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The district we are currently attending in PA uses Google Meets for IEP meetings (for district members to “pop in”). Something seemed off from the first meetings where director and LEA would be staring at computers and then blurt something out as if someone was telling them what to say. Then in the meeting notes within IEPs strange things were quoted with some things that I said being directly quoted which would not be a note I would write down or include because it was not important….. Then I got the otter app. I believe our district has been recording/transcribing the meetings all along. I believe Google Suites has this capability and the whomever hosts the meeting has control over this as well as allowing other people who are attending virtually (I would not know) to “chat” with other district members and also record/transcribe. I wonder if the Google Meets that is now on the school issued Chromebooks allows district staff to record/transcribe when kids use it….which they will have to do on snow days. Our district was in court because the utilize chat through Google which auto deletes after 24 hours. This is a violation across many areas (Sunshine laws and retaining records). I am not savvy with technology but would like to know exactly what has been happening with Google meets/Suites, etc… Is there a way to ask so I am not ignored?

It's easy to do a bad FBA. If you observe at the wrong time or not for long enough, it will show everything's OK. Schools are run by trained professionals (this is best practice - your district may vary). I think we need to trust they are doing things right. (Make me wonder if their parent input form ended up in your Spam box.) When you meet to go over the FBA, ask why they didn't ask for your input. If the FBA (like any other eval) is incomplete or inaccurate, you can ask for an IEE at school expense.

It is so hard reading over and over the many ways our kids are not being helped:(. I agree with you: the diagnoses at this point don’t matter-just please help! Mine are in a special education class for EF… it is the same curriculum they used last year and is utterly ineffective. It is 15 minute videos about strategies that are not tied to anything at the school. Ex: note-taking strategies in a 15 minute video when no classes require notes, and they never practice (note-taking or anything else) other than 5 minutes after the video. I asked for explicit teaching in using an agenda with assignments listed, so they could chucnk and plan out study times for tests….the planner was used once. once. And they sit on their cell phones an average of 50 minutes per class. It is an hour an 20 minutes twice a week. This is the “programming”… for EF and social skills. We have never had effective social skills in school…I don’t know if such a thing exists

The FBA was lost in all the other chaos…I just found where they only have my kiddos self-report and their school observation…..and everything is great!!!! Are they allowed to actually say they completed a FBA without parent input? I asked for a FBA with the initial ER in this state. They also did not ask for my input on any OT/sensory ratings…. but I would think the FBA should have parent input for kiddos with ASD, adhd, etc….

I received those emails also…. I will not email questions anymore. They don’t answer them anyway. We did not have the eligibility meetings…and the school psychologist was not present at the initial IEPs…even though she was listed as invited/attending. I didn’t know who anyone was, and the ER and IEP meeting together was utterly confusing. I didn’t get to meet with the school psychologist until one month after the IEP meetings which were 30 days after the ERs. (They are skilled at prolonging everything) The hard copy IEPs that I require have been printed in ridiculously small font, and then with the right hand margins (with info) cut off. They issue NOREPs backdated with IEPs I can’t read. And then they have the participants incorrect. I am also subjected to one hour max everything, including IEP meetings. I do recommend you record the meetings. In Ca, parents give district 24 hours notice. in Pa, they told me I wasn’t allowed to record. Then the director emailed me 3 months later apologizing because he just found the district policy which is 5 days notice. Then they tried to have meetings sooner than 5 days (then they had virtual meetings without me and list these on the IEPs to make me look bad. Recording what really happens in those meetings is very important. Ask for your district policy and follow it. (Our district is also doing the 45 days after not providing all records with first request… they do it continually)

I asked for an independent educational evaluation and an independent speech and language evaluation and an independent ot evaluation. For both. They stated they will fund with a cap at $6k. The evaluators I spoke with said that they will do a neuropsych (due to their profiles). These were done in CA also. The speech eval will go over the cap…not sure how to handle that. Please advise away as these might be it…my kiddos are 15. (do they have to be geared towards one area? Because autism and academics, and prematurity and IVHs in the NICU all impact my kiddos and overlap….)

