JSD24

I'd stay out of helping the school develop an action plan. They are professionals and have training on how to do this - or a least they should have been trained. If you want to say something, you can say that you'd like to see progress reports on how your child is meeting goals on a regular basis since this is a requirement under IDEA. For now, since the school seems to be working on getting things up to speed, you will not be filing a complaint with the state dept of special ed. You can request to have data sent to you periodically so you can see that the school is keeping their commitment to collecting data so progress reports are available to see how your child is doing with meeting their goals. With behavior, the school should do an FBA. This looks at antecedent, behavior and consequence - ABC. (Is this the action plan you're looking to design?) To change the behavior, sometimes modifying the antecedent is where to start. Personally, I'd start by asking your child in a non adversarial way about what's up...which is the method developed by Ross Greene and is researched to help with behaviors. The method isn't simple but it is doable. More info at Livesinthebalance.org. From Lisa's site: https://adayinourshoes.com/behavior-iep-special-education/ And: https://adayinourshoes.com/school-fba-behavior-plan/ Does your state offer/mandate gifted education? A student reading at an 11th grade level in 6th grade could have behaviors due to boredom. Something to think about. See if the school is willing to offer enrichment if this is the issue. Hard to do an FBA and observe that the 'A' is the student is 5 grades farther along than classmates and not getting the mental stimulation to stay focused on instruction. Not sure if Lisa lists this flaw. Communication sheet: List anything out of the ordinary that was a negative for the student like being sent to the office (use back of sheet if needed):__________________________________________________________

With DoDEA policing themself, I guess the solution is federal court. I'm thinking there is no case law on this to say of a case like this would be successful or not. When the "school's" solution is to reach out to your employer & potentially jeopardise your job, I can see your hesitation with making a precedent setting move like this.

An older student (age 14+ in PA; 16+ per IDEA) should be invited to these meetings. If they go depends on a number of things. My one child could not deal with anything that's negative so she stayed for a bit & left before anything negative was said. Mediation can take days and it's not appropriate for a student to miss that much school IMO.

I looked this up - thanks for mentioning your state so I knew where to look. What you are talking about is the discrepancy model. It's where what the child is doing doesn't match their ability which is generally measured by the child's IQ. Ex: a gifted child who performs at an average level would qualify for intervention. Your child's IQ is below average and they are performing at a below average level so everything is OK. This is what I'm reading from your post. This is a link to what's in the MO regs: https://missouriparentsact.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MOSpecificLearningDisabilityCriteria-FS-4.2020.pdf The thing with your child is that they are performing at a below average level. This means there is room for improvement with the right intervention. You want intervention. The link ^^ does mention about professional judgement. I feel your child does need intervention. I'm just not sure how to advocate for this but I do feel the school is not using any judgement by saying your child doesn't need anything. This would put a child who is well below average (level of an infant) and performing well below average into a general ed classroom without any supports. I would see if the Arc of MO or Disability Rights MO can help you fight to get your child additional supports. Your child is not accessing their education due to their disability. This means that they might need something different from gen ed to access an education. They should have an IEP as well as accommodations due to the disability. Audiobooks are a great accommodation for a child who cannot read - for any reason. Dyslexia. The definition of dyslexia is low reading ability relative to IQ. Your child's IQ is low & their reading ability matches this so your child cannot be dyslexic per the definition of dyslexia. They will benefit from O-G based reading interventions & my suggestion is for you to supplement their education with a homeschool dyslexia program like Toe by Toe or Horton Literacy Primer. I don't see the school providing this unless IQ was to shoot up to where there is a discrepancy.

They may have just figured out that this language was needed in his IEP. Not sure if there is a new classmate or a birthday changed the age span.

Here's a quote from this website: https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodd/134220p.pdf?ver=2020-07-07-110814-893 l. Provides a free, appropriate public education, in accordance with an Individualized Education Program, for children, ages 3 through 21 years who are found eligible for special education and related services. These services are delivered in the least restrictive environment and with procedural safeguards, in accordance with Chapter 33 of Title 20, U.S.C., also known as the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act”, as implemented by DoDI 1342.12 and DoD Manual (DoDM) 1342.12. m. Develops and provides guidance as necessary for the delivery of services for children with disabilities and for the protection of procedural rights, in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, DoDI 1342.12, and DoDM 1342.12. I'm not sure what the oversight agency is, but look at filing a complaint with the appropriate agency. You might need to contact your senator or representative to figure this out as you are a US citizen. They need to follow IDEA.

