falsifying documents and 1 year for an eval ?

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Ster, under IDEA, they have 60 days to complete evaluations once YOU submit, in writing, a request for evaluations. The school has the obligation, under the law, to inform a parent about this and help them put their request in writing.

I have a wonderful book you should buy. It's a bit pricey and hard to find at a cheaper price, but well worth it.

"The Truth About Special Education: A Guide For Parents and Teachers" by Robert

Cimera. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Tr ... 0810844841

I managed to find it at a used bookstore online for $10.

Here's the "review" that I did on it for my foster/adopt agency:
I copied and pasted it from the form I have to do for continuing education hours.


Book Summary: “The Truth About Special Education: A Guide for Parents and Teachers”
Written by Robert E. Cimera


In your own words, summarize the main ideas presented in the book:

This book is an introduction to special education, to help parents and teachers understand the legalities of special education law, the terms used, and the process of obtaining special education services for children. It includes a history of special education in the US, basic information on common disabilities, tips to help parents and educators obtain services, lists of professional organizations, helpful websites, and many other resources for teachers and parents. Especially helpful are the sections dealing with The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(IDEA), Free Appropriate Public Education(FAPE) laws, Least Restrictive Environment(LRE) laws, and Independent Education Plans(IEP).

How will you use this new information with a foster/adopt child(be specific)?

We have already used the information presented in the book to help with our children’s special education needs. It was a wonderful resource for learning the laws relating to special education and the responsibilities of schools and educators as well as the rights of parents and children in special education programs. We were able to use it to our advantage since we were more familiar with IDEA laws, our rights, and the responsibilities of the school. We fought for evaluations and then for mainstream classroom education with supplementary aids for our son under LRE and he is now doing wonderfully with his support services in place, performing at grade level. We will surely rely on this information in the future as we deal with the special education needs of our adopted children.




If the school is not compliant with IDEA, then my advice would be to find an advocate for your daughter through the local regional center or hire an attorney. Many schools are uneducated on the law and unfortunately, it's up to us, as parents, to figure it out so that we can advocate for our children and get them the services that they need. It should not be that way, but it usually is. Good luck!

ster, have you requested in writing an evaluation to determine if she qualifies for Special Education? The things you describe more like she needs an IEP. I don't know anything about the laws for 504 plans, but do know that you HAVE to have an initial meeting and they HAVE to evaluate your child within 60 days for Special Education.

Also, I'd call up your local Autism Society or FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) to see if they recommend anyone you can consult with. If that gets you no where, go straight to your State Board of Education website and email them to find out the rules. This does two things, obviously let's you know what your child's rights are.. but also, if your school district isn't doing things correctly, it will already be circulating through the board in case you need to take this to the next step.

i've verbally requested an evaluation, as well as in writing...........i'm going to give the principal a week to respond, and then i'll take it from there- so ridiculous that we have to fight

Since you have requested it in writing (verbal never counts), do you have a copy of what you requested and when it was requested? If you do, then definitely find an advocate and file a complaint with your State Board. A year is not a reasonable time span to do it all in.

yes, i always keep copies. i do alot of correspondence with the school via email- and keep all the emails. sad world we live in when we need to do such things.....oh well.....a year is definitely unacceptable, i agree....at this point, i think i'm going to try to be brave and tell them that i want them to pay for an outside eval- don't know that i'll get anywhere with this, but it's worth trying............i have an advocate who i can try to contact, but feel somewhat badly because i've used her in the past to get my son placed out of district. haven't heard from her since- not that we're on bad terms, just that we have our own lives....

Pep is parents educating parents.

I had to go around and around at another school to get an iep for my son with adhd but eventually he got it. We went to the top of the ladder to discuss it and ask how we should handle the situation. We were ready to stir the pot to make sure he didn't fall through the cracks simply because there was a control issue with the principal. We have since switched schools after all of that and are very happy...I think I would use multiple advocates..because they tend to move faster when they know more than one person is involved.

Sometimes the schools just don't know what they are doing too...I have found that....as well...

here is a link that you may find helpful http://www.iser.com/resources/advocacy-terms.html

Something else that may help is getting a letter from your child's psychiatrist if she has one, physician and therapist if she has a therapist requesting that she receive more help in school...

