Beyond Advocacy blog

service: ask the expert
My son is 5. he was dx w/ asd at 2 and received first steps and nisec ( northwest indiana special ed coop). i have worked w/ him extensively since dx and he is doing well. in fact, his asd is indescernable to those who do not know his history but.... he still requires taking a break/removing himself from sights, sounds, noises other kids although this is not a frequent issue. he still is socially awkward and will walk about or watch rather than join in. since he has been in nisec for last 3 years, he knows the routine and is quite comfortable. he is also "smart". that said, at his annual iep accomodations were removed and all that remained was a 9 week goal to interact socially w/ adults and peers spontainiously 70% of the time or something like that. i questioned the other accoms that were removed and they said he was age-appropriate, etc . they told me he can self-calm. i said yes, i taught him to but just that week he required removing himself and going to book area to calm down..... the sociologist that was there i had never met before and does not know my son slid the autism qualifying definitions in front of me. comments made led me to believe that they are going to remove him from any spec ed protections despite two separate dx of asd. he is managing his autism well because he can take a break, etc. but because he is smart they want to remove all support via iep/504. i want to keep my son's iep. i am not asking for an aide or to be pulled out of gen ed. specifically i am asking for my son to be allowed to take a break when needed ( 5min), to get instructions explained/shown to him when complex if needed, to get assistance "joining in" if needed, to get assistance with transitions with novel situations if needed. they told me teachers do that anyway automatically. i said that while his present teacher is very good, there are no laws requiring teachers to have spec ed training ( tor often is principal....)!
and there is no guarantee that they will understand or have the heart
to care. i want my son's legal rights protected. he should not be punished b/c he is managing well and the school should not be allowed to wait til my son has "shut down" and has begun to fail at school before they intervene or allow accomodations . please help! the twist is too that he will enter kindergarten but in another district so do i take this battle to that district now? i have called riley's but they can't eval b/4 his reeval is due in june. i called his old ot to do an eval and his old pschologist from first steps who said to try the ot first. the school says my son has no ot issues. that is not true. i keep him home if he is having a bad day and we manage them well with ot techniques, etc. nothing special necessary in classroom b/c dealt with outside classroom setting..... the school ot dropped his sensory diet i think last year, but perhaps i need the outside ot to make that recoommendation.... i left the iep meeting telling them to wait on testing and !
that i needed to get an advocate for ethan involved.

Response:

First some questions and then I will tell you what the typical procedure is to remove a child from an IEP and then what your rights are if the district proposes to do so.

Questions:

1. Is your child's disability interfering with his progress in the areas of academics, social skills, functional skills, physical ability?
2. Did the school district conduct evaluations or was this a three year reevaluation to determine eligibility? If so, were the recommendations from the evaluators that your son is no longer eligible because his disability is not interfering with his progress and he no longer requires specialized instruction to make progress?
3. Was the team meeting that was held to determine eligibility or just an annual review?
4. When you say the 'dropped sensory diet', did he receive Occupational Therapy for sensory issues and they took that away or was it things they were providing in the classroom to address sensory integration and are no longer doing that? Was there an OT evaluation that determined there was no longer a need?

Typical Procedures:

1. When a service is removed from an IEP, there should be an evaluation with recommendations that the service is no longer needed. And still the question that needs to be asked is, "if we take the service away will the child continue to make progress?" Not, 'he's making progress so we don't need to give it to him anymore'. Plus the whole team (including the parent) must agree. If you don't agree, you must reject the district's proposal and then you request the school supply stayput services until the dispute is resolved.
2. When a child is removed from special education (they take the IEP away), they must evaluate the child and the evaluations must support that decision and again the whole team (including parent) must agree. If you don't agree, you must reject the district's proposal and then you request the school supply stayput services until the dispute is resolved.
3. You can also reject the finding of no eligibility and stay put would apply.
4. A 504 accommodation plan is not an IEP. It is just an accommodation plan.
5. All accommodations should be written down. (whether the teachers do it or not) If it is something your child needs to be successful, make sure it is listed. You could move or get a teacher that doesn't automatically provide those accommodation. Reject any missing portions that you feel need to be included in the IEP or 504. Try to have something in writing from a qualified evaluator to support your perspective.