I disagree with your school. 1- Earlier intervention is best. 2- Dyslexia can be diagnosed/identified by the school as early as age 5.5. 3- It's less expensive to remediate a child who is 1.5 years behind than 3 years behind. 4- Delayed intervention can damage a child's self esteem in a way that is almost irreparable. Even when self esteem is repaired, the person carries these scars for the rest of their life. Why do this to a child? I'd ask the teacher/school for research studies that show benefit to children when dyslexia evaluations are delayed until 3rd grade when there is a suspicion of this disability in an earlier grade.

(My reply posted before I finished it.) Every test has a protocol on how it's done. With some tests, there is a time limit. Some are read to the student. What the evaluator says is often scripted. Some assessments are rating scales where an adult (a parent or a teacher) answer questions where the choices are: never, rarely, often or frequently. These tend to be fill in the dot questions. There are HUNDREDS of normed evaluations out there and they each have their own protocol for administering the test. You can see if your local library has something that might explain how some tests work - it will be fairly technical. Parents will sometimes ask the psychologist to do test 'Z'. My response is, if the person doing the assessment knows how to do test 'Z', that's great but if they are more comfortable administering a similar test that tests the same thing, have them go with the test they know. If you intend for your child to enter school this fall, now is the time to register with the school and request a sp ed evaluation. You will need to give your written permission for an eval as well as bring your child to school for the needed evaluations. No IEE at school expense until the school has an opportunity to do an eval on your child. You can share any medical evals that may have been done. Actually, you should tell the school what evals were done. Most evals cannot be redone within 12 months so what evals & when they were done are things the school needs to know. (Most school psychologists get the summer off so don't think they will do this over the summer.) Do things in writing so you have a paper trail. Lastly, when a child has behaviors, I always suggest Ross Greene. I really need to put info on him into a file on the site but until then, you can go to livesinthebalance.org.

School psychologists need to be certified school psychologists to work in a school - just like a school teacher needs to be certified. HR generally checks this at some point during the hiring process. Training should be about the same from one person who is a psychologist versus another with the same credentials. Info on the assessments used is online. If they did Test X Version 3 and there is a version 4 out there, they really need to use version 4 as 3 is outdated when 4 comes out. Does Version 3 provide bad info. I'd say no, just dated info. A parent might even request that the old version is used if this test was done in the past and they want to compare 'apples to apples'. Psychologists do not have to provide parents with their credentials as there is an assumption that the school hired someone who has the right training & credentials. The requirement in IDEA is to 'assess in all areas of suspected disability'.

I'm not sure how Ohio does this but in PA, they have a pool of facilitators and the state assigns them. I don't believe either the school of the family have a say. Ohio does have an info sheet on facilitators: https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Special-Education/Dispute-Resolution/Facilitation_Handout.pdf.aspx They also have a sheet on mediation and it does have a lot of parallels: https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Special-Education/Dispute-Resolution/ODE_MediationHandout-8-17-18-1.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US It does look like schools/families do pick who is used to facilitate/mediate in Ohio. I believe that mediators are looking for an agreement on what should be in the IEP where a facilitator keeps the meeting on track but doesn't push them to come to an agreement.

Chapter 14 (sp ed law in PA) limits how wide an age range can be in the same sp ed classroom. I believe it's 3 years for elementary & 4 years for secondary level. They are letting you know that your child might be in a room with older/younger students. Some parents have an issue with this. If your child is 6, do you want them in a classroom with 10 year olds? This is a copy & paste from Chapter 14: § 14.146. Age range restrictions. (a) The maximum age range in specialized settings shall be 3 years in elementary school (grades K—6) and 4 years in secondary school (grades 7—12). (b) A student with a disability may not be placed in a class in which the chronological age from the youngest to the oldest student exceeds these limits unless an exception is determined to be appropriate by the IEP team of that student and is justified in the IEP. ----------------------- The language you copied from the IEP is the school's justification that allows them to exceed the age range. If you are not OK with this, they can put your child into another building that is not where the kids in your neighborhood go. The purpose of the SDI is to let you know they are not following Chapter 14. They do this so they do not have to hire another teacher & split up the class or get a bus to take your child to a different school. I'd want to observe the placement before signing the NOREP & agreeing to this change. Definitely ask what the age range is in the classroom they are proposing.

