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First I would want to know what "can read the words" means. Sometimes students can "read," but that is only because they have memorized the words. The real question is whether he can DECODE. To determine that, you need an evaluation that tests nonsense word reading and also digs down into phonics and phonological awareness. Have you had any evaluations that have done this? If you don't have an evaluation that did this, request one. It will be easier to "fight" for OG if you can show a phonological and/or phonics deficit. But OG is also appropriate for the areas you mention - comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. It depends on how low his scores are in these areas (and thus what the present levels show). You can fight for anything - but you need the data to support it. If you have the data, also ask for goals in reading to be added to the IEP (comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and any phonics/phonological awareness deficits). That way it will have to be addressed with specialized instruction as opposed to remediation, which I assume is general ed instruction/remediation that takes place in spec ed only because he is in a self-contained class - not because it is specialized instruction.

those summer program ads are tempting, especially when you feel like your kid has been passed along with no real progress. But here’s the thing: flashy claims like “gain 1 school year in 6 weeks” are usually too good to be true. Some of these programs can help, but many aren’t backed by solid research, and they are expensive. I would look online for reviews, keeping in mind that some places actually pay for reviews. You can also look in the "what works" database, if it's still online. Linda McMahon may have pulled it down, I actually haven't used it myelf in several weeks. If the school has acknowledged that your child hasn’t made meaningful progress, you can ask for compensatory education services. This is different from summer school. It’s about making up for services or instruction your child should have already received. Bring this up in your CSE meeting. If you have data (or lack thereof), point to it. Ask what evidence-based programs they can offer or fund. Also, don’t let them skate by with “he can use a calculator” if he still hasn’t been taught the foundational math skills. That’s an accommodation, not instruction.

This interests me too. My son is in a 12:1 self contained here in NY. The Special Education department says reading and math remediation takes place in the self contained class. I happen to know that two of his classmates get pull outs for Orton Gillingham reading 5 x out of 10 days for 40 minutes each. My son's biggest reading problems are comprehension, vocabulary and fluency. He can read the words but had very little idea what he is reading. Is OG right for him? Should I fight for it?

My child has been passed along through each grade with huge learning gaps in reading comprehension, fluency and vocabulary. He also still counts on his fingers to do basic math so they added 'may use a calculator to his IEP'. I WOULD LOVE to see him close some of these gaps over the summer. I am drawn to all the ads on FB. "Gain 1 school year of progress this summer." Etc. Has anyone found one of these programs to actually work? They are so expensive. I can't afford to invest if they are frauds. Is there anyway the school district will help pay for them? CSE MEETING tomorrow (Tuesday) ugh!

I've been an educational advocate in SW PA for years. I don't recall this being something I've seen anywhere. My best guess is this doesn't exist. You might be able to find a 1:1 SAT tutor who can do this. My thought is (1) there are dozens of different accommodations and (2) students who need accommodations will often not go to college so it's not very feasible to offer a class. My child had 100% extra time from the College Board. Our plan was for them to take the SAT & see how things went. If they needed a prep class, we'd go with the one the local PTA sponsored because it has a good reputation. I hadn't thought about the fact that there wouldn't be extra time with a practice test. BTW, with a class size of ~275, my child was the only person who took the SAT w/ extra time when they took the test. They did it at school over 2 days and they missed classes.

Hi! My 10th grader has accommodations approved by the college board for 100% extra time and screen reader. I wanted to enroll her in an SAT prep class but then realized that most of the classes start by taking practice tests. These test during the class would not allow for these accommodations. Some will allow her to come early or take the practice test at home the night before but don't have the screen read function. Does anyone know of a test prep class that specializes in working with students who have approved accommodations? We are in PA the suburbs of Philadelphia. Would love any guidance anyone can offer. Also wondering between the ACT and SAT what has been your experience with your child? Is one proven better for certain learning disabilities or strengths? Thank you.

