JSD24

I was at a presentation on FBAs. The presenter said that there are general ed level FBAs that can be done w/o parent consent as well as more in-depth, IEP level FBAs that would need parental permission to happen. They were not clear on what the difference is. Realistically, if a student acts out every time they are asked to do a math worksheet, it doesn't take a behavior expert to determine that math worksheets are the antecedent to the behavior for this student. Another example from a different presentation. Student would 'randomly' look upset, get up and leave the classroom. A behavior specialist came in to observe. What they saw was the student looking upset and getting up when an ambulance could be heard in the classroom. They later determined this student lived in a bad area and sirens had happened with some traumatic events in the student's life. This is definitely more of an IEP level FBA given that the family needed to be involved with being able to see the full picture of why this was an antecedent for this student. Requesting & giving permission for an FBA so there is data on how well your child is doing and how much the aide is involved with him being successful with his behavior, IMO, is what's needed. The truth is that he's doing OK & doesn't have an aide as an accommodation on his IEP so he doesn't need an aide is the high level data that I'm seeing. Given he's getting help from an aide, there should be info on what they are doing and how much support he's getting so it can be determined if he needs an aide. It sounds like he doesn't have a 1:1. He might need a 1:2. The decision on what should go into an IEP should be based on data and if the school is refusing your request for an aide, I'd want to see the data that supports this decision...if it exists.

When a school's evaluation is not accurate or is incomplete, my typical suggestion is to request an IEE at school expense. This needs to be in writing (email is good) so there's a paper trail.

High school transition team members should be well aware this is required by most/all colleges. I believe this is why you were offered the eval over the summer. They take time for the school to do and can cost thousands of dollars if a family needs to pay out of pocket - not usually covered by insurance since it's educational. When is the triennial due? An RR is quick to do so it's done to be in compliance with timelines. It could be sufficient for your child as far as IEPs are concerned. If your child has access & is making progress, an RR might be OK where an eval isn't a real need. (Schools often look at evals as what's done so see if a student is eligible for an IEP. Once they have one, the progress monitoring provides the needed data on present levels to set goals & determine services so they don't see the need for an eval.)

I feel an eval is needed. Reading should be assessed so she can have access to audiobooks in college. (Are audiobooks a current accommodation?) Let them do the RR (likely what they have time to do & be in compliance for triennial eval timelines) and then the full eval over the summer. She seems more like SDL Reading than OHI but dyslexia and ADHD & EF issues as well as anxiety can be comorbid. If you do college visits this summer, pop into the disabilities office and ask them what they want in order to provide accommodations. I have an advocate friend who suggests a disabled child stay within a 2-3 hour radius of home in case parents need to stop by and help them during the course of their college career.

I'm all for specifying this in the IEP/504. My child had 2X time for tests and my other child was given 2 extra days to hand in assignments & get full credit. (The teachers tended to give full credit no matter when things got handed in.) My child who needed extra time for assignments didn't need extra time for tests. IMO, you should ask your child what they feel they need. This way it's individualized for their situation. My kids have ADHD and this is what worked for them. What your child needs could be different since they are dealing with a different mix of challenges.

School district HR makes personnel decisions - not the family. What you can do is make sure, because of the unique needs your child has, that the paraprofessional assigned to him is trained in how he communicates and all of his other needs. The letter from his doctor is an outside assessment that the school must 'consider' - but they don't need to follow what's in the letter. If Medicaid would pay for an aide at school, you might be able to have this person continue as his aide. This is for perspective: Let's say you are an aide in a school. The school board authorized 10 aides for the district and there are 10 aides on staff. Someone comes in insisting the school hire their aide for their child. Are you OK with being let go? You can go to Google Scholar and search for cases in your state where there is legal precedence for this. I cannot do that w/o knowing what state you live in.

