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For background: Our 6th has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (and, therefore..) Autism L2 & a Mild Intellectual Disability (FSIQ = 66). Testing results (which have been consistent across 3 evaluations): Receptive vocabulary = 0.8th percentile, expressive vocabulary = 2nd percentile, adaptive behaviors = 1st percentile, reading comprehension = 3rd percentile, numerical operations = 0.7th percentile, math problem solving = 0.6th percentile. When she began middle school this year, we could see immediately that she was (literally) years behind in understanding or even conceptualizing the standard 6th grade curriculum. I brought my concerns to the team in Sept. and I mentioned modifying. They looked at me like I had 2 heads and said "she is not a student that would need that". One of the tricky things about FASD is that she can present quite typical and mask her significant deficits. I fully believe that's what's happening here. I've been very active in her IEP and she has dozens of thoughtful accommodations. Even so, she is consistently getting 8%, 20%, 40% on assignments across all classes. Though grades are subjective, they do accurate represent that she does not understand any of whats being taught to her. When she gets a higher grade, it is because she guessed more luckily. In math, for example, they are "supporting her in learning" in finding the area of a parallelogram. My sweet daughter cannot tell time, read a calendar, or do any basic math (+, -, x) without being told step by step how to put it into her calculator. She only memorized her birthday this year but cannot tell you what month is before or after it. When she is guided to a right answer, she cannot conceptualize in any way what it means. I have expressed that our goals for her are functional and life-related, rather than standard 6th grade curriculum. I now have an outside educational assessment that supports the need to modify her educational path, hopefully to a Mild Intellectual Disability classroom. Her current, local middle school does not have this program so it will require her to change schools and be bussed out of her zoned district. Despite all of the above, I know I will meet resistance with her IEP team in getting this change of placement. Though they seem satisfied to pass her through without her actually learning anything (and therefore, not "needing" modification), we are not satisfied with that plan. She can't learn 6th grade curriculum but she can learn something. Leaving her in Gen. Ed. wastes time that she could be working toward functional, life skills that came easily to her classmates years ago. Finally, my question. Is there anything in this scenario I'm not seeing? With the most beautiful accommodations in the world, she cannot access this material by miles. We see no other way forward but to let go of a high school diploma and change her path to a certificate / special education diploma. Thank you.

My son is in 6th grade and has several qualifying diagnoses (Autism, Health (ADHD), Specific Learning Disability (Dysgraphia), and Anxiety). He has been succeeding with a very extensive 504 plan, but things have recently taken a turn for the worst. He is currently unable to write essays at school both for a graded essay and for MCAS (state standardized testing). Further, he became distressed working on an ELA assignment where he had to come up with 8-10 quotes showing character development. The teacher changed it to 1-2 for him due to the amount of distress he was displaying. Additionally, he also wrote that he is stupid on a math test because he didn't understand what was being asked in the bonus question on the exam. His teacher reprinted the question and re-worded it. He got the question correct and got a perfect score on the test. We just put in a request for an academic evaluation in writing and OT evaluations because of the dysgraphia diagnosis and the recent struggles with writing. They are also doing two observations as part of this evaluation: one by the OT and one by the special education teacher. He had a psychoed evaluation done last year as well as an outside neuropsych, but he was doing better mentally. Teachers keep saying we need to add accommodations to his 504, but it seems like he'd really benefit from writing support. Right now, they want to add the ability to dictate his writing as an accommodation. His grades are good and they say he's making effective progress, but how can a 6th grader who doesn't write their own essay or have the work reduced 80% be making effective progress? Again, they are willing to update the 504 with new accommodations. We have a meeting in a couple of weeks, but I feel like he really needs pull out ELA support (or at least push-in support) in addition to the meetings with the adjustment counselor which are in his current 504 plan. Wouldn't you say that this warrants an IEP? How do I convince school that he's not making effective progress when they are giving him grades indicating that he is at grade level?

My son is in 11th grade and will be turning 18 in a few months. He would like to graduate with his friends next year, senior year. We have been told he could stay in school until he's 21, and then would be eligible for waivers. If he doesn't stay in his sp ed school (The Concept School), where else could he go? He has high-functioning autism, high anxiety, difficult executive function skills. He is too high functioning for some of the Life skills classes we have seen. What else is available? Thank you.

My son is in 8th grade. He is Autistic and has ADHD. He has very good grades. He struggles to form peer relationships, have collaborative discussions, stay on topic, acknowledge input from others, and work to complete group assignments. This is a proposed language goal from the speech language pathologist (SLP). I would appreciate your input. "NAME will participate in collaborative conversations with others that respect individual and group differences, apply interpersonal skills needed to maintain quality relationships, self-assess personal problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills to enhance relationships with others, accept personal responsibility in conflict situations and initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with minimal support (25%) support in a structured setting as measured by a teacher made point rubric and observations." My initial thought is that it seems like too many things to throw into one goal and it should be broken up. I'm also very concerned because he currently has both 45 minutes in the special education setting and 40 minutes weekly in the general education setting with the SLP. His IEP is coming up and the SLP is proposing withdrawing the push-in minutes and meeting for 60 minutes weekly in the special education setting. She says this is because the high school SLP believes that push in minutes are stigmatizing. I think it is probably more stigmatizing for my son not to have the collaborative conversation skills he needs to do group work and form peer relationships. I think that he needs the push in minutes so that he learns to apply the language skills in the general education setting. He is making progress with the current minutes and goals and I would like to maintain that rather than withdraw push-in support. I'm not sure how to respond to the school about the proposed goal or the proposed reduction in minutes.

My son is in kindergarten in PA. It's only half day kindergarten. He's in full time autistic support class. I thought the iep meeting went surprisingly well and they put in his IEP all the things I was hoping that they would. In general, they've been very supportive of my concerns and his needs. When school started, I already had him working with an agency that provides tss 1:1. So as soon as school started the bht went to school with him, and also goes to daycare with him after school. I'm sure this was helpful to the school. Recently he had started going to general education class for part of the day with his 1:1 with him. Now, the 1:1 that is coming from the outside agency has a schedule change and isn't able to be there 3 days /week for am kindergarten times. His teacher emailed me last night because she doesn't have any other staff that would be able to take him to general education classes on those days and she wanted to know did I want her to try to send him without a 1:1? I asked my son and he was pretty clear he isn't going to that class alone. So I told her no. My question is... I do realize it's the school's responsibility to provide the 1:1 and that just because the outside agency isn't available doesn't excuse the school. I get that. But at what point should i make it an issue? Should I try to wait it out a little? It's sad that he can't go to general education those days now but I'd rather he not go than go and be terrified. How long should I wait to make it a big deal?

Hi! I am a stay at home mom. My son is in first grade. He desperately needs a Para. His IEP leader says let's try other ways first. His teacher has stopped trying. Nothing gets done. Can I qualify to be my son's Para? That way the school won't have to pay and the teacher won't be so overwhelmed?