Do Students/Parents have the right to refuse Special Ed

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Do students or their parents have the right to refuse Special Ed services from the public schools if they deem them inappropriate for their children?

I tried to get out of special education from 4th grade to 10th grade they did not even listen to me until they were working on some major budget cuts and I threatened to quit so they finally retested me and said I nolonger needed special education. My 11th and 12th grade years were spent in general education classes.

One of my psychologists said after testing me for Aspergers he saw no signs of a learning disability. He believes that I was cheated out of a proper education by the school system. No telling what I would have done if I had not been put into special education classes. When I was in fourth grade I discovered that I was in different class compared to friends and the classes I was taking were slower and easier so I figured why bother studying I am never going to college. I knew if I had to take easier classes in grade school I would never be able to handle college level classes so I would just be wasting time and money trying to learn things I could never handle.

I would also have to say being in those classes let people think I was ret*d and ok to torment. There was not a day I was called a ret*d or spaz as they saw me walking into the classes. People would also tell me I sound smart but you are in special education classes so I must be ret*d.

Ariela,

You didn't say where you are, or what age your are talking about, so your question cannot be properly answered. A child under the age of 18 or 21 (depending on where) in the United States, is not the person who has the final say over his or her educational rights - as with all legal matters, a minor's rights are exercised by his or her parent or legal guardian.

If you are in the United States, the parent or legal guardian is a member of the IEP team, and if the team determines that special education is warranted, and the parents disagree, the parents have a right to disagree with the recommendation of the team. The school district can then take the matter to due process, and the matter is decided by a hearing officer. It is not solely up to the school, nor is it solely up to the parents. Many parents, however, feel very intimidated (and understandably so) by the school district, and are afraid of trying to fight them in court.

If a parent is concerned about the nature of the services, rather than the fact the child is receiving services, the reason for the disagreement between the school district and the parent needs to be considered. It could be that the parent and the school district disagree about the nature of the student's struggles. If the parent thinks that the evaluation does not properly reflect the issues the student is dealing with, the parent can request that an independent educational evaluation be done, at the school district's expense (by an independent psychologist of the parent's choice), and the report has to be considered by the school district in making educational plans for the student.

I don't know about legal rights. probably depends on how good your lawyer is and if you have money and patience to sue with school however if have noticed the vibe is not on your side (even on places like this).
after bad experiences with school district services (waste of time and energy), we are now refusing any iep for our child. we are constantly invited to meetings and our child's behavior is under a magnifying glass so we are looking for a private school or homeschooling (until our son grows strong enough to appear "average" so he can pass under the radar). from my experience, the label and diagnosis are more important for them than that a child learns anything. and they are totally not willing or able (maybe because of lots of regulations of public schools) to learn themselves. it probably works for an average child with problems and average family that can not do better but for atypical cases it is a disaster because they do not have time or brain power to invest in a really complicated case. on the other hand iep gives them a proof that "child has problems" so basically no one is responsible if the child fails. there is no accountability at all.

To be honest, it is very nice to hear from someone like you, because it certainly feels lonely being the only one who doesn't believe in iep.

I also think that IEPs are a bad idea.

Yes! Most special ed courses are nothing more than glorified baby sitters. After my parents learned I was basicaly given "busy work" and the situation with the bullying wasn't being resolved at all, my parents pulled me out to homeschool me. I had an IEP or 504 but the teachers never used it and stupid policies were put it it such as not being allowed to touch anyone with hands feet or objects. If I did, I was to have a five minnute time out session and if soemone else touch med they were to have one too but the teachers only enforced that part once but I was always getting punished. I once held the door open for someone and and slipped so a teacher told me I was trying to hurt that kid with the door and punished me. Another time, a kid purposely made it look like I hit him with the door and lied about it so I would be punished.

Fundamentally, yes, a parent has the right to have that kind of control over their child's education.

This doesn't mean it's always a good idea for a parent to pull their child out of special ed, however.

