Mel

12 hours ago, Lisa Lightner said:

If a school is going to deny your IEE request, they are required per IDEA to file for Due Process to defend their evaluations.

If this is just to discuss your IEE request, it's kind of a gray area as far as who is required to attend, if you didn't ask for an IEP meeting--and no changes to the IEP are expected.

They can just file for Due Process and send you the PWN announcing as much. Sounds like they're going to give you a chance to back out before that happens.

We are actually meeting to go over the IEE results. Would that be normal to have that person attend for those?

Looking at the duties it looks like this person helps in assisting, planning, implementing due process procedures.

Hi, 

We received it team meeting notice for our child's IEE meeting. In it we saw some people on there we are not familiar with, one of them was a "SpEd Due Process Specialist" from the school. Has anyone heard of this before? What do they do??

Also, we noticed none of the teachers whose classes our child struggles in are attending. Shouldn't they be included?? Especially as we are going to be talking about how our child's executives function noted in the IEE affects her in those classes at school and accomodations....

We decided we pay out of pocket to have the IEE person attend virtually as it makes sense for her to be there and review it and her recommendations. 

Now we are just waiting to hear back from the school regarding our request for an IEP meeting. They said they would get back to us on scheduling, but that's the last we heard so far...

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 to add any of the recommendations?

Also, how long does the school have to hold an IEP meeting after an IEE and a parents requesting one?

Thanks. 

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 we are looking at transferring next school year as this one is almost done.

Or recommendations on how transferring works with kids with IEPs?

Thank you

1 hour ago, JSD24 said:

Some state laws don't allow for any wiggle room when it comes to tardies and absences.  If your state laws allow for it, you can have an accommodation in the IEP that, while she is working on her IEP goal, that she doesn't get an unexcused tardy when she she has difficulty transitioning to be cathed and ends up late because of that.

There are intuitional things that are in school discipline policies that don't follow 'the science'.  IMO, this is what you've run into.  The tardy is supposed to teach her to do better next time.  (Doesn't work like this when you have an EF disability.)

Thanks!

I think we can add it to the IEP here. Any recommendations on how to approach it to the school to have that added without them saying no right away? 

Hi,
Our child has concerns with executive function and task initiation. She was marked unexcused tardy as per the sped teacher she did not begin packing up when her watch alerted her to and did not leave when directed by the teacher. She has in her IEP the goal to stop what she is doing and Cath because she will not stop and go. This is a life skill goal. Is this appropriate response from the school if the child didn't follow the IEP goal/directions?

We live in Minnesota.

MN--Are school counselor case notes subject to FERPA and is something parents can request? 

There are 2 different things being told to us and needing the information to make an informed decision to help meet our childs mental health needs at school and home as school has continually fought against having any social emotional needs in the IEP or address them at school saying she is fine and doesn't need them (she has documented anxiety that has affected her ability to be in school).  And now they are implying our child is lying when we questioned why our child isn't seeing the counselor weekly as we were told she would be and is what it states in the health plan attached to the IEP. Child says the counselor quit showing up to see her a few weeks ago and never responded to a request to be seen last week.  They are saying it's due to a mutual decision to end and that she actually did see the counselor on a certain day when she requested to be seen. The child states she never told them she wanted to stop and wanted to keep it. Due to how hard the school fought not to have anything in the IEP regarding social emotional skills and removing the counselor goal and related services I can see them just decide to stop, but our child has not always told the truth on some things either. This though she's been pretty good on as she felt the sessions helped.

Another question I had is when they stopped seeing her, shouldn't we have been notified (it's listed she would see the counselor weekly and as needed in her IHP that is attached to the IEP)? Especially as they were aware this could affect how her private therapy is managed and managing her mental health concerns?

Thanks

On 1/13/2024 at 9:57 PM, Jenna said:

I don't think it hurts to ask for another comprehensive eval in all areas of suspected disability. See https://adayinourshoes.com/sample-letter-requesting-iep-evaluation/ for some sample letters. If they deny that request, then you can decide whether you want to request an IEE. Remember that if you disagree with their eval and request an IEE, they could refuse and file for due process to defend their eval. Or, they could grant the requested IEE. Once you get the IEE though, all they have to do is "consider" it. 

