JSD24

So the disability is Afterschool Restraint Collapse. Get that documented and request 504 accommodations because it effects homework which is part of what needs to be done for school success. I think it's going to be a fight. (School should know that masking happens - especially with gifted kids.)

It happens. I would send them a link to what they should already know. I have a friend who printed out IDEA & gave it to the sp ed director. This was a bigger school district (1000's of students). Put it in writing so you have a paper trail. You can start the email: Confirming our conversation on 5/11 when I requested Prior Written Notice. This is a link to what PWN is...

I would have asked to see a copy of the evaluation report with the testing they did where he tested out. IMO, you need to email the school a copy of the report so they are prepared to consider that their offer of FAPE being no IEP might not be an offer of FAPE. (I think you might need a lawyer. The school will likely stick by their eval and give minimal consideration to the IEE report.) They might say that they saw these issues but it doesn't effect him at school.

Dear Sp Ed Chairperson- Thanks for the heads up that XYZ School District will not be offering co-taught HS classes. My child, XXX, has had these in the past and it was a services he found helpful. I appreciate that you let me know this is not an option for 9th grade. Sincerely, Have the mom write an email like this ^. It gets the phone conversation into writing because there is a saying in sp ed: If it's not it writing, it didn't happen. This verifies that the mom recalls the conversation correctly. If co-taught classes are FAPE, the school has to provide them. Yes, it's expensive to provide this to one student but the school still needs to provide FAPE even if it bankrupts them. If they don't want to do this in-house, the other option is to send the student to another school that can provide this - can either be a public school in another district or a private school. (You can force them to provide FAPE but you cannot force them to do it the way you want it done which I'm assuming is in-district.) There should be a way for families to force the school to provide FAPE w/o hiring a lawyer. If you have 20 families in a district with 247 students writing the same complaint letter to the state, they will help the families - or at least they should. https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01487 or try https://www.justia.com/lawyers/education-law/new-york/legal-aid-and-pro-bono-services or https://www.drny.org/ You might want to talk to families about a class action suit.

So the school assessed in all areas of suspected disability & he doesn't qualify for an IEP? I'm surprised. I suspect he has delays in social skills & pragmatics. Were those areas assessed? You can ask for an IEE at school expense if the school missed an area of need when they assessed him.

Most districts will allow a parent to scan or take photos of the documents you look at via a FERPA request. I'd give them the courtesy of asking if it's OK to take photos. Might be good to ask via email so you have a papertrail of the fact that you asked & are allowed. The cost of copies adds up when your child has a thick file.

Parent input goes into the IEP. The eval report is what's due in 60 days - not the IEP. They have 30 days from eval report to IEP meeting (if the student qualifies for an IEP). There is a booklet of PA timelines on PATTAN. This is the link to get to it: https://www.pattan.net/Publications/Special-Education-Timelines You have a bit of time to provide your input and have it in the IEP.

(((Hugs))) With an IEP, he can stay in school up until age 21 so the school can teach him some of the skills he's missing. There are assessments of ADL that he school could do. They are supposed to set him up for success after HS graduation with the transition plan in his IEP. What does your son want to do after HS? IMO, you should start there.

No suggestions. With magnet schools like this, the rules vary a lot - often by state. You'd need someone who knows the rules in your area to answer this and you didn't provide any info about where you are (and it might not be info you want to share). I have a feeling they could kick her out if attendance is an issue and there's a waitlist for her seat in this school.

To get a speech to text software program, the 1s step is an AT eval. This is where the school matches your child with the right program/devise. Parent needs to give written permission for this evaluation. The school then has 60 days (this varies by state) to do the eval. After this is put into the IEP, the school has ~10 days to implement what's in the IEP. Yes, the school's IT dept would need to do this and they might need to get a software license & get school board approval to add this to a school ipad. My district has a BYOT policy but many don't. There is a liability issue too as I've seen where these things end up damaged & they are expensive to repair/replace when they get broken. You need to follow their rules on this & it will take a fairly long time.