They are now paying for IEEs… I needed that win. bullying happens at least weekly, often daily. Now one bully is hanging out with my kiddo and I don’t believe it is genuine. I am getting very worried about what is happening behind those walls. An administrator keeps approaching my kids about different things, which appears to be “fulfilling” some IEP jargon that I have no idea how it got there like, “student will have an opportunity to participate in a club..” and administrator pulls my kiddo from class and he spends 30 minutes with a group of kids which we learn was the Leadership club. Last week the administrator pulled him out of class to introduce him to the coach of sports team…neither I or my kiddo discussed this sport with the administrator so it feels a bit off…especially as he did not return my call 3 weeks ago. We faced horrific retaliation in Ca… it is hard to have an open mind and trust after that, especially when my gut starts talking to me. Parent Concerns letters…I followed Lisa’s advice and do write these. But district buried these in the IEPs…..and then they interjected throughout my letter with bullet pointed responses to each area, most of which was just false. They also placed an email I sent to the director in the IEP…not a parent concern letter, just an email. And they refuse to take it out. They have also forged my signature (electronic) without my permission. The list goes on. At least I am now recording the meetings (with their permission). I have proof of what is transpiring…there is just nothing I can do about it without a lawyer. This has gone on for years with my kiddos, and they are in 9th grade. I am sickened that I have been ineffective for so long…and my advocating just makes things worse for them. I asked for both to be administered the full IXL in math and ELA…that was a month ago. They just ignore me. I have no way of understanding what grade level my kids are on, that I’m aware of. So I asked for IXL… but they won’t do it, I’m sure. They just say their grades are great. I have so many concerns that I don’t know what to put in the letter…I welcome any advice on this. I can only email the director and LEA…and they do not pass on my questions to the teachers. I tried to email one teacher one time this year for one student…Director instructed teacher to not respond. I sent the email to the director to send to teacher…nothing. That was a month and a half ago. They also will not give me my kiddos work. Much of it only they can access on their Chromebooks. We cannot print their work from their Chromebooks…tech support told me i have to ask the teachers because only they can do that…Director determined at the IEP meetings that providing me with hard copy student work is not a provision of FAPE.

Thank you for responding! This is our first year in Pa…. I didn’t agree and didn’t sign (I now understand how Pa NOREPs work. District is not teaching at all. Just accommodating. They essentially ignore my concerns with the goals (which are meaningless)….at the last meeting instead of creating more ambitious and measurable goals, the director of special services brought in his own goals with no input from any team members. There was no time to discuss what he brought in (the hour was up), so the IEP I was presented with had “revised” goals…or disappearing goals. The toothless goals which my kiddo did not meet and made no progress disappeared into revised goals which have nothing to do with the unmet annual goal. I had never seen this, I went to the superintendent as I am done with the tricks. At that meeting I was advised to ask for an informal meeting since I did not understand the whole IEP as written. That was 6 days after the NOREP. I requested the informal meeting which took place 2 weeks later…but they had tricked me again…it went into effect on day 10…. I even asked both the director of special services and the LEA separately if I should bring goals that I think are appropriate to the meeting and they both said no. now I know why

How is the school accommodating her reading disability? It sounds like she's getting SDI to help her learn to decode but until she's at grade level, she needs accommodations. Audiobooks, extra time and speech to text devices are all things that can help her with access until her skill set makes her independent. (Extra time might be needed long term/indefinitely.) If she was getting these accommodations, what would her grades be? You don't want to hold her back because the IEP isn't accommodating all her needs. (IMO, the teacher is attempting to accommodate her not being on grade level but isn't taking an approach that uses the system in place to support students.)

Thank you. It's helpful to be reassured that my thinking was correct on this. I will get through our outside educational assessment tomorrow before crafting a Parent Concerns Letter on the topic. In speaking with other parents in my district, I assume they will push back on giving accurate grades to my child. In that case, I believe my next step would be to request a PWN justifying that decision.

