Re: Re: Was: OT: Yellow Obsession / Now: Catholic School

[Guest guest]

>I agree that schools are not obligated to provide the " best "

>placement, and of course also agree that by Federal law children are

>entitled to be schooled in the " least restrictive environment, but

>perhaps I misunderstand your point about using the word

>appropriate. True you may not want to say " most appropriate "

>because that may sound to much like " best " but don't underestimate

>the word appropriate when used alone. Schools are obligated to

>provide " appropriate " placement and therapy for a child's needs.

>That would be the definition of LRE (least restrictive environment)

>but of course covers so much more.

I agree fully! Appropriate used alone is strong. It implies that the

other placement is not appropriate. " Most appropriate " can mean that the

other placement is appropriate and you get into the " best " argument which

legally doesn't fly. Therefore it is best to avoid it!

>About school therapy being provided for a child who is homeschooled or in

>private school -I'd get that in writing from the school and ask them

>to explain why, and 'then' check out the IEP stuff online.

Three attorneys I have consulted have said that technically unless the team

places the child into another environment the schools are not legally

obligated to provide services. Most districts will, but if the district is

going to be pig-headed about it you don't have much legal backing for

getting services.

I found something once upon a time buried in IDEA which supported this. I

can't find it now. Here is what I've found so far:

http://wata.org/dyk/idea-97-ammendments.htm

Private School Students: The 1997 Amendments resolve an issue on which

there have been conflicting court opinions -- the extent to which public

schools must provide services to students with disabilities who attend

private schools. The 1997 amendments state that children with disabilities

who are placed by their parents in private schools are entitled to special

education services but at a cost which is limited to a proportionate share

of federal IDEA dollars. According to OSPI, if 10 of 100 district special

education students attend private school, 10 percent of the district's

federal funding should be directed to the private school students. This is

likely to be a very small amount.

Districts must still pay for general and special education services for

children placed by the districts in private schools. Districts may also be

obligated to pay " full freight " if a court or hearing officer finds that

the District failed to make available a free and appropriate public

education. Courts can reduce the amount of such reimbursement if they find

that the parents failed to properly notify the district of their intent to

transfer the child to a private school setting, failed to cooperate with

the district's proposed evaluation of a child and/or for other reasons.

I found part of the

IDEA:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode20/usc_sec_20_00001412----000-.html

Part 10 addresses the parentally placed private school student. The

argument used in our district is there is neither funds nor staff available

for parentally placed children. They don't outright say they won't get

services. They write services into an IEP and then refuse to honor it and

when you question they claim staff shortages, but they refuse to put it

into writing. They put NOTHING into writing. Letters we have sent have

been ignored or only replied to by calling another IEP where they can

verbally address them. So I still stand by what I said. To get services

in a private school setting you are best to argue that the schools cannot

provide FAPE. And even then it might not be successful. In our case if I

felt the school SLP helped my son at all I'd fight a lot harder, but at

this point I've given up for next year and I'm very much at peace in not

preparing for an IEP this month! He's getting the best help possible in

private speech therapy and making steady progress. Thankfully he now has

coverage for this with Medicaid! He is doing well in his private preschool

so I won't even consider pulling him out of his wonderful early education

program for a failing " academics based " public pre-k for next year. I'm

not telling others to do the same, but in our situation and with our

horrible district it doesn't seem worth it to fight. At least not this

upcoming year! For now I'm taking it one year at a time.

Miche