Carolyn Rowlett

Emily is correct that it would depend on your state standards, but I doubt there is any requirement for how many days or hours reading must be taught. The standard will likely be what reading proficiencies are required for each grade, which will in turn dictate how much time school districts spend on reading. So Emily is also correct that if your grandson is below grade level in reading, this is something more appropriately addressed in the IEP. Is specific learning disability one of the areas in which he was found eligible? If so, is he receiving special education minutes in reading? If not, why not? Was he not considered far enough behind? Regardless, I would not want the extra reading time to be an accommodation - he needs specialized instruction. An accommodation of extra reading time does not ensure the appropriate instruction is being given.

1. Teacher provided notes and ability to record lectures so that he does not have to copy from the board or take notes. 2. If he does have to take notes, allow extra time. 3. Allow extra time for any handwritten assignment or test. 4. Allow the use of speech-to-text to help with getting his thoughts down on paper. It is usually easier for students with dysgraphia to verbalize their thoughts rather than physically writing or typing. 5. Do not count off on assignments or tests for poor handwriting or spelling. 6. Modify tests to reduce amount of handwriting or typing. Allow speech-to-text, provide oral exams, or use multiple choice to test mastery of subject. 7. Allow oral reports over written reports.

My answer is going with the assumption that you voluntarily placed your child in the private school and it was not an out-of-district placement agreed upon by an IEP team in your home district. If that is not the case, please reach out again because my answer would likely be different. There may also be a difference if your child was found eligible prior to or after placement in the private school. When a child is enrolled in a private school, it is the responsibility of the district in which the private school is located to conduct evaluations, determining eligibility, and developing a plan for special education services. Also, it will most likely not be called an IEP, but rather a "services plan." You do not have the same rights to special education in a private school setting that you have in a public school. Funds are allocated to public school districts for providing special education services in private schools in their district, but they have a lot of flexibility in how they spend those funds. Any meeting you have with the school district to develop the plan should include a representative from the private school. I would suggest reaching out to your state department of education for specific guidelines in your state.

I am not in NYC, but just in case no one from there responds, I'll try to respond in a general sense. I assume that "check-in's" is an accommodation already written into the IEP? If so and if the teachers are not following this accommodation, you need to inform the case manager, process coordinator, spec ed director, IEP team, etc. to make sure this happens. You also might want to tighten up the language regarding this accommodation. For students with ADHD, I like to suggest check-in's for "initiation of, staying on, and completion of task." As far as getting all teachers on the same page in terms of homework, that could be more difficult. I would request a team meeting and try to get as many of his teachers as possible there (although technically, the school district only has to bring one). Then discuss your issues with homework (always putting it in terms of his ADHD) as a team and see what you can come up with as a solution. For the teachers that are not present at the meeting, ask the case manager or process coordinator to inform them of what was decided. It would be best to have it detailed in the IEP document itself, but the team may not want to dictate to teachers how they handle their homework. There is also the fact that teachers will change at semester. But even if you can get some kind of informal agreement in place (follow up with an email to the team as to what was decided upon during the meeting), that would be better than the chaos that appears to be happening currently. I do think "notification of incomplete assignments upon due date" would be reasonable to put into an IEP.

The first thing to do before anything else is to confirm that going to School B is in the IEP. If so, she has a much stronger argument - the school district has to follow the IEP, which includes transportation to an out-of-home-school placement. (It doesn't matter that the mom "preferred" the other school or it was "her choice to fight." If it's in the IEP, it was decided upon by the team and must be implemented as written. She needs to let go of the "this was my choice" mentality and focus on what is in the IEP.) Then the argument is that just because she opted not to have transportation at one time does not mean she cannot now ask for transportation based on change of circumstances and her inability to take her child to the school. You would hope this request for a transportation change to the IEP could be done by way of an email to the team, but under this more complicated situation, she may need to request an IEP meeting. I can't imagine the IEP team would deny the change since otherwise they are not providing FAPE. If placement is at School B, the district has to provide transportation to get the student there. If it's not in the IEP, that would be a problem. I can't imagine placing a special education student in a school other than the home school and not documenting this in the IEP, but if this is in fact the case, she still needs to request an IEP meeting to figure this out. If School B is not in the IEP and the grade bands do not include student in School B, at a minimum the team needs to figure out how services will now be delivered due to this change in location.

