Team Meeting

No way. Number one, they must give you 7 days notice of the meeting by law. Then, you have the opportunity to say that you can’t come that day and have an alternate day/time scheduled. Only if you sign a paper that you are coming and then do not show up (or never respond to any of the invitations) can they go ahead and have the meeting without you.

Janis

I think they can have a “meeting” without you, but an IEP meeting cannot be done without you, unless you already have an IEP.

I was assuming it was an IEP team meeting since she made reference to being notified of “decisions”. They can informally talk about a child’s case anytime they want to without the parent present. But they cannot make any changes to the IEP without giving the parent advance notice of the meeting and an opportunity to reschedule so they can attend.

Meetings are one thing. Making decisions regarding the child’s program without the parent and then “notifying you of changes after the fact” is something to be addressed. There is an abundance of laws that point to the parent being considered “equal” partner on the “team”, and their approach certainly leaves a bit to be desired here.

I would suggest strongly that you respond in writing and reiterate what it was you were told on the phone, at what time, by whom etc., and be very blunt and matter of fact. No emotion. Simply state what you were told and then express your desire to be a part of your child’s education “team”, and that it is your understanding that if you cannot make the scheduled meeting, alternate times could/should be proposed.

You can go to web sites that have sample letters, explanations and access to the laws, and you should brush up on this stuff as soon as you can. Socks has a web site, other good ones to go to are www.wrightslaw.com, www.edlaw.com and many others are available, including thru this bb.

Make sure you document everything, including your desire to attend and be specific about how you were notified, etc… Take some time and do the research over the weekend, prior to sending off a CERTIFIED LETTER by Monday or Tuesday. Send the letter directly to the head of special ed in your district.

Hope this helps.

Andy

This is the very first team that we have ever had for this student!! She was just tested in December. I feel very unprepared and am feeling overwhelmed. The school has made it clear that they do not feel that her test scores reveal anything but laziness. She had Woodcock Johnson and speech/lang eval.

Everyone I have talked to said low subscores on speech and language reveal problems. We have family history of CAPD, dyslexia, but the school says she is not trying hard enough.

I am not sure what to do. We are trying to get CAPD testing for her at Children’s Hospital in Boston but because of cost we are waiting on word from her insurance. We can not afford it w/o insurance.

A local learning disabilities group said use the meeting to gather as much information as possible such as how long each tester was with my sister, how they determined she was just lazy, how they used teacher input to make this decision. The group also said I probably shouldn’t allow my sister to attend since it is apparent that the meeting is going to be used as a personal attack on her.

Any suggestions, such as questions and such, I am wondering if I should try to scratch together the money for the advocate to attend? Also any suggestions on what kinds of questions to ask?? I have done this before with my brother but this feels different and I don’t want to mess it up.

Thanks
Dawn

Dawn, are you the legal guardian for your younger siblings? It is so wonderful that you are taking such an active role in their education. Special education is complicated enough for parents to deal with, so I salute you for trying to become educated about your siblings’ needs.

How old is your sister? Laziness as a diagnosis makes me highly suspicious. There are lots of things that may cause a child to look lazy: sometimes ADD, depression, learning difficulties, inattention due to CAPD, other emotional problems, etc. can cause a child to appear this way. Low speech/language scores certainly signal something. That is exactly why I had my own child tested for CAPD and she did end up being diagnosed with it. I agree with the sister not attending this particular meeting. It would probably be very negative for her self-esteem based on what you’ve said.

One thought, have you checked the CAPD sites to see if there might be a less expensive source to do the CAPD evaluation in case the insurance doesn’t cover it? A good private eval from someone in Washington, DC costs $600 whereas we had our child tested at a university CAPD clinic and it cost about $250.

Having an advocate could be a good idea if the advocate is knowledgable and good.

If you want to, post her scores here (IQ, achievement, and speech/language) and I’m sure you’ll get some opinions about what the scores mean from the folks on this board. Maybe it will help you be more confident before attending the meeting.

Janis

I posted her scores here once before and got conflicting answers. Her advocate said it sounded like she needed a CAPD eval. The least expensive eval is $400 dollars. We are waiting to see if her insurance will cover it.

The school special ed director sent home a letter saying they were not going to do IQ tests because Woodcock Johnson had a large cognitive area. They were also supposed to do the Detroit tests of reading aptitude. The IQ and Detroit tests are on the consent we signed but weren’t done.

On the speech/lang: semantic relationships was a 4, listening to paragraphs was a 6, and word associations was a 4. Her receptive language score was 78 and expressive language was 92, her total language score was 84.

