I WANT MY SON EDUCATED, NOT A BABY SITTER SERVICE AT SCHOOL......
Here is the e-mail letter I sent my sons IEP team leader, and specific Special Education District persons: (blanked out schools names for privacy reasons) What should I do next? My son is at a level 3 school(most restrictived educational environment). I feel it is not the appropriate placement for my son. Need advice, Please.
I want my son, Jaden (last name), going to (school A) this coming school year for 4th grade. His current school, (school B), is NOT teaching him any academics. I feel he is not in the least restrictive learning environment ,currently. He loved summer schooling with his (school A) teachers. (School B) has not taught my son any new academic skills in the last 2 years that he has been there. He has never even been introduced to any math other than single digit addition, such as 7+9=16, where the numbers only add up to 20. He didn't know how to even add double digit numbers like 22+35= 57 where there is no carrying over to the tens. He didn't know because is has not been introduced to him. THIS, should have been introduced in 2 nd grade. The district is failing my sons academic needs. If he doesn't have any learning disability, and is smart and able to learn, as I have been told by the district, why is he now reading at a beginning first grade level, and doing math at a kindergarten level? It has to be presented to him and taught to him in order for him to learn it. This is not happening at (school B). My son does not need day care, he needs an education. What do I need to do to have him start this school year at (school A) on Aug. 17th. Why send him to a "school" for 5 hours a day, 7 days a week when he isn't being taught any academics? Please call me ASAP.
thank you.
Sometimes the work it takes to ensure an education for our children is the most challenging of all the parental duties. (for me anyway)
and it is emotionally and physically exhausting. But I refuse to back down or give up.
I just got a call from the head of special education in our school district and he said that he is going to get an IEP team meeting set up really soon(and even mentioned that they will have to probably pay the teachers and school staff to attend, since it will be out of school time, before school starts) and get things moving forward. This sounds good! I want him to have an education and he will get one. FAPE is going to happen here and I wont back down till it does.
Good for you Genisa! You truly are a wonderful advocate for your sons!
now going to be planning the details. I have my family advocate getting the details as to what is available for my son at his home school. It will take some transitioning, but at least he is going to be moving forward again and learning.
Way to go Genisa!
I already know that they are not going to want to pay for a one to one para for him, but it is vital to a sucessful transition for my son. From what I have heard, so far, they are talking about putting him in a regular education classroom(with no para, from what I assume), and the classes he is not at the level of the rest of the kids(4th grade) he and another special ed. student would go to the Resource room to get the one on one. assistance. THAT would be all of his academic lessions, as he has not been taught anything in the last two years, and has even regressed. All that would be left to do "in the classroom" would be gym, recess, art, lunch. Those aren't in the classroom anyway. He also needs extra support in activities where there is less structure. I know he needs alot of services, and the district is looking at what would save them more, while I am looking at providing an appropriate education with all needed services. What if they say they can't provide all that he needs in the regular education classroom, because, "they don't have the approved funding for cost of all he would need.II know they would rather pay for him to go to this level 3 school(most restrictive educational learning evironment) than to iintegrate him into a regular education classroom and have to provide multiple supports and services so that he can be successful in an environment that is least restsrictive. What do I do if they present a transition plan for my son, and it is "lacking" in very important services and supports. I can already see that possibly happening, concidering all that I had to fight for for the last 7 of his 9 years. (didn't get involved with any school district till he was about 2) At our last IEP meeting( around February, I think), which was our first discussion about transitioning, since his behaviors have been great for the last 1 1/2 years, and felt he was ready. The more needs that we discussed that he had, the more they tried to convince me that it was not a good idea to transition right now. What they presented was not going to be enough to help him., if he did transition. They painted a hopelessness(if not impossible) picture of a transition into the regualr education school and emphasized that his current placement, in level 3 school, has all that he needs.