medication

they can not, and should not, force you to use medications on your son. Please consult this website for some information.

adhdfraud.com

Hi Deb — my school played this game in Gr. 1/2 also — I spoke to my doctor and she said ‘QUOTE ME: I don’t believe he is ADHD or ADD. You don’t even qualify for a ped. spec. — but even if you did, I’M THE DOCTOR!’ This was in Gr. 1 when my dyslexic but NON ADD/ADHD kid was experiencing reading failure due to whole language instruction. Of course, since reading didn’t work for him, he was showing symptoms that LOOKED like ADD/ADHD in some ways — but were NOT.

The next year, the school psych tried to convert me based on MS. Grade 2’s opinion that he WAS ADD. I finally said, quite forcefully, that ‘MEDICAL CARE WILL BE DISCUSSED WITH MY MD only — and I am FOLLOWING HER ADVICE’.

Have not heard a word about Meds since…I’m in Canada, but I’m sure no school nurse or school board can overrule your MD — last time I was in Hospital, the nurses could only ADMINISTER meds, not prescribe!

This decision should be made by you wiht the advice of your medical team, exclusive of the school!

Best wishes for you and your guy…

What medication have you tried with him? What were theresults of using these? What medications does the school nurse suggest you try? Does she indeed hold a license to diagnose medical conditions and prescribe medication? What does YOUR dr. say about this?

I am not sure that you need an IEP per se; if the accomodations/modifications prescribed by the 504 are adequate for your boy to keep up with his peers, then you do not need the IEP. If however your boy is lagging further behind, then he will need more individualized programming, and this may be why they refuse to consider an IEP 9in these days of 7digit deficits). What has the school done to address your child’s SID? (not meaning to diagnose over the web, but the combo of ADHD, anxiety and SID sounds an awful lot like something else I am more familiar with; where did you get these diagnosies?)

You are not alone in feeling the “push” of the schools. It happens all over, as too many “professionals” think that magic can be had from those little pills. It is a quick fix for them; get the kid on medication so they will sit still, we are off the hook because the kid has a medical problem, and they really don’t care if he makes it or not, so long as he sits quietly.

Rhode Island was the first state to forbid school personnel from directly pushing medication. Connecticut soon followed. NY, Michigan and CA have all had cases where the school personnel have successfully used the threat of CPS and charges of child endangement/neglect to force parents to medicate over their parents’ objections. (I will remind the posters here that a different level of responsibility to medicate exists between medication like ritalin, used to treat a non-life threatening problem and something like insulin without which a child will die.)

Here are a few links that directly address this issue. I will suggest you talk very frankly with your dr. about this and the usurping of his professional opinion by someone of a lesser degree of expertese. I would also suggest you very quickly find an experienced advocate to help you defuse this ASAP.

Good luck to you and please let us know how things turn out.

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1999/dec99/ritalin.html

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2001/july01/ritalin.shtml

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2000/oct00/ritalin.shtml

http://www.drugawareness.org/Archives/1stQtr_2003/record0002.html

she was honestly trying to help?

Everyone seems to be assuming a negative here. I gather your child is on some medication already. Was it perhaps just a “Ive seen xyz work better than abd with children similar to your son -you might want to check with your doctor.”

I work in Early Intervention and, while every child is an individual, there are patterns with certain disorders. I am CERTAINLY not capable of diagnosing or pushing meds but I hope I can make some educated suggestions that may be helpful to parents.

School personnel cannot force you to medicate or deny SPED services simply because you choose not to use medication. I am a school counselor. I have completed graduate coursework in psychopharmacology. I do sometimes ask a parent about a child’s medication. I am careful to preface my comments (…”you might want to ask your doctor…, at school we’ve noticed…”) School personnel are often in the best position to know if the medication is working. The parent does not observe the child’s behavior in the classroom with his peers. Medication often wears off by the time the parent is with the child. MD’s usually have 15-30 minutes to spend with a patient, and that is 1:1 where symptoms may not be obvious. So, what I’m saying is that it MAY be entirely appropriate for school staff to speak with you about medication. Your post led me to believe that your child is medicated- is that correct? It IS helpful for school staff to know what meds a student is taking. I’ve seen kids so “flat” from meds. that they appear depressed. I’ve seen others never take a bite of their lunch— if I know their lack of appetite is due to meds. I can make sure the parent is aware and talk with them about how to handle it. MD’s vary in how thoroughly they evaluate and follow-up with their ADHD patients. School staff work with these kids every day. If we are not allowed to even mention medication, we are missing a piece of the puzzle and I feel we are doing a disservice to many children. Just my opinion. My kid’s school told me I shouldn’t medicate— gave me handouts on all sorts of unproven “alternatives”!

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Why does he not qualify for an IEP?
Seems like to me there is educational relevance and the need for special educational services. A 504 would only provide accomodations.

I am confused as to the Medication piece here? Are they claiming if he took meds he would then qualify for an IEP? Funny thing is,if the nurse was saying,geez,he really needs meds,because he is doing well in class,then they have effectively given you the need for an IEP argument. Where is lemons ,make lemonade.

Mamm:

Request they state to you in writing why they are denying your kid the right to an IEP and also once they do give you a denial in writing, think it over and consult with a lawyer. Ps: The school “Florence Nightgale” is not allowed to prescribe medicine and why she should be allowed to have that kind of input into that section on an IEP is amazing. You should get in touch with your state CHADD or LDA association. One is for Children with Attention Deficet Disorder and the other is the Learning Disabled Association of America. Good luck. I also wish if this was widespread abuse by school districts, they should do what the UN is doing to Iraq, withhold money from the districts untill they are certifed to not be oppressing poor ADD or LD kids. Inspections and more monitoring of Administrator actions is what is needed.