I'll check into how and when accommodations are being implemented. I hear you that filing a State complaint can change things with the school IEP team.

Thank you both. I'm putting together my reeval request and submitting this week to get the ball rolling.

Personally, I feel that not averaging this test is isn't a 'reasonable accommodation'. Given it's the end of the school year & there is limited opportunity to make this right, this might be what to ask for. I do feel you should ask for something. What might be better would be for your child to go over the test with the teacher where the teacher allows her provide a verbal response for the questions she didn't answer 100% correctly. Also, if classmates got 5 minute with open notes, IMO, your child should have gotten 10 minutes. You might want to request an IEP meeting so 'extra time' can be clarified as to what is needed. Maybe also clarify what happens if teachers use timers or do other things contrary to what's in the IEP (if the class needs a timer, your child should be testing in another room) you might want to include that the test will not count toward the final grade unless it brings her average up. I've not seen students get more than 2X time but there are exceptions to everything. If you (or your daughter) don't ask, the answer is 'no'. Definitely say something and do it in writing tso there is a paper trail.

Hello, My daughter's IEP states that she gets 100% extra time for tests and more can be considered if needed. It also says no use of timers and to answer her questions directly. She is in 10th grade and advocates fairly well for herself. Her last chemistry test the teacher told her that she would give the class the full period to do the test however since she felt the test should only take 30 min she would only allow my daughter to take 60 min. My daughter tried to advocate and the teacher said 30 + 30 is 60. My daughter asked how long the class was and the teacher (instead of answering her directly) told her to look at board where the times of the classes were written. This completely intimidated and added to my daughter's anxiety about the test. When test day came, there was a timer on the smart board. Additional she told the class that they could use notes for the last 5 min. My daughter felt completely uncomfortable and rushed. She was so worried because she had to tell tbe teacher when her last 5 min were (she should not have been limited to 5 min either). With the intimidation, time limit and timer visible through the test, my daughter rushed and didn't check her work. The 5 min to use her notes went so fast she couldn't find anything. It was the lowest grade she got on a test and it brought her average down a point. It is the last week of school should I write a note to the teacher to have the test not count in any way that would negatively affect her grade? Retaking the test would cause too much anxiety for my daughter.

This is the definition of autism from IDEA: (i) Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. (ii) Autism does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (c)(4) of this section. (iii) A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section are satisfied. This is section (c) (4) mentioned ^: (4) (i) Emotional disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance: (A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors. (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. (C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances. (D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. (ii) Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance under paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section. I find this confusing. From what I've seen with Aspergers type of autism is that emotional issues versus are hard to differentiate which is why autistics are sometimes labeled ED by schools. If 'autism' is a health factor, then ASD is the right box to have checked. Supplemental versus itinerant has to do with staffing. This is from Chapter 14 of the school code: Itinerant (20% or Less) Supplemental (Less Than 80% but More Than 20%) Full-Time (80% or More) Learning Support 50 20 12 Life Skills Support 20 20 12 (Grades K-6) 15 (Grades 7-12) Emotional Support 50 20 12 Deaf And Hearing Impaired Support 50 15 8 Blind And Visually Impaired Support 50 15 12 Speech And Language Support 65 8 Physical Support 50 15 12 Autistic Support 12 8 8 Multiple Disabilities Support 12 8 8 If the student is supplemental, max caseload is 8 - not 12. They should be looking at how much time as a percentage of the school day he's getting special ed services and not the name of the program. If this isn't accurate on the IEP, you could file a state complaint. (You can see this defined her on page 58: https://www.pattan.net/CMSPages/GetAmazonFile.aspx?path=~\pattan\media\forms\files\interactive-annotated-iep.pdf&hash=c0ea2b719d21a38a5c12f35787364505e1915c0b3618e03dec3aae2355fa263a&ext=.pdf.) Note that the annotation says "typical school day". My district has paraprofessionals who have RBT training so this would look the same as far as "restrictive" goes - it's just a 1:1 with different training than other aides (they also make more given the added training). In your shoes, I'd ask that his 1:1 aide have RBT training given your outside eval said he needed an RBT. Emotional support might be the right placement if 'upset' is the reason he needs support & the ES teacher has appropriate training - I'd still want the ASD box checked on the IEP. I wouldn't fault them for using an AS room for a student in the evaluation process if that's where the person who helped was located. So long as a student is in the process of being identified, they get special ed protections and students with IEPs can be suspended. It's really when you get to 10 days that they look at manifestations of a disability because suspensions of 10+ days are a placement change where you need the IEP team to weigh in. What does the autistic support room have that the emotional support room doesn't being you want AS and not ES to be the room where he gets services? If I knew why you wanted this, I think I could help by providing an argument that's specific to the issue you see. I'm aware of a school where one room had both AS & ES support. The issue was that when there was a ES support student acting out & trying to calm down, the autistic student found this too triggering/distracting where they couldn't calm down. There are other things in your post that you might want to file complaints with PDE on: We were told they couldn’t evaluate until full-day 1st grade despite autism being flagged by his therapist. When we did get an eval, they initially didn’t test for autism. I hope I covered everything - you had a lot of questions/comments.

