JSD24

So the team as met twice - once where the meeting started late and a 2nd time where they forgot to invite the parents. This 2nd meeting wasn't an IEP meeting because there wasn't adequate notification for parents to attend (at least IMO). You said they did meet and changed what they proposed as FAPE. I'm assuming they gave you a copy of this IEP to sign off on but your feeling is that it still needs tweaking. My thought is for you to go through the evaluation report and list out the areas of need they mention and come up with a list of what the IEP should address. Next step is to go through the IEP & see if they did address the areas where they mention a need. From there, you can write a parent concerns letter saying you are concerned that the eval says there are the following areas that need to be addressed that are not addressed. See if you can hash out the tweaks via back & forth email and come up with something you're willing to sign off on. IEP meetings tend not to happen in the summer because teachers aren't contracted to work & they are a required IEP team member - you need 2, one sp ed teacher & another gen ed teacher to have an official meeting. Excusing these team members from attending is also an option if you want to move this forward over the summer. My child's 1st IEP meeting was help on June 15. I remember the date as it's my mom's birthday. This was at the tail end of 8th grade. I believe it was mostly HS staff; the meeting was held in the HS. Are they adding HS staff with the additional people they are inviting to the meeting? With a delay like this, the fear would be that the data gets stale. There are changes to the baseline where the student's needs have changed. If you can afford it, see about having an advocate help you with going through the eval & the IEP to see if things are all addressed. If you see a need and there's nothing in the eval about it, you might need to request an eval that covers that area. Since the delays were due to how the school did things, in theory, your child should get back services to make up for this. This might not make sense. (We were told my son was going to get COVID compensatory services. His IEP was all about keeping up with his classes. They wanted to do these services during the summer when he had no class to keep up with. If this is you child's situation, it might not make sense to get make up services.) I think your urgency should be making sure HS gets off on the right foot.

Request a no meet revision to his IEP: Please change XX's accommodation. It currently is "any assignment for which he receives <70% can be resubmitted ". It needs to be "any assignment for which he receives <70% can be resubmitted including assignments that were handed in after their due date". I was under the impression that "any" included any assignment which would include any late assignment. I feel the accommodation needs to be clarified. Feel free to copy what I wrote. He might still have points taken off due to the assignment being late. Was this assignment under 70 due to points being taken off because it was late? This might not help that situation.

As kids grow & change, the support they need from their IEP might need to change too. Since the current IEP is preventing him from passing his classes, it makes sense to request an IEP meeting to tweak the support he gets so he can pass his classes. And hold the principal accountable. If they said they'd follow up on things, send an email and ask what they think needs to be done to help. What's going on with the lack of focus? Is it the material where it's too hard (or too easy)? If it's too hard, he might need to be pre taught so it is easier. It the zoning out an absent seizure where he's got a medical issue going on? If they touch his shoulder (and I know that teachers don't generally put hands on students - my suggestion is a touch to redirect) does he respond? I'd say it's not OK for ANY student to be failing several classes. Something different needs to be done. It could be simply implementing the current IEP to what it says to do or he could need more than what the IEP says to do. The squeaky wheel get the grease. Squeak to get your child what they need. With sports, it's the state HS sport association that requires passing grades so it cannot be accommodated through the IEP process. The school needs to help him so he can continue to do sports.

The only way to ensure the ASD box is checked on the IEP is to refuse to sign the IEP unless that's what they check. It might delay the IEP getting put in place as this can take time to do. You might want to request a facilitated IEP meeting. Not sure if the parent education group in your state can help you advocate. Every state has one. I'd reach out to them for help.

Will he be in a different building next year? Schools have their own policies on this. I had this happen with my son - not a speech IEP nor are we in TX. (Sometimes they are just looking to make sure they don't have a bunch of IEP meetings that have to happen around the same time so they do some earlier than required.)

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/