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Hi AM:)!! If you didn’t see my questions in other posts: I have 2 9th graders in PA for past year with multiple similar issues: * one kiddo tested at 7% in essay composition subtest of WIAT4, with the average written expression composite scoring Average. His SLD in written expression are so obvious with multiple out of state IEEs and one in the works here forcing them to include “written expression” as an area of need. I continue to lose the SLD battle although I will not give up the fight because his SLD and ASD (late eligibility and diagnosis in 7th grade) are coequal driving forces at the heart of this kid unlike his OHI eligibility that all states and districts prefer to cling to. Other kiddo is better defined by his late eligibility and diagnosis of ASD, but also was diagnosed with SLD in written expression from his IEE TOWL4 essay composition which the IEE evaluator included in the report! In this PA district, I have found that they tested the WIAT 2 times in 2 months so scores are invalid and they also “decided” to score my kiddos using grade based norms instead of age based norms in their ERs which were completed a year ago. They also never even discussed eligibility with me at the IEP meetings we had 30 days after those ER reports…going through ERs and creating IEPs in 2 hours in a new state with 2 kids was really overwhelming. I found paperwork where 3 district members signed an eligibility for SLD cartegory sheet at the completion of the ERs (without me) and a month before we met to go over ERs and create IEPs:(. I kept saying I disagreed with so much but I was ignored and they signed my name electronically without my permission and even “held” IEP meetings without me. I use this loosely because I requested a parent training meeting with the school psych (WIAT 2 times, Grade based norms) who did not attend the ER/IEP meetings a month later and the school sent an email end of day Friday proposing a meeting for Monday morning. I never saw the email but answered a call which was from a Google Meets phone number. They asked me if I was coming to the meeting! To this day they have a meeting listed saying parent did not attend. That was the parent training meeting with school psych that took place 10 days later where school psych showed me the essay that my students wrote for her WIAT 4 essay composition…..but the ER uses the Writing Composite which shows up as Average. Since the IEE psychologist included my kiddos essay response to the TOWL4 essay in the report, I would really like to know if we can have access to these essays and if we can request that the students spontaneous essay response be included in the ER/IEP. This would cut out so many issues with trying to get the students work as well as what the student’s work looks like without accommodating or without others “doctoring it up”, passing it out at a meeting, and claiming student met the goal with this one example. Ugh. My 2e (only in previous state) kiddo’s writing was easily hidden from me, but his brother’s documented written expression needs are much harder to ignore….yet they are doing a good job! How do we get schools to teach writing? It is really hard to get them to acknowledge it! My heart breaks for the kiddos whose needs are ignored… But even when they acknowledge it, they are not teaching it. For one kiddo they created a writing goal “because I kept asking”! I laughed and said are you telling me you created a goal just to placate me? They had no response but the goal does not have an SDI to teach writing, only to accommodate, so that goal will be met shortly:(

Hi AM:) I would love to hear any updates you have on this! We are 1 year in PA, in 9th grade, in the process of IEEs, with much of what you have described: written expression, social skills, executive functioning…. In a previous state, one kiddo was 2e but I was told doesn’t qualify here. One was initially found eligible (1st grade) under SLD (math and reading) which was dropped in 4th grade for OHI, then both kids primary became ASD in 7th and both have SLDs in written expression which I have to say is the eligibility category that seems to frighten districts across the country. I believe because it is so easy to hide writing needs:(. I have been floored by the toothless goals proposed in this district in this state. And they have ignored my concerns and protests about these goals which I now see are key here. In our year here, the goals are just presented; there is no collaboration in the meeting about the goals…..I asked if I should create my own and was told no. However, there is no team collaboration about goals and I have 2 kids who present differently with similar areas of need with the exact same goals, I am starting to believe that district might be regurgitating goals from AI which are tied to areas of need but are not individualized, and can be “mastered” or “revised” at the districts bidding.