You’re not off base at all. In fact, your instincts here are exactly what any evaluator, advocate, or data-driven teacher would say: if the grades aren’t accurate, the data can’t be used to make instructional decisions. A few points you can include in your reply to the teacher or in the IEP meeting: 1. It’s not about “passing vs failing”it’s about skill acquisition. A 65% and an 8% may both be technically failing, but they tell very different stories about your daughter’s decoding, comprehension, writing, task completion, and general access to the curriculum. Inflated grades erase the picture you need in order to support her. 2. This practice undermines IEP progress monitoring. IEP teams rely on accurate performance data to determine present levels, goal mastery, and whether accommodations and services are effective. If the numbers aren’t real, the team loses the ability to make informed decisions—and your outside evaluation won’t match the school data. 3. You can acknowledge the teacher’s intent while still correcting the issue. Most teachers who do this are trying to prevent a student from being crushed by a failing grade or are following a building-level practice they’ve been told is “helpful.” A script you can use: “I appreciate that you’re trying to support her emotionally and academically. My concern is that for IEP purposes esp with new evaluation results coming, we need accurate data so we can pinpoint where she’s struggling. Even if the grade is low, it helps us understand what level of support is actually needed.” 4. You can request a team discussion without making it personal. This is a data-collection and IEP-implementation issue, not a teacher-blaming issue. You can say: “Could we clarify as a team how grades should reflect actual performance? I want to make sure we’re collecting authentic data so we can align her services to her needs.” 5. What the teacher is doing isn’t best practice. Grade inflation for students with disabilities is incredibly common, but it’s also one of the top reasons students look “fine on paper” while falling further behind. If her real performance is an 8%, it’s a sign that the current IEP isn't addressing the gap, not a sign that her grades need softening. 6. The timing is actually ideal. You have an outside assessment ready to go. This discrepancy between “reported grades” and “actual ability” is exactly the kind of evidence that strengthens your case for stronger supports, services, and maybe even modified curriculum or more direct instruction. I have a ton more information about this-- https://adayinourshoes.com/goals-grades-iep-special-education/ https://adayinourshoes.com/adverse-educational-impact/ https://adayinourshoes.com/child-does-not-qualify-for-an-iep/

Reader question: My 6th grader has an established IEP that I'm not satisfied with. We've actually had an outside educational assessment completed and I meet for that feedback appointment this Friday. I've just realized that her ELA teacher is making a note of my daughter's actual grade (which is sometimes an 8%..) but the teacher is loading 65% as her grade. When I asked her about it, she shared, "The speech bubble is the actual grade she made on the assignments. I went back on Monday and changed her 60's and put them in as a 65 instead, because a 65 and 44 are both failing, but the 65 is easier to bring up. I don't mind doing this to help her since she is completing 6th grade level work, while her reading level is below grade level." I'm really uncomfortable with this because it is not accurate data collection. An 8% is very far away from a 65% in terms of us thinking about her understanding and level of support needed. Am I off base here? I want to maintain a good relationship with this teacher, who has attended my daughter's IEP meetings in the past. But I feel like putting in inaccurate scores is data collection 101..

I want to address this: I was never in agreement with this as proposed on 2/21/25. If this was on the IEP and you didn't disagree on the NOREP, the IEP goes into effect. Your other post said you were in CA. CA has different rules where parents needs to actively agree with the IEP. PA is different. Ignore the NOREP & the IEP goes into effect in 10 days. I had similar issues with one of my twins and how they graded him in English. He'd not do the book report - a major part of the grade - and they'd act like it wasn't assigned when calculating the grade. If you don't feel a goal is appropriate, request an IEP meeting and convince the school to change it. What SDI is the school providing to teach him how to meet his goals? Is the SDI appropriate? If he's not making progress, the school might need to change-up their remedial approach. (Sorry for the delay in answering this. I meant to get back you you but couldn't find your post. I only can see the 10 most recent posts.)