The discipline of a student should be part of the student's file. Only parents and school staff who need to know should have access to this. In other words, you shouldn't have access to the specifics. School policies tend to be publically available on school websites and there is nothing preventing the school from sharing what their policy is. In PA, there is a policy numbering system that schools are encouraged to use. Your school's bullying policy might be # 249. This might not be bullying if this isn't part of a pattern of acts happening by these students to your child as bullying is defined as something that's repeated. When it comes to bullying that could fall under s3x abuse, I feel that schools are hesitant to escalate this because they don't want to be responsible for a Jr HS aged person ending up on Megan's List for what's more so a prank than criminal perversion. Being involved with this and reporting this to ChildLine could force this classmate to have limited opportunities in the future. (In my school district, you cannot enter a school building when students are present if you are on Megan's List to give you an idea what some of the restrictions are.) There is nothing preventing you from calling ChildLine and telling them what happened to your child. Their number is 1-800-932-0313 and is available 24/7. Given that Juvenile Court is involved, I'm not sure how important it is to bring this to ChildLine; I would think the court would have involved them if it was appropriate to do. (I'm curious what the court charged them with given you want to punish but not necessarily escalate things too much.) Also, most things that are investigated by CYF end up being unfounded. This could be why the places you have reached out to haven't moved forward in this. If you feel school staff isn't following proper protocol in reporting things like this, you can escalate this within your school district. Principals oversee school staff and directors of secondary ed oversee Jr HSs. Over them would be the superintendent and school board. Their contact info should be on the school district's website. I feel that contacting your state rep or senator like Lisa suggested would be a good next step to take. I think you might want to answer this question too: What do you want to see happen to the students who did this to your child? If you can answer this, it can help you plan the next steps that are needed with moving forward.

I'd try working with the school and if that doesn't work out, definitely file the state complaint. State complaints make you "that mom" and being that mom can get in the way of FAPE. Could it be that some teachers are accommodating consistently & other are inconsistent? The data could be accurate if this is happening or it could be your child self-advocates for their accommodations (which is a good thing) so it's more consistent than the teacher realizes.

My experience with auditory processing evals was that the school didn't accept the one I had done by an outside therapist. The school did their own eval - actually, it was done at our IU (this is a PA thing) because you need a soundproof booth to do them. As far as getting specific, less is more sometimes. And the sooner you start the process, the sooner you'll have the eval completed. My feeling is that you'll be 1st in line for the fall with asking now.

