Thursday, 28 January 2010

• To Fight or Not to Fight for an IEP

  I'm trying to be more like Jonathan, whose only goal in life is to have fun. I'm going to start this post with a Jonathanism.
  
  Jonathan: Mom, there is a letter in my folder for you.
  Me: I know. I found it.
  Jonathan: What was it?
  Me: A note saying you are too smart for you britches.
  Jonathan: WHAT?
  Me: Britches is an old word for 'pants'....
  Jonathan interupts me bursting with excitment.
  Jonathan: Does that mean I don't have to wear pants to school anymore?
  Me: Ah...no.
  Jonathan: Awww! Why not?
  Me: It's one of those social rules.   
  
  
  

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  I love my fellow blogging friends! Yesterday's comments were very helpful, as were two other dialogues I had "off-blog."
  
  I think I've changed my mind from going in resigned to accepting no IEP without a fight. Instead I'm going into the meeting ready to fight for one. My gut and experience say that having good writing skills is important to success. But I don't have to walk into the meeting today with just my gut. The College Board in cooperation with the National Governer's Alliance created The National Writing Commission which surveyed government Human Resource Directors in 49 states. The conclusion? It is estimated remediating poor writing skills of government employees costs the taxpayers $221 million ANNUALLY. 
  
  What's considered good writing skills?
  

  State human resources directors identify features of good writing that most teachers of writing would support. Nearly 100 percent of respondents agree that accuracy, solid spelling, grammar and punctuation, clarity, documentation and support, sound logic, and conciseness are either “important” or “extremely important” characteristics of good writing.
  

  I don't know about you, but I'm disturbed about the huge cost to taxpayers. I thought my taxes paid for them to be taught good writing skills the first time. Why am I paying to remediate their writing skills? (If you want to see the 45 page report, I've provided the link here.)
  
  Because I "think" better on paper, I've written two documents I'm prepared to pull out during the meeting. The first one is my "position paper" or "my argument" for continuing an IEP. I'm proud of myself. I've incorporated all the "legalese" and "buzzwords" from the applicable federal law (IDEA) and I'm using mostly the schools reports to back up my arguments.
  
  Remember, under IDEA 1)a student must be found to have a disability which is defined in the law, 2)that disability must impact their education and 3)the disability can be remediated through specially designed instruction to meet the child's unique needs.
  
  I've found IDEA lists "a specific learning disability" as one which qualifies under they law. It is defined in the act as "a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations." (Emphasis added)
  
  I'm quoting the National Writing Commission's report on the impact of poor writing skills as how Jonathan's disability will impact him in the future and how I believe it is impacting him now.
  
  I will present my proof
  

  • A dozen writing samples
  • The guidence counselor's classroom observation in which she also notes his misspelled words, inappropriate use of capitalization and missing punctuation
  • The school psychologist's report showing Jonathan "tested significantly lower on a subtest in the area of "planning" which involved "motivation, self-monitoring and self-correcting"
  • Emails back and forth between the teacher and I about these issues
  • A report on dysgraphia which defines the disability, gives examples of symptoms, suggests how a psychologist evaluates for this disability and then suggests remediation and accommodations for this learning disability.

  I will conclude my paper with Scott's and my parental goal for Jonathan. "He is able to function at a level which is typical for his age. This includes being able to independently complete his homework assignments in an appropriate amount of time. As it stands now, one of the parents has to sit with him for an hour every night to 1) keep redirecting him to complete the homework, 2) argue about the logic, illogic and the fairness of having to do homework when he's already been in school six hours during the same things, 3) take his dictation for any written assignments and 4) find creative ways to study for spelling tests which don't include writing.
  
  The second document I will have with me and ready to pull out, if necessary, will be a written request for an Independent Educational Evaluation to be paid by the school system. Under IDEA, I have the right to request this if I feel that the school has not evaluated "all areas of suspected disability."
  
  I have proof of at least two years (and possibly four years) of mentioning my concern that Jonathan has dysgraphia. The school system has never "fully" evaluated Jonathan to prove or disprove my concern. They've always evaluated him from a "fine motor skill" point-of-view and never from a "psychological processing" point-of-view. My understanding is that the school has two choices when I present this request in writing. They can approve my request or they can deny my request. If they deny my request, a due process hearing will have to be called and the school as the burden of proof as to how their evaluation have adequately addressed "all areas of suspected disability." I don't believe they can prove this.
  
  So, there you have it. My "hard line" position on what I feel is necessary for my son to access his free appropriate public education. However, I honestly am not going into today's meeting "with my guns blazing." The bottom line is always Jonathan's needs. I just need to have clear in my mind what he needs so that I can be in a position to negotiate with the school. Honestly, if we believe a 504 Plan will meet all his needs AND the 504 Plan can be enforced, then we'll be satisfied with this. In the past, we haven't been able to get a 504 Plan so clearly written that we can prove or disprove compliance. Our attorney said, in many ways a 504 Plan has more teeth to it. If we can prove that the school is not complying with a 504 we can complain to the state board of education and the state office of Civil Rights enforcement. Both offices can make life miserable for a school.
  
  And I would LOVE to tell you tomorrow that I worried and stayed up all night for nothing!!!! Let's hope.

  

  

  
  

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