What exactly is considered “specialized instruction”? I’m trying to figure out how the school is adding up my dd’s time of specialized instruction. Supposedly once she gets to beyond 50% of her school day, her special ed classification changes. My dh and I along with our private SLP (who is an LD specialist) said there’s no way that she’s even close to 50% special ed and the school is claiming that she is close and they want to change her classification, but we think they might be padding it for additional funding. My dd is only getting 30 mins 1 day/week and 35 3 days/week for resource room and then 30mins of speech 2 days/week. It’s all of about 195 mins total per week. I might add that her IEP currently says RR= 40mins x 4days and she is short on that too. They are saying that time between the resource specialist and the general ed teacher spent collaborating on modifying her curriculum counts. Does this mean that they are spending more than 2hrs/day is conferences just to talk about 1 child? Can’t I say I’d rather they spend that time WITH my daughter? If the general ed teacher needs instruction as to how to modify her curriculum I’ll tell her, but I’d rather they spend the time with her teaching her instead of just modifying everything she does. I know modifications are necessary, but that does not constitute changing her classification in my opinion. I’m concerned about upping too much for fear that I will not be able to change it back later since they told me changing it back later would have to be a team decision whereas right now, I prefer to keep her at the classification that she is at right now and just maximize the time that she is entitled to under that label.
Kathryn
Specialized instruction time can be when there is an aid in the classroom, if she is in an inclusion class with a SPED teacher or aid.
I have never heard of funding changing based on classification, typically it is SPED and non-SPED.
Changing her placement either up or down requires the same team decision. Ultimately you do have some recourse in whether or not you agree, and if the school is willing to go to due process to prove they are correct, most schools won’t do that because of the added scrutiny,