Mandypenn76

we are in Coatesville school district (PA) for reference. We have been trying for years to get a relationship with our son and his guidance counselor in each of the schools he’s been in. It’s been an SDI that he can go see the guidance counselor when he wants, we’ve introduced them, etc., etc. But what we can’t get is for the guidance counselor to bring him in or to speak with him. One of the goals on his IEP is to learn to self advocate, which is proving troublesome too because collecting data is difficult for that. But he is not going to request to go talk to somebody, someone’s going to have to pull him in and talk to him The big issue we have is that he’s been bullied in almost every school he has been in. His emotional age is younger than his physical age and now in eighth grade he’s still playing with action figures and getting comments from the kids. Our son will not tell us if he’s being bullied, the only time we know about it is his friend’s parents will let us know if they overhear something. He doesn’t tell teachers, and the teachers don’t report anything (at all!!) to us.We requested a meeting every other week with the guidance counselor. This was the response I got the other day: “I also spoke to the guidance counselor. Unfortunately, they are told not to put specific meeting times in IEPs due to the number of students they serve. But he is on her radar and will schedule an informal recurring 1:1 with N. If we feel something needs to be placed in the IEP, we will have to look towards social work services. Did N ever work with a mental health therapist IN school? We can consider adding a social work screener to determine whether he would qualify for in-school sessions. However, I can see him acing the screener because he is so good at masking his emotions. Let me know your thoughts.” I don’t know much about social work screeners or working with mental health within the schools because it’s never been an option provided to us. They really just don’t have anyone. Also, he does perform when he knows he’s being screened so having a relationship is the most important thing. I am very aware that I need to request a NOREP about the guidance counselor. But what should I do next?