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

Kristin,

Your son is moving out of that school and town to come live with you, right? Then my advice is to let is go, and put your energy into seeing that your son gets off to a better start at the new school.

Many teachers do not understand learning disabilities as it is, and many more are very confused at gifted/LD. Those children are often labeled lazy because of low output in the areas of disability in spite of an obviously high IQ. It sounds like his father has this mindset, also.

I would strongly consider hiring an English tutor for your son, because accommodations may not be enough. He does need to learn as much as he can if college is in the future. I would carefully consider the accommodations and be sure the ones chosen are necessary to help him access the course content. He does need to develop the responsibility of turning in assignments at this age.

Janis

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).

Kristin,

If it worked the way you are thinking, it would be great. But it doesn't. The teacher meant that it would be great if every child had a caring parent or other advocate to be present at meetings and to be involved enough to see that the child gets what they need. In my experience, that doesn't happen often. Most parents either trust the school to do what the child needs or else don't care.

You certainly can become an advocate by educating yourself about learning disabilities and the law and appropriate remediation. Then you could offer your services to parents who chose to ask you (or hire you) to accompany them to IEP meetings. But you cannot just write random letters regarding programs in general expecting that they will help other children. Nor will your taking on the school for alleged IEP violations in regard to your son necessarily help other children.

The recent Supreme Court case decided that the party bringing the lawsuit has the burden of proof that an IEP is not appropriate. So it is a very serious matter to even consider going to court because the parent may end up with a huge legal bill if they lose. Personally, I think moving on as quickly as possible and hiring a tutor with that money is a more constructive way to go since he was there such a short time.

One more thought. Changing schools 4 times in a year and a half is hard on any child...even harder on a middle schooler, and even harder on an LD child. I hope you have really visited and talked with the school you plan to move him to in order to be sure it is a good setting for him.

Janis

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

Kristin,

I wish I had a mom like you. If someone in my family had stood up for me, like you do for your son, and fought for my needs, my entire life would be sooooo different. Your son is lucky to have parents that love him and support him like you. This is coming from a 46-year old guy who is just now patching the holes in his "ship" so he can sail the waters of life. But I have no crew, only me.

People, your circle of loved ones may annoy you, they may irritate you, and they may not always understand you. But being surrounded by them when times get rough is always better than being alone.

Onward and upward!

Ollin (new member)

"This will be the worst disaster NASA has ever experienced!" Arnie Aldrich, Director of Flight Operations "With all due respect, Sir: I believe this will be our finest hour!" Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 Flight Director; from Apollo 13, the movie.

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

Forget the old school. Focus on the present, and the future.

Use your time and energy to advocate for your son. Study his disability, NCLB, and IDEA 2004.

Make friends with other parents of disabled kids, help them when you can.

Be friendly with the new school. Bring snacks to the IEP meetings. Always sandwich complaints between compliments. You have to work with these people in order to get what you want.

Take the old IEPs (the ones you liked) with you to meet with the new school. Get your son a S.M.A.R.T. IEP, (no multi-year IEPs). Negotiate.

Then, if you move again, the new "S.M.A.R.T." IEP will transfer with your son. Bring a copy to the school when you enroll him, then they can begin using the IEP on "day one", instead of waiting for the records from the old school.

Always keep the originals, give out only copies. Schools can lose things.

That brings us to "e-mails". If the topic is really important to you, print a copy of the e-mail. Hand deliver it to the school, in a friendly manner. Drop it off with the secretary (she can be a witness) and just say "In case my e-mail got lost, here is a copy of it".

If you don't get an answer to your concerns, document it on a printed copy of the e-mail you kept for yourself. "I sent this e-mail on this date. I dropped off a printed copy on this date with the secretary, and still have no reply". This becomes evidence if you end up going to due process.

Your file that you keep for your son will get quite large, but you will have a very convincing case if it ever goes that far.

Do everything "by the book" don't make any complaints to DESE until you have exhausted all other avenues. You really DON"T want to go that far. It is best to be "friends" with the school, to get what you want.

FAPE- Free Appropriate Public Education (Section 1400 (d) (1) (A))