Will someone preview my letter and give feedback?

ebeth, I believe your letter is good but lengthy. Maybe you may want to summarize some of the detailed explanations. Maybe state your request and briefly your reason? Keep fighting like you are!

I agree that it is too lengthy.

Letters make the most impact when they are blunt-wham!

Reading yours, my mind kept wandering to what the principal said in elementary, the Adderall side effects, etc

It was good as a personal vent(which keeps us sane), but I would just say he is struggling in math NOW, from your research has evident signs of dyscalculia, and you want to exercise your legal right for testing

I forget the time they are given to comply after your written notice but I would locate that, figure it to the day and close your letter with how you are looking forward to this being resolved by Feb 18th(or whatever)

I work in EArly Intervention and a client knowing their rights right down to the number deadlines? It’s powerful!

[quote=”marycas1”]I agree that it is too lengthy.

Letters make the most impact when they are blunt-wham!

Reading yours, my mind kept wandering to what the principal said in elementary, the Adderall side effects, etc

It was good as a personal vent(which keeps us sane), but I would just say he is struggling in math NOW, from your research has evident signs of dyscalculia, and you want to exercise your legal right for testing

I forget the time they are given to comply after your written notice but I would locate that, figure it to the day and close your letter with how you are looking forward to this being resolved by Feb 18th(or whatever)

I work in EArly Intervention and a client knowing their rights right down to the number deadlines? It’s powerful![/quote]

This reply is right on target. Good luck!

Thanx
I kinda figured as much. I’m gonna buy the book Wrights Law, so I’ll find out that info. Is there a newer updated book that would be better to buy?
I was told by the school district that this process had to start with the lead teacher at my sons school and I’ve already been over some of this ground with her. I so wanted to get that explanation in there. But I’m glad I rethought it.
Maybe if I know my stuff and can wham her as you say, then it’ll work.

Thanks again
Mary

First of all, it is a good letter. The important info is there, it is well expressed, and you have things organized. But yes, the message may be lost in the details.

To improve that letter: I have experience with this, being a person who can go into lengthy detail myself, so here is what I do:
Don’t throw out or erase the original letter yet; you’re going to use it
Go through and write out the main idea of each paragraph
- son is having trouble with school and in particular math
- he seems to learn well over short periods but does not retain
- help has been requested repeatedly and has been denied
- you believe the school is in violation of IDEA
- son is taking medication at ever-increasing dosage
- medication has reached its limit with side effects and he is still unable to manage.
- you request the school to do an evaluation withing thirty days as required by IDEA, and do a placement in a timely manner.

Then turn this summary into a short, straightforward request for help.

Now, go back to the original letter, and make it into detailed addenda; it often helps if these are in point form.
- help requested on these dates, with this lack of response
- medication given over these times, with these results
- possible diagnoses suggested to you by doctors and other experts (hey, we’re experts here).

You can staple these addenda to the short letter, or you can merely add a line to the short letter that detailed addenda will be provided on request; then keep them on file for future meetings (so they cannot tell you they haven’t been told!).

By the way, personally I am very very leery of the diagnosis of dyscalculia. I am sure the problem exists, but like dyslexia it is so easy to overuse the diagnosis to cover poor teaching and other problems. If your son can understand and do the work on his good days, then he most likely doesn’t have an inherent inability, and obviously the thing to do is to try to find ways to make most of his days into good days.

See if the website helps!
http://www.wrightslaw.com/

Good advice everybody has given you!

You know, Victoria, in a way I kind of agree with you. But I do not know what else to do. Also, I have watched my son over the years. My husband and I have always been very strict about completing homework and classwork and doing the best on the things he can control. There are times when he will try to slip a messy homework paper by me and I make him redo it. Because handwriting is not one of his weak points.

But we have seen him do and redo a math problem to infinity till we are aggravated because he knew how to do it yesterday. It has caused our family so much grief. Endless nights up till 9 and 10 sometimes doing homework. Not only do we deal with the ADHD and medication wearing off in the afternoon but also with him struggling over math. We have tried giving him a booster dose of medication in the afternoon. It does not help and cause him to not eat supper and not be able to go to sleep. He thinks he is stupid. He is depressed and angry. He will not make it through high school.

I am so worried about him and yet I am so tired. And to boot, he is not failing because he does not know the material, he is failing because he cannot spit out the papers assigned as fast as he is supposed to. No child left behind says that certain objectives have to be learned within a certain amount of time. I object to my child failing because of this. One size does not fit all.

His teacher keeps him in from P.E. to complete math assigments and he is still failing. And then he comes home and spends the rest of the afternoon doing math. I don’t even have time in the afternoon to find something he might be good at that would give him some confidence. His life is miserable.

I do not want to abuse the system. Basically all I see that Erik needs is more time. That may not seem fair, but it is a fact that all children learn at different paces. Do you know I read article that said that not much time is spent on math disabilities in school, because it is generally accepted in society to be rotten in math? But if you are illiterate, your’re just plain ignorant. I think many math skills are glossed over so fast that even normal children do not fully grasp the concepts. Teachers should be allowed to spend as much time as it takes for every student to learn.

I have been married for 14 years. I have been a stay at home, but my husband has worked his butt off every minute of his adult life. We pay our taxes. So I think I deserve for my son to get a fair education.
Tell me what else I should do?
Sorry if I ranted. Of course none of this is aimed at anyone. I hope I am not giving my son a cop out. But the way I see it, he will have a level playing field and have no excuses.

