JSD24

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

SDI is Specially Designed Instruction.  https://adayinourshoes.com/what-is-specially-designed-instruction/

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 feel it's going to be hard to come up with good goals but I do have a few ideas.  If he's got a pass to leave the classroom when he needs a break to use 'calming tools', a goal could be to use this less often or for less time.  Letting your child have lunch with friends (if he's up for that) or eat with the psychologist or social worker (or favorite teacher) - it's more of an accommodation but the goal could be to maximize being with peers.  Adayinourshoes has a post on this:  https://adayinourshoes.com/anxiety-iep-504-accommodations/

If anxiety causes him to take longer to do things, extra time or shortened assignment are possible.  (Do you really need to do 18 math problems?  10 might be better for him.)  If speaking to the class is an issue, eliminate the need for participation in class and allow oral presentations to be done 1:1.  What you want in the IEP will depend on what your son needs to have to be successful as well as not triggering his anxiety.  Even changing for PE in the nurse's office could be on the IEP.

My fear, knowing how mean 7th graders can be, is your son getting bullied by his classmates or them asking too many questions about his extended absence from school where it makes him uncomfortable.  He might want to come up with a comeback in case things like this happen at school.

If the school eval said the student needs VT, are they also putting it in the IEP that they are going to provide VT?  Have you met with the school to go over the eval?  If they are sending you there for therapy, you need to be paid mileage.  I've never seen parents paid for their time with taking a child to an outside service like this.  Can this be done as teletherapy?

I have seen schools say that an IEE that's an hour away is too far.  My state has a consult line that parents can call with IEP questions.  I'm thinking you need to reach out to someone who knows your state's rules on things like this.

Teacher grades are subjective.  Always has been like this & always will be like this.  I wouldn't call them unreliable.  Basic with PSSAs is failing although 'below basic' is lower.  The district has sheets with the scores that they mail home.  They've been getting to the district in Sept/Oct.  Might be posted on the portal the school uses & not mailed given mailing can get expensive.

Tests like WIAT or WCJ are normed for kids who are the same age - "grade level" can be subjective given that the state standards that are currently in place have been reported to be developmentally inappropriate and PSSAs are aligned with them.

This has info in the Firefly:  https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/instruction/elementary-and-secondary-education/assessment-and-accountability/firefly  You might need a parent/teacher conference given your child is lying to you about things they are doing is school being he said he was given the Firefly and the teacher said they didn't administer that.  (How would he know it existed if the school hadn't shown it to him?)  If the teacher is still saying they don't give that test, you might need to go up the chain of command to figure out if they use this or not.  (Did you ask his special ed teacher & his classroom teacher was the one who gave him this?)

I looked up IXL.  It seems to be an online curriculum.  This could be why he's been asked to work on it over break.  I didn't see an assessment with this name.

"Grade level" would be determined by the PA State Standards.  The PSSAs are aligned with them.  Other assessments, like the ones they do for IEP eligibility, would look at how your child compares to the kids they used to 'norm' or test the test so they look more-so at development and not at what the state has decided kids at each grade level should be taught.  The PA State Standards are available online.  It might be a few different files because math, science & ELA are listed separately.  You can see what standards your child can and cannot do to figure out what grade they are on.  And you might see their reading and writing levels are not in the same grade level with measuring this so their ELA level might not all be the same grade level - math & science might show this too.

My feeling is that normed special ed assessments are a better yardstick to use.  They compare your child to same-age children and see how their ability compares to other children.  They will show if the SDI in the IEP is catching your child up to their classmates or not.  In a perfect world, your child should be catching up - not staying the same amount behind nor falling farther behind.

Keystones are the state standarized test given in HS to meet ESSA requirements.  There are 3 tests:  Algebra, literature and biology.  (There were supposed to be more of them but they didn't develop them due to cost.)  Prior to Keystones, there were PSSAs given in 11th grade.  Also, passing Keystones (or equivalent) is a graduation requirement.

NOREP is Pennsylvania.  Only filing for Due Process will allow you to invoke Stay Put where the old IEP with the neighborhood school as placement can continue.  If you disagree with the NOREP, it will still go into effect in 10 days.

The school should have held an IEP meeting to make this change to the IEP.  This looks a lot like predetermination if they sprung this on you without an IEP meeting.  Was there new data that showed this change was needed?  Was there data when he was put onto the waitlist?

You might need a special ed attorney given how muddled this looks to be.  Not sure if a state complaint is also needed given there was no IEP team discussion about the new placement and this looking like predetermination.  Calling the Consult Line and asking them if this was an OK way to change the placement would also be an option but I'm not sure of the timing with the 10 window with the NOREP.