Special Ed is nothing more than glorified babysitting and the various therapies I received over the years ultimately did more damage to my self esteem and ultimately my academic performance and overall functioning in life than it good. I was often placed with children who had far more severe issues than I had which provided a certain kind of stigma, we were often rewarded or praised for doing tasks which I thought to be simple and found the praise to be quite demoralizing. I don't feel I was challenged enough in the regular classroom, as I was always placed in the lowest level reading and math groups even though I was an average reader and had above average math skills. I ended up thinking of myself as one of the ret*d children and lost my natural curiosity and developed a "who cares" attitude regarding school work. I think parents should not allow their child to be pulled out of the mainstream classroom during the day-this is blatant discrimination, limit the amount of therapy or tutoring their child receives unless it is absolutely necessary so to allow for the child to develop interests of their own. For the therapies they do receive, they should make sure it has more relevance on their child's life and academic performance rather than because it is available and free. They should make sure their child is being intellectually stimulated and not "talked down" to as they should make sure they are placed with children of their intelligence and ability. I find psychologists and social pragmatists as well as anti depressants to be completely useless though I won't over generalize because a limited amount of people have been helped.

They can refuse any type of educational or medical treatment they want. Children have to reach a certain age,parents can at anytime. You have the same rights as anyone else and your child after a certain age can even refuse medical treatment and meds. In my state its not age 18,its age 15.

Well, in my experience, AS people do better when mainstreamed but with accommodations. Most of us don't need special ed in a self-contained classroom, and can handle a normal classroom just fine if we're told what's coming up and given specific instructions about what we should be doing. The "integrated" classroom with a combination of disabled kids and NTs is probably the best situation, because in that setting the AS kid is not the only one who needs extra help.

Unfortunately, special ed can be just as exhausting as a mainstream classroom; and the mental exhaustion is one of the reasons why you might pick special ed in a separate classroom. There seems to be no getting away from the fact that in an unpredictable, chaotic environment like a classroom, autistics are at a severe disadvantage simply because of the fact that they are in that environment.

If home-schooling is possible, it's a good idea most of the time; a child can't learn when constantly stressed. But the parents do have to be involved and capable of teaching the material, and not everyone can do that. I do believe that worries about under-socialized home-schooled kids are almost entirely unfounded: There are enough social groups for home-schoolers that the need for peer interaction can be met without the stress of the constant contact that a normal school day brings.

I only know about the U.S. In the U.S., the answer is yes and no. Yes the parent can decline Special Ed Services. However, if the school thinks the child really needs it, they can get a court order to give Sped services against the parents' wishes. I assume that this would be an aggravation for the school and not something they would do unless they thought the child was in serious academic danger (such as flunking a grade).

Where I live, the student must be placed in the least restricted environment (LRE). As far as I can tell, the LRE is considered to be as close to a typical "regular" classroom as possible. The school has to provide accommodations for the student to be successful, and they have to do it in the LRE.

This was my experience: My child's 3rd grade teacher told me she thought he needed to be placed in the special ed class in 4th grade. [My son is intelligent, even intellectual ~ but he was definitely not doing well in school. I had briefly tried homeschooling, thinking one-on-one would help, but it was difficult & often impossible for me to hold his interest.]

So I went to observe that class. I could tell it wasn't a good fit for him ~ I know what's going on with my own child more than any teacher could, of course. He was already bored in "regular" third grade, and was spacing out a lot ~ he would have been climbing the walls in this particular "special ed" class. The setup was very similar to the other classes: kids sitting in rows while a teacher lectured and wrote on the board; or kids working on an assignment. I spent a couple of hours there; I'd also spent time in my kids' various elementary school classes (volunteering to help the class with a messy project type of thing) & the main difference between , I thought, was they were teaching at a slower pace. (I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that ~ I'm just saying that was my impression!)

I know someone who's very familiar with the special education program in our district. S/he told me the school couldn't make that change without my approval. Obviously, this could vary by locality. I disagreed with his teachers' opinion, & explained why I thought it was more appropriate for him to continue in the regular class (invoking the LRE principle as above).