Thank you for posting this! I am struggling with all of these things in PA….we did not have SDIs in previous state, and “present levels” were written very differently. We are in the process of getting IEEs, but until then, I would really like to understand this. If district (based on their ER) lists executive functioning as an area of need, then it must provide an SDI (in this case a “curriculum” within a class which is “the programming” they offer)…..correct? * I keep documenting that organization is one of the areas of need within the EF umbrella and that student must have an organizational system (agenda) to write down classes, when tests will be (he never knows) so he can learn how to manage time and prepare (not necessary because he has straight As with no homework, and never studying) what homework is due (none ever), etc. Time management, break assignments into chunks, pre-teach/re-teach, difficulty with multi-step directions, low frustration tolerance have been on all IEP’s in some form or place, but here they just say “due to needs in EF”. The EF programming essentially has him fill out a sheet once a week where he looks at his grades and to see if he has any missing assignments (takes 1 minute). After months of pushing, they agreed to provide an agenda to work on all the things listed (write assignments, upcoming test dates, time management by studying 15 minutes every 3 days before a test…). They handed him an agenda and it was never touched (same thing happened in previous state). * I believe the demands are so little that the areas of need are disappearing…..and my student is getting all As, so why create schedules of studying for no reason? If he fills out their sheet, he is meeting the goal and no longer has this EF area of need *Same issues with written expression (SLD in written expression that they won’t list this or his dysgraphia) and they have NOT provided any SDI for teaching. Only accommodating. They “disappeared” the goal that he didn’t meet (a paragraph with topic, concluding sentence, 3 examples and no more than 2 errors in conventions). They “revised” that to (will write a multi paragraph essay scoring 3/4 on PA rubric in organization and style 1x per semester). I didn’t agree which I said in meetings but they put it in the IEP. It has taken me a while to understand PA NOREPS v. CA PWN. That revision took place in November, now they started his annual a month early and claimed he wrote this essay. It is actually separate paragraphs from different assignments, there are multiple errors in conventions and spelling, the concluding sentence has nothing to do with the topic sentence in each paragraph even with the graphic organizers and sentence starters. This kid still can’t write a paragraph but I’m worried they will say he is doing grade level writing because they gave him an A on this “multi-paragraph” essay (three separate paragraphs just placed one after the other). And….they recommended he take an honors course specifically to write a 3-6 page essay!. From what I can see, the graphic organizers, sentence starters, and everything else they have listed in the accommodations is making it “look” like he is writing at grade level….but he isn’t. Also, he still doesn’t utilize spell check or anything consistently because they just accept his errors or fix them for him, and he can’t learn how to use it because he so infrequently needs it. He doesn’t even know how to access it even though it’s written as an accommodation under the SDIs. What can I ask them to do to teach him to write as an SDI? Without all the accommodations? Are multi-sensory programs effective for SLD in written expression, and Dysgraphia? Since they identified “written expression” as an area of need, and they just say it will be addressed in his English class which is co-taught? They do not identify anything that they are doing to instruct him in the class that is different than the “random” co-taught classes he just ended up in. Can I ask for something much more specific as an SDI so he can be taught to write a paragraph without graphic organizers, sentence starters, and still multiple errors with conventions? Even though they list social skills as an area of need, the goal they created is silly (I’m working on this now with the advocate). The teacher input in his present levels basically says he is a rock star, straight A student who gets along with peers. I can keep writing my concerns (does not have friends, monopolizes air time when talking about interests, does not understand nonverbal cues as evidenced by X), and they could even write goals around what I describe but: they “revise” goals to include “when given direct instruction and teacher modeling (doesn’t actually happen), student will have appropriate give and take conversation for 5 passes with peers in unstructured setting in x out of x.” Then they consider unstructured time to be during the EF class (their programming) which includes videos of EF strategies and Social skills strategies. None of it captures my kiddo and the real and pervasive social skills deficits that do impact him across settings daily. I know what they “offer” which is their “programming” for kiddos like mine which is watching videos for EF and Social skills in one class with a touch of “study skills” is doing NOTHING for my kiddo(s) in a year…. I don’t know what will help with the needs in social skills or executive functioning (other than an educational therapist but they don’t see the need for that!) so I do not know what to ask for….. If the SDI (their programming which is the X class) is not working (I have to figure out how to create more specific goals to prove this), what can I ask them to do? They identified “coping skills” as an area of need in their ER. And they put 15 minutes of counseling sessions as the SDI, which I keep objecting to, even though they do not list anywhere why he would need “coping skills” although he definitely does when he is expected to do something difficult (writing and math). Essentially, it seems really clear that they are not providing accurate present levels (teachers say rock star straight A student, popular kid) and also making so few demands that there is nothing he needs to cope with. ugh. All this to say Thank You! Because I did not know that all areas of need must be listed in SDIs, or that accommodations only in SDIs without instruction (writing) is not necessarily appropriate, or (special Thank you to Lisa for drilling the importance of present levels which in this case say nothing about the areas of need other than a few listed words on page 6) that I have to ASK the teachers specifically about their observations because the teacher input section is so slim that there are no areas of need. My kids have made no progress in their areas of need in executive functioning, social skills or written expression for years! And it looks like the toothless goals, ineffectual programming and mass accommodations without teaching skills is a big part of the problem. I hope others can understand the areas of need/present levels/SDIs/skills have to be taught sooner than I have.