I've seen issues like this referred to as 'stealth dyslexia'. It's really not stealth. He doesn't decode which is the 'elephant in the room' clue that he's not a fluent reader. Not sure where you are in PA but there is the Scottish Rite in Harrisburg (there might be other PA locations) that can remediate the reading disability. There are other groups that can help: IDA - PA and Everyone Reads PA are 2. There's a public charter school out in Pittsburgh that does a great job with remedial instruction. What I don't like about the special ed system is that school psychologists cannot diagnose dyslexia. It's not allowed per their practice act but dyslexia affects 20% of the population (this is per the Connecticut Longitudinal Study). This causes so many students to not get the help they need. Given how your son compensates for his disability, he's probably not going to fall far enough behind to qualify for school based services which is why I'm making suggestions for outside of school. There are also homeschool programs that don't cost a whole lot. These include Horton Literacy Primer and Toe by Toe. Turning on closed captioning on your TV is another way to help teach reading. Audiobooks borrowed from the library where you see the text and hear it being read can also help. If you can show the decoding deficit, this might be something the school can give him as an accommodation. (The test for his disability is the inability to decode nonsense words. Not sure if this was done with the school's screening.) As texts get more complicated, he will struggle more & more if he can't decode.

She needs better social skills so she can participate in group projects. This is why this is a "school" issue. Has the school evaluated social skills? There is at least one assessment for this: SSIS - Social Skills Improvement System. The other area of need the school should evaluate (and it seems that many schools skip with an autism diagnosis) is pragmatics. Your child might be masking at school given she's bright. If the school does an eval like the TOPL, you want to see them do the optional extended part so she's challenged to the point where she can't mask. What we saw was the guidance counselor didn't have the skills to teach a student like my daughter social skills via a 504. I'm thinking that the level of service - 30 minutes once every 6 weeks/3.4 hours per year - might not have been enough time to cover what she needed. With a 504, there is no progress monitoring so they weren't looking at how effective the services were. If you go to school & mask for 6-7 hours as well as being surprised (to use the language from Social Thinking) by how peers react to you socially, the situation will be hard. It's good that she's bright and doesn't have academic struggles because that would make school even harder.

With my son, he wouldn't do the book reports that were assigned throughout middle school. The special ed supervisor kept saying 'it's will not skill'. (She was the LEA at his IEP meetings.) I had no proof to refute this. In HS (while COVID was going on), I finally wrote to his IEP team after they did his triennial eval (RR due to COVID) that I felt it doesn't match what we are seeing. I asked for a neuropsych eval - I wanted an IEE but they offered to do one with a neuropsych who was on contract with our IU and I agreed to it. The result was that he has dysgraphia - something that I had suspected in preschool and the school had looked at more than once when he was in elementary school and had said he didn't have. He was in 11th grade and was finally getting the accommodations he should have had 12 years ago when he started kindergarten and his teacher had asked about an eval for OT. The school couldn't do one then because he had been evaluated for OT when he was in preschool and a year hadn't passed so the eval wouldn't have provided valid results. Part of the gaslighting was that OTs are credentialed to evaluate dysgraphia. I don't believe that's true even though that's who did the evals in elementary where they said he didn't have dysgraphia. The interactions with this school have been very frustrating with getting the right support for my children. My daughter was evaluated for autism in 6th grade. After an incident in 8th grade, I was asked to give my permission for a psychiatric evaluation. The conclusion of that eval was that she has Aspergers (later changed to autism level 1) and needed an IEP with the autism box checked. She had these same issues when she started kindergarten but I wasn't aware of how IEPs and special ed worked. This is the reason why I advocate. I don't want to see other families have to deal with the same things my family have had to deal with.

