Failure to comply with an IEP and more...

My son began a new school in late July-early August, 2005. Although I sent several emails to the school, they did not hold an IEP meeting for over 90 days; nor did they provide any of the accommodations in his IEP (they were provided w/ his IEP at his enrollment). My son failed English.... What do you do?

My 8th grade son was assessed and found to have a LD in May 2004 (end of 6th grade). We had terrific teachers and staff and they guided me through the process and all was great. My son is both gifted and learning disabled...he has a visual processing disorder and sustained attention problems. He can compensate for his LD in most areas and can get average grades (except in English), scraping by and getting in trouble for not turning in assignments and so on.

Then we moved and moved again....I am now in San Diego, CA. My son has had to change schools 4 times since the initial IEP meeting. He decided to try living with his dad in the East Bay Area, CA (Brentwood, CA) for 8th grade. Unfortunately, his father does not believe in learning disabilities. He stated he thinks an IEP is just a crutch. I provided his current IEP to his dad and he gave it to the school upon enrollment. I followed up within 2 weeks by contacting the school by email and got no response. I forwarded the email to the various administrators - Principal, VP, counseling office, etc..again, no reply. I finally manage to get their attention by sending a very blunt email regarding their compliance with IDEA; however, by this time my son has failed English and we are going on 90+ days of his attendance at the school.

The sp ed says in an email to me, "sorry, it was an oversight on her part".

An IEP meeting was scheduled for November 17, 2005. I advised them of my intention of attending and recording the meeting. I flew up to Oakland and drove to the school (1+hours from the airport).

The meeting went downhill fast. The person heading the meeting was unknown to me and did not know my son (I did not find out til later). We had several gen ed teachers, the sp ed and VP; however, the English teacher was NOT there. They even said they didn't have his complete file. They had some parts, but not all of his special ed stuff. They did not have his star testing results....His prior school sent EVERYTHING w/in 4 weeks of his enrollment.

They were not willing to address anything. My son only has 2 goals....one in writing and one in organizational skills- turning in assignments.

He has lots of accommodations - they wanted to get rid of all of them.

I was told that if he is given extra time to complete assignments or is pulled out for tests, he will not be able to graduate with a highschool diploma. He will be deemed below average. He does not use a calculator during tests because of the resulting test scores deemed below average.... I was also told 'every accomodation has be directly related to a goal. So, they wanted to change all his accommodations....especially 'note taking assistance', they said there certain situations/classes it would not be beneficial(I did ask if they thought the IEP police would come and get them if he was not provided every single thing 100% of the time....I did not point out they had not come yet.... (Thanks Sue.)). Finally I signed the IEP for my attendance and checked the box indicating my disagreement with the proposed changes.

I got an email from the sp ed yesterday, telling me she thought my son was doing so much better with the new IEP/accomodations in place....What?

Somebody help me here...I am so angry. His IEP has gone through 4 other schools and they have kept it the same...I have struggled and argued with some sp ed teachers, but noone has claimed the things this school has.

Do I file a complaint for the violation of the 30 day IEP meeting....if that had been held these things could have been addressed and my son would have passed English? The stress my son feels is even worse....he dreads getting in trouble with his father...his dad thinks it is all about his laziness and punishes him. Needless to say, my kiddo is moving home with me, but I am upset.

How many kids suffer because of this type of lack of compliance?

Sorry I am so scattered...

Thanks,

Kristin

Thanks Janis.

I struggle with a comment made by the Sped.....She commented that few if any of the LD kids at the school have anyone that stands up for or advocates for them....I guess this makes it okay to treat my son
like *&^*. Sorry. I would like to help the other kids by doing something to make that distrct a little more helpful to those less fortunate than my son. Does that sound dumb?

I have way too much time available and am happy to go and sit and be a pest or write letters than the district can imagine...(I am at home w/ a baby).

I reckon I would write a letter of concern, just to have it documented and get it down in black and white and to get it out of my fingers. I would mention that the IEP had not occurred, and also that you'd gotten a letter (sounds like a form letter to me) following up from the meeting that did not seem to make sense; that your son was "doing better" with accommodtaions in place, and yet at the meeting the accommodations had not been there.

Not sure I agree iwth Janis about the comment... I suspect it's somewhere in between the two interpretations. Essentially: your kid is lucky enough as it is because you even bother to come and get *any;thing.* And the underlying hostility: your kid is gifted. What's he complaining about? (Lots of teachers, if you could hypnotize 'em, are either threatened by or resentful of kids who are smarter than they are, though they usually aren't aware of it.)

The father's local school is who sent the stuff to the school where he is now, right? When he moves home with you, is he going to change schools again?

Is he going to be at this school for .. how many years?

Not granting accommodations does *not* legally m ean he can't get a re4gular diploma. You have to be really good at making sure things are *accommodations* and not *modifications* - but basically if he's getting extra time, he is still doing the same test. If it's being read to him, he's doing the same test. If he has fewer problems, then it's modified.

Big fat gray area would be modifying the homework for fewer problems. I wouldn't bring it up unless I had to.

The specific folks at the school seem to be of the same school as his Dad - gifted/LD? Can't be. He's just average and wants accommodations so he can look smarter than he is.

A metaphor that might be useful if there's an educable one among them (and it really is possible)is that if your left foot is in boiling water and your right foot is encased in ice, that doesn't mean you're comfortable because the average temperature would be.
'

However, if you're furious, you're not going to be able to do any educating... don't give up on *all* of 'em, and look for an ally behind one of the desks **somewhere.** It means putting on the diplomacy face (google "special needs and special gifts" for Judy BOnnell's site that has some really great letters and words of wisdom for keeping that sane head while **fighting** for your kids' needs, even if it's a little dated; wrightslaw.com's "from emotions to advocacy" is also loaded with powerful wisdom... and that's the level you want to get to, even if you never thought you were the stuff of Solomon.)

Sue J, webmastress www.resourceroom.net

Ollie,

I am the same age as you and what we know about LD now simply wasn't known when we were younger. One of my friends realized her older brother was LD after her oldest was diagnosed. I am sure her brother's life would have been different too if her parents had realized what was going on.

Anyway, it is great you are doing what you can now but don't be too hard on your folks. It was a different world then.

Beth