sense to the policy.)

(Accidentally hit post.) I was wondering how they have this incident in your son's school records - records that, under FERPA, you are allowed to view - and this has the names of other students on it where an admin is saying you can't have a copy because of the other students' names. If they will not send you a copy, make an appointment to go in and see the records. They can charge you for copies under FERPA but you should be allowed to take photos with your phone. As far as diagnoses go, there is medical autism and educational autism. If he was diagnosed outside of school, he has medical autism. Did the school do an autism eval? Sometimes students don't meet the criteria for educational autism and the school says they have ED. You can ask for an IEE at school expense to verify that he doesn't have educational autism and that ED is the right category in IDEA. https://adayinourshoes.com/autism-whats-the-difference-between-medical-and-educational-diagnoses/

They can do a trial of adding an aide - it sounds like a reasonable next step. I'm assuming there was an IEP meeting where this happened and you were present at the meeting. Also assuming that this IEP meeting is where you were told that his behavior disrupted the classroom, etc. There is a nice paper trail of what led to him having an aide. Are the duties of the aide well defined in the revised IEP? How long has it been since you requested a copy of the incident report? Was your request in writing or verbally at the IEP meeting? I'd ask again and keep adding a higher level admin to the cc with every email you send them. Weekly isn't too often to be making a request like this.

Was it the school neuropsych who did the diagnosing or did you bring him to someone outside of school? If this was done outside of school, the school will only have that as part of his records if you provided paperwork from the diagnostician. It's possible that the school records are sloppy or are missing the fact that his doctor tweaked meds to help him have better behavior. (Maybe they only looked at school records & not things you provided.) Under FERPA, you are allowed to clarify school records. You might want to see these records to determine if you should add something so they know he's taking meds for behavior and as long as they are right, he should be OK to be in his neighborhood school & not an alt placement. (Not sure if you should email them as to why they feel he might need an alt placement as you have not been informed of any issues he's having at school. I've seen where parents are not in the loop so the school can have data where they should be keeping parents in the loop so meds can be tweaked. I know as kids grow, dosing can often need to change.) If the person is new, they might not know your son and the fact that things settled down. Has the school requested parent input with doing the triennial eval? You could mention that he's taking meds to help with behavior and you want to know of any issue the school is having with him so meds can be tweaked when needed. I know that my son who has ADHD needed meds for both focus and to cut down on impulsive outbursts. Luckily he was OK at school. I think video games were a trigger for him. We did adjust how much he was getting from time to time.

CSE seems to be a NY thing. I (and Google) didn't see this associated with any other state. I'm not familiar with what the position entails. To answer your question. If I was looking to evaluate a student and knowing that IDEA is looking for students to be assessed in all areas of suspected disability, I'd look at the school records & put on my detective hat. If I saw low math grades, I'd suspect a math disability. If I saw many referrals for behavior, I'd suspect a behavior disability. This would be the guide to use for whomever was coming up with the disabilities I'd suspect in a student and the direction for a triennial evaluation to head in. I'm not sure if this is normal or not but it is not a conflict of interest to review records in order to plan what's needed to go forward. Also, in very small school districts you'll find that one admin will wear many hats.

This is a copy & paste of the law from this website: https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title33/t33ch2/sect33-202/ TITLE 33 EDUCATION CHAPTER 2 ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOLS 33-202. School attendance compulsory. The parent or guardian of any child resident in this state who has attained the age of seven (7) years at the time of the commencement of school in his district, but not the age of sixteen (16) years, shall cause the child to be instructed in subjects commonly and usually taught in the public schools of the state of Idaho. To accomplish this, a parent or guardian shall either cause the child to be privately instructed by, or at the direction of, his parent or guardian; or enrolled in a public school or public charter school, including an on-line or virtual charter school or private or parochial school during a period in each year equal to that in which the public schools are in session; there to conform to the attendance policies and regulations established by the board of trustees, or other governing body, operating the school attended. History: [33-202, added 1963, ch. 13, sec. 25, p. 27; am. 1992, ch. 243, sec. 1, p. 721; am. 2009, ch. 103, sec. 2, p. 318.] I am not a lawyer but the way I'm interpreting this is if you are 7 on the day school starts, you must be enrolled in school. If he's turning 7 in a month, school has already 'commenced', so he'll need to start in the fall. I don't see this as a truancy issue. Part of school evaluations often include a classroom observation. I think this will be needed before the school says a 1:1 is needed. Parent will not see this on an IEP or 504 until the child is in school & the school sees a need. Has the family considered a virtual charter school where they can provide 1:1 support? This might be a way to show the local school district that a 1:1 aide is needed.

