School district trying to snowball me!

[Kris'smom]

Hello! I just went to the school that my school district wants to send my son to next year and I am not pleased! :wave: He is doing great where he is and he has only been diagnosed for a little over a year. Now they want to send him to the local elementary and they are talking about intergrating him already and he can't handle it yet! Even his current teacher said that he is not ready and that rightnow he does not learn from his peers and they want to take him swimming ! I cant handle all of this and I am going to fight it to the end! Anyone have any suggestions? I could sure use them. Thanks! :GFC: :huh: :confused:

[Lisa S]

Hi Jill,
Sorry it did not go well at the school. Here is a website with some people who can possibly help who are in New York. There are educational advocates and special education attorneys on the list, as well as more general support.

http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com/help/ny.htm

The Wrightslaw website is good as well for explaining about special education law.

The school that your son would attend if he did not have a disability is his neighborhood school. That is where he would go by default. They call it the Least Restrictive Environment. If you want him to go to the special school where his preschool is, you will have to prove that the neighborhood school cannot meet his needs. To do this, you will probably need to get an independent person to come and evaluate your son and both schools and give an opinion about whether the neighborhood school will be able to give your son an appropriate education.
Lisa

[mlwear]

Lisa is exactly right. By law the school district must send your child to his neighborhood school unless the school is unable to provide appropriate services (specified in his IEP and what may be required by your state law). If the school district is dead set on sending him to neighborhood and claim that they can accomodate, then you will have to fight. Unfortunately, our children are entitled to an appropriate education not the best education. It doesn't matter what we want. It is what the child needs. (Remember when you are in discussions that you should never say "we want", always say "he NEEDS".) So, if the school claims that neighborhood school is the proper fit you may want to first start by asking the teacher what she can do to help. When my son went from preschool to elem. the preschool teacher was a BIG part in determining proper placement. Perhaps, if she just speaks to the powers that be and explains that the neighborhood school is not his least restrictive environment. If you get nowhere with that (many teachers are afraid to be confrontational with admin.), then I would hire outsider to do an observation. Go the site Lisa gave, you can probably get help there or call your chapter of ASA. Ours is usually good about making recommendations. You may ask the school district if they have an autism specialsit and ask for him or her to an observation. If not an autism specialist, then the school psychologist. Put out some feelers and see if they are going to be fair or heavily slanted in favor of what the school wants. You may also want to consider calling an IEP meeting and getting a bunch of accomodations put in there. (Maybe the teacher can help you there.) Don't let on to what you are doing, but you may get enough stuff in there that the neighborhood school won't be able to take him. Besides that, you should go to IEP and specifiy how much time he will spend in the general ed. environment. I am assuming your son is in pre-K (preschool). Do you think that he is ready to move on to Kindergarten? An option may be to hold him back in preschool another year. This preschool is in a reg. school setting, right? You can always try to get the teacher to allow or put it in the IEP that he starts spending short amounts of time in one of the K classes. Maybe he could go to music class them or circle time or even recess, but be in preschool the majority of the day. I had to hold my son back in Kindergarten. It was a really hard to decision, but it was best for him.
I just found this information from the US Dept. of Ed. website
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/placpub.html
Evaluation and Placement Procedures

Before placing disabled students in any educational program, schools must evaluate carefully each student's skills and special needs. Federal requirements provide standards for proper evaluations and placement procedures.

The tests and evaluation materials that are used must be chosen to assess specific areas of the student's needs. For example, a student may not be assigned to special education classes only on the basis of intelligence tests. When a student with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills is evaluated, the test results must accurately reflect what the test is supposed to measure and not the student's impaired skills except where those skills are what is being measured. Only trained people may administer the tests or evaluation materials.

Placement decisions must be made by a team that includes people who know about the student and understand the meaning of the evaluation information. The placement team must consider a variety of documented information for each student. The information must come from several sources, including the results of aptitude and achievement tests, teacher recommendations, reports on the student's physical condition, social or cultural background, and adaptive behavior.

;The placement team must also be aware of different options for placing the student so that the student is placed appropriately. See section on Educational Setting, below.

Educational Setting

The law requires that disabled students be educated along with nondisabled students to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the disabled students. This means that disabled students must be assigned to regular courses or classes if the students' needs can be met there. Also, decisions on academic placement must be based on an individual student's needs.

Disabled students may be placed in a separate class or facility only if they cannot be educated satisfactorily in the regular educational setting with the use of supplementary aids and services. For example, students who are blind may be assisted by readers or may use Braille equipment or specially-equipped computer equipment and remain in the regular classrooms. However, students with severe learning disabilities may be assigned to special education classes for part of the day.

Good Luck.

[Kris'smom]

Thank you both so much! I had some trouble with the yellow pages for kids website it wouldnt let me pick my state. But thanks so much! I am ganna try the idea about keeping him in preschool another yr. He was diagnosed very late and I think I can use that to my advantage in this instance. Again thank you and I will let everyone know how it goes. My meeting is on Wednesday the 6th. :huh: Wish me Luck!

[Lisa S]

Jill,
I had already picked New York for the Yellow Pages, because I thought that was your state. I'll give you a link to Wrightslaw instead. Then you can click on the Yellow Pages for Kids at the top of the page. This is the Wrightslaw page with questions and answers about Least Restrictive Environment. The Yellow Pages for Kids will be near the top of the page. After you click on the Yellow Pages and select your state, you will need to scroll down quite a bit to find the resources in your state. Hope this helps. If this doesn't work, please let me know and I'll try again. Oh yes, here's the link:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/lre.osers.memo.idea.htm

Lisa

[Kris'smom]

Sorry Lisa that explains why I could'nt pick it LOL! Sorry I was having a blond moment lol Thanks!

[Lisa S]

Jill,
Don't worry, I have lots of blonde moments these days. (Like almost forgetting to actually post the link, for example!) You might want to look at it anyway. Think about consulting a special education attorney or an advocate, if you can, before the next meeting. The more you know, the less they can push you around.
Lisa

[Kris'smom]

Lisa,
Thats the thing too they only gave me one weeks notice of the IEP meeting. I thought they had to give you 10 business days. But I couldn't find that info.

[mlwear]

Taken from Wrightslaw : Special Edication Law (a book worth every penny).
IDEA Regulations, 34 C.F.R.
Sec. 300.345 Parent Participation
(a) Public agency responsiblity --- general. Each public agency shall take steps to ensure that one or both of the parents of a child with a disability are present at each IEP meeting or are afforded the opportunity to participate including---
(1) Notifying parents of the meeting early enough to ensure that they will have an opportunity to attend; and
(2) Scheduling the meeting at a mutually agreed on time and place.

This was found on page 168.

So, I would NOT sign that notice that they send home telling you about the meeting (it asks if you will attend or not). I would instead send a note that they have not given you enough time in advance to work it into your schedule. If they would have the guts to try to have it without you, they must have detailed notes of letters and phone calls of trying to contact you. By the time they have done this you will have had your extra time. But just bringing up the law and telling them that the time was not mutually agreed upon and that it is not a possible time for you should do the trick. (Plus, it will let them know that you know the law and they better watch that they follow the law.)