My best advice is to write a parent concerns letter and ask for it to be copied into the IEP. https://adayinourshoes.com/parent-concerns-on-the-iep-parent-letter-of-attachment/ A 2nd eval with the same test within a year = invalid results. If the school is working on a reeval, you do need to wait for those results and then ask for an IEE - you cannot do an IEE and school eval at the same time because you cannot retest with the same test within a year. In the concerns letter mention about the school dropping the results of the old TOWL4 essay results. (Always remember: If it's not in writing, it didn't happen.) It's not bullying unless it happens more than once but things like name calling can be reported via Safe2Say. To exit from speech, they need a speech eval. Copies of evals need to be given to parents. (Did they email it & you had tech issues?) My child tested average too but she's gifted and could mask well enough to throw off the SLP. They really needed to do the optional extended part of the assessment (this was the TOPL). In PA, the parent has 10 days to disagree with the NOREP or the IEP goes into effect. Not sure what happens if it's sent electronically & you can't access it. (I had one mailed & USPS took 15 days to get it to me. I have a feeling it went into effect before I had a copy.) No meet revisions to IEPs are supposed to be for small things like you needing a paper copy of things because your tech can't access what the school sends electronically. This is where a call might be good so you can come to school & get paperwork rather than sending it home with your child or risking the USPS & a delay. In addition to the Consult Line, PEAL can help clarify things. https://pealcenter.org/ I'm surprised the assistant superintendent was aware enough of special ed to be willing to talk to you. In my district, this tends to be dealt with by the pupil services director. If you still have questions, post back.

Yes-more info. Also boy, girl?

If he doesn't have addition and subtraction down, multiplication and division are being built on a shaky foundation. There are addition/subtraction charts that could be 'assistive technology' so he has access to 'addition facts'. This could be what he needs provided he understands the concepts of addition & subtraction. If he doesn't grasp the concept, it needs to be taught. There are also students (and adults) who are calculator dependent with things like this. Has he been assessed for dyscalculia? If he's got this, he will likely need charts or a calculator for the foreseeable future. We don't seem to have the right protocol for helping with math issues like they have for reading issues/dyslexia so there isn't a "program" I know of that helps. Some kids like things like Khan Academy. I feel they do a good job explaining math concepts at this level. You might want him to do a bit of this at home. Khan Academy came out of Sal Khan helping his niece & nephew with math long distance. He recorded videos and posted them to YouTube. They were for his niece & nephew but, for some unknown reason, he made them public. People discovered them which led to him quitting his day job as a hedge fund manager and growing Khan Academy. Available for free anywhere with internet access.

Thank you! This is exactly the information I was looking for. He generally goes to the GenEd class for the lesson and then back to the AS room to complete the work because he gets overwhelmed in the GenEd class. He does already have a lot of SDI's in place like chunking, pre-teaching, visual/written presentation of material. For math particularly, they are learning multiplication, division, etc. but he still is lacking the foundational skills such as addition and subtraction so his is getting frustrated easily because even breaking out the problem into steps is extremely difficult for him. And that is where I'm struggling with how to address this with the team. I understand they need to present him with grade level material but at what point do we say, hey, let's take a step back and make sure he has these basic math skills down first. I hope that makes sense, thanks for your help!

With the way IDEA is written, students with IEPs need to be presented with grade level material & be taught grade level standards. They also need to be taught in the Least Restrictive Environment to the greatest extent possible. From my perspective, LRE moves too fast & with him being a little bit behind, he needs material to be presented more slowly. Placing him in LRE is triggering him because he's unable to keep up academically and, with the autism, this is leading to autistic meltdowns and shutdowns. My guess for the reason he's in the gen ed classroom is that the self contained autistic support classroom isn't appropriate either. You might find students who are less verbal and have significantly more behavioral issues as well as being at a lower academic level compared to your child. As far as what to do, he might need to be pre taught or retaught classroom material so that he has access to learning. Has an old eval shown slow processing? Does he have self advocacy skills where he could signal the aide when he's not understanding things and starting to get frustrated? Neither shutting down nor acting out put him into a state conducive to learning. If he doesn't understand something, the adults need to be in the loop so they can make sure he catches up & his knowledge gaps are filled in. Not sure if the school would be receptive to this or have the resources for pre teach or reteach but it's something that can help.