Has the school done a pragmatics eval? They did one with my child & she masked and they didn't see any issue. The TOPL has an optional extended assessment that probably would have picked it up... Most parents need a lawyer to get a private placement. Any charter schools in your area? They will sometimes do better than the regular public schools with kids like yours.

Ask for an IEE at school expense. You don't feel the goals have been met. (My guess is they don't have anyone who can support the MS goal in HS.) https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/ I'd ask them to show you some of his work - ask for a copy you can keep. Then ask your son how much help he got with it.

Can you update us on this? I am hoping a better IEP was created with appropriate goals so your kiddo is making progress:)!!!!

This is a 9th grader, one year in this PA district, long history of SLD in written expression, 7% essay comp WIAT4, below basic PSSA, low growth MAP scores between winter-Spring 8th grader, has ASD, ADHD….. He cannot write a paragraph, but they “revised” aka vanished that unmet goal in November. They changed it to “will write a multi paragraph essay using graphic organizers and sentence starters, and revise with editing checklist scoring a 3/4 for Style and Organization”. My emailed concerns 2 months ago included that he cannot articulate what he is learning in writing or verbally. At the meeting this week, they are recommending Honors History specifically due to the 3-6 page research paper. And they say he did so well in same class presentation that he should join the debate team. And this is now included as teacher input on his IEP. With time and more data, I can break down the writing insanity (I am very realistic about the writing..he has had tutors and an ed therapist in Ca), but I am very tired of sitting in meetings that appear scripted for district. Has anyone experienced this? How do you handle it in the moment and in the follow up? I have a new advocate and understand the niceties and protocols of meetings, however, the gaslighting is sickening. How can parental participation be maintained but protected from this professionally and in real time?

Thank you all for your support! Yes, the stuttering just gets worse:( And the bullying goes on. He “reported” to a teacher this week, got called a snitch, and we didn’t have time to get to this in the IEP meeting this week. We had to follow the agenda items at District’s pace. He has had speech services for years…just didn’t qualify in this state. In our one year here his speech (and pragmatics) have declined. It is clear that he is being bullied due to his disability, that this won’t stop, and that the district will do nothing about it. How do I get this kiddo into a different placement (private)? Specifically, how do I create a solid case? The toll it is taking on him is huge. We have been down this road:(. I can feasibly get us “through” this school year, but never again.

Your child is disabled and this discrimination-you can file with OCR. I would use the words "discrimination" & "harassment" when writing to the district. The school already knows about the bullying as you have brought it up in meetings. Document every time it happens. Bullying Prevention | Department of Education | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Local Task Force contacts are listed online: https://www.pattan.net/CMSPages/GetAmazonFile.aspx?path=~\pattan\media\stfdocs\ltf-2024-2025-contact-information-10_17_1.pdf&hash=c9bc2458dc739f5b4b7329280963e5057e5a1e0d66932630159a3455446597b7

The School Can Choose the "Where" (34 C.F.R. § 300.116) They Must Offer Transportation (34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(16))Also, You Cannot Be Forced to Drive. Because of the “at no cost” rule, there is usually a reimbursement option for the drive if you were to drive Another thought: you might be able to negotiate the closer location by showing them that it’s actually cheaper for the district to pay the local provider's fee than to pay for the distant service plus the mandatory transportation costs. Another argument could be that the school's choice of Location is effectively denying your child FAPE because the travel time required to get there is too restrictive.