On the woodcock johnson Long term ret. was 82 and fluid reasoning was 87 everything else was in the low 90. However on scattered test she had low scores, visual auditory learning 83 and retrieval fluency 86. The women who tested her for the Woodcock told her after their first meeting that she knew there was nothing wrong with my sister she just needed to stay after school.

The Special Ed Director told us from day one that she did not beleive my sister has any type of disability. She said her lack of success is due to absenses she has related to a car accident. Even though my sister received special reading assistance in middle school and has a family history the special ed director said it is all my sister. Which I totally disagree with.

Also this is a charter school and they don’t want to pay for anything.

Thanks
Dawn

Those language scores are low and I would agree with the need for CAPD testing. If some of the other subtests are average (closer to 10), then I think it is inappropriate to use the total scores. That is called subtest scatter, when some scores are normal or high and some are very low. It basically means the combined scores don’t tell much. What did the SLP say about the language scores? Will she qualify for Speech/Language services?

I do remember your earlier posts now. Certainly poor attendance can cause academic delays. But from what you are saying, it sounds like there were problems long before that. It sounds like your advocate is on target with the CAPD testing. If it were me, I think I’d try to get the advocate to go with you if it is not too expensive.

Janis

The SLP gave a list of recommendations similar to those given to my CAPD brother. ( I can’t find the list right now!) The special ed women who did the Woodcock Johnson wrote a page of recommendatioms for my sister. Basically it sounds like how to study. For example, it says when she reads she should read the passage, book, article, first and while reading write down words she doesn’t know, then look them up and then re-read the passage etc.
I do find this useful info. but it is not what she was hired by the school to do. She was supposed to be looking for learning disabilites. Not diagnose her study skills.

Dawn

Regarding the LD testing, it is possible that your sister just does not have the discrepancy between ability and achievement that is required to officially label her “LD”. There are many kids who fall into a category of having problems but don’t quite qualify. Now that you have said your brother has been diagnosed CAPD, it is even more likely that your sister may be as well. If she doesn’t qualify for lD services, she might be able to get a 504 plan if you get the CAPD diagnosis. If I recall form the past, I think she is in highschool, and that doesn’t allow a lot of time to remediate her problems. I don’t remember you mentioning her reading scores this time. Can you tell us those, please?

Janis

Do you mean reading scores from the Woodcock Johnson? I will have to get the test results out and let you know.

I recall they were all within the average. Which is odd since I have read with her and she had horrible difficutlties, so I thought it was weird that she did so well.

Although after re-reading her summary page I realized the Special Ed teacher
must have given her one of my letters. I say this because in the letter I mention that a speech and lang eval can help determine listening comprehension, the ability to mentally manipulate info, and the ability to follow directions as they become more lengthlier and complex. In the summary page of the Woodcock Johnsons 2,3,and 4 on the page are those exact words. For example it says, “Jane’s” ability to mentallly manipulate information is within normal range or “Jane’s” listening comprehension is not an issue and is within normal range. I never said that I wanted the Woodcock Johnson done for those specific things. I said I wanted a full eval for all areas of suspected disabilties. I also don’t understand why a private letter to the special ed director/teacher was shared with this women.

Dawn

Dawn,

If she scored within the average range on the reading subtests, that is probably why they don’t consider her LD.

But regarding CAPD and listening, my child also passed some listening tests, but she is still APD. (For your information, most people in the area of CAPD now call it APD). As a matter of fact, she passed the APD screening test that the SLP gave her. But I had the complete APD testing done anyway, because I knew she had problems. It did turn out that she does have APD, as I mentioned earlier. The school people just do not know enough about APD to make statements that she doesn’t have it.

I do not necessarily think it is a bad thing for the testing person to know things you were concerned about and to address them in the report. I do think it would be common for school personnel to share a letter like that with other members of the IEP team or testing person. It would still be confidential information as long as it was only shared with people who have to do with the case.

Has ADD-inattentive type been ruled out?

Janis

The Woodcock Johnson she scored well on except in Fluid reasoning and long term retreival. I don’t agree with those results because it says she is this great reader, which unfortunately she is not. I don’t totally understand it. The summaries of each test don’t make sense to me and then the summary page is completely useless.

ADD-inattentive has not been ruled. We haven’t ruled anythng out. The school has flat out said even before testing began that she had no disability.

When we compared her CELF-3 to her CAPD brothers they were almost identical. His school kept saying he had ADD when in fact he didnt’. He was just diagnosed at 12.

The meeting is today, I am trying to get my questions together but I am starting to feel really worked up.

Dawn

Dawn,

Hope the meeting went well! Please let us know!

Janis