Resourse/Pull-out time??

Thank goodness CA does not have art and music. Scheduling is a nightmare for me. CA does not permit pull out of P.E., it is mandated, so many minutes per week, by state law.

When I taught resource in Md. years and years ago, I worked around art, music, library and PE. It was almost impossible to create a schedule anybody could actually TEACH. I had certain children together M,W,F and a different configuration of groups T, TH. It worked, but then you make things work when you have. to.

I agree, we do want the child with their peers. Seems like a concern the IEP team might want to look at, atleast the parent, teacher and resource teacher. Everybody states their concerns and needs and you come to some kind of consensus to create the best schedule you can for the child.

I don’t know the laws in Illinois but one approach I have used is to politely ask in writing for copies of the policies that prohibit what I want.

The time I used this technique I got a call from the principal saying that I was right and they let me do what I wanted.

In my case, I wanted to partially homeschool my son because their programming was so ineffective. They didn’t want me to because of the possibility that I would hold them financially accountable for the progress he might make. They threatened me at an IEP meeting with having a social worker come to the house if my son was chronically late because he would then be truant. I wrote a letter asking for the law/policy that defined truancy as excessive tardiness, saying that FL state law defined it as excessive absences. (I found that on the internet). Anyway, there was nothing to their threats and their lawyer told them that they couldn’t stop me.

You would have never known that from the way they ganged up on me so take what people say with a grain of salt. It could just mean they don’t want you to do it that way!!!

Beth

Jane, have you been to the state board of education home page? There is a ton of information there including the Illinois code. You need to go to the main page, on the left hand side are categories, you click on special education, and it will take you to the items you need. I recently used the Illinois code and the Illinois learning standards to get the school to continue providing services for my oldest son. He is in high school so his resource room was actually a class. His brother who is in a self contained cross-categorical room is mainstreamed for music, art, pe, library, science and social studies, so there might be something in the code that states you can not have pull out time during “specials”. Luckily starting in 4th grade they have a study hall so that is when my son receives his speech and social worker time. I think your best bet is to familarize yourself with their code. I hope this helps. Best of luck.

Jane,

my experience is that you need to ask to get a response in writing. Once I started that suddenly some of the issues where not issues any more- mainly because the administration is usually not telling the truth- like other responses already had told you. But, you will never know it unless you ask for a written explanation why it is not possible and provide legal explanation why not.

When I talked to a lawyer that works for Dept. of Education and she is the one that represents State in mediation and DP, she just plainly said to me “anything is possible” indicating that there are really a few legal limitations in terms of how to help any given student to really serve his/her needs. I found that Dept. of Education lawyer to be extremely helpful, especially that if mentioned that this is the source of your information - the district/school administration cannot really question that.

We are in Illinois and as far as I know there is not law regarding this.

We had the same problem. They continued to pull my son out of classes he enjoyed and actually found success in so that he could re-do work he bombed during the gen ed language arts block. Even after I consistently complained that this was destroying his emotional well being, they contuinued.

All I was asking for was that his language art block, reading, spelling, grammar, etc be done as instruction by the special ed teacher in a separate classroom. We were told no, over and over again. I knew this is what he needed and I didn’t think that I was asking for the world with such a request. Surely other students would benefit from this as well. My son was seeing a private pyschologist because he couldn’t handle the unpredicatbility of being yanked at their convenience. He was suffering emotionally.

Finally, at my wits end, I brought up due process and asked the psychologist to submit a letter to the school stating that this is what my son needed for his least restrictive environment. He also added some other very strong statements to support our case.

They finally agreed to the instructional block with NO pullout. Just this simple change has made a world of difference. He is back to being my wonderfully happy boy who is no longer a nervous wreck and actually enjoys going to school.

And the school said that I don’t understand what he needs. HA!! They really do not see this arrangement of pullout the way the child does. I really don’t think they understand what stress this puts on a child with LD.

So, basically, you might have to beg and plead your case to get a consistent time but in my experience, I had no success without having the sped teacher’s schedule reassigned.

The web site address is: http://isbe.net/

Good Job Lu Lu, I agree that you shouldn’t doubt yourself if you know your child needs something. It is our jobs as parents to be our child’s advocate in those meetings. I said at one meeting, “Chris can’t be here so I am his voice.”

I have sat in so many meetings with people who have never met my child who insist on telling me about my child.

Linda F wrote:

> I have sat in so many meetings with people who have never met
> my child who insist on telling me about my child.

Linda, this is still not that bad- we had once a social worker (who worked with our son at school for two years) made comments about him having to read at home, what should he be reading et.c. and finally the special ed teacher who worked with him ask her whether she had ever seen a child like our son reading… and guess the answer….

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Hi Beth!

Thanks so much for telling that little story. This is exactly the situation we are facing with our school in FL. It’s good to know that someone else has already been down that road.

Must be a Florida thing!!! Really though I got the idea of calling them on the carpet from a couple moms on this board (and only one from FL) who had had the same situation. Lots of threats but in the end the school couldn’t do anything but be grumpy.

Beth