Last year, school wanted to mainstream my 6th grade daughter for two advanced (7th) classes-english and science. Grades in regular classes were poor, and school thought it was because she was bored. My daughter’s iep states that all completed hw.quizzes/tests are to be copied and mailed home to us. The reason for this is because we doubted school’s claim, believe there are unresolved ld issues, and because daughter is sometimes totally unorganized and sometimes noncompliant with bringing hw/tests home, we wanted to be able to gauge how she was doing in these classes.
School now says it is too difficult for teachers to copy completed hw/et al because the class size is 25+ and that class time is 45 mins long???? And say the only way we can receive it is via child. Does this sound illegal/unrealistic to you? At her iep last year, we were guaranteed that the teachers could do this, was the only way we would allow the advanced classes, and it was put into her iep as such. Can school be brought to bear on this since its on iep?
Help please!
Re: school says its too much work
The problem is that the work we have received so far has been horrible, which would prove that advanced classes are too much for her at this time. School tried to push advanced classes as the solution for her behavioral problems, we believe there are ld issues. Without the hw we have no proof, which is just what the school wants
Re: school says its too much work
I’m a special education teacher, and if it was in one of my students’ IEP’s to copy and send home the things you’re asking for, and if I decided not to do it, I would be in big trouble! Have an informal meeting with your daughter’s teachers, and the principal, sped. director, and school psychologist if possible. Bring the IEP, and make sure they remember it’s in there. Be nice, but let them know that you have no problem calling a PPT and bringing in an advocate if they choose not to follow what’s in her IEP. If it’s in her IEP they are mandated to do it, and are breaking the law if they don’t. If they continue to “refuse” to do it, call a PPT and find a good advocate or a lawyer who specializes in sped. law. This seems harsh (and if you were in my school I might see things differently :) ), but the law’s the law. Good luck!
Re: school says its too much work
A PPT is a planning and placement team meeting. That’s the lingo they use in my neck of the woods (CT). If your daughter has a formal, special education IEP, it was developed at a PPT, regardless of what your state/district calls it.
Have they tested her?
On what basis are they saying she needs advanced coursework? When was she last given a complete psychoeducational eval, and what were the results?
Re: Have they tested her?
Absolutely no basis, other than they think her behavioral problems in class are because she is not being challenged. Her SAT from english showed above grade level, but it is not really a true comprehension test. BTW, child is deaf and uses ASL as primary language at an ASL school, advanced classes are at a mainstreamed school with interpreter.
When I had her tested on the WISC last year, her scores she showed to be in the 25 percentile for mazes, coding, and symbols—all related to processing speed, which is where her problems lie. She’s 12 yo and still can’t tell time, for god’s sakes. Hideous short term memory. Her comprehension problem shows itself in her hw, because she doesn’t follow the directions…why, she can’t understand them. She tests at barely 3rd grade level for math.
The biggest problem is she refuses to tell anyone about her reading problems other than me and her father, and has been compensating for three years. When she finally admitted it to me at the end of the fourth grade after faking illness for 10 days…I suspected for a long time..I told her teacher who refused to believe me, told me I was telling the child she couldn’t read. Of course child went into class and denied having a problem….doesn’t want for anyone to think she is “stupid” and was afraid teacher would be mad at her for lying for almost two years. So here I went up against a 20+ year teacher…how dare I. Teacher went from initally being receptive , when she thought it was a defiance issue and told me “we’re going to break this little bronco” to when I finally discovered it wasn’t defiance at all but ld that she had been hiding from everyone to tell others “They {her parents} don’t know what that child needs.”
Of course child was going to class, when the work got hard, getting thrown out of class, then when the teacher asked her what was wrong, would tell the teacher “My stepmom is always yelling at me, my dad says I’m bad, and I wish my mom wouldn’t use drugs” and begin well orchestrated tears, unfortunately the first two NEVER happened. But did the school try to call and talk to us. NEVER. Another time child was rude to an adult on the bus, we asked the school to deal with it appropriately at school, child then told AP (in tears again, of course) that she admitted she did it, but only because “stepmom was screaming at her.” AP interrogated bus drivers, who told him the truth, that that never happened, yet when I asked AP why he would believe child over three adults, his response was “Well she was so believable”
Finally brought her in to the assistant principal to talk about reading problems, in tears she admitted the truth, then I find out that AP thought I put her up to it. Child will NOT tell anyone, and as such her behavior has gotten worse and worse.
School party line is that she gives up easily, maybe if she were challenged. Unfortunately, because she’s my stepchild living with us due to maternal neglect, she’s used anything, including huge lies about family life (that were horrible to her, verbally and physically abusive) to get out of doing the work…and the school believed her without ever calling to confirm.
The little homework we’ve gotten out of the school shows clearly she is not understanding the work, and since it was the school’s idea to have advanced classes, now they are steamrolling us on the hw which is the only thing that would prove our point. We have tried in vain for three years to work with this school, they refuse to acknowledge that we could be right.
It’s a mess…please for those of you reading this. What is the best way to fix this mess once and for all. I’m desperately in need of help.
Re: Have they tested her?
Hi,
We are in Calif, so we use the mediation/hearing process for placement issues. I don’t know about other states. If the actual IEP itself is not being complied with, then you go to the State with a non-compliance complaint.
Try to get info or call these folks:
http://www.pai-ca.org/Index.htm#PAI
PAI for California: 1-800-704-0900
Look on their web site for the Special Ed manual. It is INVALUABLE.
www.reedmartin.com Good web resource.
www.php.com My local support (parents-helping-parents) web site.
Good Luck,
-L
Re: Have they tested her?
This child is screaming for someone to do something, that’s for sure. I guess I would request a full psychological evaluation including projective testing for starters. You need to have an integrated picture of what is going on here and how all the different pieces are pinging off each other before something blows. It would be best to have all the testing done by the same person so that they get an integrated picture of what is going on- so you might need to request an Independent Educational Evaluation- do it in writing.
Kids don’t act like this for no reason. It is too uncomfortable and behavior at the level you describe rarely has just one simple cause. One thing that tweaked my radar was the mention of early maternal neglect- made me wonder about things like attachment disorder- which would help to explain a lot of this behavior. But… first you need to have her tested to identify ld issues, real achievement and emotional pieces.
Robin
Rather than insisting that they copy and mail them, insist that together you find a way to communicate your kid’s performance to you since that is what the need is. (Can they email you the information? do you have a fax machine? — or it could end up being hte same solution). Make it more work to not do anything than it is to figure something out by being a squeaky wheel — but if that solution is “too much work” then there just has to be another way to meet the kid’s needs.