Your Rights:

1. If you are not satisfied with the results of the school district's evaluations or you disagree with the findings, you can reject those evaluations and request independent evaluations by a qualified evaluator of your choice, at no cost to you within 16 months of the district's evaluations.
2. Reject the district's proposed IEP or finding of no eligibility and invoke your child's right to stayput until the dispute is resolved.
3. Right to request a mediation to attempt to resolve the dispute.
4. Right to request a due process hearing to resolve the dispute.

I hope this helps.

Hello
My eight year old daughter has mild to moderate autism.
She is currently in second grade at Nishuane school in Montclair.
She has resource pullouts half the day and also has a full time aide.
Academically, she is very close to failing or failing her classes.
If they recommend that she repeats second grade, do I have the right to put her in a private school (like the Craig School) at the district's expense?
Thank you so much

ANSWER:

Thank you for submitting your email to me. Hopefully, I can be of help.

if she has an IEP and a full time aide, why is she failing? That is the first question you need the answer to because how do you solve the problem if you don't know what the problem is? In my experience there are a few places where the problem could be:

The IEP - are the accommodations appropriate and sufficient? - are the goals measurable and meaningful to her making affective progress in the curriculum and other developmental areas, like social skills, emotional issues, behavior, communication, etc...? - are the services sufficient to enable her to get enough individual, specialized instruction for her success?

The Placement - Is the placement appropriate for her to make effective progress and get enough support? - Are the staff trained and experienced to work with a child with autism? - Is there a collaboration among the staff to enable skills to be reinforced and generalized in multiple settings?

Home - Is the school providing enough support by way of consults with professionals to ensure that the skills learned during the day are reinforced at home? - Is there good communication between school and home to enable you to know what is happening and to let them know what is happening?

I know it can be difficult to ask these questions and dig until you find the answers, but your child only has one opportunity to get an education. You've got to make sure that they are held accountable for that education.

Keeping a child back is a difficult decision. I try to provide everything possible before I make that decision.

Good Luck.

Lynne

Elise from New York asks:

My daughter is an IEP child with a learning disability. Her current IEP says she gets double time on the NYS exams in a separate location with the questions and directions read to her. During summer school she was not removed from her classroom while retaking the NYS exam. When I asked why not since it is stipulated in her file. I questioned this with the school superintendent and I was told a summer school classroom is smaller than a regular school year. So they followed part of her IEP but not everything. I am disputing this because my child missed passing the ELA exams in summer school by 7 points and they are making my child repeat 5th grade. My child has been reevaluated and the school is now offering many more additional services not on the table before, such as an ICT class, promotional modification and speech. These services I do believe would benefit my child but why was this not seen before. None of these programs were ever offered back in Dec. 09 on my last IEP meeting. Did the school system mess up with the original evaluation on my daughter?

Answer

Dear Elise,

Thank you for contacting me. Hopefully, I can be of some help.

It sounds like the language on the IEP isn't specific enough. 'Double time in a separate location' can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. What you can do is reject the language on the IEP and request that it be more specific, such as: 'Student will be provided with 2X as much time as provided to typical peers to take exams and she will be provided with a separate, individual test area with a familiar teacher/staff member to facilitate test. Test directions and questions will be read to her.'

As far as the grade retention, districts are only required to provide services according to the information available at the time. If they knew that your daughter needed those services and didn't provide them, then you can file in due process for compensatory services, but you must prove that they knew and didn't provide the necessary services to her. Because you stated that there were new evaluations conducted, they will state that they are only now aware of the new needs. Whenever your daughter is evaluated by the school department and you are not satisfied with the results, you can request an Independent Education Evaluation (IEE) at no cost to you (but within set State rates) by a qualified evaluator of your choice within 16 months of the original evaluation.

Another option is to file a complaint with the New York State Department of Education. More information at http://www.p12.nysed.gov//specialed/quality/complaintqa.htm

Hopefully this helps. Keep me informed as to how things are going with your daughter.

Lynne

Lynne M. Adams
Special Education Advocate


IEP | Team Meetings | Placement | Transition
PO Box 80603 ? So. Dartmouth, MA 02748
lmccmw@gmail.com
www.beyondadvocacy.com

Disclaimer: Responses and answers to questions are for informational purposes only and are not legal advice. Lynne Adams is not an Attorney and as such does not provide legal advice. If you feel you need legal advice or an attorney, contact the Bar Association in your State for a list of qualified attorneys in your specific field.

