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…

Hello 🙂 i’m not sure the correct forum to put this in, so I’m gonna put it here and I’m in the IEP forum as well. last year I requested a formal full, comprehensive evaluation. At the time my son had an ADHD diagnosis from a medical professional. They denied my son, which I just recently found out stating that he did not mean eligibility, because there was no “academic impact”. That is exactly the reason for denial written in the eligibility report. Over the summer we had him reevaluated by a psychologist. Since we have a family history of autism, they asked questions which showed markers. He is now diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I supplied that rep…

Long story but we declined eval (for now) and agreed to FBA. Two days later a PWN is sent home to us in unsealed envelope in my kids backpack. Which of course he read and a friend had been messing around and almost ‘got’ the envelope from him. He was all freaked out about it. This method of communicating seems wrong on many levels. Same thing last year with 504 - unsealed envelope handed to kid. Is this how your schools send formal legal documents containing private information???

Can language therapy be added to a 504 plan or does this need to be an IEP? This case is in Missouri.

I’m at a loss. What options do I have when the behaviors of other students in the class impact the diagnosis of my kid (worsen anxiety)? It’s mostly disruptive behaviors of other kids as opposed to safety concerns.

Maybe this isn’t a specific IDEA issue, but, absent health emergencies, can (not should) a school deliver health services in private? Should school perform non emergent pulse ox and chest examination in public view of other students (on a sidewalk outside school) or in privacy of the nurses office or other private area?

I'm considering filing a Child Find violation against my school district. My child was identified by the school in 9th grade. Now, the school can't meet their needs because the needs are so great. My child was in advanced classes not long ago. Now,they're in remedial classes and not on the college track. They're failing a class and will likely need to re-take it next year. They don't have the skills to execute work, although cognitively they are able to understand and do the work. I am working with several outside specialists and spending hundreds to thousands on therapy and advocacy every month. I will need to spend this kind of money for the foreseeable future. We a…

For those with kids with health issues that cause intermittent absences how is tutoring implemented? I have a high school freshman who has already missed ten days of school this year. I would like to have tutoring written into his IEP as a related service and would love detailed examples of what has worked for others in a similar boat. Sometimes he just misses a day or two and then he's back in school other times he's missed several weeks or more. If we know it will be a long absence we get him on home hospital but for these shorter term periods I feel it's important to have a tutoring plan in place through his IEP. Please include both the wording in your IEP and how well…

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 …

First off I like having this anonymity this form provides. We have another IEP meeting coming up I’m nervous. This one is potentially to discuss the results from the FBA. I personally feel like I struggle communicating with the school. The teachers feedback says one thing and my child another. I ask for things outside team members (non school district people) mention to me to request. And none of them ever seem to know what I am talking about. Last school year (different school) we had an open communication and I felt less anxious. How do you handle IEP meetings when the other team members do not provide feedback. And if they do it’s defensive…

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…

So this is Teacher Me talking. I don't know if anyone here has the legal know-how to advise me, but I'll happily take anything. I teach at a virtual school and have a student who could possibly qualify for an IEP. She's not my lowest performer by our beginning of year assessment by any means, but is on the low due to some observed attention struggles. Her mother has been talking about the struggles since before school started and keeps talking about how the kid needs an IEP. Except... Mom is making it so hard and I'm not sure what else I can do. So far, Mom has stated (only by voice) that she thinks Kid needs an IEP and possibly a modified curriculum. …

My daughter is 15. Her diagnosis are ADHD/SPD/GAD. She has had an IEP for OHI since 1st grade. Her current goals are math and adaptive behavior (planning/prioritizing, task completion, impulse control and appropriate interactions with peers). The IEP also has as many of the age appropriate accommodations for high school (extra time on tests, quiet place to test, alternate testing methods, headphones for noise reduction, speech to text, and more). The problem: she is currently failing two classes. Last semester I - for lack of a better phrase - pushed and prodded her to get a C in science. Getting her to do any home work at home was like pulling teeth. When she did…

I'm trying to look for any resources on the matter. I read the articles about requesting homebound services and this is a situation that is a bit off the norm. Student is attending a cyber charter through the state and has an IEP for behavior, education autism. Parents have an upcoming evaluation for a medical diagnosis of autism. The school is the type that requires a parent or someone they provide to be the "learning coach". The parent is completely overwhelmed by the student's behaviors and is at the point where they can no longer effectively help with the student and are looking into officially requesting 1:1 in-home help from the school. The school hints that t…

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?