Yes, to receive special instruction - which is what the class you requested falls under if it is a sp ed class - your child would need to have an IEP (a 504 might also be something that could get your child into this class but it's the school's decision). As far as outside tutoring for dyslexia (not sure if this is what you're looking for) The Scottish Rite provides free services. There are also homeschool programs that cost less than an hour of a sp ed attorney's time. Executive functioning is hard to teach. You end up explicitly teaching each skill - how to organize homework, how to organize time to do homework, how to remember to bring homework to class A, B, C... (prompting for this is a good accommodation), how to bring what's needed home so you have what's needed to do homework - you get the picture with teaching each skill. With an IEP meeting, it's always good to summarize what was gone over & email the summary: During the meeting on 4/8, I had asked how the school would address the executive functioning issues that are causing homework not to be handed in so my child can get credit for work done. Mrs. XX said that the school will not be doing that. ... Please confirm that this is correct. https://adayinourshoes.com/after-iep-meeting/

If they never brought up the topic, why are they saying: “The accommodations that are in place were mutually determined and agreed upon, at the time of our team meeting."? If you had a 504 meeting, the accommodations should apply to all testing including PSSAs. Also with PSSAs, they can read directions & math problems but not a whole lot on the ELA part. Not signing & returning the NOREP puts the IEP into place after 10 days/means you agree to terminate sp ed it that was what the NOREP said. https://adayinourshoes.com/sign-the-iep/ It doesn't hurt your child to 'fail' a PSSA. PA doesn't retain kids who fail in 3rd grade like other states do. There is no reason for her to ever see the grade. Also, under FERPA, you are allowed to clarify what's in your child's records. You can write a note that says XX took PSSAs in 2023 w/o accommodations despite a 504 which provided accommodations - see attached.

I believe the difference is with a POA, the parent still controls the IEP process. With an educational surrogate, the surrogate has full control of the process - the surrogate replaces the parent. I did find one for VA. POA wording tends to be state specific: https://www.dlcv.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Educational-Power-of-Attorney.pdf I do have a POA for education but this was done as part of a more comprehensive POA when they turned 18 so I could advocate. This was written by a lawyer.

It sounds like, in your area, there are magnet schools that a student needs to apply to go to and have a certain GPA to stay & this is where he currently goes. I've been told that an IEP trumps school policy (this is how my child was allowed a water bottle when it was against school rules). So the answer is yes, the IEP could put school X as the placement & then they would need to follow the IEP. What happens after HS graduation? Will your child go to college or a trade school? Does it make sense to transition him now? IMO, if the IEP team refuses to put 'placement at school X' as an accommodation in the IEP, you need to come up with a plan to ease the transition. This would include tours of the school over the summer, meeting school staff before the 1st day, etc. (And keep in mind this could be a fight at every IEP meeting to keep 'placement at school X' in the IEP until he graduates or ages out.)

The school needs to see that an eval is needed. Assessing in all areas of suspected disability is the wording - or close to it. If they don't see a disability, they don't need to assess.

Spelling issues can be due to executive function. There are lots of rules to remember so poor EF can cause a student to forget rules. Can also be due to dyslexia where the sound/letter connections aren't sticking or issues with working memory or processing speed where the capacity isn't there or he's rushing. With your younger son, was a social skills eval like the SSIS done? Was pragmatic language assessed? What happens with a different teacher in 1st grade? Will they accommodate w/o documentation like his current teacher? Can you get the current teacher to list out the accommodations she provides so he can continue to have success at school? (The accommodations could go on a 504.)