It is best practice to include parents in the 504 process. You need to sign off on a HIPAA waiver for the school & medical team to communicate beyond the basics - I think they can ask if they are his doctor & that's about it. Oh, they can verify written info that was provided to them too. If the 504 isn't right, it's a civil rights violation and you can file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights should this happen. W/o an IEP or 504 in place, the school shouldn't be restricting your child from anything because he's a gen ed student. In the world of CYA (cover your a$$), the school should be documenting the info they have that supports the restrictions they are putting on your child. This should be part of his records & under FERPA, you are allowed to look at these records. If you want to know why something is being restricted, ask for their data. If you find errors in their records, you can add clarifying info. Ex: they are having him in a wheelchair for hours every day, you can get a note from his medical team as to when this is appropriate. As an aside, brain surgery will often result in issues similar to a TBI (traumatic brain injury) even after he stabilizes. Students can have an IEP for TBI. I hope he continues to only make positive progress in his recovery and goes on to live a long and happy life.

The way things work in my state (PA), you need to be 6 by 9/1 to be of an age mandated to attend school. In other words, you turn 6 on 9/2 (or any other date in the coming year) and you are mandated to go to school next fall. What state is this that once a child is XX age, they must be enrolled in school? Sounds like a bassackward way to designate the mandated age for attending school. No school wants to be forced to enroll students in K on a rolling basis. I'm surprised/shocked to see this. (Might make sense if the state has a transitional K in every district.) This child might qualify for a preschool IEP where they can do Nov - June for preschool with an IEP & start K in the fall.

Once you get the evaluation report, it should list the student's present levels. If these are your areas of concern, request that these areas be assessed during the evaluation as they are your areas of suspected disability. You need to give permission for a special ed eval. Then the school can assess. Once you get the results, that's when they say if a student qualifies or not - this is based on the data in the evaluation report. Only the clairvoyant and omniscient can figure out if a student qualifies w/o doing an assessment.

I was looking at the annotated IEP for my state - PA. They don't have a profile page. I like to see detailed test results so the date and type of testing, I would think, would be sufficient. The reader could look further into the IEP for more details. This is PA's annotated IEP: https://www.pattan.net/assets/PaTTAN/0f/0ff6ece4-7df9-4d92-975f-c6c7cf445a97.pdf If you say what state you live in, I could see if there is something similar for your state.

Yes. Like Carolyn said: Requesting an IEE at school expense is the next step when the eval is inaccurate or incomplete. (Was the testing done in June when your child was in 7th?) Comparisons should be to a typical peer and not a student with an IEP. https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

...and parent email address - maybe one for each parent. (My district is paperless & email is how they communicate.) If parents need to submit for time off (so they can be at the IEP meeting) weeks in advance, that would also be another good thing to note. Somehow, my email info was deleted from the district. I noticed this when my email wasn't listed on the IEP profile page. I stopped getting anything/everything. My husband did get info but was assuming I was getting it too.

It shouldn't be a common issue unless the school doesn't employ teachers who are trained in Orton-Gillingham based remedial instruction. I found out there are school districts in my area who fail students by not providing research/evidence based instruction by a properly trained teacher. If you see it often in a district, it could be worth seeing if a special ed attorney would take this on a contingency. These sort of cases (with may students not being provided the right services) can also be handled as a class action lawsuit by the ACLU or your state's Ed Law Center (if they have one). The Arc has also gotten involved in cases like this.