Lack of progress, missing services, work that’s too easy or too hard… there are so many red flags. How did you know your child’s IEP needed changes? What were the signs?

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?

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?

My 10 yr old has an anxiety and panic disorder as well as ADHD (she has a 504). She is participating this year in a program that is run by a non-profit and hosted at her school. The program consists of 1x weekly activities that take place concurrent with the afterschool program and a 1x monthly field trip that takes place during the school day. During the past two field trips, downhill skiing and cross country skiing, my daughter has expressed significant feelings of frustration that balloon into panic attacks/meltdowns. This has, at times, led to the need for a separation from the group with one-on-one support by staff or alone time. We do know that physical activities a…

My general education 5th grader is being recommended for a social skills group with the school social worker. He had an IEP from end of 1st grade thru mid 4th grade for Speech, which is how I know about this forum. This year teachers have observed that sometimes he forgets about personal space (his classroom does have 30 students this year...) or forgets to check in with the members of a conversation. These lagging skills are not keeping him from accessing the curriculum, he just needs a refresher. In 2nd grade this was a small concern (class size was also large), 3rd grade he was home on Zoom and last year back in the school building for 4th grade. Class size was smaller…

While the determination is made for a 504 or IEP school has told a friend child can’t be in school due to medical issue unless they have a physician note on file documenting the condition (or at least providing the explanatory it) do an action plan can presumably be developed. Family is working to get the note, but pediatrician has asked for specialist consults because they don’t want to jump to quick Dx without ruling out other things just in case. In the meantime school has declared with no doctor note on file, student is a liability and just needs to stay home, but they won’t provide homebound (which required Dr. note) or even live streaming in the meantime (because …

My oldest daughter has had an IEP since she was 3 related to a gene duplication. Recently my youngest daughter (kindergarten, same gene duplication) is showing some of the same behaviors and/or learning difficulties. I previously expressed some concerns and was met with wait and see, so I did. At the last parent teacher conference we discussed her limited retention and difficulty paying attention. We discussed retention for another year in kindergarten and I advised I would speak with our pediatrician to see what his thoughts were. An evaluation was completed and determined she has adhd, medication was prescribed and the pediatrician requested that the school also evaluat…

We suddenly have our daughter's IEP tomorrow. We can't postpone because tomorrow is the last day the yearly IEP can be held. We hope to get her into a private school next year as she transitions into middle school. I would like to include some goals that will work with the private school, or at least be tolerable for them. Regardless of whether or not she attends private or public school the need is about the same. 1) How can we write goals that will allow her to only have to complete 50% or 60% and still pass her classes. This would be across the board to include science, social studies, math, and reading. Science and social studies both have a lot of rea…

Hello, My daughter is on a 504 plan but I have requested for her to be tested for Special Education because of poor progress with grades and her disruptive behavior. The school has us to agree to oral testing , adding that most of their ADHD students are orally tested. I have put them off but got a call last Friday so I really don't know the pros & cons of doing so. She has no problem reading from our observation and the school's given statement.

My son is in 6th grade and has several qualifying diagnoses (Autism, Health (ADHD), Specific Learning Disability (Dysgraphia), and Anxiety). He has been succeeding with a very extensive 504 plan, but things have recently taken a turn for the worst. He is currently unable to write essays at school both for a graded essay and for MCAS (state standardized testing). Further, he became distressed working on an ELA assignment where he had to come up with 8-10 quotes showing character development. The teacher changed it to 1-2 for him due to the amount of distress he was displaying. Additionally, he also wrote that he is stupid on a math test because he didn't understand what wa…