Carolyn Rowlett

I think the first thing is to make sure the student will cooperate with an IEP if he is given one. If he "doesn't want any help at school," does this mean he doesn't want to be pulled from the general education setting and go to special education? If he can't be talked into this, I'm not sure it's worth the fight to get an evaluation. When you say "the support" is not helpful, do you mean specialized instruction that students receive via an IEP for dyslexia or accommodations via a 504 Plan? Could the parent consider private tutoring? A student is usually given a brief evaluation before the tutoring begins with no obligation to sign up for tutoring. As far as the timeline for requesting another evaluation if denied, she should request an IEE, file a state complaint, and/or file for due process based on the fact that the school was presented with a diagnosis of dyslexia (and other data showing struggles) and refused to evaluate.

First, make sure the request for an evaluation was in writing. Also, did it attach the neuropsych evaluation? Did it point to specific reasons for requesting, such as low standardized test scores in reading? A diagnosis in most states is not enough for an IEP - the student must also be struggling and show deficits in reading (what does the gen ed teacher see in terms of the student's reading level?). Students with dyslexia are good at masking. They may have high scores in fluency and comprehension because they have memorized a lot of words and learned how to figure out words from context, but if you drill down you might see deficits in phonological awareness and phonics, which are very important skill to have in place as you advance in grades and can no longer memorize as many words and the reading content is not familiar. If the first request was not sufficient, she can send another one with the above items. If there are no deficits or struggles, a 504 would be appropriate. If they deny the evaluation, make sure the school sends a Prior Written Notice (PWN) with detailed reasons as to why it was denied. At that point, she could try to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE), but the law is a little unclear as to whether failure to conduct an initial evaluation triggers the right to an IEE. If she has the data to support her that the student is substantially behind in reading, she could file a state complaint that the school is violating the federal "child find" provision by refusing an evaluation.

I am so sorry for what you are going through. I will respond as best I can, but a lot of this is out of my purview. I would suggest reaching out to your state department of education and asking for their advice regarding these situations. With respect to not following the IEP, you need to speak with the case manager and let them know about the teacher's failure to follow the IEP. If that doesn't work, request a meeting with the teacher/coach present. If that doesn't work, keep going up the chain of command - director of special education, superintendent, board of directors. You can simultaneously file a state complaint. With respect to not following the 504, same process as above - start with the 504 coordinator. You can also file an OCR complaint for discrimination. With respect to the bullying, that needs to be reported to the school whether it's being done by a teacher or other students. (ALL of this should be in writing, by the way.) There should be a procedure in place at your school district for filing a complaint against a teacher. If the bullying in any way involves physical contact by the teacher, report this to the police and child services. Finally, can you get the families of all the children you reference in your post to get together and request being put on a board of directors' meeting agenda to describe their various experiences?

Look at your state standards for Kindergarten. Is she expected to recognize all letters of the alphabet and letter sounds by the end of the year? If so, and if she hasn't mastered this yet and they refuse to go over it again in class for everyone, they need to provide some type of help/intervention for your daughter so that they meet the state standard with her. If the teacher is no help, go to the principal. If they try to blame it on your daughter, then ask for a 504 and/or special education evaluation to either confirm this or rule it out. Do you think she might have dyslexic tendencies? If so, ask for a dyslexia screener. Some states have laws requiring this if the parent requests one; some do it for all - find out if your state requires this and if so, ask for a copy of her dyslexia screening results. Your pediatrician might also be able to do a screener. I would also advise speaking with your state department of education to see if they have any recommendations. Finally, speak with other parents. Are other Kindergarteners struggling? Did they have any experiences with their older children and thus may be able to provide some advice? Maybe most of the Kindergarteners learned these skills in pre-school? But even so, the school still has a responsibility to make sure all its students are meeting state standards and if it is taking your daughter longer because she didn't learn these skills in pre-school, they need to help her before she falls too far behind.

I am not well versed in autism, so hope others will chime in. But I wanted to respond to the issues I see. First, the ST and OT "not having availability" is not a reason for the school to refuse services if a need was identified in those areas. The school can contract with an outside provider if necessary. Second, a neuropsych would be helpful, but in the meantime could you ask for an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) because have concerns with the school's evaluation? This would be at no cost to you. It wouldn't be a neuropsych eval, but it could come back with some placement and/or accommodation recommendations based on needs and strengths. Third, if you were to do a private placement and sue for reimbursement, I believe it would be the school district you would be suing and not the DOE, but I don't know your state laws. I also think you would need to let the school district try the 12:1 special education classroom (and fail) before you would have a basis for requesting a private placement. Lastly, while "while waiting for a placement," that doesn't mean the school can just avoid providing FAPE until then. They need to do something to bridge the gap, such as an aide in the classroom. Again, if they don't have the resources, they can contract with someone. It would also be a good opportunity to see how he does in the general education setting with an aide supporting his needs. That might be enough.

