My daughter is a sophomore in high school. She has ADHD & had the proper testing done to get an IEP in 7th grade. Now we (parents) are getting “pressure” from the Sp. Ed. staff at the highschool to ‘lower’ her status & take away her IEP; turning it into a 504. She still needs the support & is entitled to the support. I am getting very strong ‘messages’ that they want to move her to a 504 simply for the reason of money. This district does not understand and take ADD as a legitimate handicapp. …Question? Can they move her from IEP to 504 just because … they want to. We are not getting help; we are only getting criticized for wanting assistance for our daughter.
*sorry if I am talking in circles*
Barbara
Does your daughter have a learning disability in addition to ADHD? I just posted a huge letter in Parenting an ADHD child, because of a recent meeting we had about our request for testing. The school maintains my daughter, who has been diagnosed twice with ADD, doesn’t even necessarily get coverage under 504!
I have called every state advocate organization to confirm that an ADD kid does get protection under 504. But if the school tests and deams that the kid is something other than ADD, they can say anything they want so they don’t have to cover my child! It’s incredible they can split hairs like that.
You should have a state advocate group where you live that can give you good advice and help. We have a Parents education network (in Pennsylvania) AND advocates in the PA department of Education (they are great). It took digging to find the first one, PEN, so ask your local CHADD group or LD group and they might know. I think it could even be illegal for them to tell you its an issue of money.