It's always good to make requests in writing as it creates a paper trail so things don't end up a he said/she said situation. This includes following up with a letter/email after an IEP/ARD meeting. With a speech only IEP, the case manager tends to be an SLP who wouldn't be able to include things unrelated to speech. Also, Tiered support is gen ed and there isn't any paperwork required. The thought behind this is you see an issue, you provide help to the student, the student catches up and stays caught up. Reading between these lines: no disability was present so an IEP wasn't needed. I'm a question person. Rather than asking for Tier 2 in math, I'd say: My child is struggling with math. What can be done to help him? If they don't have Tiered support, they might have a teacher who can help if he gets to school early or has a ride so he can stay late. (Odds are the school would say wait & see but they can also say that a special ed eval in math is a possibility.) To answer your question about PWN: The PWNs I've seen have be extremely vague. A request like this wouldn't have made it onto a PWN. It would have been better to have requested that your concern about your child's poor grades in math go under 'parent concerns' in the IEP. This gets it into writing where anyone reading through the IEP can see that you have concerns about how your child is doing in math. As Lisa would say, PWN in this situation is not a hill to die on. The evals they do for special ed are not like the tests that teachers write to assess how well a student has understood their instruction. Special ed assessments are normed or tested. It's possible there is no disability when a student doesn't do well on a teacher's test. They could have been having an off day or they might not be grasping the concept being taught. (I do agree with you that when a student isn't doing well in math, the school should have something in place so they can get extra support & hopefully catch up.)

I remember being in a meeting with my special ed director. She said that the school is obligated to meet the needs of students - it's really another way of saying they need to provide FAPE. Doesn't matter if what the student needs currently exists or not. They need to meet his neets. If it is appropriate for him to take Regents Chemistry as a co-taught class, they need to provide it. I'm not from NY so I'm not exactly sure what a Regents Chemistry does versus the non-Regents version of the class. I did find this with doing a search of case law in NY: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3365753441522273465&q=co+taught+regents&hl=en&as_sdt=4,33 If he's denied the class, he's being denied the Regents diploma. If the Regents diploma is FAPE, he need the co-taught Regents class.

You can use medical assistance to see a provider who can evaluate for medical autism - or if she's covered under employer insurance, it can be done with a copay or 2. A full neuropsych eval is nice to have but it's hard to get it covered and expensive if it's not covered. A psychologist with the right training can do the assessment. It might take a handful of phone calls and waiting for a few months to have it done but this is doable. We had BHRS (now IBHS) services for my daughter. They were the ones who evaluated her for autism when we were looking to renew the authorization for services. It was a rating scale that I filled out. And it's a good idea to have a backup plan. What happened with my friend was she signed up for the ID waiver and they had ID supports lined up. Then the school redid the IQ test and he was low but no longer ID. He's also got autism so he'll still be able to get a waiver but the transition program was no longer a good fit. With autism, my big concern tends to be social skills. This is one thing that can hold a person back from being able to hold a job. I'd definitely ask the school to evaluate this if they haven't already.

I remember talking to a person who worked as a school psychologist - she now does IEEs. She remembers a student who was immune-compromised and would have graduated ~15 years ago. What he school did was livestream his classes so he didn't have to get exposed to all the germs at school. Not sure if your district would be willing to do this. Also, there are robots with cameras & speakers that a school can buy which would allow a student to attend classes. This website has info: https://provenrobotics.ai/telepresence-robots-in-education/ This one too: https://www.cnn.com/business/tech/av1-robot-sick-children-school-spc/index.html This is a longer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMcsPOvdMbw The embedded video is shorter. (I didn't watch them all the way through. I'm assuming they are 'appropriate'.) If your son is present via a robot, he's present & not absent. This could definitely be an IEP accommodation.

In PA, all disabled children are eligible for Medicaid (also called Medical Assistance). With either an ID or autism diagnosis, there are adults waivers that that they could be eligible for as well. (Good to get on the waitlist in your county now so they can plan for when your child graduates HS & needs the waiver funding.) I'm not sure the medical autism diagnosis is really needed. Providers should be told of the autism diagnosis because you approach a person differently when autism is present in addition to ID. If your child is non-speaking, I'd encourage you to watch the movie Spellers on YouTube. My friend's son was given an ID diagnosis. It was given because there wasn't a good way to assess him because he's got autism and apraxia. The apraxia made his speech & fine motor unreliable. He spells now and is taking college classes. Given what he says via spelling, I feel he should have had a GIEP. He's Vince. His story starts at 46:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1rcLyznK0

I forgot to add that parents are not members of the 504 team so the school gets to put what they want on a 504. With an IEP, parents get a vote. With a 504, they don't.

