Absolutely ask for an evaluation for a 504 Plan formally in writing (email). Check with your principal to see who the 504 coordinator is for your building and send your request to that person. Send examples, data, teacher emails, disciplinary referrals, "sent to the principal's office", low grades, and anything that would show he is struggling in general education without support. Compare and contrast the difference between when a para is there and when he/she is not. Do you have outside evaluations and diagnoses? Make sure to attach those. Also attach any emails that state "it's not in their budget" to provide a 504 or if no emails, reference any conversations in which this was stated. Lack of funding is not an excuse to not provide students with disabilities needed accommodations. Obviously he needs a para since there is one provided now and makes a difference; you need to get this accommodation formalized in a 504. If denied, find out who the overall district coordinator/director is for 504's and check the appeal process in your district.

I am currently fighting my school district for a 504 plan. they have been throwing ideas at this and behavioral charts for 2 yrs but never making a formal 504 plan. they have Para's check in with my son for 5mins or less thru out day. but on days that all of the paras are out of the building my son has major issues and they blame him. when again if this was addressed in a plan such as having back up plan for when the supports arent avaiable or having a set para to help him. i feel like they are trying to make it seem like they are addressing issues but arent held to any plan that they must provide for my son as school. I am at the point of formally asking for 504 plan but any mention of this in past with supports its always thrown back they dont have it in their budget.. how do i fight this issue

It's hard for a special ed teacher to know about all disabilities where they can manage an IEP (and the SDI needed to reach goals) for every student. Deaf & HOH are rare. Schools should be open to consulting to better understand rare disabilities. Consultants will often come with a price tag & teachers are spread thin with what they need to do (if they want to do their own research) so I see this as a lack of time & money with being able to provide FAPE for these students. Without strong parent advocacy, I see students like this slipping through the cracks.

When I was teaching a couple of years ago, math was often the biggest challenge during the day for my students who were previously homeschooled. Gaps in learning stand out and learning a new curriculum can be really anxiety-causing in students who are already getting used to being in a larger classroom environment. (This is especially true if the curriculum being used is Bridges Math, or something similar because they do not focus on the algorithm until toward the end of the school year. Everything up until that point is focused on why math works the way it does, and strategies for solving that are not the standard algorithm.) Writing is another area because classroom teachers often try to combine writing standards with things like social studies and literature. These assignments are dense (even in 3rd and 4th grade)! The end of my meanderings is this: you know your kiddo better than anyone. Ask your grandson what he wants to do. If you have concerns about social skills, you might consider partial homeschool enrollment for PE and specials (like art and music). I wish you both well!

Hi Janis!!! This is very interesting. My son no longer has a writing goal. It included autocorrect and teacher conferencing, so was not reflective of independent work. He only has a self-ad goal right now that is not helpful. Our school psych did include my son's Towl-4 essay in his original school eval which is super helpful as you can see his writing skills right there in the report. When I asked to have essays from TOWL 4 and KTEA 3 included in later reports, I was told no, because they are copyrighted. However, I also was not given an explanation about why his essay was in the first report if it is copyrighted. I have been very clear that I did not want the prompt included, only his actual writing. Since the private evaluator put the TOWL 4 essay in the report, I suggest calling them and asking their opinion on the school telling you the essay is copyrighted. I'm going to try to find this out through a private evaluator, too. Have you explored auditory processing at all? I am finding that my son's phonological deficits and difficulty in background noise are related/due to auditory processing and there is likely expressive/receptive language involved as he difficulty forming complex sentence both orally and in writing. I don't know if this helps you or not, but these are all things I've been slowly piecing together. I am in the middle of responding to a PTRE and will check back later to see if you have any new info. I'm trying to get reading and writing SDI added for next year. I also suggest contacting the PEAL center. They have associates to help answer questions and guide you. I have someone helping me with the PTRE.