JSD24

Most of the time, evaluations are copyrighted. Rarely if ever does an evaluator share copies of the eval. If you want to see the eval, you should be able to meet with the evaluator and look it over - no copies with copyrights. Also, you might not be able to interpret the results w/o training. The eval report is a whole different story. You should get a copy of this. This is what the IEP team looks at to determine areas of need and services needed to address them. Sounds like they are splitting hairs? From your perspective: Yes! From their perspective: No, you asked for something that is illegal to copy.

Gifted is mandated in PA. You might want to ask about a gifted evaluation to see if he qualifies. He sounds like a child who needs gen ed and some enrichment but in a smaller group so there is less in the classroom to trigger autistic behaviors. IMO, reading as a toddler is a red flag for gifted. 2E is the profile that schools do the worst job with. Your post, with reading between the lines, says that he is not getting FAPE. They are dealing with the autism but really haven't looked at academics or if he might need gifted enrichment.

My guess is they want him in a self-contained classroom due to the autism. With the behaviors and capabilities of his classmates, they don't cover the same material they cover in gen ed. The thing is, your child is capable of doing this provided they accommodate his autism. Ask them where in the eval does it show he needs a modified curriculum. In other words, your child doesn't fit in their box so they need to create a new box for your child. This is why they need the supervisor at the meeting. I prefer Floortime to VB Map or ABA when a child is smart. (If they spend time on behavior, it's not there to spend on academics.) Always good to bring a 2nd set of eyes & ears to the meeting.

The school does the eval to see if a student qualifies for special ed & an IEP. You cannot have an IEP meeting until after the eval is done. The eval can be used to see what services are needed in whatever school he ends up at. If the public school cannot provide FAPE, they need to pay for another school for the child. (Not sure if this would be the school the parents would pick.) The public school need to evaluate all areas of suspected disability. Some states require gifted IEPs so they might need to look at that if giftedness is suspected. With an IEP, the student gets special instruction (504s provide accommodations & only accommodations). They must provide what the student needs. Your child does not need to be present for IEP meetings. He will need to be there for the school to evaluate him. I feel that vision and hearing are done so the child becomes familiar with the school and the 'strange adults' who will need to work with h to do the eval. You should read what you sign. Not all private schools will provide FAPE. When a student is parentally placed and no sp ed eval has been done, you don't know what FAPE is so you can't tell if the school will provide it. I've seen parents have the public school do an eval & they take it to a private school so they can do their best to support the student. BTW, this sort of eval would cost $3000+ if a parent had to pay & not covered by insurance given it's educational & not medical.

Is this group or 1:1 instruction? My child needed social skills/pragmatics instruction. The person we saw did 1:1 until she was at a good level to know what to do in a group & then she did group. Finding a good group can be hard as you can't force groupmates to be friends. In school, you can't put typical students into a special ed class. My kids felt anything push-in would make them the target of bullies. It was hard to work within the rules of special ed and get them the services they needed. I can see why the school might not want to do push-in. Is it the teacher of the SLP who will be overseeing this? Should be the SLP.

The one thing that isn't considered with 'certified staff' is the student's relationship with the person. You can have an uncertified person who knows enough to provide good instruction & has a great relationship with the child where the child learns & grows. You can have another person with impeccable credentials who does a so-so job relating to students where they don't learn because they are 'rubbed the wrong way' when they interact with the student. I think it's reasonable to ask who delivers your child's sp ed instruction as well as what happens when the person isn't available. It's possible for them to be in attendance & still not be working with your child so attendance might not give you the right picture. It could be the certified staff has perfect attendance but they are in IEP meetings where an IA works with your child most days. I tell parents to look at progress. The only way for a student who is behind to catch up is for them to make more than a year of progress every year. Less than that & the gap widens. Just one year every year & they stay behind. You can ask for progress reports to be given to you more often than your state requires. This can be written into the IEP. Working with the school can make for a positive relationship between school staff and your child - and you too.

