Has anyone here been successful in getting Recreation and Leisure Goals on school IEP?

[Guest guest]

I am trying to get Rec and Leisure Therapy, which the school would have to pay for, but theyclaim the speech and OT are already carrying out these types of goals and activities. They came up with a good story not to have to provide this service. April

[Guest guest]

April,In order to get them to provide these services, you must first prove the need.  Then you must ask lots of " Who, what, why, when, and how questions " in response to their contention that it is already being done.

You must ask for and demand accountability.  If this (what you want and are asking for) is needed to meet the unique needs of the student, then state what the purpose of it is.  Under IDEA, students need certain things in order to prepare them for post-secondary education, employment, and independent living.

Children with autism certainly need breaks in order to decompress.  They need social interactions with their peers to develop social skills; however, I believe it should not be completely free but that there should be some sort of direction/intervention to it (therapeutic) -- someone trained needs to facilitate the social interaction so as to teach the social skills.

The next thing you must do is come up with concrete goals/objectives that your child will learn by having this  REC/leisure time, and the progress on these needs to be tracked in a concrete way so that progress can be measured.

If the speech and OT are already doing it, what were the goals/objectives?  How did they track progress? They cannot do it by " observation " alone -- that is illegal.  They must have some other form of tracking progress.  It needs to be concrete and substantive.  You COULD look at all the standardized testing that has been done on your child over the years.  How often was he tested in the areas of adaptability, play and leisure, and social skills?  What were the standard scores in these areas?  Convert the standard scores to percentile ranks.  If your child is below the seventeenth percentile in any of these areas, then that expresses need -- as the goal of a FAPE is to move the child above the seventeenth percentile in any area (IMO).  A FAPE is supposed to close the gap between a special needs child and his peer group, so a child should be moving up the Bell Curve -- never staying i the same place nor falling below where the child was on the Bell Curve in that area the last time he/she was tested