Advice needed for dealing with school district

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

Pardon me if this is a duplicate post.

I met a mom last weekend who was having a situation with her school

district. I don't know her well, so I won't give any identifying

information...

This woman has a child who is fully included in the local school.

The school now wants the mom to " visit " other schools. The mom views

this as code for the school wanting her child someplace else.

During the school day, her child is pulled out of the " regular "

classroom (for therapies and such). The child does not want to leave

and has been giving the school personnel a difficult time. From what

the mom told me, it sounds like the child is simply refusing to move,

but the child is NOT acting out physically. The school views this as

a " behavior problem " and now they want the mom to look at other

schools to find something " more appropriate " . There are also some

family issues which are most certainly causing the child extra

anxiety.

Other than the refusal to transition, the child has no other behavior

issues. The mom is unsure of exactly how the staff is handling the

transition. They were supposed to meet this week to discuss it.

My first question is: Can the school district do this??

I was ALWAYS under the impression that if a particular behavior could

be attributed to the disability, then the child could not

be " punished " . Several years back, my daughter (who has Down

Syndrome) had a couple of biting incidents. I always comforted

myself with the " fact " that they couldn't make her leave the school

because her biting was due to the fact that her " developmental age "

was probably 1 1/2 to 2 years, even though she was chronologically

over 3. Was I wrong? (Luckily the biting stopped!)

Another woman told this mom that a school CAN force a child out due

to behavior.

I told her a few things off the top of my head:

1. Find out how the staff is handling the transition

2. Provide the child with a picture schedule, so the child will

know ahead of time there will be a pull-out

3. Warn the child ahead of time (in 10 minutes, we'll be...; in 5

minutes it'll be time to...)

4. Don't sign anything yet!!

5. Request a FBA. Even though they may know what's causing the

undesirable behavior, what have they done/what else can they do to

address it?

Can the school make the child leave? What other suggestions do you

have for this mom?

Thank you!!

Debbie I. (NJ)

Mom to Theresa, age 7 1/2 with Down Syndrome, and , age 6