(all that is, exept being taught academics or being in the least restrictive possible environment that he can handle(with proper supports).They were saying that he couldn't really be incorporated into the classroom becasue he was "way behind" on his academic skills. The then 3rd graders were working on multiplication and division, while Jaden hadn't been introduced to anything above single digit addition for the last 2 years and that his need for a one on one para and would mean that he has "too many needs" to be able to transition at that time. IF he is provided services and supports that he needs, he can do very well. I have been working with him on his Cub Scouts activities( I am one of the packs assistant cubmasters and assistant leader for the webelos I den(my son is currently the only scout in the den)and Last year we worked very hard and he earned alot of awards above and beyond the basic requirements for the diffferent level badges(Wolf, Bear, so far)He is always very enthuesastic to do an activity. He loves to learn new things. I have to turn every activity into a hands on activity, including the requirments that only require a short discussion on a topic. Or we look up things online and discuss them(he always has plenty of questions and is very inquisitive. He picks up information really quickly. One thing that is really difficult to work with him on his doing things that require writing(or even typing). He has alot of difficulty with writing(takes focused effort to write each letter for each word, one at a time. He doesn't write fluenntly at all. His spelling is horid, and can only read at a beginning first grade level. He gets frusterated really quickly. According to the school, he has no learning disabiltiy or other difficulty that would cause him to have these issues and that he is "very smart". they say the reason he isn't learning is becasue he is "unmotivated". Wouldn't you be unmotivated if everyday was the same repetitive thing over and over, never really learning anything new. UGGGG. pure torcher for a someone that likes to learn new information. His math has been only a worksheet, once a day with simple single digit adddition(about 15 problems) varied from day to day, but none of the problems adding up to anythign more than 20. OMG. He is supposed to go to school to be taught how to read, how to do even basic math that is necessary in everyday life. (he doesn't even know what the name of a nickle is as in money skills, that is definatly very important to learn. I just want him to learn what he will need to go about his daily life when he is older, and hopefully to reach his full potential and live a happy, productive life. Why is it that no one will listen to a parent at all, and the only way to get anything in the school is to have an advocate or specialist on your sons side, come to the IEP meeting and fight for his needs?
I have to tell you that this is exactly the conversation that led me to homeschool my son. In response to a statement very similar to the one in the post, our administrator looked me straight in the eye and asked "why are you worried about that?"
I tried answering "if he's ever going to get through high school, won't he need to learn to add and multiply?"
She didn't seem to think this would be an issue.
Given that my son is verbal, literate, and has an average IQ, I had no idea how to respond except to find a way to educate my child on my own... and look for a better setting!
Lisa
is your son learning now that you are homeschooling?
Genisa, I wish you well with your IEP deliberations. IMO it might be a mistake simply to mainstream your son without an aide, after all that he has been through. And it's very important that this aide be trained to operate as a role model rather than a nanny. I sure hope your son has a better experience going forward.
My son, who will be 13 in a few weeks, is headed for an ED grade-level setting in a regular public school. This is actually a step down from the highly restrictive setting he has been in for the past four years (special ED school). The plan is to wean him from the SDC (special day class) in steps (while educating him at grade level) and eventually return him to regular ed. He has a caring team looking out for him, who seem very much to want him to be successful.
My son was born severely premature, in Russia, with very complicated needs. He had scar tissue on the brain, mild cerebral palsy, and rather severe executive functioning impairment (life skills at the level of a three year old, after intensive therapy). While his autism is thought to be mild, he suffers from very steep mood swings and has often lashed out at others. Recently, he injured a staffer, who is still recovering and out on worker's comp.
Despite substantial disability, my son is intelligent and functions at grade level in most academic subjects. He is highly verbal and in fact quite eloquent. His short stories are a hoot, and I hope he will continue to write creatively. Soon I hope to find time in his schedule for a creative writing tutor. He had the same one in the past and did well with her.
I am proud of my son for the progress he has made and hopeful for his future.
If I had to look back on my son's educational experiences, I'd say that he never really had the focused attention that he needed. However, because he was highly verbal and quite smart, he was able to access the curriculum when he was in preschool, kindergarten and first grade. Imagine a kid who wasn't potty trained, wearing diapers, unable to care for most of his own basic needs, attending regular ed classes with RSP (tutoring), no aide.