Can you contact your Local Task Force for your county? Check with your IU and they will give you the contact info. The Right to Education Local Task Forces are there to help with resources but also to address systemic issues in school districts (on a positive note, the LFT's are parent led). You can also call in the Safe to Say hotline, it's not just for students. Are the parents involved parents? IDK where in Pa you are but there are a few free advocacy groups.

PA has Safe2Say. It was put in place to report things like overhearing a classmate say they want to end it all but it definitely gets used to report bullying. They have an app & a website for anonymous reporting. Has social skills & pragmatics been evaluated? These are the areas of need I've seen in kids like yours. It's also areas I've seen schools miss. Will not be covered by an IEE if the school hasn't already done an eval. They might not be able to "help what kids say" but they also need to have no bullying policies in place that get enforced. I'm guessing that the more your child is harassed, bullied & teased, the worse the stutter gets. Is your son getting outside therapy? An outside therapist can sometimes get the school to see how toxic the school environment is. In PA, your child qualifies for Medicaid and that can cover outside speech therapy which might work better than school therapy. It covers social skills too but it can be hard to find places that offer this & take Medicaid. The application is online. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dhs/programs-services/apply-for-benefits

:)!!! I am definitely not in “California” anymore!!! IEEs are scheduled, I was able to find and hire a great advocate, so I’m working on finishing all the data that supports that the goals, interventions, and placement need to be changed. In the meantime, my kiddo is very distressed daily about school:(. As far as anonymous reporting (they have it), how does this work? If I report the names of kids who are doing this, I think it would be obvious who was reporting and get back to my kiddo (who is mortified and was called a snitch in earlier grades). Will anonymous reporting be useful as a record of what is happening for us? Coping skills were in previous IEPs and not helpful. They were proposed in October in a manner that sounded punitive (relationship with district is strained). Also, after discussing the “stuttering autistic freak” remark at an IEP meeting, district proposing creating a coping skills goal did not sit well; as in kiddo must learn how to cope with being called this. He needs social skills, their online program is not helping him. He needs speech (as the insult implies) but they pull out their trusty “not according to the ER”. At the same meeting they said they can’t help what kids say. I explained hostile environment to them which they followed up with an email about their best buddies program. It is a hostile environment for my kiddo:(. Any pros and cons would be appreciated.

I don't know much about PA, but doesn't the district have a procedure in place for reporting bullying anonymously? Why does he have to tell the gen ed teachers? Does the district have a school board policy on bullying and what does it say and are they following it? I would suggest sending the school district a Gebser letter officially informing them of the bullying. See below from Lisa's website for info on Gebser letters and other tips for dealing with bullying: https://adayinourshoes.com/bullying-school-stop-bullying-happening/ As for placement, why is it not the correct placement? What placement do you want? You need to have data for a change in placement. Is he not making sufficient progress on his IEP goals? Can he not access the curriculum in the gen ed setting? If not, why not? The school district will probably want to try supports before a change in placement. Unfortunately, you're "not in California anymore, Dorothy." Welcome to the Rust Belt.

1. It really doesn't matter what the "mindset" was when the goals were created. It she is not making sufficient progress on them, something needs to change. Period. And that change can certainly be modifications or change in placement. 3. Try to reason with the team that at some point they are going to have to teach her time, money, etc. skills, as part of the transition process to post-secondary life, so why not start now? It's ridiculous that they can't "go back" and teach skills that were never acquired. If I child with dyslexia never learned how to read and is in 6th grade, the school would have to go back to teach 1st grade skills such as phonological awareness and phonics. (I would definitely ask your state department of education about this statement.) Also, modifying the curriculum does not equal "move out of gen ed." Should she have a lot of pull out minutes? Yes, absolutely. But she can still have access to gen ed students by way of lunch, recess, specials, , classroom parties, etc. You can't use "social needs" as an excuse not to provide FAPE. This school just doesn't want to deal with her. Another thing to keep in mind that I forgot to mention in my first reply. As soon as it is available, move her to a "life skills" math class (which may just mean having all math minutes in the spec ed room and none in gen ed). She will never be able to keep up with grade level math - nor does she need to; all she needs are "life skills," which honestly are all most people ever need in terms of math. Don't let her sit in a class in which she is not comprehending. It's SUCH a waste of time. She could be learning things like money value and time, which ARE worth spending time on.