We are going to need more facts for this. What do you mean by "full support" versus "itinerary or supplementary support?" I can respond in a general sense... You need data to show the student needs the support you're asking for. What do you mean by "records" show serious struggle? Has there been a school evaluation? That is what you need to refer to in order to show a need. Point to struggles/deficiencies shown by the school evaluation and other data (grades, teacher comments, etc.) and make sure it is documented in the present levels. If it's there, it needs to be addressed with accommodations. Ask the team: "Why aren't you providing the support that the present levels show the student needs?" If the school evaluation/present levels don't show a need, you can disagree with the school evaluation and request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at school expense. Unfortunately, school districts do not have to follow the recommendations in an IEE, but they do need to consider them.

I'm going to assume the "beginning of year assessment" you refer to in which he had high scores is a standardized assessment that all students take. If so, I would want an academic re-evaluation in the area of decoding and reading fluency before I removed any goals. JSD24 is correct that a standardized test is not going to catch his deficiencies if he's gifted and masking. A re-evaluation that included nonsense words would be a much indicator of his true reading level.

Accommodations can be removed if the data from a re-evaluation shows there is no longer a need. But you are correct that it would be a team decision. After a re-evaluation is done, there should have been a meeting with the team to go over the results of the re-evaluation with you and propose changes to the IEP based on those results. If after discussion and full parental participation at the meeting the team decided to remove accommodations and you did not agreed with that decision, they should then send a Prior Written Notice to that effect. If none of this occurred, you need to ask for it. If after the proper procedures outlined above are followed and you are unhappy with the outcome, you can state your disagreement with the re-evaluation and ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE). Once those evaluation results are in, you would then be entitled to another meeting. Unfortunately, the team does not have to concur with or follow recommendations from an IEE, but they do have to consider them.

Are you a school district employee? If so, what is your position?

It really doesn't matter in the eyes of the school district whether he's retired, never practiced special education law, etc. He's an attorney and like you, the school district has a right to be informed and to bring who they want (within limits, of course, but bringing their attorney because a parent has an attorney with them is reasonable). They may be treating the situation differently because you caught them doing something wrong and now they're scared. But that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it. Just because they didn't assert this right in the past doesn't mean they can't now. How is your husband being treated differently and how are they threatening his job? The facts you presented in your first post were not enough, but if there are more facts that support these two accusation, you might need to consider action. But unless it's very serious, in the best interest of both your son and your husband, you need to seriously think about taking further action. I know it sucks; I get it. But it could be worse. And you'd be fighting Goliath, which is a difficult, exhausting, and expensive battle. Unless there is a real concern that your husband will loose his job or his work environment is unsustainable, your energies are best spent in getting your son what he is entitled to.