In my CA school district we don’t pressure to medicate. I can cite, though, numerous cases where the child’s academic performance and often ability to function in a social environment have been really turned around as a result of medication.

I have not found that cases of severe ADHD respond particularly well to any intervention unless medication is present. Yes, there is some improvement, but generally not much.

I teach two brothers who were qualified last fall for services. The parent had adamantly refused medication since grade K (oldest in grade 4), until last fall. Both brothers started meds. last fall. The oldest, more LD than his brother, has already made a full year’s gain or more, the youngest is almost caught up and is on grade level. I cannot argue that there was any factor that impeded learning, but the attention issue.

I could go on and on. I have had two cases where we suggested the child go OFF meds. because the meds. were not producing a positive result. This might represent less than 10% of the cases that come through.

If a child is on meds. already and is having difficulties, we will most certainly tell the family and ask that they consider revisiting the doctor to discuss the medication and the dosage. So, when a child is already on meds., we will open the discussion of the effectiveness of the meds. If the child is not on meds. we will suggest making a visit to the doctor to discuss attention and impulse control issues, when they are present. I never initiate a discussion of medication if the family is not pursuing this course of action.

First and foremost as Socks said, I’d look into the IEP problem.

Secondly, I am just sharing MY personal experience

I would CONSIDER that the nurse was really trying to help.

I have a 4th grade daughter, with global LDs. We spend one full year in tutoring LMB and SI OT.

I had a child who went to clean her room and came out an hour later and “forgot” to clean it. She could not finish 1 classroom assignment and spent 3 hours nightly doing homework (1st grade) (1 worksheet). She spent most of her recesses in K5 and lst “on the fence” b/c she couldn’t finish her class work.

Privately evaluated: giflted, LD in all areas and processing delays in all areas
“NOT significant for ADD”

3rd grade rolled arond and - whether she was supposed to or not - when I was expressing my concerns to her teacher she said, There are alot of kids on ADD meds that shouldn’t be, blah, blah, but your daughter CANNOT focus.

Return to evaluator. Letters from school staff, tutor (who’d been telling me she was ADD from day 1) and the pediatrician said “Let’s give it a trial”

In 2 days my daughter went from writing 1 sentence in 45 mins. to writing 1 paragraph. She reads better, is happier with herself and can actually clean her room. She no longer stands on the fence b/c she can finish MOST classroom assignments in the allotted time.

Did we stop all the support and intervention? No. She still goes to tutoring and OT. She probably always will.

She does NOT show up ADD on a 1:1 situation b/c she likes to impress people and loves to take tests.

I know this was long. But you need to look at ALL your options, starting of course with remediation and support, an IEP, etc. Put the meds on the back burner and then if all else fails, and you are seeing the ADD/ADHD symptoms, give it a try. No one can MAKE you keep your child on them. If they are not effective, STOP them. My daughter tells me, “It makes all the noise in the room go away so I can read better”.

Just my humble opinion couple with personal experience. Do research and know your child b4 you make any decisions

Leah -

Loved your daughter’s quote about the noise in the room going away. When my son started Ritalin, I asked him if he could tell any difference. He said no, he didn’t feel any different “but the posters on the walls weren’t as interesting anymore!”

I find that CHADD is well intentioned but really pro medication. I don’t hate medication it just really messed up my son for one and I did find on ADHDfraud.com that there is reference to not being able to practice medicine without a licence and not requiring that a student take medication as a condition of attending school. My guess though is that the subtle coersion that they bring is borderline behavior and I was looking for specifics in IDEA that would prohibit this kind of sleazy behavior by a nurse who has no credentials and a district that is so adversarial that they punish and victimize families with questions, word games and without mediation will do nothing.
We actually have a wonderful class action suit but don’t know how to find someone that would be interested.

No you shouldn’t. You aren’t qualified and like with my son on Ritalin, he became suicidal. I don’t trust the pediatrician anymore to understand the drugs why in the world would I trust a nurse or someone even less qualified. Are you going to feel ok when a 9 year old becomes suicidal?

Won’t happen without mediation, lemonade or not. They have made tons of suggestions but still state they are not educationally related. That is what our wonderful district does.

CHADD is funded by the pharmaceutical companies. I am also not against meds but I find that fact be an important one to understand when using them as a resource.

I think meds are very powerful and often useful. It is this power that needs to be respected. I think many encourage them way too lightly. They are for cases of real adhd and there are many students who can look very adhd and just not have it.

I don’t think teachers or nurses are quallified to make this judgement. It is a very personal decision.
Meds are not for everyone and if you feel that you are being coerced well that is just sick. I know the subtle ways of the school and the lack of respect for parental decisions all too well.
The best advice I got on the subject is this.

Say, “Thank you very much, you have been very helpful.” Then do everything yourself outside of school and leave them completely out of it.
I know many will disagree but including people who have no clue just gets in my way and trying to educate them is impossible and not really my job.

Sorry for the rant but it is what I have found to be the road to sanity for myself and my child.

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Deb,

I know in Florida you can find what your looking for in the Nurse Practice Act. Which is in the florida statutes. Have you looked in your state statutes?

There is no reference in IDEA,because medications by themselves have no relevance to education. The professional behavior of a nurse would not be a part of the educational law,but would be in the professional codes.

? They have made suggestions for what? Services are IDEA,accomodations are 504. Neither have anything to do with meds. I suppose I would be asking someone to show me where the criteria for elgibility for special ed services includes whether the child takes meds or not? Still confused.