IEP and 504 Issues and Questions

Recently, I declined to approve a post from a community member. It read: I'm helping out a friend who is trying to get help for her daughter, and I know this information, but I can't seem to find the specifics. What impact does it have on a school district based on the number of students they have receiving support? Is there some sort of benchmark they are trying to stay below or are they just denying it to show control? I declined the post and told her I don’t answer questions like that. Not to be mean. Not to call anyone out. But because that line of thinking sends parents down the wrong path. There’s a lot wrong with that advocacy strategy. Mos…

Posting for a reader: I have a question regarding the transportation for my son that his local public school provides. Last year at the end of the school year my son was attacked by another student on the same van. The student also pulled another child’s hair and also grabbed the van driver’s arm while driving. The other child goes to the same private school as my son but is a student in another school district, but the same county as we live in. The school is not in our county it is about 48 miles each way. The public schools have a contract with a local company to provide bus and van services. So they do not have the transportation hired directly. …

We moved to our 3rd district in TN and they are stating she can't have her personal iPad with her TD Snap app but must use a school issued iPad. IEP from previous district lists her iPad as her speech generating device. In description they specifically mention my daughter "brings her own communication device to school, however the school has a backup device if needed." New school wants to replace personal iPad with school issued iPad after my nonverbal daughter was "caught" taking screenshots of the sentences she created in her own AAC device. ( My daughter is 12 and also has intellectual disabilities and will be further devasted if she can't have her own iPad.) Do …

Posting for a reader: Do you have templates or examples of specific and strongly worded Present Levels statements for highly cognitive teens who face social, emotional, and major executive functioning challenges? My son's therapeutic school tends to downplay his needs in his IEP and progress reports. While he has significant potential, his progress has been severely limited by massive work-avoidant behaviors. Any resources you could share to help ensure his IEP accurately reflects and addresses his challenges would be greatly appreciated.

We had our middle school articulation meeting as my child (ADHD & 2e, with poor executive function) is going into middle school next year. They said they will keep all my child's accommodations, but not the pull outs because the school "doesn't do that". Is this legal? She has not met her most of her IEP goals. And has definitely the goals for spelling and executive function. She gets pulled out for spelling using Wilsons. Yet her spelling is below grade level and she can not write a 3 sentence paragraph independently on her own. I pointed out her spelling issues and they just replied they don't grade spelling in middle school, so it is not an issue. I disagreed and …

My child has had a migraine/headache every day since January. She’s missed so much school going back all the way to the start of the year. I finally got the school to do an evaluation after asking twice. 25 school days after I first asked and two meetings after they tried to talk me out of it, they finally sent me the consent to evaluation form. And 32 And 32 school days later, I saw the results. She qualified under Part A of Other Health Disability and met the criteria in Part B/they determine the absences were her academically. But they denied her services. I didn’t get a PWN until three calendar months after the evaluation was complete (May 24 vs Feb 19)…

I have a few questions which I hope the community can answer: Is there a specific timeline for requesting an IEE after the school completes testing? To whom is an IEE request addressed to? The school principal, school district SPED director, state agency? If the IEP goals aren't measurable (and the school was aware,) can I argue for an IEE? My child is moving over to Middle School next school year, should there be a transition meeting which includes the SPED teacher at the new school? Since the SPED teacher stated my child has mastered their goals, is it beneficial to ask for a meeting to have them show m…

This is an interesting one ... I have just been notified that the TVI is not going to be back for the rest of the year (we have consultations a direct services with goals listed in IEP) . The case manager does not know why this is happening. They are proposing to attach TVI services through an OT handwriting goal. And then amend the IEP in the fall when a new TVI is on board and can assess and develop their own goals. The contracted company also stated they don't have access to the students file and the TVI did not provide input to the new draft iep (annual) My intake thought it , they need to get a TVI replacement , new assessment and create goals but is that realistic…

Hi all. My 11-year-old 5th grader has confirmed diagnoses of ASD (diagnosed age 2) and ADHD Inattentive Type (diagnosed February 2026). He has had a 504 plan in place since the first time we were denied evaluations at all at the end of 3rd grade. We are in Missouri. The district completed an initial special ed evaluation and denied eligibility. I verbally disagreed with the determination in the meeting and did not sign anything. I am on a waiting list for a state advocacy nonprofit with no ETA. We have 23 school days left and he transitions to middle school in the fall. MY QUESTIONS: Does this situation call for requesting an IEE at public expense? I…

In my child's newest IEP it says she is to spend 400 hours weekly in the resource classroom for reading, writing, and math. The school has been doing standardized testing for the past month, and during that time it looks like she's been getting maybe 25 minutes for just math, and not even everyday. I think they use the classroom for testing for some of the kids. Are they allowed to cut down her hours like that for testing? She's missed out on at least 1000 hours of instruction time due to this. I need suggestions on how to approach this. I'm pretty sure they are already mad at me because I pushed back before the IEP (politely, but firmly which they are not used to from me…