Elizabeth in New Jersey asks;

How can I remove my child from special education school, and register him for regular school( I challenge him enough to know that he is ready for the change).

Answer

Dear Elizabeth in New Jersey,

Thank you for your question. Hopefully, I can be of help.

According to the law, special education is a program not a place. A program designed to provide services and supports according to a child's individual needs for the child to make effective progress.

Your child should be challenged no matter what setting they are in.

Is your child in a specialized school? Do you want him placed back into an integrated setting? You need to request a team meeting where placement is discussed. Inform the team that the law supports students being educated in the least restrictive environment where the child would be educated with typical peers and can make effective progress. You should try to bring documentation (evaluation recommendations) and/or professionals that share your same view that your child should be placed in the less restrictive environment. A transition plan can also be implemented to help your child tryout and adjust to the new environment.

If the school department will not consider placing your child in the less restrictive environment, reject his current placement and file a due process hearing complaint against the school department.

Also, contact either of the Parent Training and Information Centers in your state for help.

Association for Special Children and Families
Hewitt, NJ
973-728-8744
http://www.ascfamily.org/

Statewide Parent Advocacy Network
35 Halsey St., Fourth Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
973-642-8100
http://www.spannj.org/

Good Luck,

Lynne


Disclaimer: Responses and answers to questions are for informational purposes only and are not legal advice. Lynne Adams is not an Attorney and as such does not provide legal advice. If you feel you need legal advice or an attorney, contact the Bar Association in your State for a list of qualified attorneys in your specific field.

Factoid of the day-Who said "It's better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you're not..."

This was said by Kurt Cobain.

Thanks for joining in the fun and reading my tweets.

Please send me more factoids. I love to learn strange and unusual things. It keeps life interesting, don't you think?

Lynne

For all of my twitter followers: What is the loudest creature in the sea? Snapping Shrimps and feeding sea urchins make the loudest sounds beneath the ocean according to Dr. Radford, using an underwater listening device.

Bet most of you thought it was a whale. The Blue Whale is the loudest whale and next loudest creature. So you were close.

Check back tomorrow for another exciting factoid.

Lynne

Advocating for your child doesn't ever end. The new school year approaching means that there are new people involved with our children and new people to introduce and help educate about our child's needs. This is something I've been doing for 10 years with my own son. Every year I go in and meet with his teachers around the end of September (give them a little time to get settled, but not too much to risk him falling behind). This is just an informal meeting to introduce myself and let them know my son - his strengths, his weaknesses, how he learns best and what the teachers can expect from the school year going forward. I also go over the accommodations on his plan and let them know some important ones. I invite them to communicate with me and let them know that I will also be communicating with them. My experience is that they are glad that I'm an involved parent and are greatful for the information.

Try to keep it a positive meeting and not dwell on negatives that have happened in the past. This is not helpful and only sets a bad tone going forward. Don't get me wrong, you have to let them know what works with your child and let them know what hasn't worked in the past, just don't make it a gripe session or mention anyone specifically. This will only come across as negative and unprofessional.

Being proactive in this way, I find, is very important to avoid misunderstandings and issues that come up as we try to navigate through another school year.

Please share any tips or suggestions that have worked for you so that others will have lots of tools in the box to work with.

Lynne

Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been in many meetings. Too many to count! I am shocked at the lengths that schools go to to try to manipulate parents and the system. I have also been in the courts for CHINS hearings, and criminal cases. The goals differ, with some schools trying to get kids out of their schools and some trying to get them back in. Most are just trying to avoid providing what kids need.

Let's look at one case. The student is out of district and finally doing very well. The school requests that the mother go and look at the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) program at the high school, even though the IEP and placement is in effect until December. The parent doesn't understand why, but she makes an appointment to look at the program. I ask her if she is planning to send him to the high school in September and she says, no, but she feels that she has to go look at the program because she wants summer services for her son. The IEP does not have Extended School Year checked off with either a yes or no. The district instead, wrote, 'Summer services will be discussed in May 2010'. This is a ploy to get her into a meeting to discuss fall placement. The district is holding summer services out as a carrot to try to get the parent to agree to bring her son back into the district. He already qualifies for summer services because he has regression. There does not need to meeting to discuss this, the student either has regression or not. It is documented that this student does regress or lose skills during absences.

I am not against students being in district, if their needs can be met. In this case, they cannot. The school district has just had an audit conducted and the audit is citing deficiencies in programs, specifically at the high school.