DomesticAdvocate- have pmed you.........
daughter is slated to switch schools at the end of the school year. ...re: the school- when we went to get the 504 plan for her, the psych went with us- talked about his reccomendations. the school went with the reccomendations that they wanted to, and ignored the ones they wanted to.....for instance: it was reccomended that daughter be part of a social skills group- school's idea was to have her one on one with the social worker to work on social skills.
they realize that her anxiety level is increased due to her not understanding the work- daughter cries & whines in class. the latest frustration, really, is that the teacher sent a copy of her district reading assessment which says that daughter has surpassed the district goal in reading comprehension... ........amazing how well daughter does on multiple choice tests !

That is really odd.

I am a school psychologist and I find the wording stating it will take up to a year pretty odd and not legal. I am thinking they are confused with their terminology. Evaluation - up to a year??

Was a psychologist in the meeting? I would get that person involved. Most psychs would freak out if they saw something stating that "an evaluation would take up to a year" combined with you actual requesting an evaluation in writing and verbally. Those could potentially be lawsuits. Your school district really needs to be careful. I wonder if there is something in their state manual. Call someone at the state office. They will help you. They are usually so helpful there!!

If the team already has sufficient evidence that your daughters disability (she has already been dx with ADHD correct?) is impacting her education even with reasonable accommodations, they would be obligated to do an evaluation (check out wrightslaw for more information - great site).

Was this evaluation for the 504 plan or for IDEA? If it is for IDEA, there is a definite 60 day time line or however your state works. You would know if it were for an actual full comprehensive evaluation to determine special education services. You would have been

As for requesting an evaluation, the school district is obligated to have a meeting shortly after your request was put in writing. Perhaps that is what they did and they decided to call it 504 plan meeting - I don't know. At the meeting, they need to determine whether or not your child does possibly have a disability that is interfering with her education. All of this needs to be put in writing. If at the meeting, they decide not to evaluate or decide to try response to intervention, this should be put in writing as well.

I am wondering if they mean that they are going to try different interventions for up to a year. That is not an evaluation! Again, the terminology is all wonky.

I believe it will work out, really. You just need to get the right people involved. I would talk with the director of special education and school psychologist.

I have worked in different states and they all are a little different but not much. People know that you have to be careful when it comes to terminology, using the word evaluation, and when dealing with parental requests for evaluation.

You are a highly intelligent person. If you are that confused coming out of the meeting, there is something wrong there. Can you imagine other people going into meetings who don't have your intelligence level or knowledge base??

Some of those parent advocates are good but some think they know more than they do. I love it when good parent advocates come to meetings!! They are there supporting the parents and helping the parents learn more about the system.

ONe more question? Were you given procedural safeguards for IDEA or for 504?

Falsification of the documents is a sign of trouble.

Be sure you walk out of each meeting with a copy of everything.

You need to get an advocate involved. If that is not sufficient to get things moving, you need a lawyer.

Are there other parents in the district with kids with problems?
Consult them, learn from their experience.

i've unfortunately had trouble with different schools in this district. the system seems to be bent on sweeping things under the rug-doing the least amount possible.
yes, i got the procedural safeguards at the 504 meeting. the 504 meeting was her annual review- at this meeting we discussed the reading comprehension issues daughter is having. i asked for them to evaluate her. i was told that they would not evaluate until they tried a variety of strategies- i was told the strategies would take up to a year. when they told me this, i replied that it was ludicrous, and that it's only shoving the problem onto the next school.
i wrote and asked for an evaluation. the response i got from the principal on Weds was that they would be meeting with the Child Study Team to discuss strategies for my daughter. the principal said he would get back to me after that meeting and let me know what was decided in regards to an evaluation.
i am so tired of this !

We would usually go this route if we are suspecting a Learning Disability. If the child already has a documented disability and the disability is already affecting school work, then we would usually do an evaluation.

You requested an evaluation, your child already has a 504 plan and she is showing difficulties with reading comprehension - she really should be evaluated now. The principal on his own can't say, "Let's evaluate" which could be the reason why he said that he will get back to you.