Has her neuropsychologist done any evals recently by chance? If so, it'd be up to you whether you want to share that report with the district.

Yes, the neuropsychologist did one the summer of going into 6th grade (which fell on the time of her 3 year IEP re-evaluation). The school was given the report and used the testing scores and some of the recommendations given regarding executive function organization and one math accommodation (offer graph paper). They refused to do the other math accommodations.

If I ask for an evaluation for math learning concerns will the school have to do a whole new evaluation for IEP qualifications? Or can I just ask to have accommodations put in place and explain why and show the new data?

I'm concerned they will say they have to do a while new one and use that to try to get rid of services we just fought so hard to get in place that they were trying to remove or not meet that would affected her FAPE in the least restricted environment. 

35 minutes ago, Jenna said:

When did the school last do an eval in all areas of suspected disability? If it's been a while, perhaps they'd be willing to do new evals. 

They did it in 6th grade. She was having the same issues then as now, but they said she's fine and doesn't need any accommodations.. 

Thank you!

She has Spina bifida. So orthopedic and neurological needs. She has executive function concerns (which we had to fight to get them to acknowledge that and address it in her IEP, PACER the advocate group here helped with this along with getting the school to address the bullying occurring). She was diagnosed also with neurodevelopmental disorder related to hydrocephalus and  Neurodevelopmental Disorder Associated with Spina Bifida and Shunted Hydrocephalus Diagnosis by her Neurospychologist. Which is where it talks about how this affects her executive function concerns and math needs related to that (comprehension, remembering, writing and coping the problem down correctly, organization, and follow through). 

They always say she is in par with her peers or she refused help (which they only offer her graph paper as help, no other interventions when we asked what help she is refusing). Even when we show them the data such as the tests, assignments, MCA state test. They just reply back they didn't see any concerns. At her reevaluation for her IEP last year they didn't note any concerns either.

If they are saying she doesn't have concerns all the time, even with data we presented should I ask for evaluation from them first or can I ask for an IEE right away? 

I feel they aren't taking account of her disability and brush it off. We've had to fight them it feels like for everything. We just had to fight the school about her being able to go to the bathroom this fall  :(.  They wanted to force her to be able to Cath (to go pee) once a day.  The school nurse was very adamant about this as she felt it was okay to go 5hrs between (even though it totally went against it the childs plan of care per her urologist and other specialists and she needs to go every 3-4hrs to prevent accidents and reduce infections). They know she's been hospitalized and missed school for bladder infections, and is at risk of kidney failure related to her disability. It's been documented and they have the information.. 

MN.

What requirements does a child need to meet before the school should be providing para support in math or accommodations in the IEP? What accommodations are available to a child? 

We spent the first quarter of school attempting to have math support and accommodations put in our child's IEP. The school denied it, the reason they say is because they don't do title one (which she use to be in, but aren't providing it anymore due to her being in 7th grade) and that her grades and scores don't indicate she needs assistance (they refused to put in their comment they made at the meeting of not being able to provide incidental para support -- which they made in the IEP meeting but refused to write in the pwn. I do have this documented in an email of what they told us and they never actually replied back in an email saying that was incorrect and not what they said). Her grades at that point were consistently holding at "D" or "D+". Test scores were around 37-60%. Last year she was c- consistently and same for tests scores. They refused to acknowledge those when shown. Again saying her scores do not reflect needing help. Even as her MCA test said she was not meeting Grade level (they said she didn't put enough effort in it and that's why it was poor). Her neurolopsychologist has documented that due to her disability and executive function concerns she is going to be falling more behind as it gets harder and should have accommodations put in place to help keep her close to level as her peers. The school was given that information also. 

Now though her math grade has been an "F"" this 2nd quarter. Does she need to be failing for a certain time before we can ask them for help for her again? I'm afraid they are going to say that or refuse for another reason such as she's not putting in enough effort. Even though she literally is struggling as the math assignments get harder. The two tests done this quarter were 69 and 37 percent. She tried retaking the test and correcting the wrong ones (as all kids are able to in her class), she only got a 43% on the retake and rounded average test scores show 54%.

On 11/4/2023 at 3:14 PM, JSD24 said:

If an IHP is attached to an IEP, you might need the whole IEP team to make changes to it.

I hate IHPs.  There is no agency to oversee that they are followed.  Is there a way to put some of the accommodations in the IHP into the IEP?