Also include phonics for reading as that is different from phonological awareness. For writing, I think you've covered all the bases. I would look at your state standards to see where he should be at his grade level for writing and state you are concerned he is not meeting those state standards. I don't know if you'll be able to get anything for "handwriting fluency." I think that this would be more of a fine motor skill and by the time a child is in middle school, it's past the time where it can be corrected other than practicing. I'm guessing he has accommodations such as speech-to-text or typing? I know you eventually want him to be able to write without accommodations, but "handwriting" without accommodations may be a losing battle. In general, keep in mind that it's the school's obligation to evaluate in all areas of suspected disabilities - not yours. If they don't evaluated in an area that should have been, you would be entitled to request this in an IEE - they don't get a "do-over" if their evaluation isn't sufficient the first time. Auditory processing disorder is something I would advise pursuing privately. Most insurance covers this, as well as the therapy. However, his IQ test may have shown low processing, which you can use for the time being as a reason for accommodations - extending time to process/respond, etc.

Hi everyone, I’m a parent in Pennsylvania navigating a tough IEP situation for my 6-year-old son, who is autistic. He’s currently in an itinerant autistic support program with a 1:1 aide, PBSP, and social skills instruction. Even though his iep says itinerant, the program is labeled as supplemental and he spends a fair amount of his day in the as room to regulate, have sensory breaks, and finish work. This discrepancy between what is happening and what is written was literally “laughed off” when I brought it up. The district now has proposed a change in placement to itinerant emotional support. They say it will be similar to what he’s getting now — same 1:1, social skills, access to a sensory room — but I’m concerned this is really a step down in services. He still struggles with transitions and emotional regulation due to autism, as well as level 3 behaviors including elopement and aggression. Im not sure if the ES teacher has the training to support that. They also haven’t updated the IEP yet — just issued a NOREP. This whole process has been rocky. Last year: We were told they couldn’t evaluate until full-day 1st grade despite autism being flagged by his therapist. When we did get an eval, they initially didn’t test for autism. They discouraged me from getting a private diagnosis and suddenly agreed to autism evaluation when I brought in an outside developmental pediatrician. They began using the autistic support room as a “regulation space” without informing us, although the timing (right after my outside doctor diagnosis) shows me it was placement in practice. He was suspended for behavior likely linked to his disability before the IEP was in place as retaliation from the principal to not signing the initial iep fast enough. A doctor’s written recommendation for an RBT has been ignored with the explanation that it is “too restrictive” Now I’m being asked to agree to a change I’m not fully comfortable with. I’ve reached out to a lawyer and am considering mediation. Has anyone successfully pushed back in a similar situation? Do you think this kind of placement change can work for a 2e autistic child — or am I right to be cautious? Thanks so much for any input or encouragement. I’m really trying to do what’s best for my son while navigating a system that hasn’t felt very collaborative.

Thanks Carolyn. I'll start putting my re-evaluation request together ASAP. Anther question - How specific do I have to be about my concerns about reading and writing? For reading, I'd specify phonological awareness (advanced such as substitution, addition, and removal), fluency, accuracy, comprehension.....anything else? For writing, I'd include conventions, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, organization, and handwriting fluency for both on-demand writing and longer-form paragraph/essay writing. Is there a standardized test for multi-paragraph writing that's expected in middle? I always feel like I am missing something on my lists of suspected disability, and then worry that specific thing I missed won't be evaluated, because I didn't know to include it. (I didn't know to include phonological awareness on the last eval.) Finally, if I have concerns about auditory processing, is that something the school can assess or is that better to have done privately with an audiologist? Thank you!

Yes, the school will want to do their own re-evaluation BUT if you don't agree with their results, THEN you can ask for an IEE. So start the process of requesting a re-evaluation as soon as possible. (I would ask for it not only in the areas which have been removed, but also in the areas which are still in the IEP unless you are comfortable with the data in those areas, if any.) Unfortunately, the IDEA doesn't define a time by which re-evaluations have to be done. But since the director of spec ed probably works during the summer months, you can include her on your email request to make sure someone sees it. Then follow up when school starts. I would push hard for this to be done ASAP given that they removed services without data. You will be required to sign a permission form before the re-evaluation can start, so ask for that on a weekly, then daily, basis until you receive it. Although the IDEA does not define the timeline, the default is usually "withing a reasonable time," which has been defined to mean 60 days - similar to the initial evaluation.

