IEP and 504 Issues and Questions

And if so, is it considered a reasonable accommodation? In the casual world, I've heard various complaints about IEP accommodations assigning another student to help them. Some say it stresses the student helper out too much, and even one story said the parent pulled the kid from school as the kid shouldn't be doing a teacher or para's job. But it's also seemed a good idea in popularity fit quite some time, so what's the current view?

Hello! My 14 y.o. with ADHD has had an IEP since the 4th grade, largely because of behavioral and social-emotional issues. It was "renewed" for 3 years (last triennial) and covered 6, 7, an 8th grade. Both in 6th and in 7th he had a few suspensions for behavior and at the end of 7th after a 3rd suspension the team suggested we reevaluate him, and I agreed thinking it would translate into MORE support for his social-emotional challenges. However, after they did all the assessments they came back and said he was doing so well academically that they felt he no longer qualified for an IEP to "access the classroom" and wanted to move him to a 504. I disagreed and sent the…

Hello, A parent reached out to me for support but the school is saying a bunch of things I've never heard of so I wanted to reach out to others for input. This parent's child attended school "A". At school A in Jan. 2024, the school switched him from an IEP to a 504 plan. The parent said she disagreed with this but the school did it anyway. They never came up with a 504 plan so she has no documentation. The child now goes to school "B". School be is saying the child must be on the 504 plan for a year before he is allowed to get his IEP back. The school is not implementing or even has a 504 plan yet. The child is having a ton of issues with behavior, no skill b…

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?

Is there a requirement that when doing an evaluation, the child has to have input? School did a sensory evaluation consisting of only the school companion of the Sensory Profile 2, but did not provide the parent or student with any opportunity to participate in the sensory evaluation (10 yo). Is the Sensory Processing Measure a better evaluation? Does anything take into account the child feedback versus solely relying on a teacher to be noticing? Seems a little one-sided if only one person is asked to evaluate for a concern, especially if there's very subtle things happening and kid "flies under the radar". Child is not an obviously distracting kid due to anxiety s…

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.

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 …

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?

Hello! I have been doing research to try to figure out how to inform/educate my son’s teachers that reading his texts out loud is how he understands the material. My son is a junior in high school. Unfortunately, he has three classes where students are expected to read silently for most of a 90-minute class period (As a retired English teacher of 25 years, don’t even get me started on my thoughts on this matter. I rarely asked students to read silently in class without a specific reason and/or audio support.) I am hoping that some of you may have suggestions on what you said and/or recommended to encourage teachers to support your child in their need…

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…

I spoke with the director of special education at my daughter's district today about how I was treated at her IEP meeting. I told her I requested prior written notice with an explanation of why my proposal was refused and she said "how could we provide prior notice before the meeting was held?" I said prior means before a change is implemented or refused, and she said "ok..." I said "I can send you the language from IDEA if that helps". She didn't like that suggestion...

Student has ADHD diagnosis and is 8 years old. Lives in IL. ONE Teacher is sending home messages everyday about all the things the student is doing wrong. School won’t consider a 504 or IEP because “his grades are too good”. Student is constantly trying to teach other students, corrects other students about rule following, having meltdowns when the teacher won’t listen to him during lecture. Other teachers do not have concerns and state that he “makes them think about things different ways”. The one teacher takes away his recess almost daily even though he is ADHD. He has stated he can’t do anything right for the one teacher and he wants to die! Child is now on medication…

Since we’ve had my son’s Initial IEP, they rejected my request for a 1:1 aide. Since then he’s been having weekly episodes of aggression at school—and he hasn’t been aggressive before. He was recent diagnosed with Autism and ADHD and is minimally verbal. He’s assaulted classmates and a teacher and I truly feel that with a 1:1 aide, it would minimize these meltdowns. Has anyone experienced sudden aggression in their little on? Any advice would be very helpful. I’m just scared that if this continues he would be pulled from the general classroom.

Are the completed teacher rating scales viewable under FERPA? Scales were only given to one teacher who spends far less time with my child and school refuses to reissue observation scales to the teacher present for a longer duration of the school day with my child. (Note my child splits classrooms so neither teacher is present with the other one.)

I requested during the open house for my daughter to be reevaluated for speech therapy. I hadn't heard anything from the teacher so I recently asked about it. She dated that the speech therapist talked to my daughter and looked at the prior eval and said there still was no need for her to have therapy in school. My daughter is hard to understand at times even for myself and my husband, but she will repeat herself until we understand. My question is, do I push for a full evaluation to be done even if they don't WANT to do it? She is getting therapy outside of the school. I want to make sure she is able to be better understood as she gets older, she is 15 now.

so this is for a close pal so I need to keep this fairly generic but they handed in a IEP eval a request this AM to the district office and then met with the principal to start a 504 this afternoon (their kid needs some emotional support help ASAP) and the principal brought in the school psych and they proceeded to tell the parents that the kid could not qualify as they said he had no learning differences (they must have showed an old IQ test..only an iq test not a full neuropsych) and that they insisted that IEPs are not meant for emotional disabilities, only for academic reason. So I know this is not true..I have two ED kids in this district. The kid's struggles are a…

How does this present with ADHD combined? Are they often confused —like go to an audiologist and you’ll get the auditory processing Dx, but go to a nueropsych and you’ll get the ADHD Dx? Does a language processing eval help to rule out tolerance fading memory or just help to see if other issues are also present? Can anything mask tolerance fading memory? Is it a 504 or IEP?

Mn- If we talk to another school district about transferring our child to them, will they go back and talk to our current school district? Is transportation covered? They have IEP with transportation currently. We are considering transferring our child to another school district due the school not meeting our child's learning and disability needs (mainly due to them not wanting to meet them as they are known for not accepting kids with special needs). I hate to do it as is a pretty far distance from where we live, but we've had so many problems and have filed a complaint. But how they are treating our child is affecting them emotionally, which is why …

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…

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…

The school psychologist is the one who did all the testing on our student. in the IEP She says that she will spend a half hour twice a month helping her. In the first IEP meeting the district representative made a point of saying that school psychologist time is an extremely valuable asset that the District is committing to the student. (the school psychologist really likes the student who is bright, articulate, self-aware, psychologically minded, cooperative. The school psychologist wants to spend time with her.) the student already is meeting with a private education psychologist weekly. The student will be pulled out of class to meet with the school psychologist. …

I know, I know, I'm supposed to want recess for my child. I even read the article about fighting for recess. Intellectually, I know it's important. But with the new school year approaching, I am seriously considering looking into getting recess skipped for my child. She will be in the third grade. My state is very pro-recess and has it included in state law. It's also part of, by not only the teacher's union contract and state public employee law, the teacher's duty-free break time. The thing is, my daughter hates recess. We've tried a lot. Efforts to have kids include her and teach her games (the kids are great, really, but my daughter isn't interested). A cou…

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?

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?

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…