An FBA is supposed to get to the underlying triggers for the behavior and address them. If most are occurring during the last half of the day, why is that? Is the student tired? Does the student not understand the subject during that time? Is the FBA addressing whatever the trigger is? When the student is removed from class for being noisy and distracting, is someone processing with the student? Did the FBA discover why the student is being noisy and distracting and addressing the reasons? Is the student being given the tools (fidgets, breaks) to deal with these issues or do we even know what tools would work? My suggestion would be to find out the answers to these questions, because it sounds like the FBA and BIP are not sufficient. In that case, I would request an IEE. You specifically need to find out what the "Alternative Learning Placement" is for. Regardless, you need to start tracking the amount of removals and once they reach 10 days, ask for a manifestation hearing the next time the student is pulled out of class for behavior. Also, the mom needs to stop coming to pick up the student because the school needs to address the underlying issues - not just call mom.

It's hard to answer your questions (at least for me, anyway) without some clarification. 1. Does the student have an IEP? Just confirming because sometimes a BIP can be in place without an IEP. 2. How does the BIP define "emergency removal?" Is it an action, a place, or both? 3. How/when is the location of sitting outside of gen ed classroom triggered? 4. When the listed behavior occurs, what is the process that is stated in the BIP in terms of where the student goes, what processing is done with the student, how it is determined when student will return to class? Is sitting outside the gen ed classroom a step in the process to return to class? 4. When the student is sent to the "Alternate Learning Placement," is this where students are sent for in-school suspensions? (That might be what they are talking about when they mention the 10 days because a removal for behavior in violation of school policy would not trigger a PWN or be considered a denial of FAPE until it reaches 10 days. But multiple occurrences (even if less than 10 days) should be a reason to revisit the BIP and see what can be revised to address the behavior.

A couple of questions first, because all accommodations have to be based on a need. Did the OT evaluation include sensory processing? Did the behavioral evaluation find any anxiety? If so, has it been more than a year since those were conducted and so you could ask for a re-evaluation in those areas in which you see him struggling? If not, you might consider asking for an IEE in those areas because you disagree with the school's evaluations. If you have the data and/or diagnoses to support them, here are some ideas for accommodations. I'm sure others will have more ideas and you can also check this website for accommodation suggestions for each of the areas. I also don't know the age of your son, so some may not be applicable. For the praxis: 1. Check-in's for starting, staying on, and completing tasks. 2. Check-in's for understanding instructions. 3. Time set aside for and help with organization of planner, assignments, and materials. This could be at the end of each class period, the beginning of the day, and/or the end of the day. 4. Chunking of assignments. 5. Visual planer. 6. Instructions written out step by step. For sensory (you only mentioned loud noises): 1. Access to noise-cancelling headphones. 2. Ability to step away from activities that involve loud noises. Developmental delay/autism: 1. Extra time on assignments and tests. 2. No punishment or withholding of rewards, recess, etc., for not finishing classwork on time. 3. Advance notice and explanation of changes to schedule. Anxiety: 1. Ability to request a break, leave the classroom, and speak with someone. As far as an aide in the classroom, you can definitely ask, but the school district will probably not want to start there, but instead try accommodations first. If those don't work, you can reconvene and ask for an aide. Unless, there is already an aide in the classroom that could assist him? Keep track of "data" on your own: 1. Ask his teacher(s) to let you know of any incidents where he appears overwhelmed, anxious, or shuts down. Also, any times that he does not finish the work within the prescribed timeframe. 2. Try to have a gentle "debriefing" with him at the end of every day and keep a log of what struggles, anxiety, etc., he may have experienced during the day and what may have triggered it. Good luck at the meeting!!

Another route you might take (in addition to the Medicaid route, which is the best) is filing a state complaint based on the fact that you do not believe your child is getting the correct number of minutes set forth in the IEP because you cannot get any proof of this from the school. In a perfect world, the department of education would look at your case but also admonish the school district as a whole that is should be keeping such records. However, before going down this path, I would reach out to your state department of education (special education department) and see if they actually "care" about this. You don't want to start this if you won't have any backup from the state.

Your rights are being violated. Section 300.322(a) of the IDEA regulations requires school districts to "take steps that ensure that one or both of the parents of a child with a disability are present at each IEP Team meeting..." These steps include "Scheduling the meeting at a mutually agreed on time and place. The only time a meeting can be held without a parent is if the school district "is unable to convince the parents that they should attend." This is not the case in your situation. You are very willing to attend and your only restriction is one hour on Tuesday and Thursday. They can and should find a time where you can attend. In addition to the IDEA, you might check to see if your state department of education has anything helpful, such as a parent guide to special education, etc. You could even call the state and ask if this stance by the school district is unreasonable. Send all the information you gather from the state, along with the IDEA regulation above, in an email to the school asserting your right as a parent to attend the meeting and that the time needs to be "mutually agreed" upon.

