JSD24

You're right about asking for an IEE. The school can say yes or it's Due Process - those are the 2 options schools have. To remove an IEP, the school should do a reeval showing the student isn't behind. The special ed tests they use are normed. What teachers do tends to be subjective which is why you want a normed eval. In theory, schools should be offering parents 3 options for meeting times. We have lives outside of our kids and our schedules might not mesh with the school's. (There are doctors and other professionals who have kids with IEPs where they can't rearrange their schedules on short notice.) They shouldn't meet without you without giving you some options first. Meeting during the week before school starts when the teachers have their inservice could be an option. Teachers have lives outside of school too. IMO, special ed is a stressful job. Lots of teachers burnout after a short career. I can see how teachers miss things like having a meeting before heading to MS as they tend to have a lot of things to do to wrap up the year. If you see a goal, you can ask: How are you going to measure progress and determine if the goal has been met? If you feel the yardstick is subjective let them know. (Will they send you a copy of their proposed updates so you have time to review them before the meeting?) A good measure is imagining another teacher stepping to implement the IEP and measure the goals. Could they do what the teacher is doing and see the same thing? This is a good way to test how clear what's in the IEP is. I've also seen where a goal is met in therapy but the skill doesn't transfer outside of the therapy room. To move from a 504 back to an IEP, the school would need to do a new evaluation. It's data that drives what's in the IEP and this is how schools get that data. Hope this helps.

Is there a specific timeline for requesting an IEE after the school completes testing? There isn't. Since it's been 15 months, they might want to do another eval rather than pay for an IEE. You might want to talk to the special ed director and ask them. I do agree that your child needs to be tested for pragmatics (and social skills). These are the areas of need with ADHD & autism. To whom is an IEE request addressed to? The school principal, school district SPED director, state agency? I'd address it to the principal, case manager (this would be the special ed teacher who writes the IEP), and the special ed director. (Send an email.) If the IEP goals aren't measurable (and the school was aware,) can I argue for an IEE? No. You do an IEE to get data. If a goal isn't measurable...well, you want SMART goals. My child is moving over to Middle School next school year, should there be a transition meeting which includes the SPED teacher at the new school? Not required under IDEA. It's a nice thing to do. Since the SPED teacher stated my child has mastered their goals, is it beneficial to ask for a meeting to have them show me how the data was collected even though they admitted the program they used only shows completion and isn't measurable? "What does that look like?" Ask that question when you feel a goal isn't measurable. If they didn't back their teacher, they would be admitting the IEP isn't FAPE.

400 hours is over 16 days (24 hour days). There is no way she is getting that much instruction in a week. Most schools are only open to 35 hours a week and they won't take away lunch to provide instruction. I think you need to get the IEP corrected if it really says 400 hours per week. Could it be 400 minutes per week? Not sure how she could have missed 1000 instructional hours. If school meets for 180 days that are 6 hours long, that's 1080 hours in total. Again, this isn't realistic for any IEP unless your child is going to school every day. Could it be 1000 minutes? I think asking the IEP team to document the IEP minutes your child gets daily is not unreasonable. And asking them to make up missed time isn't unreasonable either. I do think you need to get the amount of time in the IEP straight before your write to the school. If you know how to put 400 hours into a week that typically lasts 168 hours (24 X 7 = 168), please let me know. I'm behind on some paperwork and could use that extra time to catch up.

The school doesn't have data on how much help he gets at home. Start writing down what you're doing and how long it takes for you to to this. Send this to the school and ask for it to be added to his 504 file so they have a record of what happens at home. Or you put a time limit on help. I know it's not easy to watch your child fail and end up with poor self esteem but the way the system works, this is what needs to happen. If the student scrapes by with outside help, the school doesn't have to offer an IEP. This is why the 504 appears to be working. (They can't read minds. They don't know if you or a tutor are helping him so they attribute his progress to what they are doing.) Did they assess social skills and pragmatics as "areas of need"? These are the 2 areas that kids will tend to qualify for an IEP with. The social skills assessment my school uses is the SSIS -The Social Skills Improvement System . Also, with smart kids, they will mask. My child looked average on the TOPL - Test Of Pragmatic Language. I was told if they had done the optional extended assessment, the issues would have come to light.

Best practice is SMART goals. From Google: SMART goals are a structured framework for setting objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. When the school comes up with a crap goal, ask them to make it into a SMART goal. You should be able to teach yourself what a SMART goal looks like so you can critique the school's goals. https://adayinourshoes.com/smart-goals/ and: https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-goal-bank/ This should help you climb the learning curve. When I copied from Google, it changed my font color. Not sure why that happens.