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.

It's easy to do a bad FBA.  If you observe at the wrong time or not for long enough, it will show everything's OK.  Schools are run by trained professionals (this is best practice - your district may vary).  I think we need to trust they are doing things right.  (Make me wonder if their parent input form ended up in your Spam  box.)  When you meet to go over the FBA, ask why they didn't ask for your input.  If the FBA (like any other eval) is incomplete or inaccurate, you can ask for an IEE at school expense.

How is the school accommodating her reading disability?  It sounds like she's getting SDI to help her learn to decode but until she's at grade level, she needs accommodations.  Audiobooks, extra time and speech to text devices are all things that can help her with access until her skill set makes her independent.  (Extra time might be needed long term/indefinitely.)

If she was getting these accommodations, what would her grades be?  You don't want to hold her back because the IEP isn't accommodating all her needs.  (IMO, the teacher is attempting to accommodate her not being on grade level but isn't taking an approach that uses the system in place to support students.)

I want to address this:  I was never in agreement with this as proposed on 2/21/25. If this was on the IEP and you didn't disagree on the NOREP, the IEP goes into effect.  Your other post said you were in CA.  CA has different rules where parents needs to actively agree with the IEP.  PA is different.  Ignore the NOREP & the IEP goes into effect in 10 days.

I had similar issues with one of my twins and how they graded him in English.  He'd not do the book report - a major part of the grade - and they'd act like it wasn't assigned when calculating the grade.

If you don't feel a goal is appropriate, request an IEP meeting and convince the school to change it.  What SDI is the school providing to teach him how to meet his goals?  Is the SDI appropriate?  If he's not making progress, the school might need to change-up their remedial approach.  (Sorry for the delay in answering this.  I meant to get back you you but couldn't find your post.  I only can see the 10 most recent posts.)

My best advice is to write a parent concerns letter and ask for it to be copied into the IEP.  https://adayinourshoes.com/parent-concerns-on-the-iep-parent-letter-of-attachment/  A 2nd eval with the same test within a year = invalid results.  If the school is working on a reeval, you do need to wait for those results and then ask for an IEE - you cannot do an IEE and school eval at the same time because you cannot retest with the same test within a year.  In the concerns letter mention about the school dropping the results of the old TOWL4 essay results.  (Always remember:  If it's not in writing, it didn't happen.)

It's not bullying unless it happens more than once but things like name calling can be reported via Safe2Say.  To exit from speech, they need a speech eval.  Copies of evals need to be given to parents.  (Did they email it & you had tech issues?)  My child tested average too but she's gifted and could mask well enough to throw off the SLP.  They really needed to do the optional extended part of the assessment (this was the TOPL).

In PA, the parent has 10 days to disagree with the NOREP or the IEP goes into effect.  Not sure what happens if it's sent electronically & you can't access it.  (I had one mailed & USPS took 15 days to get it to me.  I have a feeling it went into effect before I had a copy.)  No meet revisions to IEPs are supposed to be for small things like you needing a paper copy of things because your tech can't access what the school sends electronically.  This is where a call might be good so you can come to school & get paperwork rather than sending it home with your child or risking the USPS & a delay.

In addition to the Consult Line, PEAL can help clarify things.  https://pealcenter.org/

I'm surprised the assistant superintendent was aware enough of special ed to be willing to talk to you.  In my district, this tends to be dealt with by the pupil services director.  If you still have questions, post back.

If he doesn't have addition and subtraction down, multiplication and division are being built on a shaky foundation.  There are addition/subtraction charts that could be 'assistive technology' so he has access to 'addition facts'.  This could be what he needs provided he understands the concepts of addition & subtraction.  If he doesn't grasp the concept, it needs to be taught.  There are also students (and adults) who are calculator dependent with things like this.

Has he been assessed for dyscalculia?  If he's got this, he will likely need charts or a calculator for the foreseeable future.  We don't seem to have the right protocol for helping with math issues like they have for reading issues/dyslexia so there isn't a "program" I know of that helps.  Some kids like things like Khan Academy.  I feel they do a good job explaining math concepts at this level.  You might want him to do a bit of this at home.  Khan Academy came out of Sal Khan helping his niece & nephew with math long distance.  He recorded videos and posted them to YouTube.  They were for his niece & nephew but, for some unknown reason, he made them public.  People discovered them which led to him quitting his day job as a hedge fund manager and growing Khan Academy.  Available for free anywhere with internet access.