Yes, you absolutely should have been informed—especially since restraint or a “safety escort” was used and a staff member involved was untrained. Here is the statute: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/resources/policies-acts-and-laws/basic-education-circulars-becs/pa-code/use-of-restraints-for-students-with-disabilities.html While they may not be legally required to tell you someone was fired (since that’s a personnel matter), the fact that an untrained person participated in a physical restraint or escort should have been disclosed—because that’s not just an HR issue, that’s a violation of procedure and could pose a safety risk to your child. I'd suggest putting your concerns in writing and asking the school to: Clarify who is trained and certified in crisis intervention or restraint protocols; Explain how an untrained person was allowed to participate; Detail what corrective actions have been taken to prevent this in the future. You can also file a state complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education, especially if they failed to follow state guidelines on restraint reporting.

I'm so sorry this happened to your child—what you’ve described is beyond unacceptable, and you're absolutely right to be outraged. In Pennsylvania, schools are mandated reporters, and photographing a child in a state of undress—especially in a bathroom—is potentially a criminal matter, not just a school discipline issue. Failing to report that to ChildLine may be a violation of mandated reporting laws. Since you've already contacted the PA Department of Education, I’d recommend also filing a formal complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education. The OCR investigates violations related to disability and sex-based harassment under Section 504 and Title IX. What your child experienced could be seen as both. Additionally, because the school failed to ensure safety and refused a DOE-approved safety plan, I’d also suggest a state complaint under IDEA (if your child has an IEP) or a 504 complaint with the Office for Civil Rights. You may also want to contact your state representative or senator, especially if you’re not getting traction elsewhere. Elected officials sometimes help move the needle when agencies go quiet. Another idea is giong to the media...but I have lots of ideas about that. It doesn't always go the way we want. I'm sorry you're not getting help from people who should be helping, but we can help guide you here.

My child - in jr high - was targeted by students taking secret photos in the bathroom (while peeing; pants and underwear off) without consent and posting them online. The school knew and did not report it to Childline in PA as is required. We requested a DOE approved safety plan, which they refused to complete or allow further discussion. 2 kids confessed. The school refused to tell us what form of disciplinary action was deemed appropriate under their policies for an action of this type. They also refused to share their bullying policy. Only in juvenile court (for the perpetrators) was it revealed the discipline they chose: 1 day suspension for one student; no discipline at all for the other. I have contacted the state DoE; education and disability lawyers; autism advocacy groups - all agree this is egregious misconduct but all have sat on their hands and found it not worth their time to act. I am at my wits end. Who is responsible for holding schools accountable when they refuse to protect students? I’m in Pennsylvania.

PA - my son was put in a restraint (it was a safety escort) by two staff at school. I had a meeting with the IEP team to debrief and I was told that the protocol was followed. I had no concerns at the time. I found out later that the one staff involved was not trained in the procedure and was fired. Was the school not required to disclose that to me?

