Hi,
I am trying to assemble materials for a case conference in three days.
At it the assessment person will present latest findings.
The principal has asked me to put together written info. to justify my request to remove my son from school at 2:00 pm daily for a pgm. our audilogist has devised (50/50 PACE/Neuronet to start with some Balametrics and probably some Lindamood-Bell/Audiblox later if needed.) I will be matching the assessment results to my rationale and description of the programs, supported by the assessment person.
I’ve printed some decent Neuronet/Balametrics stuff but find the PACE materials inappropriate for the intended professional audience—too geared towards parents and prospective business people. I trust our audiologist, and the wealth of experience she has with these programs, but unfortunately the PACE site is not impressive. This is with the possible exception of the latest clincial studies detailing results pre and post testing with the Woodcock Johnson and various other measures. Not being trained in research evaluation, I’m not a great judge, but these at least look decent!
I looked up sensory integration research and found a large can of worms—lots of controversy there. The Amer. Pediatrics and Ophthamologists do not give their stamps of approval, which doesn’t mean there’s no merit.
Basically there have been no large clinical trials of these programs. Most of us with very complicated kids with multiple LDs on these boards don’t have time to wait for these!
Can any body assist with suggestions on how I should present this material? (Just to clarify, I do not want to open a thread on whether these programs work or not, just want some help with my presentation. Our provider is sending a letter verifying her qualifications, experience and briefly detailing the programs but it won’t arrive in time for the case conference, which would be the logical time to hand it over.)
Since I am a teacher with the district my kids attend in and have Spec. Ed. qualifications, I am assuming I won’t get a rough ride but would like to have all my t’s crossed just the same. Has anyone else had to do this?
(I just hate these assessment conferences; it’s like seeing someone you love mentally dissected! I am dreading it.)
Thanks,
JanL
Re: Need help preparing rationale for pull-out
I would call the PACE people first thing Monday and ask them if they have something you can use. The phone number is listed at the website (Colorado Springs is their headquarters).
My understanding is that a number of schools in the U.S. have been involved in trials of PACE. Even if the company could just give you a list of schools that have participated in these trials, that would lend some weight to your interest in the program for your child.
Nancy
if they aren't paying for it then why do you have to prove
what you are doing is necessary? I was in a similar situation years ago. I too had worked for the school district and I decided to pull my daughter out 3 days a week in the morning and take her to LMB remedial therapy at my expense. The other 2 days she attended school full time. After therapy I brought her back every single day and she was marked “tardy”.
If you are expecting them to pay for the therapies in question then I would probably try to provide the rationale for them. But if you are footing the costs for therapy yourself then I wouldn’t worry about it. As long as we kept up my kiddo’s assignments, the district got their attendance money and I took care of the remediation…the district stayed off my back.
Pull-out rationale
Thank you for your replies.
Sar, I’m rationalizing early dismissal and indirectly proving the efficacy of the programs since I’ve been asked to show how they relate to the IEP/assessment report.
I am not asking the school to pay. I am in a poor district.
I was asked if the school could not deliver the pgm. I can easily demonstrate that they cannot—not with the intensity and one-on-one support required.
Nancy, calling PACE for info. is tricky—I’m doing PACE not Brainskills under the supervision of a provider, who has trained me, but I don’t have official certification. I guess I could call and pretend I’m in her city though, which is 4.5 hours away from where I live.
Patti, the rationale is necessary since the principal & superintendent have requested it. But I may be obsessing over it more than I need to. Previously I’ve done this with principals who weren’t afraid to go out on a limb on this alone. The current guy likes to be cautious. I could have pointed out to him that kids miss class time for piano; elite athletes miss lots of school for practices. (And I don’t think they have to provide a rationale.) We do not intend to make up the missed work. His report card will just say the assessment will be incomplete but he won’t have to repeat the grade since he will have done 2/3 the work and met most of the expectations. (He has a B+/A- in the subjects he’ll be missing.)
I think LMB has a much stronger rationale than PACE
We did PACE as part of the program with my daughter. PACE really didn’t do as much for my daughter as LMB did. I think most of the rationale you are looking for you will find in the LMB programs. They have lots of research to back up their data. Since the district isn’t footing the bill I don’t think you have to worry too much about providing them a concrete rationale about your program, because it is kind of like homeschooling in some respects. Will you be doing your program 5 days a week?
You are correct in stating that athletes do miss time from school when they do programs and they are excused for that extra time needed for meets etc… It sounds like he would only be missing 1 or 2 hours a day he has his program. This isn’t like what we did, our kiddo missed 4 hours of instruction a day 3 days a week for a total of 12 hours of missed instruction a week.
It will be some work but you will be glad you are doing it now. I am so glad we spent 18 months of our life doing an intensive program for our kiddo, it made a world of difference..
Good luck!
Re: Need help preparing rationale for pull-out
Jan — I believe the appropriate motto here is Baffle Them With BS. I honestly don’t think many people read the papers they are given; like those complete cv’s with seventeen pages of photocopies that you slave over, and at the interview it’s clear they haven’t read past the first paragraph and got most of that wrong. But you *do* have to provide the papers so that the administrators can cover their own rear ends to the higher-ups, and people who dip in and sample will be impressed by something they don’t understand. So copy that research study from PACE that you aren’t sure about yourself, and similarly for all the other programs; avoid the nice understandable sales pitches and get all the high-flown jargon and detailed analysis that you can.
What are you trying to justify, the early dismissal or the programs? Is early dismissal allowed in your district for any reason? (It is not in ours). Are you trying to build a case to have the school pay for these, as part of an IEP? Can any parent reuqest early release for say music lessons or athletic programs, or is this a very special case?