This 9th grader has ASD, ADHD, plus. He has no friends and has been bullied for years. Now 1 year in this state/district where they say he doesn’t qualify for Speech and Language (had from k-8 then PA eval said he doesn’t qualify ). He speaks loud and fast, his social skills are very poor:(. The social skills instruction district is providing is minimal, vague, and not effective. Of course, district does not agree. Since starting HS in September, he has repeatedly been called things like “stuttering autistic freak”, “you walk like an autistic freak” while acting this out, “effing stupid”, “sped”, etc. School is aware. He has been physically shoved and slapped. Recently there has been a student who sits at his table in one class who tells him to “shut up stupid” and over the past week has called him “r*****” twice. He does not want to go tell the teacher (I understand why). When I meet with school staff they say he has to tell the teacher. These are Gen ed teachers. I know this is not the right placement, and the IEP is a mess (now have an advocate on board), but 1. what can I do to help him? And 2. What can/should the school be doing? Until he gets interventions with speech and social skills that help, this will keep happening:(. And, from what my kids report daily, there are constant “jokes” about race, ethnicity, etc. Accents are used for mimicking stereotypes, “gay” is constantly thrown around as derogatory, nazi songs away from the teacher in band, etc. I won’t give specific examples because they are shocking and disgusting. Is this prevalent in other high schools? Our middle school in California was not like this….

** Trying to reply to you but may have hit the wrong button. Thank you for your response! I homeschooled her 1st - 5th. She entered 5th grade in January for spring semester. She's now been in public for 2 full semesters. 1. Both, including IEP goals. Her progress monitoring shows regression on some goals and lack of significant progress on others. However, her goals were created with the mindset of "She can reach 6th grade standards with enough support".. we're now confident we need to move the goalposts so to speak, having completed an outside educational assessment and watching her absorb nothing so far this school year. We have no data from her work, evaluations, observations, her own words.. to continue to support the thinking that she is capable of learning this level of rigor at this time. 2. No, they are not yet. I will loop them in on my IEP Meeting follow-up email. 3. Transition services are required in 9th grade or 16yrs old. She's currently 12.5 yrs old and given her FASD dx, takes several years longer than other kids to acquire skills. Her birthday, for example, we've been working on for 6 years. All that to say, 4-5 yrs of transition services will likely be insufficient time for her to acquire all the goals needed to fit her stated goal of living independently. We have been told that they cannot "go back" and teach her the 1st-2nd grade skills like time, money value, etc. because they "have to tie it to grade-level standards, anything else would be modifying the curriculum", which they don't feel is appropriate for her because she would be moved out of gen. ed. and is apparently too social to get her cognitive needs met.

Wow. Sounds like you have your ducks in a row, but the school refused to look at the ducks. One question: If you homeschooled for 5 years, how long has she been in the public school system? Around 2 years? Given that you seem to have the data, here are my suggestions: 1. When you state "lack of meaningful progress" are you talking about IEP goals or gen ed? If you can point to lack of progress on IEP goals, that is an argument for change - placement, modifications, etc. (Of course, IEP goals can speak to gen ed progress, such as reading level, but having them in the IEP is best for enforcement of change.) 2. Is the director of special education involved yet? A lot of times just going up the chain of command will get things addressed. Send an email to him/her with all background information. "Up the chain of command" could mean going all the way to the superintendent and school board. 3. When are post-secondary transition services required (or allowed - sometimes the requirement is 16, but can start as young as 14) in your state? I would calendar to request a transition evaluation as soon as you can. That will help to point out all the ways in which she is not prepared for post-secondary life. If the school does an insufficient one, request an IEE. 4. Reach out to your state department of education (special education division) to see if they have any suggestions. Also ask when you can request a transition evaluation. Finally, see if they can refer you to any agencies who do pro bono advocacy. 5. If your state offers mediation or facilitated IEP meetings, request one or both of those. 6. If you can afford one, if the school district keeps dragging their feet, you may need to hire an advocate and/or attorney to force this issue by filing a due process complaint. Sometimes just the filing brings the school to the table with more flexibility.