(I keep hitting Ctrl Enter like I'm on Facebook to start a new paragraph and it posts my incomplete reply in this forum.) Misunderstandings do happen. Your child might have said 'I don't want to see the counselor' when they really meant 'I don't want to see the counselor today'. That could have been interpreted as 'I don't want to see the counselor anymore'. One thing I'd ask for is a copy of the IHP to see if the request to not see the counselor is reflected there. If your child is saying to you that they want to see the counselor, I'd make the school aware of this. (Do things in writing so there's a paper trail.) I'm also not sure if talking to the counselor for 2 minutes in hallway would count as 'seeing the counselor'. I can envision misunderstandings coming from lots of situations.

I'm not sure. An IHP has no agency to enforce it. I'm not sure if a school can change it w/o talking to the parent. It would be best practice to let the parent know if they changed the IHP. I'm in PA and we have strange rules about mental health services. One is that at age 14, the child gets to decide about mental health treatments. I'm not sure if MN has rules like this or how old your child is. FERPA might prevent you from finding out what was discussed but knowing if your child is meeting w/ the counselor or not should be something you should be aware of since you are coordinating your child's care.

So he has poor self-advocacy skills. Has the school evaluated this? Do they have data that he does not self-advocate for his accommodations? (You might need to keep a log of when this happens.) With data, he might qualify for an IEP so the school can teach him how to self-advocate. This is a life skill. If he's headed to college, he'll need to advocate for everything he needs.

So there was a pretest before starting a weeks worth of lessons and your child's score wasn't high enough for the advanced/enrichment packet because the school failed to follow the 504. Unless they have time travel technology, there isn't a way to fix the past. Providing appropriate accommodations going forward so this doesn't happen again is really the only solution. It would be nice if someone at the school apologized for the non-compliance issue. I'd ask the school how my child should advocate for their 504 to be followed if they find that the 504 is not being followed again. Is there a person in the school they should go to? Not sure your child's age to know if this is elem, MS or HS. Why did this happen? Was a teacher not given the 504? Did they fail to read it? Did they read it & ignore it? Retraining the person who should have know what was in the 504 might help to bring closure to the situation.

Your son was most likely given an initial/triennial eval in 2022 when you moved states. His next eval would be due 3 years later. If you feel he has areas of need that are not being addressed, you can always request an interim eval. The initial eval they did in 2022 might have used info from the eval his previous school did but it does reset the triennial clock.

Asking for 'parent training' so home and school are on the same page & working together can help you find out what the school is doing as well as making the parent more helpful at home. The school needs to follow the IEP. (Problem is that Tier 1 leaves too many students needing help. Not enough 'extra help' to go around for everyone who needs that. This seems to be an issue in too many schools.)

Are they willing to say what program or methodology they are using with the OGE instruction? You want to check out the research on the program they are using because remediating dyslexia should result in the gap closing - not getting bigger. These programs don't work with every student so if there's no progress, you want to change up what they are doing. (If what's in the IEP is happening & you aren't getting good results, you need to know so the student is not stuck with ineffective instruction. If the instruction isn't happening, you can't tell if it will help.) Does the IEP say who provides this remedial instruction? Maybe your ask is: who provides the instruction? From there, you can see what the provider's credentials are as well as asking the student how often they meet with this person. I was working with a family where no one in the school district was trained in an O-G based remedial program. In other words, there was no way to provide an IEP for SLD in reading because they employed no one trained to do this. District has 2100 students so not very big. If going up the chain of command doesn't help, filing a state complaint is the next step.

I think you need a lawyer. You signed the non-disclosure. Your child is a minor and as a minor is incompetent to sign a contract (I learned this in business law class). There might be things he can disclose that you cannot. This does sound like it could be retaliation for - I'm assuming you sued the school to get the settlement - suing the school. The thing it, this will be hard to show in a court that this was the cause of the coach's actions. Your post makes me wonder what is going on during the academic activities you cannot be at.