My advice is to not do anything. First, because I don't think it would accomplish anything The one thing you have to focus on during this procedure is "will this action benefit my child?" If not, then it is probably not worth pursuing and your energy would be best spent elsewhere. It sounds like you got what you wanted (compensatory services) - I wouldn't "poke the bear" unnecessarily. Second, let's say regardless of whether it helps your child, you still what to pursue something because of your husband. Perfectly understandable. However, I don't think this would accomplish anything in that regard, either. Was there a harm (which a claim of retaliation requires)? Your child got what he needed. And unless your husband was demoted, experienced a salary decrease, or is being treated differently in some way (provable and that causes harm) by the school district as a direct result of bringing his father-in-law to the meeting, there is no retaliation. You would only accomplish ticking off the school district again, which wouldn't do your son or your husband any good. Third, when an attorney attends a meeting, regardless of the relationship to the child (and regardless of retired status - I'm guessing he doesn't leave his attorney hat at the door when he discusses this situation with you), it's hard to distinguish between the two. Since the Department of Education has highly recommended that parents inform school districts if they are bringing an attorney, if you were to pursue this issue, it would likely be found that the school district was within their right to tell your husband that they need knowledge of this so that they can bring their own counsel. Fourth, when you say "ethics complaint," do you mean with the school district itself? That will be very hard to do against the superintendent, especially with the reasons I've outlined above. And a complaint via another avenue such as OCR, etc., will not go very far with these facts. Sorry that this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's probably what you need to hear in order to keep actual retaliation toward your son from occurring. Even actual, harmful retaliation is something that is very hard to prove, so you just need to avoid pushing the school district to that point if at all possible.

I would advise first calling your state department of education (special education department) and asking what they think. You don't want to start a fight or pay for legal expenses if you don't have back up from the state. States have been very lenient toward school districts during this special education teacher shortage. One thing I would ask for personally is if the offer could be used DURING the school day. School districts contract with outside providers all the time and provide services during the school day - sometimes via Zoom. See if you could work something out. We do not provide legal advise on this site, but a couple of things jumped out at me. First, they are referring to it as an "offer." Does this mean if the parent can't arrange for services to be provided outside of school that the school district is off the hook because the parent "rejected" the offer? That doesn't sound right. (Not to mention that transportation should probably be "offered," as well.) Second, you make a good point about other parents who don't have the resources or aren't savvy enough to understand this "offer." Is the school district going to follow up with all parents to confirm that minutes were actually provided? After all, the school district is the entity that owes the child the minutes and has to show proof that they were provided. (Another question to ask the state.) As far as the school district's failure to respond to your communication, first, I would not call. That leaves no trail of your attempts. Second, when you do not receive a timely response from the person you emailed, go up the chain of command - principal, special education director, superintendent, school board. You might also consider attending a school board meeting and asking your questions - preferable getting other parents similarly situated to attend.

Thank you for the update. Although maybe not completely what you wanted, definitely a step in the right direction. Glad you found an effective advocate that would fight for your child.

I am not familiar with OCR complaints or the process, so I may be wrong, but my understanding is that they can mediate regarding the discrimination, but may not be able to help with what you really need in terms of getting the school district to follow the terms of the IEP. For that you may need to file a state complaint (I would highly suggest that in this case of blatant procedural violations) or another due process complaint.

Hi Kris. Since you mentioned you are working with an attorney, I will answer this in very general terms. Others on this site may also be hesitant to answer since you have an attorney. Just FYI. Your attorney will have more detail about this matter than we do and more legal knowledge of your state. But having said that, yes, Stay Put means services stay in place. Stay Put is more about services than actual location. A school district can change the location of where services are provided during Stay Put (for 45 days) if the child is a threat to themselves or others, but I'm unsure how school avoidance fits into this. Check with your attorney and make sure you have really good data to support your child's school avoidance.

Or are you asking if the IEP will be good after the student has been at a private school for a year and returns to the public school? The IEP does not follow a child to a private school. In some instances, the district in which the private school is located may provide some services, but they would not be as robust as under an IEP. Since you are voluntarily placing your child in a private school (as opposed to an IEP team deciding on an out-of-district placement), you are correct that you are "opting out of services," and I believe upon the return to public school you would need to start the process all over again to determine if services are still needed.