Thanks for your comments
It helps

My daughter has a 504 plan which allows her more time for assignments and gives her standardized testing accommodations. It doesn’t give her an advantage but levels the field a little for her. She knows the answers but it takes a little longer for it to process. She also has an anxiety disorder that makes timed work very difficult. Another option if all he needs is more time is a 504 plan. You do not need an evaluation from the child study team to get a 504 plan. You may have to fight a little but they can give you that based on your doctor’s diagnoses and classroom teacher’s input.

I agree with you totally that too much material is glossed over too fast. It is a disaster for all students, not just those with learning problems — see the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) for a breakdown of how American schools are spending more time and much more money to get a worse result than every other developed country.

Definitely he should get enough time to actually learn something. When I tutor students, I spend a lot of work getting them to slow down and think, something they have been taught to avoid.

I was *not* suggesting that he has no problems — just that the problem is much more likely to be a combination of the ADHD and poor programs and ineffective teaching, not true dyscalculia.
The problem with labelling him with dyscalculia is that it is then easy for some teachers to just write him off with the assumption that he will never learn. While you certainly want to get him off the treadmill that he is on, you don’t want to write him off either, so take care.

Have you tried private tutoring with a tutor who knows both math and pedagogy? Not an easy combination to find, but someone who can show him *how* things work, rather than trying to pound incomprehensible rote recipes into his memory, can make a big difference in the memory and time wasting.
If you lived near me I’d offer my services (where are you, anyway?)

Far, far away from you. LOL Mississippi, U.S.
What is pedagogy?
Has anyone heard of of Sylvan? Thay are sooo expensive, but are they any good? I would not know where to start. We do not have many resources here. I have checked the phone book over and over.

I have church, but I will be back later.
Thanks

I have never heard anything good about Sylvan for kids with reading problems but have heard of good experiences with math so…..figure that one out!

I’m guessing math issues are often about having missed something along the way and once the missed concept is grasped, progress can be made. With homeschooling ds for 6th gr last year, I found he was clueless about fractions and teaching them was the most frustrating time period of that year. But once I did fractions in a manner that ‘clicked’, he took off through two math programs, and math became the most enjoyable part of our day

Language issues? I think the kids who struggle here learn differently and I’m guessing Sylvan doesnt address that but provides more of the same the school did

All my opinion BTW. No personal experience with Sylvan

Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching.
Some people know a topic but can’t teach it. Some people think they are great teachers because they have good rapport with students but they are ignorant of the subject (especially common in math) so they teach things that are flat-out wrong. It’s a long search, but you need to find someone who knows both.

I worked in another tutoring chain similar to Sylvan for a summer, and I applied to work at Sylvan and looked at their setup, and I have heard other parents report on results. I am NOT impressed. Not for any kids at any level in any subject.
They are not one-to-one, they are one-to-three. One teacher, three students on three different levels. Your kid gets maybe twenty minutes of attention, broken up by constant interruptions. (once in a while in special cases they give the student one instructor, but it is rare) There are no fixed groupings, whatever teacher is available is assigned to whatever kids are scheduled. Yes, there is *supposed* to be a schedule and groups at the smae level, but it gets changed daily as the manager deals with comings and goings; since this is a profit-making enterprise, they only keep the minimum staff on duty, and if your teacher is cut, too bad. So it is hard to build up a mentoring relationship and trust, and there is little continuity of approach.
Although they have an excellent curriculum plan on paper, when it comes down to applying it in practice, basically it is shuffling worksheets. The teacher copies a worksheet and gives it to kid #1, frantically corrects the sheets from #2 and #3 and hands them back and gives them new ones, and then gets back to correct #1 and hand out another one, and so on. There is very little actual teaching, mostly just telling kids to put this number here. There is no time to go into concepts in any depth, and in fact it is not considered desirable. I spent most of my time at the tutoring center working with advanced high school students for whom this approach is not used, but I did enough fill-in work to see how fundamentally useless it is.
With all the coming and going and copying and so on, the atmosphere is not calm and relaxed.
They hire teachers based on paper certification, not on actual knowledge, so you can have a kindergarten teacher who is barely literate and who last took math in Grade 10 fifteen years ago trying to teach algebra to your child. Sure, they promise the best qualified people, but well, Miss Smith is taking the group today and she is an excellent teacher with fifteen years’ experience, and what can you do?
They promise a grade level’s improvement — and they judge this based on their own tests, not exactly unbiased. They promise money-back guarantee, but other parents here have reported that when the child failed the post-test all they got was five more hours, more of the same.
Finally, look at the economics of it. Parents are charged $35 an hour (maybe more by now). Average at least two students per teacher, that’s $70 coming in. Teachers are paid $8 to $10 per hour. Of course there is the overhead for the office and copiers and management and all, but that still leaves maybe $40 per hour left over — that pays for those glossy ads and a lot of profit.
For the kid whose school just isn’t doing its job and who just needs practice and supervision, Sylvan can give practice and supervision. They do very little that can really be called teaching.

I suggest looking for a real tutor through various search methods, internet, local papers, local colleges, bulletin boards in stores and libraries, word of mouth, etc.

Thanks, Victoria
I am taking some college classes so maybe I can check around.
I have given some thought to homeschooling, but my son says he really would miss his friends. Every thing I have ever read on ADHD children says their social skills are bad, but he has always had friends and he has never been able to entertain himself. He will go mad if he is alone. He craves people.
If things do not improve, though, I will just have to homeschool him and find him some social groups or something.
Later

I agree with Victoria’s “editing” of you letter. Keep it a brief and to the point request for testing. Schools don’t use the term dyscalculia, so don’t use it— use LD or “Specific learning disability”. Testing will take time. In the meantime, you son’s diagnosis of ADHD and the impact it has on his performance in school should be enough to get him a 504 plan immediately. Those are the criteria for 504- a disability that affects a major life actitivity (in his case, learning) and a substantial impact on his learning because of it.