You could write a parent letter of concern that you didn't get a copy of the IHP to review.  You can also mention that your concern is the IHP not being followed since it doesn't seem to be as accessible as the IEP.

Sending a PWN with a draft IEP sounds like predetermination...

Thank you!

At the meeting, we did mention about adding what's in the IHP in the accommodations if they didn't want to attach it, but they declined that too....

On 11/4/2023 at 12:01 PM, Carolyn Rowlett said:

Also, when a school district says things like "based on the principles  for practice guidance provided by the national association of school nurses" and "per other sources," ASK FOR SPECIFICS.  Can you send me a link to those guidelines?  What other sources?

Ok, I will. Thank you!

On 11/4/2023 at 11:56 AM, Carolyn Rowlett said:

I'll start with a general answer to your last question.  It appears in Minnesota that parents do not have to sign off on any IEP's (with the exception of the initial IEP that begins the special education services).  So if that's what you mean by "sign off on the new proposal," the school district can implement the IEP without you "signing off."

However, I'm a little confused.  You state you received a "draft IEP" and "proposed IEP,"  but also a PWN.  How can there be a PWN if the IEP is only in draft form at this point?  Is this for an annual IEP revision?  Has a meeting been schedule?  If not, you need to request one.  You have the right to participate in the drafting of revisions to the IEP before implementation and receive a PWN detailing what you asked for at that meeting that was denied.

As far as the IHP, I have included a link below to a website that addresses these in detail.  I only did a quick review, but one thing I saw that stood out was that the IHP should be included in the related services section of the IEP because it contains school-related nursing and health services.

Since most of the requirements related to IHP's are left to the states, I have also included a link specific to Minnesota law and policies.

 

https://undivided.io/resources/individualized-health-plan-ihp-in-an-iep-1380

https://arcminnesota.org/resource/arc-guide-to-individualized-health-care-plan

Thank you!!

Yes, this was for the annual IEP meeting which we usually have to sign off on. 

They stated in the meeting they were going to unattach the IHP from the IEP, stating they never should have attached it as they were told it is not recommended  at the special education seminar they went to this summer, and also when they consulted with their lawyers.  They had already made the decision before the meeting and said they were doing this. We disagreed and expressed our concerns on this, we also sent a follow up email expressing the concerns so as to have it in writing.

We told them to put it in a PWN and put the exact reason and what statute is stating it can never be attached to the IEP. So they sent the PWN with the comment I mentioned earlier in the revised/draft IEP that they want us to sign and send back. The reason they put in the the PWN though is totally different then what they told us at the meeting. 

Minnesota

We got the IEP draft today. In the pwn, the school is refusing to keep our child's Individualized Health Plan attached to the IEP. They are stating the reason they can't is per the "bases on the principles  for practice guidance provided by the national association of school nurses." And "will only reference the IHP within the accommodations and modification section within the IEP." They are also saying it's recommended to never have it attached to the IEP per other sources. 

When looking at the proposed IEP, all I see on the accommodation section regarding the IHP is "the health office will inform school staff of child's health care plan. It is also available within the school office." There is nothing else listed on the child's need, what concerns there are, health needs, and what actions need to be done when these issues occur ( such as immediate crisis needs or other stuff that can affect her ability to be at the school, or need to be seen or hospitalized). It looks like it is not very easily accessible. We feel this would affect our child's FAPE in the LRE. We originally had it attached last year due to her health needs severely affecting her ability to be in school and wanting to make sure all teachers that work with our child know what to do when she's experiencing them as when it wasn't on the IEP, her needs weren't being addressed. It helped. Now though they are saying it never should have been attached. 

Is it true the IHP can never be attached to the IEP? 

We also never received the updated IHP to sign off, which was supposed to have health needs and information put back in the nurse had taken out. Shouldn't we have had it given to us to to review (especially since it is still attached to the IEP until we sign off on the new proposal)?

Thank you!

Hi, 

I had a question on invitation to participate in IEP meeting. Someone was just telling me about this and that I should be receiving one before our meeting so we know where, when, who is attending, and what is being discussed. I have never seen this though. Is this correct? We never get any information prior to the meeting.