ADHD affects academics because it's a disability of the ability to focus. If you cannot focus, you cannot do school work. DMDD affects interpersonal relationships which is not primarily what goes on at school but it seems to affect your child's ability to follow school discipline rules which is resulting in the inability to access academics. Maybe it's now primary because he has gotten suspended 3X. If the school supports this area, ADHD is likely do go back to being the primary disability. I was told the school needs to address all areas of disability if they affect school. When did educational institutions start using diagnoses to pick and choose what areas of disability they can support? 'Sorry, your child is diabetic and has dyslexia. We can only support their diabetes. We decided that the dyslexia is secondary (child won't die due to dyslexia) and we can only support one of these issues.' It sounds like the school is gaslighting you.

The role of the LEA is okaying the funding of IEP services. If they say no, they are the authority on how to spend the school budget and their decision is final. Works this way no matter how the state regs read on if they have a deciding vote. I have a friend who would always say 'follow the money'. This is where IEP funding leads. Meeting LEA holds the purse strings. (If they thought what the team wanted was perfectly "appropriate" but there wasn't a budget to make that happen, what do you think they are going to say?)

If she has pain and cannot participate with PE, she should be excused. With other IEP needs, the time can be used to remediate her other disabilities so she's not missing instruction to be working on social/emotional or academic needs. APE might be an option but I feel a teacher is not equipped to work with a student with the pain she has. It could cause a situation where what they ask her to do causes more pain.

Is anyone familiar with The Compact rules that makes school policies the same for military families who tend to move around alot? This is the link to The Compact rules: https://mic3.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/MIC3-Rules-Book-WEB.pdf Our state must have recently adopted this because my school district is looking to come up with a new policy to address this. The thing that jumps out at me are their definitions of who is covered by this: “Children of military families” means: a school-aged child(ren), enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth (12th) grade, in the household of an active-duty member. “Student” means: the child of a military family for whom an LEA receives public funding and who is formally enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth (12th) grade. It seems to exclude a student with an IEP who might be in 13th or 14th grade or in preschool. Is there a reason to complain that they are not covered by this?

In order to get academic accommodations, you need an evaluation that the school is OK following that says the student has a math disability & needs math accommodations. If the school evaluated this area and said 'no math disability' and you disagree, you need to request an IEE and hope the school is willing to follow it. It looks like the Title 1 services she was getting was masking her math disability. Now that they are gone, your child is not having the same success in math. If they want to do an eval, I'd agree but be careful what you agree to. You want math evaluated - not a full reeval - she's not due for a triennial eval right now. You can specify this on their permission to do an eval form - or on the letter you write requesting the IEE.

Ask for another copy and check both the 'I agree' and 'I want a meeting' boxes. Write that you feel additional accommodation beyond what is listed are needed for your child. I have a feeling your school district solicitor is very well paid. PA Chapter 15 has nothing about 504 forms or boxes. https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/022/chapter15/chap15toc.html

It's on the school to initiate annual meetings. If they miss timelines, they get slapped on the wrist for messing up - at least this is how it works where I am in PA. Specifically, the case manager should be reaching out to you. You can reach out to them if you want. I wanted to talk about anxiety on an IEP. There should be SDI - specially designed instruction - being taught to him so he has the tools to minimize how this affects him. Is 'head on desk' something he's been taught to do when he's dysregulated & it helps him regulate/calms his anxiety? If not, he should be doing what helps him - and what the SDI has helped him to figure out what works. Talk to him and see what he's learned about managing his anxiety. Find out if head on desk is helpful or if he needs another tool to help with anxiety. Many of the colleges in my area, have summer programs for HS student which place them in a dorm & have them taking a college class to get a taste of what it's like. This can also show if he has all the needed tools to go to college & be successful. See if your area has these. It can be part of the IEP for him to do this.