I'd send an email: Dear School- Accommodations on a 504 should be supported by information on a student's need. When we meet next week, can you please bring the data showing XXX's need to switch from written tests to oral tests so the 504 team can discuss this recent change. I'm suggesting an email so the school is prepared to answer your question and not say 'I'll get back to you on that' at the meeting.

From what I've been told in the trainings I've taken, you are only allowed one FBA per year. This might not apply to you/your state. This is 1000% my guess: Could RSD get the person who did the completed IEE to do an FBA IEE based on the observations they did when they observed for the IEE you will meet about next month? Based on what you posted, I'm thinking this was what the conversation between the evaluator & RSD was about. I think that when an evaluator does a lot of IEEs in a SD, they do develop a relationship of sorts. This is OK. Professionals in the same industry can & do develop working relationships. The evaluator can still be able to be unbiased when they have a working relationship with a district. Yes, they are allowed to talk to each other without parent permission or the parent being present. Evaluators don't just show up & observe. They are going to arrange a time that works for the school and will hopefully be a good time so the behavior they want to see will occur. There are general ed FBAs that a school can do w/o parent permission. With this, a BIP/PBSP can be written for a student who doesn't have an IEP. A 1:1 aide is an accommodation so it is something that can go on a 504. Lastly, I'll ask if the person who did the OT IEE has school OT credentials? Schools listen to school people more than they listen to medical people. A student might medically need OT weekly and not have a need for OT at school. Given the school OT didn't seem to have an interest in what was on the OT IEE report, one reason could be that the person who wrote the report does not have school credentials.

My son has ADHD & dysgraphia. Oral testing was a game changer for him. Given that it took longer for him to write, he did better with being able to voice his answers instead of writing them. If your child is being disruptive during testing, taking tests in another room might be a good thing. If testing orally keeps her focused and prevents her from leaving questions unanswered, it could help bring her grades back up to where they were. I post this a lot: What's in the IEP should be based on data. If there is no data to support the need for classroom tests to be given orally, it shouldn't be an accommodation on her IEP. I don't see this being assessed as part of the special ed testing but it could be part of the observations they are doing. With a medical ADHD diagnosis, I would expect the school to assess executive functioning. Social skills might also be an area to assess.

Special ed assessments - I believe this is the 'oral testing' you are asking about. Every test has a testing protocol. You'd need to know what test is being given to know if oral testing is an option per the protocol. I have a few thoughts on this. (1) ADHD can co-occur with LD. If the student has an LD in reading, the results might not be accurate. (2) Some kids will mess up with filling out Berger Dots - either accidentally or on purpose. Doing the testing orally means there's an adult making sure the student's choices are accurately recorded. (3) Some kids will look to please the adult they're working with. It's possible that a student might not be honest with oral testing (which is why you need to follow the testing protocol). (4) If the evaluator had a bad experience with (1) or (2), they might opt to give the test orally as it's a waste of time and resources to give an assessment and the results aren't accurate. It also makes them look bad. Keep in mind that the student doing the Connors or BASC is one part of the special ed assessment. Parents and teachers will also do rating scales. With other evaluations, the only protocol is the student answering the evaluator's questions. I believe that a lot of IQ tests are like this.

I'm curious if the school evaluated this student for an emotional disability that is secondary to the dyslexia diagnosis. Can they say that an outside therapist is needed if they didn't evaluate? I'd say no. I know that disabled students can live in fear of their disability being discovered where they end up getting teased and/or bullied. It's possible that outside therapy is needed but it's also true that this student might need a safe place and trained person to talk to when feeling anxious. (If this isn't in the IEP, the IEP might not be FAPE.) I've also seen where dyslexic students thrive when in a school that specializes in remediating dyslexia because they are not going to be singled out due to the disability plus they will tend to make better progress because every teacher is either trained to accommodate or trained to remediate (or both). My feeling is that talking to the student and doing your best to figure out where support is lacking is great data to bring to a meeting. Specific examples can go a long way to demonstrate where FAPE isn't being provided to the student as well as how this issue might not be present if all classmates were similarly disabled.