Hi,

Our daughter has an IEP for a physical disability and has executive function concerns. Math has always been a struggle. This year we had them address math more in the IEP due to the extreme struggle she had with math IXL's/assignments in 5th grade to help in 6th. She was at risk in her 5th grade MCA state test.

They did title 1 and we were able to get them to do where she can stop after an hour if still struggling (but this was hard to get them to do that). 

She just had the 6th grade state standardized testing for math (MCA) again. She did not meet goals (so worse now). She is continuously getting c, c-,D, and F in the class. I feel she needs more assistance with this at school, but I know there will be push back.

Looking at next year done  (only 2 weeks left of school now)--Is there more that can be addressed and put in the IEP? Modifications? Or am I thinking to much on this...

Thanks.

Thanks for the information. We are in MN. We ended up contacting our states parent advocacy group and they were able to provide us with federal and state statutes that went over the Truancy concern. Since all her absences were excused, it didn't meet the Truancy definition (unexcused habitual school days missed) and we found out also the school hadn't been following their truancy policy (and the states/federal statutes) requiring them  to notify us before it because a Truancy concern (5th and 8th day contact, meeting at 10, etc). They also didn't offer to provide her other alternative options when we addressed our concerns about her missing school as they should have we were told. 

But then they said it wasn't truancy but more credit issues due to their maximum absence rule. Even though the letter stated Truancy. But this wasn't in the elementary handbook, only junior/high school. So doesn't qualify in her situation. When we addressed that also they said it was a mistake that it wasn't in the handbook for middle school kids, but that rule does apply to them. But didn't say if they were going to pursue that course still. So not sure what to do next....

They are refusing to update the IEP to address alternative methods when gone due to her medical concerns or homework modifications. They even said it in one of the emails and ignored the request again on the last email. Their handbook doesn't have anything listed addressing chronic health concerns or accommodations if needed so we feel her IEP really needs to have this addressed. 

Recommendations on this?  I'm thinking that we may end up needing to do they homebound option or modifications/accommodations. Even virtual they haven't offered or wanted to do when that was a possibility for her.

I believe they could do it virtual.....They have never offered when we have discussed classes or missed days.

The reason I think they can avoid sending it is because the previous superintendent was able to not send the letter a couple years ago after a surgery she had and had to miss school. Also the way he original replied he mentioned the other superintendent may have a certain way of doing things "due to his leadership style", which he "does too", but not this.  So it is really confusing.. 

Hi,

Can we add to our childs IEP about accommodations for missed school days so we don't get a truancy letter and have sent to child welfare automatically based off their computer system?

Background- our child has a neurological disability and has been requiring a lot medical treatments and has been sick a lot this year. She has been missing school as a result, half of the absences are due to the school sending her home or saying she needs to be home based off their sick policy. 

We have multiple calls from the school and emails noting this. Her physicians are aware and have been treating her, and we have been working closely with the school on these absences and her health concerns. Making sure her homework is done,etc. The superintendent says he has to send the letter as he sends one of for everyone, can't allow exceptions (even though the old one did a couple years ago).

All absences have been excused per the school. 

We recently had a conciliation meeting due to a disagreement on medically needed therapy that she does at school. Had her specialists there and private PT to provide education. We had to also involve advocates and address bullying at school that was happening. We ended up having them have to provide more services and continue with the therapy need (which they didn't want to do). Considering we never had issues last year or until now, even though she missed more than their standard policy it feels like retaliation somewhat.

When I asked to add these accommodations and update her health related needs, they said they don't think she needs one. It's standard for all kids to have a letter to child welfare. I disagree with that and said we need to have something in place that addressed her individualized health needs (especially as they are going back on what they said previously at a different IEP meeting that we didn't need to worry about any letters, which is why we didn't have one in place now). 

Am I wrong to ask for this? What should I do?

I'm waiting for a response back from the school but they have not emailed back. 

Thanks.

Also, could this be considered a ADA and health related need?

Thanks everyone. The school is wanting to meet with the physicians and her rehab on this as they still feel she doesn't need it and they don't have to follow the doctors orders that she needs it in school. 

Can we decline this? The doctor already wrote a letter with the need for the stander in the school and why. Our PT  stated the time frame for the hour class would be sufficient so they would be able to meet her needs. They have yet to acknowledge the bullying. Trying to figure out how to respond....