If your child has an IEP, PDE will provide a scholarship that covers your hotel & conference registration. Conference is Feb 28 - Mar 1 at Hershey Lodge. Deadline to apply is 1/20. This is the link for more info & to register: https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/Pennsylvania-Department-of-Education-Conference If you have questions, feel free to reply with your questions. Hotel is covered if you live 50+ miles from Hershey. Lots of great info plus a chance to talk to other parents. Good food too.

CBT - cognitive behavioral therapy - seems to be the go to technique for most issues. It can be hard to find a therapist because not a lot of people go into this field (I think people also get burned out from listening to other people's problems too). I'm a big fan of Ross Greene. His protocol is to go upstream, figure out where the problem comes from and solve it. He would say that anxiety is the manifestation of how your child exhibits the frustration they have due to their unsolved problem. This a DIY program and this is a link to more info: When I see a student with school related issues, one of the 1st things I'm going to do is ask what sort of support is the school providing - in other words, is this student getting FAPE via their IEP or 504? (GIEPs are strength based and they might list needs but cannot provide support.) With a 2E student, I've seen where there is denial that an individual can both be gifted and disabled so with one masking the other, the student can come across as a typical student who doesn't need any support. You have not mentioned anything about what the school is doing to help your child who has school-related anxiety. Has the school done an eval? Do they have a 504 or an IEP? What areas of suspected disability were assessed by the school? Does your child have Medicaid? An anxiety diagnosis should be sufficient to qualify under PH-95. This opens up CCBH's network to get treatment for this. I understand if you don't want to have Medicaid for your child. Coordinating benefits can be a PITA. I wouldn't worry too much about reviews on particular providers. My suggestion is to make an appointment and take a therapist for a test drive. You'll know after 3-6 appointments if they are a good match for your child or not. I'm also not sure about medication. There are meds out there that are safe for children and can help with anxiety. A therapist will not be able to prescribe but they might suggest going to your ped or a specialist to look into this option. Sometimes, parents are not open to this but you can often see more progress when therapy and medication are used together. If your child has not been assessed for their issues, Ginny Sutton is who I suggest for an assessment. She does take most insurance. She does see a limited number of clients & I know that she has experience with 2E children. I did weave some questions into my reply so if you want to provide more info about what your child's IEP or 504 has in the way of support or how to get an IEP or 504 to support your child, please feel free to add that info. Knowing how old your child is can also help. With more details, we can provide better resources - things to add to what's there. My child was identified as gifted & had a GIEP & a 504 in 4th grade. It wasn't working. She needed an IEP to get the right support and that didn't happen until 9th grade. The school didn't do her eval within PA's timeline so it wasn't until June that we sat down to write out her IEP even though the school requested permission to do an evaluation in the fall of 8th grade. The school had a perspective: 'she's gifted & will figure this out by herself' but 2E doesn't work this way. You need to give a student the tools so they can help themself.

With an IEE, the school pays for the eval & the final product is the eval report. It is on the parent to pay the evaluator to attend the meeting where they go over the report. I've not seen a school pay for this. It's not FAPE if the parent has to pay for part of the cost of the IEE. Ask the district for names of people who do psycho-educational, OT, PT and ST evals. See how much their suggestions cost and if it fits the budget they gave you. This is one eval with 4 pieces. It's going to cost more than an eval with only one or two areas that need to be assessed. IEPs are not one-size-fits-all. What they cost isn't going to be one-size either. A student with more complex needs will need a more complicated eval and complicated means it's going to cost more.

I seem to always say the same thing with kids with autism. They will struggle with pragmatics & social skills. Has the school assessed pragmatics & social skills? Seem that schools tend to skip the areas of need where they are most likely to qualify. TOPL for pragmatics - they might need the optional extended assessment. SSIS is one of the few (might be the only one) evals for social skills. Were these areas tested with the eval the school did?