When the student was in district, he was heavily medicated, had severe anxiety, was bullied and assaulted, was failing all subjects, and not making any progress. Now he is off medication, only seeing the therapist once a month, has no more anxiety, is making friends, and is passing all of his subjects.

Obviously, the student should stay where he is, but the district wants to save money. I say, they have already saved money in the years he was in district getting nothing.

Here's another case...
Schools use the courts to get kids out of the district. One school filed a CHINS (child in need of services) on a student who has disabilities. The school has not been providing this student with anything, no IEP, no 504, nothing! The student has been getting into trouble, getting suspended, and detentions, and a criminal case is pending. Due to his disabilities, he is not able to control his behaviors, or understand the consequences and therefore, gets into trouble. He is not in the right placement nor does he have the right program. The judge does find that he needs services...From the School Department! When the school principal hears this in the court, he now wants to dismiss the CHINS filing. The judge does not allow this and asks the school what services they plan to provide. (The courts cannot order schools to do anything.) But they will be checking on the child over the next 6 months. The school's goal was to get the child out of the custody of the parent and into the states custody, thinking that this would get them into another district. The judge said that even if the child went into state custody, the child would still be the districts' responsibility for services and they would probably then have to pay for transportation as well.

This last case kills me...
A district tells a parent, (with me sitting right there) 'We would like to place your child on a ISSP (Individual Service Support Plan) because it has short term goals, rewards for completing work and will help the child to feel good about themselves'. Of course, this is the districts' own thing. It doesn't exist anywhere else. This is instead of an IEP or 504! Typically, parents would go along with this thinking that this sounds good and will help my child. The district tells us that they have many children on this type of plan.

I am not opposed to anything beyond an IEP or 504 that the school is willing to provide as long as there is an IEP or 504 in place as well. School districts try to make up the rules as they go along. And as long as they get the parent to agree in writing, they are off the hook. You can't go back and fix this later on if it doesn't work out. I tell parents all the time, 'when your child gets to high school, can you go back and fix or redo 1st grade? No. Let's get it right the first time around.' Your children are not lab rats. The law is clear. Schools must use research based practices and programs to provide for students with disabilities. Not stuff they make up so they don't have to provide what is required under the law. I have seen kids taken off of therapy for speech, OT,and/or PT when they clearly needed it. And school districts will say that the parent agreed that the child no longer needed it. Yet, when I ask the parent, they feel their child did need it but the district took the therapy away, because of no money or no staff or whatever. The parent didn't agree, but signed anyway because they didn't think they had any other option. This is how schools manipulate the system.

Many of my students have been bullied over the years. It is a horrible thing for families to deal with. And I know it's difficult for schools to address as well. But we have to figure out a way to protect our children from the terrible effects of bullying. I know that some parents have pulled their children out of school. Others have their classrooms or schools changed, but the bullying doesn't go away. Removing our kids is just another form of discrimination and exclusion. But what is the answer? Some districts are providing training for staff and students about bullying and it's effect on victims.

Should we let the school handle it? Are they handling it, or ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away? It doesn't go away! In fact, it usually gets worse. But if you report it, sometimes that makes it worse. What to do?

As parents we need to protect our children. I recommend the following:

1. Report the bullying right away, in writing to all administration (principal, vice principal, special education director, superintendent, director of pupil personnel, guidance counselor, and teacher.
2. Keep a log of all bullying reported by your child with dates, who you reported to, and a copy of written report.
3. Request a meeting in writing with all of the people you wrote to reporting the bullying and ask what is going to be done to stop the bullying.
4. Ask to see the policies the school has created to address bullying and make sure they are following it.
5. If it still doesn't stop, contact an advocate, or attorney. www.fcsn.org, www.dlc-ma.org, www.beyondadvocacy.com,
6. Protect your child even if you have to keep them home from school. Get them tutoring from the school department until the bullying is resolved.
7. Contact the Department of Children and Families and report the bullying as verbal and emotional abuse.
8. Contact the police and file a criminal report.
9. Seek out counseling for your child and your family to help deal with the emotional trauma of being bullied and to help your child learn skills to interact appropriately with peers.
10. Help your district create trainings for staff and students about how bullying affects others and how to prevent it.

If anyone has any other suggestions that have worked in their school system, please share so that others can try them.