I look back on this and feel so sad for him. We (he and we) worked so hard when he was at home to teach him life skills, and he'd make progress, but because he didn't qualify (they said) for a behavioral IEP, the school refused to implement consistent training while he was at school. As a result, we were constantly treading water to help our son to generalize from the one environment we could influence to the one that we could not. Needless to say, that didn't work out.
By the time our son was seven, his classmates figured out that our son wasn't potty trained and that he was a messy eater, and they rejected him and began taunting him and bullying him. My son fell apart, shut down, refused to learn, refused to participate. He grew angry and began lashing out. Home schooling wasn't an option either at that point, because even I could not reach him. He insisted he wanted to be in school. He wanted to be around kids who would like and respect him.
We had attorneys fighting for him by this time, tried to get services, were told that our son was much too high functioning, and this was a kid who was functioning on the level of an infant except for academically, and it just breaks my heart how difficult it was to get people's help and attention.
It's possible that if my son had had a one to one aide who could have worked with us to implement the home training while he was at school that my son would be in general ed right now and doing much better. Emotionally, it was just too draining for him to be so different and not to have the support he needed to feel successful.
I was similar to my son in the respect that I was academically higher functioning than I was socially. My son is adopted, so the fact that we are both on the spectrum is coincidence. However, I'm often struck by how our experiences echo one another's. That said, I didn't have the executive functioning challenges my son has. His are quite severe. He needs to have lists and reminders, to develop a system for keeping himself abreast of the specific tasks he is responsible for. I had a memory like a steel trap and didn't need reminders or cues. If anything, I was very OCD about everything, obsessively planning, deliberate, methodical. Still, socially, there are some striking similarities.
The academic placement that worked the best for me (general ed did not work) was similar to today's GATE programs. I was moved forward into classes for the most anal retentive of the students with high IQ scores. And I thrived. I think half of those kids must have had Asperger's.
Because pretty much no one in the gifted classes had good social skills, I didn't stand out so much, and I was no longer tortured for getting 108 percent on my tests (with bonus points added on) or being obsessive about certain things, because pretty much everyone in that program was obsessive about something. I learned to participate in clubs and on school projects, such as debate teams or musicals or student government, which gave me structure for interacting with other kids. Made a huge, huge difference for me.
But one has to have strong executive functioning skills for such a placement, either that or OCD to compensate for the lack of them. My son wouldn't survive there.
So he needs a facilitated environment with high expectations. The problem is that most school districts only have ED classes that fit that bill. It's difficult to put our very vulnerable kids into small classrooms with kids who are angry and lash out, even when our kids might do the same thing from time to time. It's hard because role models are important. If they look around and see the lashing out as normal and acceptable, this can delay progress in terms of rechanneling their energy in positive ways.
The thing I hope for is that my son will be around kids who are also coming out of special school placements and are there because they've made significant progress. So, as he looks around, he will see kids who have greater self-awareness and who are motivated to make things work in "regular school." This may or may not be a realistic expectation, but we'll see. He will have a lower staff-student care ratio, which is a good feature, so long as expectations are high for his making further progress. I've been assured most of his classmates are partially mainstreamed in regular ed, so if that is a norm, that will be something my son should strive to achieve. Fingers crossed!
Genisa - he is learning well through homeschooling, but it's important to note that he's not just "learning at home." we've done everything from homeschool geography fairs to bowling league to art classes to band - as well as working on concrete skills like basic math (found a fab tutor), reading, comprehension, writing, and social/life skills (eg, "let's make the beds!").
This will be our third year of homeschooling, and I am actually hoping he'll be ready to go back to a charter high school the following year (he will be 15).
Lisa
for more info. for those that don't know the details, My son is 9, going into 4th grade, and has been at this level 3 school for the last 2 years. He has learned nothing in this school academically and has actually regressed. I am seriously thinking a lawyer needs to get involved, but I don't have the $$$$ for that. I am not going to sit back and watch the school district fail my son. I also have to watch out because when the district feels "trapped" or like they are being accused of something like this, they call CPS on me, and try to divert the negative "attention" toward my way. This has happened before when he was in 1st grade at his old home school. He has since started a medication that drastically helps with his behaviors that he had in first grade. I need to known where to go from here, and quickly. All I want is my son to get an education, and the district is not doing it.