Re: What would you do?

August 17, 2012

do not put your child in that school without an ard first and an iep. they do have by law 30 or 45 days to hold an ard after the first request. do it in writing so you have something concrete to hold against them. either email or in person. but i would not drop my child off at a school if they have no clue what to do. Sent from my iPhone

My son was just diagnosed. He originally went to the school's preschool at 3 but we pulled him out at 4 and did some at home therapy. He has an IEP from when he was 3 and he was non-verbal. Now he is verbal. I have been in contact with the school for over 3 weeks now and never had an answer as to where to register him. Finally I went to the vice-principal at our local school and asked and he said if I hadn't heard back from the school district by friday to let him know and he would find out. He told me not to register because a lot of the autistic children go to other schools that are better prepared for them. Well, I finally heard back from the district and they told me to register him with my local school. So I took his papers to them and I asked what they plan to do with him and the secretary told me that if they didn't tell me then they wouldn't know. I told them I would not drop my child off without a game plan. Someone told me they would probably just put him in the special ed class and have an ARD meeting in 30 days. The school doesn't even have a copy of his IEP. I asked to speak to the vice-principal as I feel really uncomfortable with this. Am I just being paranoid with all this.

On top of it my daughter who is 3 would go to the preschool. I talked to them at the beginning of June and since then have tried to contact them several times with only being called back once. I also went to that school and they told me she wouldn't be able to enroll because she hasn't been evaluated yet and it would probably at least a month to a month in a half before they would get it done. That seems like an awful long time. Also, I know they are going to try to do one of those IQ test. I can tell you right now she will not do it as the more people you put in the room the less she is able to deal with it. She had a hearing test today and their were only 2 people in the room and she wouldn't cooperate.

August 17, 2012

Do not enroll your child in a school before the school has done evaluations and offered an IEP. The first thing you have to do is get them evaluated for the need for special ed services.You need to identify them in writing as children needing special ed services. Then they have sixty days to get the testing done. If you identified them in June in writing, they would have had to have it done before school started.

Then they call an ARD to design an IEP. Actually what will most likely happen is that they will have an IEP all ready for you to sign. Take their copy, and in VERY BIG letters at the top, write DRAFT, and then go about the business of designing an IEP that meets your child's unique needs. NEVER say the word " best. " Use the word " appropriate. "

Get a copy of the book, " From Emotions to Advocacy " and study it. Make the website www.wrightslaw.com your favorite site so you can learn to advocate effectively for your child.

You cannot send your child to school without a plan in place. That would be absurd.Regarding the IQ test, I can tell you that children with autism do not perform well on them. Avoid it if you can. But if they do it, let them know that you know they are not good indicators of intelligence for children with autism and that you will not allow placement decisions to be made based on that information. State in writing that they can give scores for individual parts of the IQ, but they cannot record a separate whole IQ score anywhere in your child's records.

Though it is illegal and has been ruled on by the Ninth Circuit Court, schools still notoriously use IQ to warehouse special needs children in to self contained classrooms where their educations amount to little more than over-glorified daycare.

From the day your children step foot into school, keep EVERY paper that comes home from them and be sure to date them. Match questions to the IEP objectives. DO NOT accept " observation " as a criterion for mastery.

Document everything as you need a paper trail to show that this district is not doing its job. They put you off all summer and now your children will pay a price as they are not ready for them.

August 18, 2012

Call the district Special Education Coordinator. Ask if they have a Autism Specialist on staff. Typically this is your point of contact not the Principal. By law I thought that Early Childhood (child find?) would have visited you by law they are required to identify 3 year olds at risk and begin in home therapy for ST or OT or get them lined up for school if they are 3. Research your district. Find what school has the best Autism program. In our district if I drove my son I could send him to whatever school I deemed " appropriate " . Go visit them while you are waiting for the eval. Do get your request in writing and send a copy to the head of Special Education. DOCUMENT. I would NEVER allow a IQ test, they can test away but Autism is multifaceted and because of issues with sensory problems and lack of speech and eye contact no IQ test will be accurate. There are other tests psychologists use for identifying Autism my son qualifies every time and always has. They have never done a IQ to my knowledge and until he learned how to communicate on a letterboard they thought he was 6 years behind academically. Now he's got colleges chasing him and he's a incoming Junior.

Schools are under pressure, darn we just keep coming. There are so many kids with Autism that they are overwhelmed. I'm seeing children as young as 2nd grade being warehoused in Lifeskills or ICAP or whatever they want to call it and it's sickening. The kind of education you want is inclusive with an aide. Frequent breaks, building stamina in inclusion over time. The worst thing to do is to put them in a room all day to stim. These children need to be engaged all day...talk talk talk even if they don't appear to be looking or understanding. Read books even if you have to follow them around. I was amazed at what my son had learned just by listening even when I thought he was in his own world. Turned out he had plenty of advice for US! And great ideas and a mind full of math.