It is not the job of the evaluator to determine if a student qualifies for an IEP or not. (I'm also not sure why someone moderating the PA specific group isn't aware that an IU is an Intermediate Unit and that most of the 500 school districts in PA contract with the IUs to provide preschool sp ed services.) Carolyn Rowlett is wrong when she says you should have gone to the school district. What you did is the correct procedure in PA. You will not find a preschool sp ed person in your school district because most of the districts in PA (I think there are 4 that do their own preschool sp ed) have contracts for the IUs to do this. The eval needs to be completed within 60 days of when you signed the PTE allowing your child to be evaluated. The next step is a meeting to go over the eval report. This should happen 10 days after you get a copy of the report and within 30 days of the report being completed. If the team going over the report decides that your child's disability makes them eligible for an IEP (you are a member of this team - be sure to go to the meeting), an IEP meeting will be scheduled (it's often held right after the eligibility meeting since the team is already there at the eligibility meeting). You can request an IEE at school expense with preschool sp ed. In PA, that works the same as school age IEPs. This links to preschool sp ed procedural safeguards in PA: https://www.pattan.net/Forms/Procedural-Safeguards-Notice-Preschool-Early-I-1 The other thing that PA has is Medicaid for children (anyone under 18) who have a disability. If your child doesn't qualify for school services, you can get documentation from the doctor and apply for Medicaid for your child. Medicaid will cover therapies and there is no limit like employer insurance often has. This links to the Medicaid application: https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Services/Assistance/Pages/Apply-for-Benefits.aspx Be sure to check YES for the question if your household has a disabled family member. (You will be asked for proof of income but they shouldn't look at that since you are applying under PH-95.) Also, Medicaid is an HMO & you will need to go to a participating provider to have things covered.

I think that, technically, this is a gray area. It's more of a renewal when a child already has an IEP. If they found a new area of need, there could be goals and services that were never before in an IEP your child had. I think this is the language that's standard after a reeval is done. (Is this a box that was checked on the IEP meeting invitation?)

This is for teaching reading comprehension. https://idahotc.com/Portals/0/Resources/882/Comprehension Instructional Routines.pdf

Sorry for the delay in replying to this. I'm finally figuring out how to navigate this site. NSEAI has a website that lists advocates and COPAA does too. (NSEAI has hours in Delco where you can go & ask questions. I think they do this on Wed but call 1st.) You can also call the people on your local task force - phone numbers are listed on the state task force site. I've brought my child's BCBA to IEP meetings - they observed my child at school & saw things the school missed because they were familiar with what to look for. The best advocate might be someone who knows your child (like a sitter or grandparent) but doesn't have advocacy training. Bringing another person gives you someone to verify if something was said or not during the meeting. Some of the things you've mentioned could be documented in a parent concerns letter. Ex: We see XX trying to eat non-food items. This hasn't been observed at school but feel that it's only a matter of time before school personnel observe this. The 1:1 assigned to them should be made aware that this happens in other environments so they can prevent this at school.

Seems like a glitch was created when BHRS was replaced by IBHS in January 2021. Trimark cannot cover IBHS because the PA Behavior Specialists are not a recognised provider under Trimark. (Their credential is the issue.) There is a bill in DC that needs to pass so that Trimark and Medicaid can coordinate benefits for families with this insurance combo. If you are experiencing this issue, please reply to this post. The more families that are advocating for change, the louder the voice is & the more likely things will change so the glitch goes away. Oddly, Trimark for active military works OK with these services.

Louisa Moats is a world-renown dyslexia expert. Oddly, I found this on a Pennsylvania-specific Facebook group. https://www.sde.idaho.gov/academic/ela-literacy/files/lrc/dyslexia/general/Idaho-Dyslexia-Handbook.pdf

Let me address your medical healthcare question. 1st, welcome to Pennsylvania. In PA, every child with a medical diagnosis is entitled to have Medicaid insurance - sometimes called MA or Medical Assistance. This would be secondary to your employer insurance. I've assisted other families who are new to the US & PA with getting this. Your child will need a social security number to apply as well as a written diagnosis that's less than a year old and a PA address. 3 things (and I think you said you have 2 of these), that's it. You can get to the application here: https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Services/Assistance/Pages/Apply-for-Benefits.aspx Be sure to check the YES box for the question 'do you have a household member with a disability?' You will need to provide them with proof of income but qualifying is based on disability under PH-95 (most others qualifying for MA have low income). Depending on where you live, you might be told you need to apply for SSI - social security income. As part of PH-95, it is supposed to be done for everyone but a lot of counties aren't asking parents to go though this extra step. If they do ask you to apply, apply for SSI & wait to be turned down and then contact the County Assistance Office & let them know you applied. Feel free to post back with questions but I will anticipate a few questions: With Medicaid, there is no limit to the number of therapies a person can have. Employer insurance will often have a cap of 26/year. Also, there is no copay to go to a doctor/therapy. The plans are HMOs so you do need to stay in network to have coverage. Also, some insurances will not cover therapy where it is due to a developmental delay. I ran into that when my son needed speech therapy but MA covered it. A psychologist can diagnose ADHD as well as a dev ped, neurologist, pediatrician, psychiatrist... Psychologist would be the easiest way to get the diagnosis on paper (you need a report & the IEP might provide the documentation you need - a letter w/ a diagnosis is not enough) because they tend to have the shortest wait list.