With the way IDEA is written, students with IEPs need to be presented with grade level material & be taught grade level standards.  They also need to be taught in the Least Restrictive Environment to the greatest extent possible.  From my perspective, LRE moves too fast & with him being a little bit behind, he needs material to be presented more slowly.  Placing him in LRE is triggering him because he's unable to keep up academically and, with the autism, this is leading to autistic meltdowns and shutdowns.  My guess for the reason he's in the gen ed classroom is that the self contained autistic support classroom isn't appropriate either.  You might find students who are less verbal and have significantly more behavioral issues as well as being at a lower academic level compared to your child.

As far as what to do, he might need to be pre taught or retaught classroom material so that he has access to learning.  Has an old eval shown slow processing?  Does he have self advocacy skills where he could signal the aide when he's not understanding things and starting to get frustrated?  Neither shutting down nor acting out put him into a state conducive to learning.  If he doesn't understand something, the adults need to be in the loop so they can make sure he catches up & his knowledge gaps are filled in.  Not sure if the school would be receptive to this or have the resources for pre teach or reteach but it's something that can help.

With figuring out what to do if bills like this are passed and are 180 degrees from what's in IDEA, I have a few thoughts.  One is that every state has a disability rights group.  Think about reaching out to them so their lawyers can bring the conflict with IDEA to their attention - in other words fight the legality of the new legislation.  ACLU also has lawyers on staff and can fight this.

I'm on an 'Authority, Board or Commission' in my township.  We wrote an ordinance that our Board of Supervisors passed into law.  (I did a lot of the research and worded it to meet the needs of our township - I did use other legislation as a model.)  A few months later, a neighboring township passed an almost identical ordinance.  Just saying this because there are people who scan legislation with an eye to bringing new rules to their area.

Parents of dyslexic students in PA should be aware that ASL is offered at a HS level through IU8.  There is a cost for these classes.  More info here:  https://worldoflearninginstitute.com/course-catalog/

Your school might be able to cover the cost if other World Languages aren't accessible because of your child's disability.  (If this is on the IEP, the school needs to pay.)

Accommodations should apply everywhere - except for standarized tests.  Disability won't go away because it's Spanish & he's a native English speaker with reading issues.

Students who are on grade level because of accommodations, aren't on grade level.  I'd want the school to see what his writing is like with spell check turned off - this goes with your other question where an IEE was suggested.

There is some info online:  https://www.pearsonassessments.com/content/dam/school/global/clinical/us/assets/wiat-4/wiat-4-sample-parent-report.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOopWxm4YLPhj5BdQW0Xi7vKLOUEI52kTldbnRB8XPA5a00Oo7Suz  I'd get familiar with things like this so you make the most of the hour.  Was this included in the reeval report the school provided?

Providing a copy that isn't legible isn't nice of them.  Seems like a waste of time & paper.  Was this a print out of something that's online?  It's a great question for the consult line.  (Do you have vision issues that need to be accommodated under ADA?  If this is the case, you should have made them aware ahead of time.)  Would brining a magnifying glass help?

I am in PA & sharing info like this would be best practice.  I know my district uses DIBELS but I don't remember getting the results for any of my children.  (They graduated HS in 2015, 2022 and 2022.)  As far as what's required, your best bet is to contact the ConsultLine.  https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/  They can be called or emailed & get back to you in a few days.

2E students can be hard to identify.  Going back 8 years, I'm pretty sure there was no requirement to tell parents if a student was getting RTI or MTSS.  Title 1 comes with a requirement for parent engagement.  If the progress monitoring showed he caught up with receiving RTI or MTSS, the school did their job.  I agree that asking for an IEE is a good idea.  I have a feeling the school's reply might be due process because he's gifted and succeeding in school - so be prepared for that.

I've found that gifted students with autism will tend to have social skills & pragmatics as areas of need so make sure those are evaluated.  Also, gifted students can be good at masking.  This could be part of the Child Find issues with what looks like SLD in reading.  Do mention masking when you ask for an IEE.  You can do a phonics screener.  There are instructions on this page:  https://spencerlearning.com/ultimate-phonics/resources/free-phonics-reading-test.html  Given his age, make a copy of a few pages in one of his text books (most screeners are for younger kids) and have him read them aloud.  Pick something he's not read before.  You could use a newspaper - they are written on around a 5th grade level.  Circle the words he misspeaks on your copy.  Cross out words he skips.  This is data you can share with the school.  When my gifted child who has autism was in 9th grade, they were reading at a college level.  I'd expect a gifted student to be reading a grade or 2 above their grade level.

PSSAs & Keystones have passages that might be a page or 2.  They are not tests for endurance that would be needed in many college classes.