Hang in there. Go with your gut you'll sense what is good and what is bad. Don't try to fight those who won't listen see if you can go over their heads. And talk to other parents in the district about where their kids are. Schools don't want you to talk to parents but find them when the school offers some " special ed parent classes " . Schools will offer you resources for parent training and if you can snag someone after they get done with reading you the party line of education you can get email addresses. Different parents get different things for their kids. Advocacy is all about politics and Haven recommended a great book. Don't get mad just be persistent and document things and then be " concerned " when they fail. Never ever say " best " " needs to be successful " is good, as is " appropriate placement for this students current level of need, which may be deemed inappropriate as he completes the IEP goals at 70% accuracy " something like that.

Lastly, we are all here to help, day or night, you are never alone. There isn't anything that can happen to you or your children that one of us hasn't already been through. It's my personal joy to know that everything we went through can help someone else get better treatment and a better education. Look into RPM at HALO when your children are five or six. It changed our lives.

Trina Sherman ll

Do not enroll your child in a school before the school has done evaluations and offered an IEP. The first thing you have to do is get them evaluated for the need for special ed services.

You need to identify them in writing as children needing special ed services. Then they have sixty days to get the testing done. If you identified them in June in writing, they would have had to have it done before school started.

Then they call an ARD to design an IEP. Actually what will most likely happen is that they will have an IEP all ready for you to sign. Take their copy, and in VERY BIG letters at the top, write DRAFT, and then go about the business of designing an IEP that meets your child's unique needs. NEVER say the word " best. " Use the word " appropriate. "

Get a copy of the book, " From Emotions to Advocacy " and study it. Make the website www.wrightslaw.com your favorite site so you can learn to advocate effectively for your child.

You cannot send your child to school without a plan in place. That would be absurd.Regarding the IQ test, I can tell you that children with autism do not perform well on them. Avoid it if you can. But if they do it, let them know that you know they are not good indicators of intelligence for children with autism and that you will not allow placement decisions to be made based on that information. State in writing that they can give scores for individual parts of the IQ, but they cannot record a separate whole IQ score anywhere in your child's records.

Though it is illegal and has been ruled on by the Ninth Circuit Court, schools still notoriously use IQ to warehouse special needs children in to self contained classrooms where their educations amount to little more than over-glorified daycare.

From the day your children step foot into school, keep EVERY paper that comes home from them and be sure to date them. Match questions to the IEP objectives. DO NOT accept " observation " as a criterion for mastery.

Document everything as you need a paper trail to show that this district is not doing its job. They put you off all summer and now your children will pay a price as they are not ready for them.

August 18, 2012

There were several excellent suggestions in the previous posts in response to

your original one. I would clarify one thing from one of the posts and also give

you some other suggestions.

Haven rightly pointed out that the district has 60 days to assess and then 30

days thereafter to conduct an initial assessment. It should be clarified that

the 60 day timeline begins after written consent is provided. I am not implying

that anyone said you could verbally inform the district to assess, and hold the

school's feet to the fire, I am only clarifying.

The other point is that the school district has the responsibility to test in

all areas of suspected disability, so you should think about all the areas the

child is challenged in such as speech and language, Occupational therapy

including sensory needs, music therapy, behavior and needs in the home and in

the community. You should think about whether the student has a concept of

danger, which many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD'S) do not. Many

times parents will disagree with the district's assessment because either the

evaluator did not come up with the proper diagnosis or because the report was so

watered down that it didn't provide sufficient guidance to create IEP goals and

objectives. While I would caution parents to never explain why they disagree

with an assessment as they are not required to under IDEIA, the right to an

independent educational evaluation (IEE) is crucial. This is especially true

when a district has performed an IQ test that shows that the student has an

intellectual disability (ID). Effectively, it is a second opinion that the

district must either agree to and pay for, or disagree and file for due process

to defend their assessment. The district's rarely file for due process to

defend their assessments because they seldom win on this issue and it is quite

costly offen running in excess of $20,000 to defend a $2,000 assessment. It

absolutely vital for you to have a truly independent assessment of the child

from someone that does not work for a school system. This person could

ultimately be an expert that could testify in the child's favor in the event the

case ever goes to due process.

