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I would first reach out to the West Virginia Department of Education and ask what the requirements are in this situation in terms of certification and student/teacher ratio. I would also request an IEP meeting to discuss what is occurring and things that might need to be tweaked in the IEP document. You could request an FBA to pinpoint what the school is doing or not doing to trigger the behavior. Of course, the school FBA probably won't find anything wrong with what the school is doing, so then you can request an IEE. An independent evaluator could suggest things the school should be doing (or not doing). Finally, you might want to loop in the director of special education so that he/she knows what's happening.

I ended up having a discussion with the case manager. They spoke with the contracting company, sounds like it is some sort of medical issue that is preventing the tvi from finishing the school year (one session ). The company is having a replacement TVI look over her notes, provide an updated goal for the new IEP and attend the meeting. TVI teacher will be back for next school year. So I think, this is a good plan.

You have more info than what I've seen with other families. When a teacher or therapist isn't available to provide the services in the IEP, lots of schools don't mention this to families. They want to amend the IEP so they are not out of compliance with the IEP is my 1st thought. You can ask that they provide compensatory services once they hire a new TVI but I see their point: If your child is building momentum, maybe it's appropriate for an OT to work toward some of the goals - this is provided this isn't outside of the OT's scope of practice. I would want something in the IEP saying that the school will be activity looking for a TVI since they are the appropriately credentialed person to be working with a student who has CVI. You don't want the school to forget your child needs a TVI if they were to amend the IEP where an OT is working on the goals having a reminder about a TVI would be good. Is there a TVI in the area where you could take your child to see them & the school covers the cost as part of the IEP? That's the only alternative that I'm aware of when they have staff unavailable to provide a service in the IEP.

If he struggles with tests due to his disabilities and there are no supports in place to put him on an equal playing field with his peers, it would be discrimination. But I wouldn't recommend using that word right off the bat. I would ask for an IEP meeting to discuss (expedited - waive the 10 day notice requirement - due to the short basketball season) his accommodations and what needs to be put in place to help him with tests. If they refuse to or cannot convene a meeting in time, send an email to the IEP team (maybe copy director of spec ed) expressing your concern and the need to support your son as soon as possible. Suggest additional accommodations such as extended time, redirects, the ability to retake, take in non-distracting environment, etc. And stress that until these supports are put in place for his disabilities, he should not be punished (discriminated against) for failing tests.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I agree with you. Seems like life skills are what's needed. The only thing she seems to have going for her is she doesn't misbehave when frustrated with academics that are over her head. To get the school to see this, ask them to look at progress toward goals. The gap is widening so the interventions/SDI isn't helping. Something different is needed.

Every state has a Parent Training and Information Center. This is the one for TN: https://www.familyvoicestn.org/resources/education/ This site also says they are the only Parent Training and Information Center in TN: https://tnstep.info/ (Not sure which is the right group - there should only be one.) In my area (I'm in PA), The Arc has advocates that can help with IEPs. TN's Arc might be able to help: https://familyengagementtn.com/ From my experience, when content is modified, the student is taken off a 'diploma track' and put on a 'certificate of completion' track. This has more info: https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-accommodations-modifications/

I think it helps to remember that some people really do need a calculator their whole lives...and that’s okay. What matters is maximizing her skills and independence, wherever that line is for her. I’d frame the discussion around data, not opinion: what progress you’ve seen so far, what’s unknown right now with distance learning, and how to gather new information. That keeps the focus on supporting the student, not debating the tool.

I know that Wilson Reading is a popular intervention in my area. There's a 'tutor center' near me where their person does Wilson Reading when the issue is dyslexia. Wilson Reading is one of the many O-G based programs that are out there. My thought is: progress. If the teacher is certified in basket weaving and the child is catching up to classmates, whatever they are doing is working and that's the whole purpose of the SDIs in the IEP - PROGRESS! I'm also on the side of the school with intervention timing. When I had looked at the Wilson Reading protocol (this has to be pre-COVID), I remember daily and 40-60 minutes. (I'm thinking the protocol might have changed.) With a 3rd grader, I'm thinking that 90 minutes of SDI seems long. With outside tutoring, I'm pretty sure the sessions aren't this long. With any program, they tend to follow the script so they can say they are doing this with fidelity. If he doesn't need that lesson, I'd be fearful that he'll shutdown during the parts he needs to learn. With monitoring progress in reading, I believe they look at WCM - words correct per minute (per hundred?). So long as they are using the same method to measure progress, you'll see progress if it's there. I do like the idea of data more often. Any program will tend to work for ~80% of students. If this isn't the right program, finding that out and changing your approach should happen sooner & you'll see that with more frequent data collection. With a good Structured Literacy, Tier 1 program, there will still be ~20% of the population who has dyslexia per the Connecticut Longitudinal Study. These are the students who need an IEP (or Tiers 2 or 3 with milder issues). They need more intensive instruction than Tier 1 provides.

Several years ago, the Pupil Services Director did a presentation comparing the number of due process cases in WCASD & other districts. WCASD had more per pupil than all of the other districts in the county. I'm not sure this has changed in recent years. The amount they budget for due process does keep increasing. They had twice the number as DASD (if I remember correctly) which is close in size.