Was the school psych at the meeting? If not, they will probably want to have another meeting to get the psych involved. I would personally call the psych and explain the situation.

Even with a good Response To Intervention school, having strategies take up to a year is not really benefiting the child. I can see the reasoning but the reasoning is a bit flawed in some ways. You can easily have an intervention, document the improvement or lack thereof (within 4 - 6 weeks) and then change the intervention if nothing is working. You can easily have enough documentation within three months.

Good luck. Just continue to stand your ground and talk to the correct people.

daughter's school is not on the RTI list for our state- meaning that they've made AYP.....school psych was not at the meeting- just the social worker, principal, teacher, nurse & me.
as far as interventions go, i'm not necessarily opposed to the school trying different strategies with daughter- i'm just opposed to the timeline & elimination process. i just can't seem to accept their idea of a reasonable timeline for elimination of strategies- can't seem to get them to understand that IMO, this problem is more than what they are making it out to be.
i think they are interested in covering up any issues. although daughter has consistently gotten C's and below in History & Math- the teacher gave her a B in both subjects. .........sure, any school can make AYP by falsifying grades.

I would get a child advocate to go with you every time you meet with the school. If I had done this from the beginning, maybe my son would have been able to get services earlier and stay in public school.

Child advocate will call them on their BS. It's amazing how they treat the advocate like a human being. Also, record each and every meeting. Take a digital recorder. Ask their permission to start taping (have the tape turned on as you ask for permission). They have to say 'yes' under IDEA. Watch and be amazed how they are not jerks when you are taping the whole thing.

Paperwork was faked and altered in my son's case. Also, test results were thrown out.

I think you are confused with what I am saying about RTI. I think it could be because it is generally not used in your state. It is best practices and has been used at many schools I work in regardless of AYP.

When I say RTI, I am talking about special education. A lot of schools/states/district regardless of whether they make AYP use the RTI model as best practices and then have use that data to assist in qualify a child for special education services, especially as Learning Disabled. It just sounded like they were using some of the RTI model to gather data. I don't think your state/district is at the RTI stage yet. Schools sooner or later need to get on the RTI bandwagon as this could eventually be the only way to qualify a child as LD. Not necessarily with other disabilities, although it is still good data for other disabilities as well.

This is what I am talking about. Sorry to confuse you.

http://www.reading.org/downloads/resour ... report.pdf

(Scroll down to RTI - perhaps this will clear up the confusion we are having)

With that said, I do agree with you about their timeline. You will get your assessment. I truly believe that.
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The big question you can ask is if they didn't accommodate your child via 504 plan, would your child be failing the other classes. If so, you could use that information to support your case. If she is still getting below average grades with accommodations and would fail without, they need to accommodate. Please contact your school psychologist. The psych should know the law and would get on this ASAP. The other people really don't sound like they know the law.

there are several cities in our state which are on the RTI list on the state dept of ed's website - that means, according to the state that these specific schools have to do RTI. daughter's school is not on the list.............i suppose it sounds like the school is doing RTI- again, i think they're paying attention to the elements that they want to pay attention to- and totally ignoring the elements that they don't like.
i definitely think i'm going to have to contact on advocate.......ugh
natesmom- daughter has a 504 plan which the school is following- this newest element, reading comprehension, seems to be where the school & i are stuck. although daughter has failed most of her history papers, teacher gave her a B. ...i think daughter needs an evaluation- not a list of strategies to try. and i think that the teacher needs to stop giving daughter grades that she didn't earn.

Perhaps my post again wasn't clear. What I was saying is if her current 504 plan wasn't enough for her to be successful they do need to consider more than just a 504 plan. It sounds like that is the case based on what you are saying.

I can't stand it when teachers accommodate the grades (i.e., history teacher gives a B although she is failing)! When the team looks at her grade in that class they think, "Oh, she is doing just find and doesn't need an evaluation - see look at her grades." If the teacher was grading her like other students, then the team would clearly see she needed an evaluation.

I agree with you....she needs an evaluation and the teacher does need to stop giving her those grades. It only hurts her and the team will argue she doesn't need .

Please let us know what you come up with. I honestly don't think they will fight you too much on this.