Looking for input / experiences navigating IEP placement & curriculum modification: Right now it feels like we’re not speaking the same language as our school team. A bit about our sweet student: FSIQ: 66 Multiple diagnoses impacting cognitive and adaptive functioning (FASD, ASD L2, IDD) Two full educational evaluations completed (school + outside evaluator) → Results are nearly identical, indicating validity Reading comprehension: ~2nd grade equivalent Receptive & expressive vocabulary: both under the 1st percentile Numerical operations & computation: under the 1st percentile Already retained one grade (our decision, due to her disabilities) Current concerns: I first raised concerns about curriculum modification in September We now have a full semester of data showing: Even with an extensive list of accommodations, the gap between the grade-level curriculum and her actual understanding is astronomical Oh, I also homeschooled her for 5 years so I'm pretty intimately aware of her academic abilities. Lack of meaningful progress No transfer of skills ("Can do it" at school but has never been able to demonstrate a glimmer of understanding at home) No testing that demonstrates she can contextualize or apply grade-level material Relative strength in working memory (42nd percentile) Meaning she can immediately echo and imitate in the moment, but nothing is transferring to true understanding. What we’re hearing from the team: “I know what this (30-page evaluation) says, but that’s not the student we see in the classroom.” “This is absolutely not a kiddo who can’t get a standard diploma.” “She socializes with peers, a different placement would be devastating to her.” Our perspective: Her post–high school goal is to live independently someday. That’s the end target we are working toward. Right now, she is in 6th grade and: Misspells her middle name, doesn't know her birthday Does not know her address Cannot reliably read a clock Has ~1st grade number sense Struggles significantly with functional understanding We strongly feel that keeping her on curriculum that is far beyond her cognitive ability is not providing FAPE, specifically, appropriate education. Real-world examples we’ve used to explain this gap: She can read a box of mac and cheese, but doesn’t understand what any of the words mean If she’s on a public bus and needs stop 13, seeing stop 12 gives her no understanding of whether she’s one stop away or fifty If she needs to leave at 6:10 and the clock says 6:11, she will continue waiting until it shows 6:10 We fear the team is comfortable “helping her pass along,” and we’ll end up with a high schooler who still has 1st-grade daily living skills, unprepared to meet her own stated goals. We meet again in a few weeks. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your experiences.

SDI is Specially Designed Instruction. https://adayinourshoes.com/what-is-specially-designed-instruction/

What is SDI? Right now, he is not doing any homework as we are prioritizing his mental health.

If the school is accommodating for EF, they should eventually do some SDI so the student can become independent. Might make sense to have the anxiety under better control before adding EF goals & SDI. Goals should be data driven. If there is data that he needs a goal (like he's doing homework & not handing it in), then you can bring up the need to work on doing this.

Thank you so much for this. The school psychologist did mention an emotion regulation goal which makes total sense. He already has extra time for assignments on his 504 plan, but I like the idea of reduced work, too. He probably would benefit from an executive functioning goal, but I don't know if they will include it where his grades are good with his accommodations.

I feel it's going to be hard to come up with good goals but I do have a few ideas. If he's got a pass to leave the classroom when he needs a break to use 'calming tools', a goal could be to use this less often or for less time. Letting your child have lunch with friends (if he's up for that) or eat with the psychologist or social worker (or favorite teacher) - it's more of an accommodation but the goal could be to maximize being with peers. Adayinourshoes has a post on this: https://adayinourshoes.com/anxiety-iep-504-accommodations/ If anxiety causes him to take longer to do things, extra time or shortened assignment are possible. (Do you really need to do 18 math problems? 10 might be better for him.) If speaking to the class is an issue, eliminate the need for participation in class and allow oral presentations to be done 1:1. What you want in the IEP will depend on what your son needs to have to be successful as well as not triggering his anxiety. Even changing for PE in the nurse's office could be on the IEP. My fear, knowing how mean 7th graders can be, is your son getting bullied by his classmates or them asking too many questions about his extended absence from school where it makes him uncomfortable. He might want to come up with a comeback in case things like this happen at school.