The other area that was not mentioned is the importance of understanding what an

ARD committee must consider in the development of an IEP for a student with an

ASD. The ARD committee must consider all 11 items discussed in the Autism

Supplement which covers several areas including but not limited to,

communication, extended year services, teacher training, staff to student ratios

and instructional strategies. It is vital for all parents to become acquainted

with this supplement when planning for your child.

I wish you well as you embark on the journey of navigating the maze of special

education. I will leave you with two thoughts. Special education is a service

and not a place. It is also a marathon and not a sprint.

Louis H. Geigerman, President

National ARD/IEP Advocate

http://narda.org

louis@...

>

> My son was just diagnosed. He originally went to the school's preschool at 3

but we pulled him out at 4 and did some at home therapy. He has an IEP from

when he was 3 and he was non-verbal. Now he is verbal. I have been in contact

with the school for over 3 weeks now and never had an answer as to where to

register him. Finally I went to the vice-principal at our local school and

asked and he said if I hadn't heard back from the school district by friday to

let him know and he would find out. He told me not to register because a lot of

the autistic children go to other schools that are better prepared for them.

Well, I finally heard back from the district and they told me to register him

with my local school. So I took his papers to them and I asked what they plan

to do with him and the secretary told me that if they didn't tell me then they

wouldn't know. I told them I would not drop my child off without a game plan.

Someone told me they would probably just put him in the special ed class and

have an ARD meeting in 30 days. The school doesn't even have a copy of his IEP.

I asked to speak to the vice-principal as I feel really uncomfortable with this.

Am I just being paranoid with all this.

>

> On top of it my daughter who is 3 would go to the preschool. I talked to them

at the beginning of June and since then have tried to contact them several times

with only being called back once. I also went to that school and they told me

she wouldn't be able to enroll because she hasn't been evaluated yet and it

would probably at least a month to a month in a half before they would get it

done. That seems like an awful long time. Also, I know they are going to try

to do one of those IQ test. I can tell you right now she will not do it as the

more people you put in the room the less she is able to deal with it. She had a

hearing test today and their were only 2 people in the room and she wouldn't

cooperate.

>

August 18, 2012

Hi !You deserve a tremendous amount of credit (and support) for going about taking on the "public education machinery" in protecting the interest of your children. Many of us have been where you are and all of us understand where you are. This is a battle that you do not have to fight alone. No need to fight the good battle alone, we are all here to fight it with you.You mentioned that your son "was just diagnosed." Was this as part of a private evaluation? If it was, the SD does not have to "accept" it, but it must "consider" it. You do not have to have had an independent evaluation to request an evaluation. However, a private evaluation may give your request more muscle. In addition, do you have a copy of the SD initial evaluation conducted and the ARD at which your son's IEPs were developed when he was 3? Write a letter requesting a re-evaluation to ALL the special education personnel at the district level, do not bother communicating with a particular school, attach to the letter a copy of the SD initial evaluation and ARD documents (if you have them) and of the latest report. If you do not have a copy of the SD's documents, do not worry, they had to have kept a record, just make mention them in the letter. Bring the letter and the attached documents to the highest ranking special education person, and copies to the rest of them. Make sure you obtain a receipt from the person to whom you gave the documents. The SD must honor that request. One week later contact them by email only. You may receive a response within a week, if not keep contacting them by email only over the next two weeks. Intelligent Quotient (IQ) testing is no longer being evaluated, as such. What every Full and Individual Evaluation (FIE) broadly measures, along with speech and language, physical, medical, adaptive behavior, adaptive technology, social history, behavior, etc, is intellectual functioning. If in the assessment of the above areas of possible disabilities, one or more suggest an area of deficit, individual more in depth evaluation(s) of the specific area of deficit . are conducted. A low intellectual functioning in and of itself does not determine if a child is Intellectually Deficient (ID). Here too, individual more in depth evaluations must be conducted to confirm or rule out an area of deficit. Having said ALL THAT, if you don't agree with the SD evaluation in total or in any of the areas assessed, you always have the option of requesting a SD-paid Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) to be conducted by an evaluator of your choice, provided she/he meets the SD criteria for it's independent evaluators. The SD criteria is public, it must be disclosed.If I may be of further assistance in getting you started, please contact me offlineLoretta Zayas-Revai,Advocate and MediatorLZR Educational Advocate and MeditationOffice: Fax: Mobile/Text: (281) 857-1080loretta@...www.loretta@..."THE WAY YOU DO ANYTHING IS THE WAY YOU DO EVERYTHING"

--- What would you do?