You have data that he does OK when a para checks in with him and not OK when they don't. I'd request a 504 plan IN WRITING. If they call you with a 'we don't have the budget for this' message, do a follow up email: Hi School: Per your call on April 20, we discussed my request for a 504 plan. I was told that the school's budget doesn't allow for this. I just wanted to confirm that this was what I was told. Please reply to this email if I'm not understanding the reason for XYZ School saying my child doesn't need a formal 504 plan. This puts their reply in writing. If they don't reply, you have proof they are refusing the 504 because of lack of budget. You can take this to the Office of Civil Rights and they can get on the school about this. If they don't believe the data, ask them why your child has major issues when the paras are out of the building. Unfortunately, getting a 504 should be a sprint but the school is making it into a marathon. Be persistent with your advocacy. They have to accommodate him especially if you have proof he has a medical diagnosis where students will often need some extra support.

It's hard for a special ed teacher to know about all disabilities where they can manage an IEP (and the SDI needed to reach goals) for every student. Deaf & HOH are rare. Schools should be open to consulting to better understand rare disabilities. Consultants will often come with a price tag & teachers are spread thin with what they need to do (if they want to do their own research) so I see this as a lack of time & money with being able to provide FAPE for these students. Without strong parent advocacy, I see students like this slipping through the cracks.

If school anxiety was the issue, homeschooling sounds like the solution. With every school year, students who are accessing their education should advance by one year academically. Given that it seems he didn't advance, the question is: why? These are some issues & solutions: (1) There was general anxiety and it wasn't treated so he didn't have full access to his homeschool education because the anxiety got in the way. (2) The real reason for school refusal was anxiety because the subject matter was too hard to access due to a disability. In most states, the public school will evaluate homeschool students for learning as well as other disabilities. (3) Not sure what homeschool curriculum was used. Homeschools should be covering the same state standards that public school cover especially if you are looking to bring the student back into public school. (My school district allows parents to borrow textbooks from the school so they can cover the same things in a homeschool situation.) (4) The student feels they can't learn so they aren't trying to learn. If a student doesn't have a growth mindset, they will not put in the work to make the progress they should be making. It's hard to say what the solution is without knowing the root cause of the issue. You need to meet your child where they are but if they aren't progressing at the same rate as other kids, you need to figure out why so whatever is going on can be addressed. Most homeschools can cover the same material as a public school does in less than the 6.5 hours that is a typical public school day. This allows time to bring their child up to where their classmates are if they're behind. Temple Grandin describes this as putting things just out of reach of a child where they do need to struggle a little but growth is attainable.

Any change to the IEP should be data driven. Has the school shared data with you to support this reduction in support? If there are conflicts with the data, you want to err on the side of caution and gather more data before making a change.

I'm not sure what agency oversees sports at his school but in my area, it's at the state level. Their rules are that students need to be passing classes to participate. I'm not sure you could make an IEP accommodation that would override these rules. What might make sense is for him to work with his teacher during office hours or afterschool to bring him up to speed rather than what's currently happening. Not sure, with a 4-week season, if he's bring his grade up enough - it's just not enough time. I wish I had a better solution.

I have a question about overidentification. I live in a county that has a disproportionate number of individuals qualifying for an autism waiver. There isn't much they can do about this because these individuals have a diagnosis and the need for a waiver. There are 12 public school districts in my county and they are not allowed to identify a disproportionate number of students for autism IEPs. If you have disproportionality in the adult services system, wouldn't you also expect the same in the in the school system? I don't think there are people moving to my area for adult services. I feel the people who are waiting for a waiver graduated from these schools and maybe they were underserved in the school system. I'm a numbers person and these numbers don't make sense. Anyone have an explanation for why this could be happening?

Has the school done a pragmatics eval? They did one with my child & she masked and they didn't see any issue. The TOPL has an optional extended assessment that probably would have picked it up... Most parents need a lawyer to get a private placement. Any charter schools in your area? They will sometimes do better than the regular public schools with kids like yours.

Ask for an IEE at school expense. You don't feel the goals have been met. (My guess is they don't have anyone who can support the MS goal in HS.) https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/ I'd ask them to show you some of his work - ask for a copy you can keep. Then ask your son how much help he got with it.

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

PA has Safe2Say. It was put in place to report things like overhearing a classmate say they want to end it all but it definitely gets used to report bullying. They have an app & a website for anonymous reporting. Has social skills & pragmatics been evaluated? These are the areas of need I've seen in kids like yours. It's also areas I've seen schools miss. Will not be covered by an IEE if the school hasn't already done an eval. They might not be able to "help what kids say" but they also need to have no bullying policies in place that get enforced. I'm guessing that the more your child is harassed, bullied & teased, the worse the stutter gets. Is your son getting outside therapy? An outside therapist can sometimes get the school to see how toxic the school environment is. In PA, your child qualifies for Medicaid and that can cover outside speech therapy which might work better than school therapy. It covers social skills too but it can be hard to find places that offer this & take Medicaid. The application is online. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dhs/programs-services/apply-for-benefits