is it a good idea to keep the IEP, or change to 504?

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I'm getting a call from the special ed director at my son's middle school. Great guy, but haven't dealt with him that much this year. My son's in a position where, in spite of difficulties paying attention in class or completing work, he has made it to the honor roll twice this year. He's really doing very well.

We want to take him out of special ed classes (he is down to one now, he had two in elementary school) because he is complaining that they are too easy. I don't get the feeling that he does better in special ed -- I think he feels like he shouldn't be in those classes, and I also feel as if he needs the stimulation of the regular ed classes (where he is currently doing very well). He will continue to be in a Reading Lab, which isn't necessarily Special Ed, but has regular ed kids that just need more work on reading comprehension (which is the one area my son really needs help). This class has been GREAT, so we want to continue it.

I've also asked that he NOT be pulled out into a separate classroom to take standardized tests, like the Iowa test or the PSSA's. I don't care about those tests at all -- I think they're a waste of time. But I know that the school is going to fight us on this, because they don't like the special ed kids pulling down the total scores of the general population -- apparently it means less money for the school. Don't really care -- I don't want him pulled out.

So, have any of you been through this with your child? Have you ever changed from an IEP to a 504? Should I not make a change like that?

Thanks,

Kris

Here's a discussion we had on another forum regarding 504 vs. IEP....

http://www.schoolpsychologistfiles.com/ ... ?f=2&t=339

In regards to the testing: In my state, it wouldn't matter where a child is educated as to whether the scores count, it's all on special education eligibility, not placement. I would imagine that is the same across states, but you might want to check into that more.

I read that link, schoolpsycherin, and although it was interesting to learn that a 504 continues on to college, while an IEP is finished once high school is completed, I'm still kind of in the dark.

I'm under the impression that an IEP is better, but I'm not sure why.

If I go by one of the explanations in the info that you linked, once a child is in the general ed population WITHOUT any special educational changes in his curriculum, then he's eligible for a 504. My son fits that, but I don't necessarily want to take away an IEP if there are things within an IEP that will benefit him -- i.e. ability to request certain teachers, help outside of class for reading or writing, etc.

Still confused.

Kris

You only mentioned the academic portion of the IEP, how is the doing with the nonacademic curriculum (social skills, TOM, EF, and there generalization). Since this is usually the largest portion of an IEP it is important to make sure these areas are “complete” through transition to college.

I assume if he wants academic challenges that he is in some of the gifted classed.

You can have both but the IEP usually can do most things that a 504 can so it is a little rare

bookwormde

An 504 is less restrictive, and is usually applied in the general education environment. If a student is able to succeed with only a 504, it's usually better to go that route in my opinion. However, if more accommodations are necessary than an IEP will open more doors to a bigger variety of services. I often see parents who have children who would be successful with a 504 be reluctant to give up the IEP. That's what the discussion started as, but it went into a tangent about how it applies to college... Anyway I thought it might be helpful seeing how some of the other parents who have gone that route felt about it.

At least in our middle school, which is otherwise very good, there are no social skills goals. I guess they figure that after elementary school, there isn't much they can do about that. Heck, we have a hard enough time reminding the teachers to do the academic goals. I'm not sure what "TOM" means -- so if you could explain that, I would be grateful. Executive function skills are worked on, sort of. I mostly do that sort of thing at home, and he is getting better at that.

He is not academically gifted, by the school's standard, so he doesn't qualify. In our school districthey take some test in 2nd grade to qualify for that, and he did not make the cut. He is the typical asperger's child, in that he does great at spelling, punctuation, math, and any memorizing, and as is common, he does NOT do well at the typical reading comprehension, writing, and remembering to hand in his work.

Even with Math, he wasn't that great until this year -- he finally has a great teacher, has received an A in every grading period, and got a 99th percentile on his Iowa testing this year. So, often, his ability to succeed is HIGHLY connected to how good the teacher is.

Kris

you could still keep an IEP, but have less restrictive goals......

From your response I can say that you definitely need to keep the IEP for your child. Social skills training should be ongoing through high school since social demands change with age. TOM is Theory if Mind, which is the ability to effectively “guess” what ether people, are thinking and feeling from their body language, facial expressions and social subtleties of conversation.

To be quite blunt your child’s school is failing to provide what is needed for an appropriate non-academic education. Getting this will require you educating yourself more fully about Aserpgers. Tony Attwood The Complete Guide to Aspergers C2007 is the best to start if you have not already read it (available on Amazon for about $25)

He should be reevaluated for the non-academic portion to determine his level of knowledge and application (by someone who is highly experience with Aspergers).

You do have the right to move your child to the LRE (least restrictive environment) and the school is required to supply the same or greater level of support to do this if his “need” is met in that environment.

Your son sound like he is very self adaptive, but this does not mean he does not need a formal curriculum to help him apply these skills more effetely and with less effort to allow more “energy” to be left for the academic work.

He is clearly gifted in math; your child's school is just not adapting their qualification criteria for his Aspergers. You can write a referral to the gifted program into you IEP along with having the gifted teacher “educated” in Aspergers so she may allow your child to be appropriately challenged and for the curriculum to be adapted to his needs

bookwormde

bookwormde, what kind of activities would they do for social skills in middle school or high school?

I think that my school thinks that they are covering the social skills aspect of the IEP by sending my son to speech therapy, where he works on conversational skills, AND he belongs to a club that has both regular ed kids and special ed kids, where the kids basically show off what they are interested in -- dancing, Guitar Hero, etc. He really enjoys that. I'm not too sure that the speech therapy is that good, but I know my son loves the teacher and the other kids, so I'm not sure whether he would want to leave that or NOT.

Thanks,

Kris

sometimes a school counselor or school psychologist will run a small social skills group. You could ask your teacher if that is available.

Social stories are sometimes used.

My son has ADHD and part of his problems were social. The school did this social skills group, and he did great. Before that he was in the special ed classes and they really didn't teach him any social skills. The principal at this school was really helpful, the school before the principal just called him lazy, stupid and a trouble maker. He has made huge progress just in the change in principals. He still gets in trouble because he can't sit still, but it is the way she approaches the problem, and she never calls him stupid!! !! If you can get a teacher like this wonders never cease.