Date: Fri, August 17, 2012 6:16 pm

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

My son was just diagnosed. He originally went to the school's preschool at 3 but we pulled him out at 4 and did some at home therapy. He has an IEP from when he was 3 and he was non-verbal. Now he is verbal. I have been in contact with the school for over 3 weeks now and never had an answer as to where to register him. Finally I went to the vice-principal at our local school and asked and he said if I hadn't heard back from the school district by friday to let him know and he would find out. He told me not to register because a lot of the autistic children go to other schools that are better prepared for them. Well, I finally heard back from the district and they told me to register him with my local school. So I took his papers to them and I asked what they plan to do with him and the secretary told me that if they didn't tell me then they wouldn't know. I told them I would not drop my child off without a game plan. Someone told me they would probably just put him in the special ed class and have an ARD meeting in 30 days. The school doesn't even have a copy of his IEP. I asked to speak to the vice-principal as I feel really uncomfortable with this. Am I just being paranoid with all this. On top of it my daughter who is 3 would go to the preschool. I talked to them at the beginning of June and since then have tried to contact them several times with only being called back once. I also went to that school and they told me she wouldn't be able to enroll because she hasn't been evaluated yet and it would probably at least a month to a month in a half before they would get it done. That seems like an awful long time. Also, I know they are going to try to do one of those IQ test. I can tell you right now she will not do it as the more people you put in the room the less she is able to deal with it. She had a hearing test today and their were only 2 people in the room and she wouldn't cooperate.

August 18, 2012

Louis,But what if we know our son does not have a disability in intellect? Why then are we being forced to do an IQ test when the only service we are interested in from them is academic instruction through a tutor trained in RPM? There's the rub, and after seeing the preview for " Forgotten Lives, " I am convinced that what is happening to so many of these children is that they are purposely being mislabeled, warehoused in self-contained rooms, taught nothing, and on the short road to institutionalization. How do parents fight this misguided plan when they have no money to fight with?

Haven

August 19, 2012

Haven,

Believe me, I understand your point. Again, that is why we have the right to

request and obtain IEE'S. ly, if more parents would exercise that right

alone, it would cause a tilt toward assisting children with special needs. But

I want to focus on the last thing that you posted. You expressed concern about

what can families do if they cannot afford to hire counsel for due process?

The answer to that is assuming that you are are not filing a frivalous claim,

file for due process anyway, " pro se " representing yourself. Sandi Winkleman

did just that and the supreme court of the United States agreed that parents

have that right.

Surely, it is better to have an experienced represent you, but if that is not

possible, then file a due process complaint anyway. Fortunately, my good

friend and colleague, Dorene Philpot recently wrote a Do It Yourself due process

book for parents and I am going to give her plug. For $99 you will have all the

tools that you need to file and try a due process case.

http://www.amazon.com/Yourself-Special-Education-Process-ebook/dp/B007B2WEBS

If you have a good case, you have experts that will back you up, then bring it

on. Very few cases actually go all the way to hearing and most settle.

Today, more than ever, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so don't be afraid to

try a case if it is clear that the child is being denied a free and appropriate

education. Further, if you do file for due process, then make certain that you

request that the hearing be open for others to see how the system needs repair.

If more parents would exercise this right, this most certainly will cause a tilt

toward families.

I wish you the very best.

Louis H. Geigerman

President

National ARD/IEP Advocates

http://narda.org

louis@...

>

> Louis,

>

> But what if we know our son does not have a disability in intellect? Why

> then are we being forced to do an IQ test when the only service we are

> interested in from them is academic instruction through a tutor trained in

> RPM? There's the rub, and after seeing the preview for " Forgotten Lives, "

> I am convinced that what is happening to so many of these children is that

> they are purposely being mislabeled, warehoused in self-contained rooms,

> taught nothing, and on the short road to institutionalization. How

> do parents fight this misguided plan when they have no money to fight with?

>

> Haven

>

August 19, 2012

Hi Haven,You can order Dorene's book online at: http://learningenabledpublications.comFor Online Orders:

To purchase a copy of "Do-It-Yourself Special Education Due Process, An Educational Guide" by Dorene Philpot via credit card at a cost of $35 for non-Texas residents or $37.89 for Texas residents, please click here and follow the instructions on the order page.

Order By Check:

To purchase a copy of "Do-It-Yourself Special Education Due Process, An Educational Guide" by Dorene Philpot by check (rather than via credit card), please click here and follow the instructionsIt is wonderful!!!!LorettaLoretta Zayas-Revai,Advocate and MediatorLZR Educational Advocate and MeditationOffice: Fax: Mobile/Text: (281) 857-1080loretta@...www.loretta@..."THE WAY YOU DO ANYTHING IS THE WAY YOU DO EVERYTHING"