It has been a long day (month, year) at this school so forgive my bluntness: 11 meetings this year so far (2 kids) and still at least 2 more to go with IEEs 😶😵‍💫😲 Not only have the Generic, drop-box, completely inappropriate crap goals not improved, the newest draft IEP went from 3 crap goals to 1!!!!!! It appears that putting crap goals in IEPs is a great tactic as I have not read one due process case (or met a lawyer willing to take a case) based on crap goals. I am not equipped to write my children’s goals (but will have to learn how to do that too🤷‍♀️🤬🤷‍♀️), but neither is this district ( really Special Services Director in this case as he is the Only …

A reader emailed me: My grandson was home schooled Part of last year and part of this year and started back to home school in January and doesn’t want to go back, his anxiety is high and emotions are all over. I feel it I because the program we used didn’t follow the school and he is feeling overwhelmed and lost. I plan on home schooling again. Should I go back to the easier basics so he is more comfortable but am worried he will not keep advancing if he doesn’t put his all in to it. Thoughts?

The school is proposing to reduce my child's 1:1 minutes. There is recent behavioral data to support that this is not warranted. An IEP meeting is being scheduled and I just want to make sure I am going about this correctly. If I disagree with the change and ask for a PWN, what are the next steps?

My son is in 8th grade and has an IEP for ADHD & SPD. He struggling the first semester with his math teacher and it got to the point where she just wrote him office referrals for lunch detention multiple times a week. It was a toxic environment. His IEP Team and I decided changing teachers at semester would be a good idea and he's now been in the new class for 2 weeks. He's doing great and doing his work, etc. No behavior issues. Still struggles with being on task, distractions and starting assignments. The issue is that this new teacher only grades tests & quizzes, no assignments count towards his grade. Because of his struggles first semester, he's behind in ma…

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 d…

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 slap…

Minnesota- Our child recently had an IEE completed and we just got back the results. The results came back in our favor. Additional diagnosis's and how they impacting our child at school. We emailed the school requesting an IEP meeting to review the IEE, discuss the recommendations, and update the IEP. The school is refusing to allow the IEE evaluator to come to the meeting since it's an additional charge. I'm concerned the school is going to try placing everything on our child or say they refuse help (even though the IEE addresses why that would happen for our child) and refuse to change anything. Can they do that? What options are there if they refuse …

My son is in 7th grade and having a psychoeducational evaluation done. He just exited an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) for depression and anxiety. He was in the program for 2 months. He currently has a 504 plan for ADHD and anxiety, but things have gotten significantly worse since school began this fall. He has meetings with the school adjustment counselor to work on anxiety in his 504, but the school psychologist thought it made sense to do a psychoed eval where his mental health has been so poor. He is exceeding grade level expectations academically so I feel like we're not going to get anything out of this AND he may be further triggered by the evaluation. He…

Good morning, My son is 6 years old and just started Kindergarten in August. He was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 2 years old and with Autism/ADD within the past 2 years. He is listed as Level 2. He is verbal but is a gestalt language learner. He has been in private OT and Speech for years now. He just started Kindergarten at a public school in West Virginia. We have an IEP in place and he was put into a self-contained Level 2 Autism Classroom. The class has 8 total students. 1 teacher (who is not certified) and 1 aide. The aide is out of the classroom with my son to the nurse's office and to toilet him. That means 7 Level 2 students with only the teacher. The ai…

We're working on this massive project of cleaning out our basement--we've been here 25 yrs and good grief, we look like Hoarders. Anyway, I just found some old IFSP paperwork in a bin with music CDs. It also reminded me that I have not listened to the Dixie Chicks in forever. (now, just The Chicks, I know). Start a fresh folder or binder this week, even if it’s just a plain one from the dollar store. The sooner you corral the papers, the less overwhelming spring will feel. It's a new year, so stay on top of it early. Pro tip: Look at the work assignments you're getting right now, and compare them to May/June, if you still have those kicking around. Gre…

Hi all! I know for an IEP you can have it written that a parent must attend all field trips... Is this a reasonable accommodation for a 504 due to extreme anxiety and self-harm behavior around that anxiety? The parent asked for this and was denied. The school said: Thank you for your patience as I gathered more information from our district 504 coordinator. "Unfortunately, allowing you to attend all field trips with Student is not an accommodation that can be a part of her 504 plan. What we can offer Student is to have her be in a group with a preferred peer, allow her to bring her journal/sketchbook (in like a little bookbag) as a calming strategy, have…

Whether it’s “Always get it in writing” or “Know your procedural safeguards,” we all pick up little gems of wisdom along the way. What’s one advocacy tip that has helped you the most?

Schools love to say, “That never happened,” or “We didn’t say that,” or “We’ve never done that before.” What’s the worst case of gaslighting you’ve experienced? How did you document and push back?

In a previous ARD meeting I requested Tier intervention for math. It was not approved because they stated that they only do Tier intervention for reading. I did not make that request (directly) in writing but, I did during the meeting. Since our next meeting is coming up and I had not gotten a PWN, I sent an email inquiring about it. They called and left a voice mail indicating that we will talk about it at the meeting. With all of this being new to me, I thought if you requested some service and it was rejected or not approved, a PWN was due. Or did I make a technical error by not putting it in writing?

Every kid is different, but sometimes we hear about an accommodation and think, why didn’t I ask for that?! What’s an accommodation that has made a huge difference for your child?