Absolutely not. The school needs to provide instruction for students who are opted out. Plus, PSSAs generally take 2-3 hours. Your child could go in late but, under no circumstances, should they miss a full day. Have her take the test w/o accommodations. If she can't answer a question, she can guess. She could make a nice pattern with filling in scantron bubbles if she wants. It sounds like the school spent time going over the PSSA accommodations at the meeting you had. Did you put anything in writing on this? There is a saying in education: if it's not in writing, it didn't happen. You need to document soon after the meeting if you don't agree. IMO, PSSA accommodations should mirror the accommodations given on other tests. Or they could have added accommodations with it being a longer test.

I'd wait. But in the meantime, reach out to people who do IEE evals. Get costs and timelines - expect a wait. Then you are better prepared if the school comes back with OK but keep it under $XXX. You can quickly come back with: I wanted for XX to do the eval and their cost is higher. Of the 3 people I contacted, only one can do it & they don't have a background with XX which is needed to evaluate my child.

It's the school party with holding an IEP meeting so they control who is invited. You want people who know the child, know the disability or know what the school can do for the child so these folks do fit the bill. Yes, it is intimidating sometimes to both parents & school staff.

If you do not sign an annual IEP renewal, the revised IEP goes into effect in 10 days in PA unless you check 'Due Process' on the NOREP. If you are in Due Process with the school district, the old IEP (the one you agreed to a year+ ago) should be followed. Since PSSAs start in 3rd, and last year's IEP was for 2nd (my assumption), the box on the IEP for accommodations wasn't checked. Given this situation, I'd contact the Consult Line (https://odr-pa.org/consultline-contact/) as this puts accommodations into a gray area. (This does sound a bit like retaliation for Due Process rather than doing what is best for your child/their student.) You are right that with a speech only IEP, accommodations would go on a 504. Since parents are not required members of the 504 team, the school can do as they please with making changes to the 504. The 504 should be followed but it's not like it has a check box the the PA IEP has for PSSA accommodations. No reason you can't request a no-meet revision to the 504 and put accommodations for PSSAs on that. (This is what the school would do if they wanted to help your child.) The other thing is that PSSA scores aren't all that meaningful. They are supposed to reflect how good a job the school is doing with teaching your child - not how well your child is doing with learning. Religious opt out is always an option. It's a 3-step process. Templates here for opt out letters: https://parentsunitedphila.com/opt-out/

My school district will not use the term dyslexia in an eval report. Most don't. Neuropsychologists tend to use the terms dyslexia and dyscalculia. You can ask for a neuropsych eval but they are expensive as most school don't have one on their payroll. Do document what this teacher is doing as proof of what your child needs to make progress. IMO, progress is more important than a diagnosis.

I think this looks like discrimination based on a disability. Schools are supposed to support every student so they have assess to what the rest of their classmates have access to. He shouldn't be denied a field trip because the school failed to child find and write up an IEP with the needed supports so the child's misbehavior is accommodated.

For the issues that you requested services to address, did the school do an evaluation? The way IEPs work is the services are based on baseline data. That data comes from the eval report the school prepared. If there is no mention of an issue in the report, it's like the issue doesn't exist. You might need to be requesting an eval for the issues you see so there is baseline data on which to base the services you see are needed. In other words, look at the eval. If you don't see the issues you want addressed mentioned as issues, the eval was not in 'all areas of suspected disability' as required by IDEA. You need more evals if the school didn't assess an area of need. You can ask for an IEE at school expense if they missed an area that should have been assessed. https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

As a new teacher, you might need to do as you are told so you can become an 'old', tenured teacher. IMO, the present levels are the present levels no matter if they are at home or at school. Also, attributing a statement to the parent makes it clear that this is the parent's observation but I can see where the unwritten policy at your school is school related info only and that needs to be followed. I've also seen in my own child's IEP that services were being provided without a baseline evaluation ever being done so is was based on teacher observation that the services were needed. They eventually did an eval but that was after the IEP was in place for a year and a half. (The results were worse than I imagined.)

My school district goes over the RR and then transitions into an IEP meeting. It's one big, long meeting - same people needed for both so that's what they do. Look at the Invite. It will probably say that the RR will be reviewed and the IEP updated.