Has he been found eligible in autism only? Any other categories of eligibility, such as anxiety or SLD? Based on the information provided in your post (not knowing if other disabilities are relevant - it's doubtful that "below average" scores in math, writing, and reading would be enough for eligibility), it sounds like any accommodation for providing below grade level material and a slower pace will need to be tied to his autism. So focus on that. Point out that the faster pace and above his level instruction it too much for him to be able to access FAPE because he shuts down, starts having behavioral issues, and therefore is missing instruction and learning. If the school "isn't seeing this," ask the aide/teacher to start documenting when this occurs. If they refuse, you may need to ask for an FBA if all else fails. One question: Why isn't the 1:1 aide taking care of this issue? Seems like this could at least partially be addressed this way.

In PA…my son is Autistic, 9 and in 3rd grade. He just had a RR and he is below average in math, writing, and reading comprehension which we know because he’s been struggling. His meeting is coming up. Currently he is still being presented with the grade level material which is faster paced and above his level of understanding. This is causing lots of anxiety which is leading to aggression. I want to be sure going into the meeting what to expect. My expectation would be that they should be providing him material at his level. Right now he’s shutting down and not learning anything. He has lots of great accommodations in his IEP currently and a 1:1, but those won’t help him understand material if it’s too hard for him. Any suggestions to make sure I am asking for what he needs at the meeting?

Thank you, Carolyn Rowlett, for your reply and advice. I'll pass this along to my friend so that he can follow up on your suggestions or reach out to you for further guidance.

Arkansas passed Act 565 (originally House Bill 1062), the so-called "Teacher & Student Protection Act of 2025," this spring. It went into effect in early August. On the second day of school, our daughter's gen-ed teacher and SPED teacher (responsible for 90 minutes / week of push-in support) invoked it against her after she became dysregulated upon seeing a student wearing a pair of ear protectors that looked like her own. The district reassigned her to an ALE before they had even contacted us. In an MDR 9 days later, the district conceded that the behavior was a manifestation of her disability but insisted on adhering to the law, which says that she cannot return to her original classroom. We had already hired an attorney and filed for due process by that point; we finally had the first four days of our hearing a couple of weeks ago, and we have another three days scheduled for early December. Ignoring for a moment the obvious conflicts with IDEA (which you will probably identify immediately), Act 565 ostensibly gives a teacher the ability to unilaterally remove a student from the classroom permanently if the student poses a threat to the teacher or other students. The law defines violence broadly enough to include verbal threats or even the mere perception of a threat. It allows districts to place the child in an "interim appropriate learning environment" (a term cooked up especially for this law) for 10 days while awaiting the completion of an MDR. Regardless of the result of the MDR, the student will not be allowed to return to their original classroom. We have yet to see a specific model bill in the ALEC fashion, but I've always assumed that it's based on or inspired by similar bills from other states. The legislator who brought it forward would trot out homespun tales about meeting teachers with black eyes and broken bones, but that never passed the smell test. In his initial presentation of the bill to the House Education Committee, the sponsor very explicitly said that he believed it was time for Arkansas and other states to begin challenging IDEA; a few weeks before that, he told a newspaper that he expected his bill, if passed, to face a legal challenge. It was very much designed to set up a test case. As has been suggested upthread, the rhetoric around these laws all take for granted the notion that teachers are being relentlessly assaulted, day after day, by unruly children. In the 45 total minutes of actual discussion regarding HB1062 / Act 565, it was taken as gospel that teachers were leaving the profession in record numbers due to student aggression. No data was given, no hard numbers were produced, and certainly no inquiry was made into what alternatives to full-on removal might be considered to improve this situation. In the Sarah Huckabee Sanders era, Arkansas has attempted to outpace Florida, Texas, and other states in the wholesale voucherization of education, and any suggestion that smaller class sizes, more supports, better training, etc., could help is clearly outside the window of acceptable discourse. Throughout the month of October, I filed FOIA letters with the state's 20 largest districts and 10 smallest districts. I wanted to see what they were saying internally and externally about this bill from its introduction through to its passage, as well as what they said and did once it became law. The first thing I learned was that the superintendent of one of the state's largest and wealthiest districts was feeding the sponsor a lot of advice on how best to circumvent IDEA. She wanted to use her ALE for punitive placements and was pushing the sponsor hard to change state laws governing ALEs. I get the sense she lost all interest in the bill once she realized he was unable or unwilling to go that far. In other districts, administrators saw the bill for what it was, straight from the jump. In one district, an assistant superintendent emailed her boss a single sentence after reading the first draft of the bill: "This looks like a violation of FAPE and a lawsuit waiting to happen." SPED directors from different districts were emailing each one another, saying the same thing. The professional organization for the state's ALE teachers and administrators lobbied against it. All their warnings went unheeded. The Arkansas School Boards Association writes model policy language for school boards. Most districts in the state just adopt that language wholesale. The ASBA's new section regarding this law has a huge disclaimer at the top, warning teachers against attempting to invoke the law against children with IEPs, saying that teachers who do put themselves at "grave personal risk" for legal action, and that districts are not obligated to come to their aid in those cases. I think most districts saw that language and took the hint; our district, which does not adopt ASBA model language for its local policies, clearly didn't. Lisa's outline of how this all fits into the voucherization playbook is spot on. Back in January, just after this bill was introduced, the superintendent of the state's largest school district emailed a representative to express his support for the bill's intentions. He said that he believed that well-off families were moving their children out of his district and into charter schools and private schools specifically because they did not want their kids to share classrooms with special-ed students. In Arkansas, a district receives a base of $8,162 per student, so obviously he's worried about that money going elsewhere. Additionally, he said that he did not think it was fair for families to transfer their SPED students out of the district to "avoid discipline" and take their money with them--he wants to keep those students in-district, preferably at an ALE, where he can keep their $8,162 along with the additional $5,212 that comes from an ALE placement. The voucherization of the educational system has turned it all into an accounting game for these districts. They want to keep the rich and able-bodied in district, but they can only do that by shifting all the disabled kids out of the classroom and into behavioral compliance facilities. They want to keep those disabled kids in the district, because they're especially lucrative, but they have to keep them segregated from all the "normal" kids. Sure enough, that district has lost more than an elementary school's worth of students this school year, so I would expect this superintendent to ramp up his efforts to please the rich white folks.

