Re: Update from 's mom, H

[Guest guest]

lisa H

Where in California are you? Im in Sonoma County. Just wondering if your

close by.

Tiff

[Guest guest]

, get yourself a copy of slaw: Special Education Law Check out

their web site at www.wrightslaw.com

for ideas and more information.

----- Original Message -----

We will probably end up getting a lawyer or at least an advocate...even for

the first IEP!!! And I am going to get a copy of California law and see how

long they can legally delay us! *sigh*

>

> And in the meantime, we see our daughter regressing in certain areas!

Thank goodness for the diet! And the private speech therapy we already

started on our own. Thanks for listening! Any and all advice is welcome!

H (mom to , PDD)

[Guest guest]

> -We had our evaluation meeting today with the SELPA people...from

our school system. It went fairly badly>

>

,

I am so sorry to hear that it didn't go well! In our school system,

they didn't want anything to do with ABA until I forced the issue

with my IEP addendum. I guess my best advice for you right now is:

1) Ask them the legal reason for delaying the IEP. Tell them that

you have your advocate already lined up and that it will be a

hardship for you to change the date.

2) Create your own list of goals for , including dates, etc.

The school system will most likely walk into the IEP meeting with

their standard offerings for goals and action items already set.

(This is ILLEGAL (not " individual " ), but they do it anyway as a

convenience to try to pigeon-hole your child.) If you have goals

that can best be achieved via ABA, it will be much harder for them to

ignore! If you want the goals we took into Brett's IEP meeting,

email me at sueswanson@... and I'll send them to you.

Keep focusing on what YOU know is best for , and hang in there!

Hugs,

Sue

[Guest guest]

When being nice doesn't work, come out guns blazing! There is an

organization called Protection and Advocacy. They are a non-profit

organization that will give you free legal advice about how to deal

with your IEP. However, they won't accompany you to the meeting,

which we decided was more important for us. Protection and Advocacy

produces a book called Special Education Rights and Responsibilities.

This is great - it will tell you what your rights are and what the

school district is bound by law to do. I believe they have 50 days to

get you into an IEP and if they stall you, they are " out of

compliance " and you could complain about it to Sacramento - that

doesn't really do much, but they (your local school) will not want

you to talk to Sacramento since it will be a black mark against them.

So.... use the " non-compliance " phrase to pressure them.

But I do think hiring an advocate, even for your first IEP, is

totally worth the money. I wish we had done that, we would have been

over a year now with appropriate therapy instead of only 5 months.

Just so you know - with an advocate, we got 40 hours a week, one-on-

one behavioral intervention in our private pre-school. They are also

paying for our private pre-school. Free and Appropriate Education -

that is your child's right under the law. Find out what you think is

appropriate for your baby, back it up with evaluations, don't take no

for an answer and you will get it.

We have our annual IEP on April 20 and we have to fight all over

again for these services, but they are not taking anything away from

us. I will bring cookies I will smile, (or cry if necessary) but I'm

not leaving until they extend our program.

Good luck - stay strong - talk to people in your area who have hired

advocates and get one.

Moira

> -We had our evaluation meeting today with the SELPA people...from

our school system. It went fairly badly. As soon as my husband

started asking questions about home therapy using ABA, they began to

back way off. They ended up saying that they are delaying our first

IEP another 2 weeks! I had been so nice to that point! Just like

all of you recommended...I made cookies, and was so nice to them.

>

> After that I said I felt they were stalling us and that I was

beginning to have trust issues with them! I felt they were pretty

patronizing. So now I'm trying like crazy to get in touch wiht the

local FEAT and any other parent advocasy group I can. We will

probably end up getting a lawyer or at least an advocate...even for

the first IEP!!! And I am going to get a copy of California law and

see how long they can legally delay us! *sigh*

>

> And in the meantime, we see our daughter regressing in certain

areas! Thank goodness for the diet! And the private speech therapy

we already started on our own. Thanks for listening! Any and all

advice is welcome! H (mom to , PDD)

[Guest guest]

> When being nice doesn't work, come out guns blazing! There is an

> organization called Protection and Advocacy. They are a non-profit

> organization that will give you free legal advice about how to deal

> with your IEP. However, they won't accompany you to the meeting,

> which we decided was more important for us. ... "

Some do go, some don't. Varies by state & county, so it's worth a

call to find out. Also, there are other orgs with free advocates,

and the P&A will probably have contact numbers for you.

Also, I don't trust any evaluation done by the school system. I had

Ian evaluated by an independent psych and a program recommended

before the IEP. It's made all the difference in the world and well

worth the $$. There are ways to get the $$ reimbursed (not always

successful)if you object to their " expert " and get an independent

eval.

HI