First, a bit of clarification. When you say "they did an IEP and found no disabilities," do you mean they did an evaluation? Also, just to confirm the timeline... Last school year was the one where he repeated Kindergarten, and this year he will be going into 1st grade (unless you can win your argument to move him ahead a grade)? Lastly, I'm not completely sure what happened with your request for an IEE. Did they deny that and so you paid for your own evaluation by the psychologist? With respect to the retention, have you contacted your state department of education to see if procedures (if any) were followed? Usually a parent must be involved in retention discussions. If they didn't follow state procedures, ask what can be done about that now. And ask what can be done moving forward to get him back into the proper grade. With respect to the denial of an IEP, did you get a Prior Written Notice with the reasons why it was denied? If the IEE was denied, did they take you to due process? That is required when an IEE is denied. But regardless of past actions and a probably insufficient school evaluation, from this point on you are definitely moving in the right direction. Hopefully they will agree to your request for another evaluation. If so, make sure he is evaluated in all areas of concern. It sounds like ADHD is your only concern, so make sure to request an evaluation in the area of social/emotional/behavioral (I understand you do not think it is a social or emotional issue, but sometimes all of these are lumped together into one category). But I would also ask for an evaluation in the area of academics, since they seem to be pointing to that area as a reason for retention (reading level, doesn't understand math, etc.) - though even if that were the case, it's not necessarily a reason to retain. If you don't have data to support his slow processing speed, you might need to request an IQ test that would encompass this. If you do get the school to do an evaluation but you don't agree with it, you can then request an IEE. It sounds like you are very prepared for the meeting with data and participants. Some additional suggestions: 1. Would his teacher from last year have any good feedback regarding the fact that he should not have been retained (maybe not that blunt) and if so, would s/he be willing to speak up? 2. During the meeting, every time the school says something you don't agree with, ask for the data to support that position. And when you make a request, show them the data. It's all about the data. Don't accept anything without asking for the data to support it. 3. If the principal (and others) still think it's a "social-emotional-maturity" issue, again, ask for the data. But also ask why, if they saw concerns in those areas, weren't supports put in place rather than retaining him? 4. Record the meeting. It appears that Wisconsin is a two party state, meaning you only need one party to consent to recording (that party being you). But sometimes school districts have policies against recording. Tell them you're going to record the meeting. If they cite a policy prohibiting this, ask for the WRITTEN policy. In the meantime while you are fighting the IEP battle, I would suggest concurrently pursuing the 504 Plan route so you can get him the accommodations for his ADHD (allow for slow processing time, accommodations to lesson stimuli and increase concentration, access to headphones, ability to stand and move, etc.). If you still do not get anywhere with this school district, you could consider filing for due process. It is usually recommended to have an attorney for this, but you seem to understand the data and could probably represent yourself. You might also hire a paid advocate to look over all the documents and make further recommendations and give an opinion on your chances at due process.

You would need to contact your state department of education to ask about procedures and forms for filing a state complaint. (It should also be in your procedural safeguard provided by the school district - if these were not provided, that is another procedural violation.) The benefit to your child would be (hopefully) having the state take a look at your school district's procedurals and forcing them to make changes. Also, knowing that you are an actively involved parent may make the school district react quicker to your requests and dot their i's and cross their t's better when it comes to your child.

First, I'm not an expert in this field, so hopefully others will weigh in. Charter schools are publicly funded, so the assumption would be that they do have to follow the IDEA. However, private schools often receive public funding, as well, and have to provide (or in this case, allow) services, but not to the extent that public schools do. It might depend on what the school's charter says. It also might depend on what state regs say in terms of charter schools. I would suggest contacting you state department of education and asking your question.

You can definitely ask for a re-evaluation prior to the tri-annual, as long as it has been one year since an evaluation was done. Ask for it in all areas of disability and concerns. As far as what to ask for specifically in math, I don't believe you have to ask for anything other than "academics in the area of math," but you would want the specific areas of concern evaluated, as well as whether she is meeting state standards. Once the re-evaluation is back, if you disagree with it, you can request an IEE. There shouldn't be a "fight" over this, since the school has to agree to it or take you to due process, which most school district don't do. All you have to say is that you disagree with the school's evaluation. You do not have to get into specifics of why you disagree - even if they ask you. But you will need to know what areas you want evaluated in the IEE.