With figuring out what to do if bills like this are passed and are 180 degrees from what's in IDEA, I have a few thoughts. One is that every state has a disability rights group. Think about reaching out to them so their lawyers can bring the conflict with IDEA to their attention - in other words fight the legality of the new legislation. ACLU also has lawyers on staff and can fight this. I'm on an 'Authority, Board or Commission' in my township. We wrote an ordinance that our Board of Supervisors passed into law. (I did a lot of the research and worded it to meet the needs of our township - I did use other legislation as a model.) A few months later, a neighboring township passed an almost identical ordinance. Just saying this because there are people who scan legislation with an eye to bringing new rules to their area.

Parents of dyslexic students in PA should be aware that ASL is offered at a HS level through IU8. There is a cost for these classes. More info here: https://worldoflearninginstitute.com/course-catalog/ Your school might be able to cover the cost if other World Languages aren't accessible because of your child's disability. (If this is on the IEP, the school needs to pay.) Accommodations should apply everywhere - except for standarized tests. Disability won't go away because it's Spanish & he's a native English speaker with reading issues. Students who are on grade level because of accommodations, aren't on grade level. I'd want the school to see what his writing is like with spell check turned off - this goes with your other question where an IEE was suggested.

There is some info online: https://www.pearsonassessments.com/content/dam/school/global/clinical/us/assets/wiat-4/wiat-4-sample-parent-report.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOopWxm4YLPhj5BdQW0Xi7vKLOUEI52kTldbnRB8XPA5a00Oo7Suz I'd get familiar with things like this so you make the most of the hour. Was this included in the reeval report the school provided? Providing a copy that isn't legible isn't nice of them. Seems like a waste of time & paper. Was this a print out of something that's online? It's a great question for the consult line. (Do you have vision issues that need to be accommodated under ADA? If this is the case, you should have made them aware ahead of time.) Would brining a magnifying glass help?