Hi Carolyn and JSD24. Thank you for your replies to both my posts. You both had some great ideas and suggestions again! After I submitted my post, I realized my wording about how much time I have to ask for an IEE was not very clear. It has been almost a year since my child's school reevaluation that led me to consider requesting an IEE, so the school will almost certainly want to do another eval before agreeing to an IEE. I plan to ask for evaluations and am just deciding when to do so which I asked in my other recent post about removing areas of support (now or in August/September). JSD24, I like your suggestion to ask in writing why there is no specially designed instruction for the areas that are being accommodated. This confirms what I have been seeing and been confused about. Providing accommodations means there is an area of need, but these are not reflected as areas of need in the Present Levels. I did look up the PARC Consent Decree and that was helpful info. I am reaching out to some other families in our district to find out about their experience with the district and special education. I plan to do a deep dive into the testing by early Fall to see if private and school tests were looking at the same things to try to determine why the results were so different. This also ties into the areas of need listed in Present Levels of the IEP. In some part, the school's reasoning as to if and why something is an area of need differs from our private evaluations and has led to different conclusions as to whether a skill should be accommodated or taught or is an area of need at all. (My son's profile is complex and his needs fall into a legal gray area which further complicates matters.) Your info about SAT and PSAT was helpful, as I am just getting up to speed on this area and am trying to not miss doing something now that will make things easier later. Documenting accommodations currently being used in school seems important. If teacher documentation on the IEP of when and how often accommodations are being used is incorrect, and the school will not change it on the IEP how do I address this? For example, one teacher says the student occasionally goes to another room for small group testing for this subject area, but actually the student is always doing this. While, another teacher for a different subject did accurately capture this in their Present Levels statement in the annual IEP. Also, I am considering filing a state complaint about accommodations being provided without special instruction. JSD24, in my other post, you offered to help with this as you are also in PA. I may be in touch about help with this. I am deciding on what to do and when. File state complaint and ask for new evals in September or reverse that order? Thanks for your help. It's so easy to get confused and lose site of my "lighthouse".

Carolyn and JSD24, thank you for your suggestions and input! Yes, my IEE post is about the same student as this post. Yes, the special ed eval for speech and language, reading, and writing was done by the school psychologist. I plan to ask for more data supporting decision, why agreed upon goals and supports weren't added, and for evaluations in areas which have been removed. The suggestion to focus on creating a paper trail saying accommodations were used to meet the goal and there are still needs in this area was helpful. What are the pros and cons of asking for the special ed valuations now, with the agreement they'll be done at the beginning of the next school year, and waiting to ask in August/September? (I can overthink things, and maybe this doesn't matter.) Also, the reevaluation I referred to in my IEE post, was done almost exactly a year ago now, so I'm fairly certain the school would want to do new evals instead of agree to an IEE. Thanks again.

You can remove SDI & goals based on progress monitoring reports. What I'm seeing is that you don't agree with the reports because the goal was reached with accommodations and you want to see your child move toward doing this without accommodations. I would create a paper trail that gets the school to say your child had accommodations with meeting this goal so he still has delays in this area and given there still are delays, you see the need for Specially Designed Instruction and goals to catch him up to what same-age classmates can do. If the school isn't cooperating with a paper trail that shows the accommodations, ask that the school do a special ed assessment in this area. A special ed eval/assessment gets done by a school psychologist where the progress monitoring is done by a case manager/special ed teacher and they aren't trained with doing normed special ed evaluations. You'll need to sign of on a PTR (permission to reevaluate) so the eval can be done. When you work on the paper trail, copy the school psychologist on the email. I'm hoping this could get the case manager to see that a goal reached with accommodations does not show a student is independent in this area. You also had a post about an IEE. I'm assuming the 2 posts are about the same student. I'm not sure with looking at both posts who evaluated your child as far as writing goes. A normed special ed eval needs to be done by someone trained to do the eval so the testing protocol gets followed. Normed evals wouldn't allow a student to have accommodations unless the accommodations were documented in the eval report. If the protocol wasn't followed, the eval is not valid so you can't use the results. Not sure about asking to see the evaluation where your child's writing was assessed - if the paperwork still exists. Definitely ask your child what sort of help was provided when the eval was done. If more than one person did the eval, that should be in the report. In PA, teachers tend not to be trained to do evaluations. They tend to be done by the school psychologist when it comes to assessing writing. If a teacher who doesn't have the training to do evals are doing them, this falls into doing a state complaint. I'm in PA & I can help you with this.