I am a parent of a child in Ohio. I have been educating myself about how to advocate effectively for my child since 1999. If I only knew then what I know now!
I have maintained a civil relationship with the school, while leaving hints that I am watching them closely and am learning my rights. Actually, my son has found much success this year with grades and organization, I think because of those hints and because they put him with a good team of teachers to shut me up.
I have taught myself to interperet my sons test scores, I have for the first time made my graphs, and for the first time, I will be submitting a parent record of proposal asking them to do exactly what you said you have done.
Test the child with a National achievement test yearly in the area of the childs disiblity.
I have just found that my sons listening pecentiles have been at 6% 1998,10% 1999, and 9% 2000. I also have found that they last tested for that in 2000.
For two years I have gotten nothing but subjective information when it comes to revising his IEP..despite my asking. (His last MFE started in 99 but wasn’t completed til 3/00 so he isn’t due for his next til 3/02.)
My question to you is. I live in southwest Ohio. Do you know of any effective child advocates in my area? In case I fail miserably and I decide that I just cannot do this alone. I have already used the federal child advocacy center to no avail (The school actually invited them to the IEP last year) and I have met with a federally funded parent advocate before that on my own.
I hear what you are saying in your posts and I know that you are 100% correct and I commend you for what you do!!!
Thank you!!!
My goal is to someday come up with a way to get all the parents united in my area to make real changes for the children with disibilities who come behind my son.
But first I need to get past the next IEP meeting as you said : )
MO
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Kathy too,
Funny you should mention that and will you be able to help me here?
He has never been exempt from the testing before…until this year.
I was recently provided a draft of his new IEP and low and behold… The exempted boxes are checked.It might have something to do with a comment one of his teachers made recently at our son’s conference. I asked a question about this years test and she said” You don’ t need to worry about that .. his scores don’t really count on the proficiency tests” I said ” I am sure that they do..because we have never had his scores be exempted”. The resorce teacher chimed in and said “I can get his IEp and see” I said that wouldn’t be necessary because I am certain that he his not exempt”
Funny that the draft has a new plan for exemption isn’t it.
Any idea what I am going to be in for at the IEP meeting next week and do you have any strategies? I would hate to have to use the IEP time to negotiate that, when there are so many other things that also need attended to.
It’s always something isn’t it?.
Thanks,
MO
Re: Hey MO!
In Ohio as well. The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities has been a wonderful source of support for us, with materials and advocates. We found it in the LDOnline link for “finding Help” under Ohio.
Re: Hey MO
YOU are the one who decides about his scores being exempted. You and only you. My son’s are included with his modifications…reader, scribe, extended time, quiet setting and I forget what else.
When you’re being pressure to do something you don’t agree with, simply say no.
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
If you want someone to go with you, i think your best bet for SE ohio, is the Ohio coalition for the ed of children (they are in columbus) 1-800-374-2806,
it is my understanding some of their funding comes through the state of ed.
Their are 2 other organizations that are nonprofit and take no funds from the state, LDA (Learning disabilities association) 216-749-0013 they are in cleveland, and OP&A also in cleveland at 216-398-5501.
both of the above organizations will travel in some circumstances to attend meetings, both will read MFE’s/ ETR’S, and IEP’s and point out any discrepencies with the law. They will also let you know if their is anything in the mfe/etr that may have gotton lost in the trasfer to the iep.
both of these organizations also hold parent classes.
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Thanks I’ll be making some phone calls! Any suggestions on what I should ask for in his IEP, he needs help in science and history, which he takes in the regular classroom. He needs assistance completing work in there, his only modifcations are reduced homework and the tests are read to him, but with his low reading and writing levels, he sits in those classes lost. The history teacher seems to be very good at lecturing, because when we do homework he almost always knows most of the answers. However, the science teacher has them do a lot of silent reading, and he can’t do that at all. By the time he muddles through the reading, he has lost all comprehension. So any ideas from anyone would be appreciated!
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Kathy the advocacy agencies I mentioned will go over the mfe’s in depth, its hard without scores to help but in general, if your telling me that his reading is so bad that he can not read his text books, and you have the data to show that, then in addition to needing reading remediation your son will need books on tape while he is learning to read, in this event he would also need a reader for tests. same with writeing, if he is unable to write (and you have the documentation) he will need writing remediation, but while he is learning to write he should be allowed to type or have you scribe homework, in class he should be allowed answer only options (no copy and rewrite) he may need a copy of another students notes or a teacher prepared study guide (another possibility is a tape recorder so he can listen to his notes latter) and he would need to have a scribe for tests- the scribe is needed because you want to test what the childs knowledge is in science and ss, you dont want to test his writeing, you allready know he has trouble there (the other option is to have multiple choise test only put in the iep).
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Where do you live in SW Ohio? I’,m not an advocate, but maybe I could help? I live around there too.
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Hi If no one has given this to you here are some contacts for OHIO
Ohio Coalition for the Education Of Children 1-800-374-2806 and the Ohio Legal Rights 1-800-282-9181 and you can lodge a complaint against your school by calling Ohio Division of Exceptional Children 1-617-466-2650.
I got this from a pediatric Neuropsychologist at Childrens in Cincinnati where we went for answers and all these were in the letter he sent to us and the school. So I hope this helps! Teresa
Re: Hey Ohio! others welcome as well.
Please check the www.wrightslaw.com website. Peter and Pam Wright will be in Columbus and Cleveland. I have yet to hear them speak, but I have heard rave reviews about their lectures. Hope this helps :o) Olivia
I live in Ohio too, looks we have a trend going here in Ohio.
Maybe if Ohio spent more time educating all children, instead of only the ones they want to pass the proficiency tests, our kids would be better off. But no, they just exempt our kids, they don’t moniter there progress in any way, so the way I see it the teachers don’t care, they get there grade on how many kids pass the proficiency test.