Wanted to let parents know that registration is open for the PDE conference. They offer scholarships - deadline to apply is 2/1. The scholarship covers registration & hotel (for hotel, you need to live 50 miles away from Hershey). They have a great lineup of speakers with authors Ross Greene - The Explosive Child - and Peg Dawson - Smart but Scattered - scheduled to present. You can attend virtually too. I'll be there. Look for me at the Right to Education Task Force breakfast. You can get to the registration and scholarship links from this page: https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/Pennsylvania-Department-of-Education-Conference

That doesn't sound right. The provider needs to follow the protocol of the test they are doing. It shouldn't take 6 months to get through the observation portion because of restrictions the school wants to put on observation time. Can you change the title of this to include 'California' since they seem to have a lot of rules that the other 49 states don't have. This is definitely a CA specific question and I'm not sure how to answer this. This link (https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/lr/om031121.asp) says: LEAs may not impose other conditions or timelines that are inconsistent with the LEA’s criteria used to initiate its own evaluations and/or would deny the student’s and parent’s right to obtain an IEE at public expense. If the LEA only allows their evaluators 1 hour a month of observation, then they can restrict this on the IEE is what this seems to say.

Interoception is a sensory thing. OTs work on sensory. Has she had an OT eval? What about asking for parent training on teaching safety so you can do a bit of this when she's not in school? You want to be using the same system that the school uses so she's taught with consistency.

I'm in Chester County & our Arc has advocates. Not sure if the one near you will have them. I think PEAL is on the procedural Safeguards list. They will help you understand the school's side and let you know if you have a case to change the IEP or if it's already FAPE. As an advocate, I don't take anyone's side. What I do it evaluate what's going on to see if the student needs more than the IEP has them getting. There are parents who want the moon and an IEP only gets you appropriate interventions.

I found something that looks like it will be helpful: http://www.brainy-child.com/experts/WAIS-IV-and-MMPI-II.shtml

Impulses are controlled by the frontal lobe. It tends to be less-developed in children with ADHD & autism. It really is beyond his control. Best solution is to not get him dysregulated so there's less to be impulsive about. You can teach them strategies but it's hard to use them when you're dysregulated.

Read through the IEP carefully. When a student has an IEP & an ISFP, only one tends to say that the child will be provided with 1:1 support. If his IEP does say that he needs 1:1 support to access gen ed, this puts it on the school (not the IBHS agency) to provide the support and they need to follow the IEP - not provide an excuse for not following it. Most school district solicitors will not put a school into the position where they are relying on a 3rd party in order for the IEP to be followed. I'm not sure what the solution is for you without having more details. If the school is relying on the IBHS agency to provide a 1:1 for a student's IEP to be followed, they have put themself into a situation where they should be providing an aide or paraprofessional to be 1:1 with your child when the RBT is unavailable either due to illness or schedule conflict. If the IEP is worded where it should work this way, the teacher needs to hire someone to fill in for the RBT. They should also provide makeup services for when the IEP isn't being followed. The thing is that admin handles staffing - not the teacher - so that's who should be working to hire someone. (Are they even aware that your child has this need going unfulfilled?) Now if the IEP says nothing about a 1:1 being needed to access gen ed, you're out of luck when the RBT isn't available. Since your assigned RBT cannot be there when your child needs them, you should ask the IBHS agency to provide another RBT for the days when this RBT can't be there. (I'm not sure that this is going to happen. I've not seen a child with 2 RBTs and there's a huge staffing issue with all IBHS agencies which is likely why your RBT can't be there in the morning.) The other factor is that with autism, kids do a lot better with consistency which could be a negative with only being in ged ed 2 days/week or having a different RBT when the main RBT isn't available. For your own piece of mind, you should find out who is responsible for staffing your child's time in gen ed so you can better advocate for making sure there is staff for your child to get what they need in the future.