The thing my child had the biggest need for was reminders to use the bathroom as well as the ability to carry a water bottle. What's ironic is, with COVID, the school turned off all the water fountains and EVERYONE started carrying a water bottle. Water bottles were banned by the school many years ago because kids would put things other than water in them and you can't learn if you're drunk. They talk about pendulum swings in education. Makes me think this is going to be one. Extra time on tests was a game-changer too. Anxiety slowed her down. Extra time leveled the field.

If they want a health plan, why did they say they want the child to have a follow-up with a neurologist? The doctor isn't going to write a plan - they are going to give them clearance to attend school (just like the ER docs did). If the school wants a health plan, they need to say that. Things need to be in writing so everyone is on the same page with understanding what's needed for the medical suspension to end. Common sense says that the prescribing doctor is who should come up with a plan if this is due to a side effect of a med. (My feeling is schools are short on common sense in some situations. I've seen this with my own child.)

If school personnel feel that a student needs medical clearance to attend school, I believe you can request that the school pay for the exam. In addition, I would want this in writing. After 3 unexcused days, a child is truant and, if the parent feels they should be in school, they could not, in good conscience, write an excuse note for their child so the absence would be exclusion from school on the school's part. In other words, this is a suspension from school for medical reasons. You want it documented so you are not charged with truancy. (Parents needs to save their absence excuses for the days they feel the child needs to stay home.) I'd also ask the nurse for a referral to a pediatric neurologist. It could take months to get in to see a specialist so homebound schooling could need to be set up. In PA, I believe that after 2 weeks of illness, the school needs to provide homebound instruction. I feel the school nurse could say this but, like I pointed out, it needs to be in writing or email because I see a ripple of things that could happen as a result. Did the nurse explain what he/she was seeing where they feel it's neurological and not a side effect of the new medication? Are they aware of the med change? Is the nurse aware that the ER attributed this to the med change? (I've not dealt with this sort of thing before. This is speculation based on my best educated guess. I welcome others to chime in.)

I can also see where the school might need a bit of time to set up the new supports in the IEP. If a student needs a safety harness on the bus or a 1:1 paraprofessional, you want 15 business days to get things put in place. If a parent waives the 15 days, is the school now out of compliance with the IEP because the harness didn't arrive the next day? Are schools allowed to say no - they are unable to start the new IEP immediately given situations like this? If the parent has been trying to put a support in place, I see the waiver as a way to prevent further delays. Seems that things like this end up having pros and cons where it should be used when it's an advantage. My personal thought is to wait 24 hours to have time to think when it comes to things like this.

Students shouldn't be falling behind - it's a red flag. There is saying that ADHD never travels alone. 2 of my children got an ADHD diagnosis & proved this correct. One has ADHD & autism; the other has ADHD & dysgraphia. There are other disabilities that co-occur with ADHD and dyslexia and dyscalculia are 2 of them. His falling behind has me thinking that the school hasn't assessed all areas of suspected disability because, with a 504, it infers that students are being given accommodations and that's all they need to have the same access to their education as their nondisabled classmates. If the school missed something, a student might fall behind but the solution is the school doing additional evaluations. So long as they don't redo an eval that was done within the last 12 months, they can do more evaluations to help figure out why he has accommodations and is still falling behind. I'd request this in writing so you have a paper/email trail. (BTW, all states are required to have standarized testing in grades 3-8 and once in HS. It is part of ESSA and NCLB before that.) Maybe you can explain to him that these tests were put in place to see how well teachers are doing their job and it's a reflection on them - not the students - with how well he does. If your child does end up in a different school next year, there are ways to make that transition easier. This includes having him tour the school - maybe more than once. Introducing him to his future classmates and teachers. With being more familiar, it should help make the transition smoother. This could be an accommodation that's added to his current 504. And while you're at this meeting, you could ask for an accommodation that he stay in his current school because 504 & IEP teams can override school policy. (Just be aware that staying might mean the you need to provide transportation. My school has allowed this provided the parents get their child to/from school.)