I think you need to ask to see the progress reports for prior years as well as the SDI that has been provided to the student. It sounds like the remedial intervention through the IEP they have had for 8 years hasn't been helping. When was the student identified as needing help with reading? What level were they at back then? How much progress have they made? Do they have an intellectual disability that prevents them from being receptive to the special instruction in reading that has been provided? What has the school been doing? What are the teacher's certifications and/or qualifications to provide remedial reading services? It's great that they are changing the SDI in the IEP given that is sounds like they have not responded well to prior intervention. I would ask to see the evidence/research on this push-in protocol and how it will do a better job with closing the gap between this child's present levels and where classmates are. Given how far behind they are, the school needs to be doing something different/better to catch this student up. With the bullying that goes on in the MS grades, I would hesitate to do push-in IEP services. It could cause this student to become a target where they will start having mental health issues from the bullying in addition to the SLD. In your shoes, I would also look at how the school is accommodating the student's deficit areas with things like talk to text software and audiobooks. If these are not in place, they will not have access to general education material. My gut says that a child who is 6 years behind needs to be placed in a private special education school at public expense because it seems like the school has tried and failed this student. They need to start making 2 years of progress in reading each year so they can be caught up by the time they graduate. Given what the school wants to do, my feeling is that this student will drop out and never graduate. They will not be able to hold very many jobs with reading at this low a level given how important reading is. Would they even be able to fill out a job application if they don't start making better progress?

I would write a parent letter of concern. Dear School- What I see at home is my child, XX, will get overstimulated where behaviors get bad when she's allowed to use electronics. I'm not sure that allowing her to use her Chromebook during 'brain breaks' at school does the same thing. I do feel that allowing her to use her Chromebook at school for " non essential academic tasks", as stated in her IEP, does not follow her IEP. I would rather see her looking at a book, playing cards, playing with a fidget, punching a punching bag or other heavy physical activities rather than allowing her to use electronics would work better to reset her ability to stay on task when she returns to the classroom after taking a break. Can we try these activities and see if they work better than having her on her Chromebook? Thanks,

Common core methods can help students who are struggling because this tends to break things down into a more visual/concrete ways of doing math when concepts are more abstract/less intuitive. On the other hand, if a student can intuitively work math problems using other methods, they really don't need to learn another methodology of getting to the right answers. There are people whose minds see abstract math intuitively because their neurology has their brains with extra connections that typical people don't have. These connections show up on fMRI and are present in individuals diagnosed with ADHD & autism. It makes sense on many levels to let him do things his way. The exception to this is when a method appears on state standardized testing the child will take at the end of the year. I'd ask the school if this is the case and why they are pushing for him to learn things the common core way. (I did check if there are open ended math problems on the PSSA and there are. Your grandson might not get full credit for these if they are not following the rubric prescribed in the test.) A score of proficient or advanced is passing on the PSSA. These tests are used (to a degree) to see if teachers will get merit raises so this may effect a teacher but shouldn't effect your grandson. I'm not sure if this might be viewed as a modification that takes him off of a diploma track. If this is the case, it might be better of not being on a 504. Given his grades, has he been assessed for a GIEP? Given what you posted, he might qualify. If he does gifted math, he might not need to follow common core methods. This is a sample 3rd grade PSSA. It has one 3-part open-ended question. https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Assessment and Accountability/PSSA/Item and Scoring Samples/2023 PSSA ISS Math Grade 3.pdf If this is typical, I would let him do things his way. (Common core methods often require more writing and kids with ADHD will often not have the patience to do this.) Hopefully, they move on to other topics in math where he can conform to how the teacher wants questions to be answered.

Again for CMERC- Tell the school that you want a parent teacher conference. Ask them when this can be arranged. Your other choice is to request a 504 meeting. If there is something in the 504 that is not being implemented, an OCR complaint can be made. With things being removed from the 504, you can request to see the data that has lead to the accommodation being removed. Not sure if the lack of ability to communicate 1:1 with the teacher is something to go to the school board and mention at a public meeting.

If parent training is needed, you have a few options in a virtual school. You can hire someone local to the parent and do in-person training at their place of residence or a library or other public building. You can do training over Zoom (or similar platform) which could be for just for these parents or a group of parents with similar needs. This can be done by school personnel or someone the school hires. My county does parent training but this is more-so geared toward parents found to be abusive or neglectful toward their children. It's free and they make sessions available to anyone. It might not be as targeted to these parent's needs since you're inferring they need autism-specific training. Another option is a book club with virtual meeting. A book like Ross Greene's The Explosive Child is a great parenting book for every parent. (He also wrote Raising Human Beings. I haven't read this one but I'd recommend it too.) School social worker could also work with families on this on an as-needed basis. I think getting the point across that these are required for the parents is going to be the hard part.