I don't know if WC is a magnet for issues, I think a lot of it is size bias-- WC and Downingtown both have 10-12000 students, so it feels more frequent. Anyway, I need to come up with a list for parents to use to ask questions when hiring an advocate. There are a few on that list who I would not recommend.... and in fact I would recommend not reaching out to them. but in this litigious society, I'm certainly not going to say who or why.

First, always keep in mind that budget cuts, financial constraints, etc., should never be a factor in deciding whether or not a child needs specific services. The team determines needs based on data and then figures out how to meet those needs (sometimes has to think outside the box). From a practical standpoint, yes, you may need to give the school district some grace in figuring out how to provide services if finances are an issue. But bottom line, as Lisa would say, "That's not your problem." Does she have an IEP? If not, that's your first step. I would suggest that before this school year ends you reach out to the kindergarten principal and request a special education evaluation. This will be conducted at the beginning of the next school year. If she does have an IEP, request a transition meeting with the pre-school and new grade school teams towards the end of this school year to talk about her transitioning to a new school - specifically going from a 7:3 ration to 20 (or more):1 and what her needs will be. Also ask about the expectations of Kindergarten. If there are some she cannot meet, discuss what services need to be in place for her to access FAPE. If it will have been a year since her last evaluation, I would also request a re-evaluation once school starts next fall. You might also request a Functional Behavior Analysis (FBA) to determine the why's and when's to her elopement so that can be addressed in a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP).

If he has issues with visual tracking, did the school evaluate that? If an area hasn't been evaluated, the assumption is the student's abilities are the same as a typical student. It sounds like the OT might need to help your child or train the para on what to do. Does he get OT via his IEP? If he needs a 1:1 aide, you need to have the school gather data and show this is what he needs. It sounds like you might need to look at what's in the eval they did to see if 'all areas of suspected disability' were evaluated (if the tracking/tracing issues were shared verbally, the para & teacher aren't going to provide extra help - they will follow what's in the IEP). State requirements are a minimum requirement. Given your child's needs, they might need a 2nd aide since your child is being removed from the classroom so often. You might want to ask for an IEP meeting so you can tweak his IEP.

Does your granddaughter currently have a preschool IEP? Does she have an aide at preschool? If she's currently getting an aide, you have data showing an aide is FAPE for her. That would make it easier to show that an aide is going to be needed in kindergarten.

The first thing that jumps out at me throughout your post is that so many of your conversations were over the phone. Keep in mind the following: If it's not written down, it didn't happen. Try to avoid having phone conversations. And if you do have a phone conversation, keep good notes, then send a email with those notes to the person you spoke with stating "this is what we discussed in our conversation on such-and such a date." Especially include anything the school district (by way of the person you spoke with) agreed to do or refused to do. Second, no, your daughter does NOT need to change classes in order to receive an IEP evaluation. That's just plain ridiculous and wrong. If their reasoning behind this is that she has to have an intervention first (as you state above), that is also completely wrong. My advice going forward: 1. Email (EVERY request should be in writing from this point forward) the director of special education requesting a special education evaluation and explaining the roadblock you encountered at the building (school) level of the need for intervention and changing classes (which you have researched and discovered is incorrect). 2. Include in the above request anything that would support the need for an evaluation (anxiety diagnosis; standardized testing, screenings, assessments showing low academic, reading skills/level; comments/emails from teachers that she is struggling (even going back to grade school); the email from the counselor stating that she may have a specific learning disability; etc. 3. Request an evaluation in the following areas: Intellectual/Cognitive (this may be denied if they already have an IQ test on file, as those results do not change much); Social/Emotional/Behavior (to address the anxiety); Academic Achievement (to address the possibility of a specific learning disability). 4. Request from the principal the following documents: all standardized test and screening results; all progress monitoring results from any interventions (even going back to grade school); all 504 evaluations (even if they were "lost," you need something in writing to that effect); a Prior Written Notice that the special education evaluation is being denied because of no intervention (if they are refusing to do an evaluation because you won't switch classes, you are entitled to a Prior Written Notice stating this). 5. If you ever hit a "wall" with anyone, please remember that everyone you deal with has someone in the district they report to. If you can't get anywhere with the principal, find out who the principal's supervisor is and email him/her. Keep going up the chain of command.

I had no problems recording and the district recorded as well so we both have a recording. I will say that my recorded did not pick up everything because some people speak softer than others. I also had to record offline because our school is a bunker. that said in the future I have picked up a conference room microphone to plug in to pick up everything when I record for future meetings. And the Otter AI app I used did a decent job of transcribing and the summarizing information. so I was able to send a follow up email with bhours of the meeting. I am hopoing that in the future that the app will voice recognition so that each person can introduce themself when recording starts. etc. I know with zoom etc. it does keep track of that stuff.

I don't understand this "scheduling" or "calling for" a due process hearing. Did you receive any paperwork on this? The paperwork should explain why the school district is filing for due process, give you a deadline for your response, etc. It sounds like you've had an attorney before. I would consult with him/her on this matter.