It may be time to file a state complaint on the procedural violations of not having an LEA present at the meeting and therefore no annual meeting was held, making changes to the IEP without agreements, and failure to provide PWN's. In the meantime, keep requesting a meeting so that the state knows you're trying on your end.

Hi! Yes, the IEP process, specifically IEP goals and progress monitoring, is very overwhelming. In an ideal world, the school district should be ensuring the goals are realistic, aligned with needs, measurable, and adjusted as needed according to progress - all the things you mentioned. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. It sounds like you have some questions about the goals: 1) Are they realistic? 2) Are they aligned with my child's abilities and needs? You also have questions about the progress monitoring: 1) How are we going to be able to tell if progress is made or not made and how much? 2) How are we going to know when adjustments need to be made to goals and services, and will I be made aware of this? These are questions you need (and have the right) to ask the IEP team during a meeting. So ask for a meeting (you can ask for one at any time - you do not have to wait until the next annual meeting) and ask these questions. Make them explain it to you until you understand. Don't let them make you feel like you are "stupid" - you, as a parent, have the right to understand what's going on with your child. If you have a question, ask it. I would suggest doing so in a nice, non-confrontational manner (that works best - at first, anyway - with school districts), but in a way that let's them know that you intend to be an involved and informed parent. It's hard to give specific advice without knowing your child's disabilities, but in general (and I'm sure you read this on Lisa's website) goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound (SMART goals). Another website that might be helpful is below: https://www.understood.org/en/articles/how-to-tell-if-your-childs-iep-goals-are-smart Best of luck and reach out again if you need to!

Dyslexia is listed as a disorder under the definition of specific learning disability in the IDEA, so I don't know how NY doesn't recognize it. I don't know what ICT or MS is, but pulling a child from their home school right off the bat for instruction appropriate for dyslexia is a violation of least restrictive environment. They obviously have an OG program if they're using it for intervention, so I don't understand why they can't use that for special education. To answer your questions: A) No, this is not appropriate. If they don't have a program for dyslexic students, they need to purchase one (and provide the requisite training for their teachers); B) No they can't "declassify" (if by "declassify" you mean take away eligibility) because you don't agree with the IEP. They can only take away eligibility status if the data shows the child is no longer eligible. However, I'm a little confused on the timing. It sounds like you have already consented to services at some point (since they're asking you to revoke consent), so this must not be the initial IEP? Is this a revision? If so, was a meeting held? Did you receive a PWN for items you did not agree to? You may need to get an advocate or an attorney involved since your state complaints are not going anywhere. Or from a practical standpoint, if you like the instruction your daughter is receiving via intervention and she is making progress, maybe you just continue with that until and if she starts not making sufficient progress. Then you can start the IEP process again. This is not to say that the school is right in what they are doing - just that if you can't force them to do the right thing, look at options you can live with for a while. They are correct that you do not need special education status to receive reading intervention, but that does NOT mean that an IEP is not appropriate now or in the future.

I would request a meeting and make sure the principal and director were there. Ask for the 2:1 to be put in the services section or at a minimum the TA. I would also request a new or revised PWN setting forth that the 2:1 agreed to at the meeting was removed without another meeting being held and the reasons why it was removed.

That might be helpful, but I still think I would advise requesting a meeting so that you can ask why something was removed that was agreed to during a meeting. I would also advise asking for a PWN that states the 2:1 aid "agreed to during the meeting" (since you didn't actually request it) was denied and the reasons why. You might also call your state department of education, tell them the scenario, and ask what can be done. Finally, I would advise recording the next and all future meetings if you are in a one-party state. Given what has happened, that would not be an unreasonable thing to do. If you are not in a one-party state and can afford it, take an advocate with you or have one participate via zoom. At a minimum, take a friend or relative as another set of ears. If the school district takes notes during the meeting, ask for a copy of those notes afterwards.