I think the first question to ask is if the 504 is being implemented correctly. If so and she is still struggling, that means she needs more. You might request an FBA (Functional Behavioral Assessment) in order to determine the underlying causes of the school refusal and the supports that are needed to correct the situation. If the FBA shows that addressing the underlying causes requires more than supports (specialized instruction), then advocate for an IEP again and a BIP (Behavioral Intervention Plan). What areas did they evaluate her in? If the reason for the IEP denial was "she's too smart," did they only do an academic assessment? They should also have done social/emotional/behavioral assessments. Another option you have if you disagree with the school's evaluation or feel it was insufficient is to request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at no cost to you. Keep a log of what is going on with your daughter - dates you struggle to get her to go to school and how long it takes, struggles at school she tells you about, etc. Use the log to show impact. Also speak with the general education teacher about incidents and ask if her grades are dropping.

My guess would be that the refusal was based on safety protocols, so yes. I would ask for the policy in writing just to make sure it wasn't a way to keep him out of the meeting. (It's unclear from your facts if it was the front desk or someone else, but I would assume it was the front desk and they were just following protocol and it had nothing to do with preventing him from joining the meeting.) Also, parents in this day and age should know an ID is required before entering a school building.

Following the Virginia code and IDEA is not optional for school districts. I have not read the Virginia code, but you are correct that removing a child from a general education classroom with accommodations into a special education classroom does not appear, from these facts, to be the least restrictive environment. This is what we have been fighting for for decades - children with physical (and other) limitations should be educated alongside their peers to the extent possible EVEN IF accommodations are required. This is possible in your scenario. Sounds like the school just doesn't want to provide the 1:1 aide. Sometimes state departments of education have a continuum graph that shows least restrictive to most restrictive. Wherever your child falls on the continuum and can still access the educational curriculum (with accommodations) is where she should be. See if you can get a copy of that. Or even call the state and get an opinion. Also, take the definitions from the Virginia code and IDEA with you to the next meeting or copy and paste into an email. This school needs to be "schooled."

I'll try to answer your questions/issues in order. First, you are absolutely entitled to a copy of the incident report with the other student's name redacted. You are entitled to all educational records of your child under FERPA. So ask for this again. As far as a manifestation meeting not being held, this is not required until there have been 10 school days in which he has been removed from his placement (so an in-school suspension, out of school suspension, expulsion, or sometimes even having to stay in the principal's office all day). If there have not been 10 days, your question then becomes can they change his placement without an IEP meeting (as opposed to changing it without manifestation hearing). And the answer is no. An IEP meeting must be held and a PWN (Prior Written Notice) must be given to you after the meeting regarding the decision. In order to change his placement, there needs to be data that this is necessary. If this is the only incident this school year, they probably don't have sufficient data to change his placement. Ask for documentation of past incidents in other school years prior to the meeting just in case they use that. You will also definitely need to get the documentation of the incident before the meeting, but you also need to obtain a copy of the school's code of student conduct and ask which provision was violated. Then look to see what the consequences are for this violation. It is doubtful that a regular education student would be removed from the classroom after one such incident, so it would be discrimination to remove your student. They must follow the code of conduct regarding discipline until the 10 days of removal from placement kicks in. If there have been 10 school days of removal, the manifestation hearing must be held within 10 school days. Required participants are the LEA, parent, and "relevant" members of the IEP team (this being determined by the parent and LEA, so you could invite your child). Two questions are asked: 1) Was the behavior a manifestation of the disability or 2) was it a direct result of the LEA not implementing the IEP? So you absolutely need to know the facts surrounding the incident. If the answer to number 1 is yes, the IEP and/or BIP needs to be revised to put supports in place to avoid future incidents. If no FBA and resulting BIP have been done, it may be time for those. If the answer to number 2 is yes, steps need to be taken by the school district to ensure that the IEP is followed in the future. With respect to the IEP document, you definitely need to have that revised to include the additional diagnoses - not as a comment, but in the Present Levels under "diagnoses." If you want him to be found eligible under those categories, you would need to ask for an evaluation in those areas. It might be worth it if you wanted his eligibility category to be Autism rather than ED. But the IEP team would need to find (after an evaluation) that Autism is the primary cause of his behavioral issues and thus the primary eligibility category.

Just keep in mind that in order to change placement they have to have the data to justify the decision. Sounds like they don't have that if he had a great year last year. If they bring up a change in placement, ask to see the data.