Long story short, they went along with me and his placement remained the same. He started going to the "resource room" ~ a class with only a few students & a special education teacher, who was there to help them learn to compensate for their disabilities/differences for an hour or two a day, or maybe it wasn't daily, but frequent. It also specified a few other accommodations, all of which I agreed to (and when he got older & started coming to the IEP meetings, he agreed to everything as well). They did not apply pressure to go along with their way (or maybe they did & I didn't notice, it's quite possible!) ~ rather, they presented me with some other options, and then they went along with what I decided.

Again, it depends on where you live. Also ~~ I'm not sure whether the same rule would apply in a more extreme situation. For example, if my son had been unable, all or most of the time, to refrain from behaving in a way that severely disrupted the rest of the class (to the point that it negatively impacted the quality of the education the other students were receiving) I'm not sure if they would have been required to go along with my insistence on keeping him in that class. (Not that I would have insisted on it, if that was happening.... But that's never been the case, so I don't know.)

+1

Had borderline genius IQ and was dumped into the EDP class (Emotionally Disturbed People) because of my poor grades. Other kids with my IQ and good grades got to go to the honors class where they had all the neat stuff to do and study.

All I ever saw in these "ret*d" classes was a bunch of kids, some who were really messed up but most just had issues, stuck where they did classwork years below what most were capable of. Arts and crafts, etc. It was "fun" in a way, but these kids were not getting an education.

It's insulting that a kid who put in 12 years in the special ed class got a diploma. Certainly, nobody was going to ever take him seriously with his severe retardation issues, but to say he "earned" his diploma for putting in the time but being unable to do the work just showed how pointless the education system was.

If you have a kid with issues at school but not obvious handicap issues, better to home school or get them into a school that will be willing to deal with it rather than just farm him out to a babysitting room for the next 12 years.

When I was in special ed I started to pick up weird behavior of the kids in the class that I never showed before so my parents complained it took them two years to figure out what to do so they gave me one normal class which was an art class. When they put me in this art class the NT students saw my weird behavior and decided to make my life a living hell. When I told the special ed teacher I wanted out of the art class because they constantly pick on me and destroy my artwork she just looked at and said your parents wanted you in at least one normal class well here it is. It was almost like they were punishing me for making waves. All it did was show me how mean "normal" kids could be.

Last edited by Todesking on 27 Dec 2010, 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

In theory, parents have the right to refuse. In practice, they have experts telling them what is "best" for the child and implying that they are bad parents if they do not fall into line. They have intimidating authority figures with advanced degrees pressuring them to do what may or may not actually be in the best interests of the child. Everyone has ulterior motives, and, in the case of "invisible" disabilities, different opinions on which ones are "real." At the end of the day, the schools are mandated with educating kids with disabilities, which is expensive, without enough funding to do it. It is in the school systems' best interest to deny such costly special measures to as many children and possible. The whole goal of the system is to make students as "normal" as possible, which means that if the "educators" involved are thorough, they will do everything they can to anihilate an autistic personality. An IEP is a deal with the devil, but sometimes there is no other way.

Yes, parents of an autistic child(ren) as well, the student his/her self have the right to accept or deny Special Education..
This is not going to be easy, but here it goes.I was in spec ed from 5th grade all the way through 12grade.. There had been a time or two where I felt that I was inaccurately placed and sought out to have my placement given a second look but, at that time my request went un-attended. Personally, my inclusion into spec ed was based on circumstances which, I've not made any disclosure of nor mentioning with except unto my former mate for, it always made me feel less human.Still, I shant mention it at this time yet, shall say that at the time my spec ed duration was going on Asperger Syndrome did not exist so, Truthfully, I wound up not learning as much or as needed in regards to other students.Basically, drifted through the school system and from that point on floundered.

Well, I simply feel that if a parent or student feels that their voices and concerns warrant more detailed examination then by all means such should be seen to without delay.Sincerely speaking, I feel that there are people whom do really need spec ed courses yet, I also know that school districts do in fact acquire a greater amount of money with the number of students enrolled in spec ed so, I find this practice to be shady.. Lastly, school systems are still in the dark about the autiistic spectrum as a whole in some regards..


Sincerely,
ProfessorX