Re: Fighting To Change Schools

[Guest guest]

Wow Tim reading you story is almost exactly like ours. Except our son is older,

he is 14 now.

We are finally getting our son back to being mainstreamed with NT children in

the last two weeks. We're doing two classes at a time. But my son was not only

in a self contained classroom with only four other children he was also put on

the 6th grade schedule when he 8th grade! !

We finally had to contact the state DOE and now the director of middle schools

has been at our last three IEPs.

Maybe you need to contact the director of the Sped department or higher. Don't

give up! And document everything. That's what helped us.

Good luck!

ne

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

timothyskay <timothyskay@...> wrote:

>I have an 8 year old son in the 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with Aspergers when

he started kindergarten. When he started kindergarten he was uncontrollable. He

would not sit still. He would not follow instructions. He would run around the

room, out in the hallway, and into other classrooms.

>

>One his first day of school a little boy that lives across the street from use

came home and told his mother that was in his class that day. The mother

responded that she thought that was in the other kindergarten class. The

boy said yeah, but he ran in there, with an adult chasing after him.

>

>The school did intelligence testing and found that he was very bright. I think

that surprised them. He scored off the charts for what should be expected of a 5

year old. The elementary school did not want him, because he was disrupting the

class. Most of his time was spent outside the class in a meeting room, or any

room that was vacant, with a lady that worked with the Intermediate Unit.

>

>I don't know if the Intermediate Unit is just a Pennsylvania thing or what. But

we live in southwestern Pennsylvania. So he was being rewarded for his bad

behaviors, because he got to spent one on one time with this young lady in her

early twenty's that he thought was fine looking.

>

>And he had always been the center of attention, because he is an only child. At

school he had to compete for attention and therefore he acted up, to be noticed.

>

>He was placed in a Therapeutic Emotional Support classroom in another school

district. Because our school district does not have a TES classroom.

>

>He is still in this classroom with the same teacher. This is his forth year

with her. And it will be his last. If he stays at that school again next year he

will move to another classroom across the hall from his present class. The class

he is in is for K-3. And the one across the hall is for 4th and 5th graders.

>

>He had been doing well in this class until shortly after Christmas break. He

started refusing to do his work. He would play with pencils; reflect sunlight

around the room with his dry erase board, or whatever else he could think of.

>

>When I ask him why he was doing these things, he said because he wanted to.

When his teacher asked he would say, because I want to see how you will react.

>

>His behavior might be stabilizing. We would take something away from him when

he had a bad day. And when he had a good day, he could get something back.

>

> At one point he had lost his DSi, his Wii, his electronic keyboard, his old

Game Cube. And possibly some other stuff. Currently he has had three good days

in a row.

>

>My wife and I do not want him back in that school next year. We don't feel it

is helping him any longer. He is not in our opinion, being challenged enough

with his school work, and is bored. The school feels differently, stating that

he does not have time to get bored. It is not about how much he has to do, but

the level of work he is doing that is causing the boredom.

>

>His teacher told me recently that when started in her class he was capable

of dong 8th grade math. I just ordered intelligence testing, and academic

testing. If he is no longer working on or above an 8th grade level in math, then

I know he is not being challenged.

>

>My wife and I want him back into a normal, or possibly a gifted classroom, with

an aide. Where he is taught on his level. And with normal children that don't

have behavior or emotional problems. He needs to see how a regular child in a

regular classroom handles everyday problems.

>

>My wife and I are going to have a hard time getting him out of this school.

After his testing, we will have another IEP meeting. This time we will have a

Parent Advocate attending with us. I don't know how much that will help. So,

after this long history lesson on my son, does anybody have any advice?

>

>Tim

>

>

[Guest guest]

Don't be afraid to reject the school's recommendations for placement. You may

have a fight on your hands if the school has determined they want to place your

son in the TES room. Many of these self contained spec ed classes don't attempt

to challenge their students academically. I think that you are on the right

track asking for an aide and to be put in regular ed. My son had a very

successful experience in elementary school. He was always in a class with a

shared aide. The aide was able to give him that little bit of extra attention to

help him stay on track behaviorally at school.

You said that you are having independent testing done then you may want to ask

one of those evaluators for recommendations on what type of environment your son

needs to be sucessful (learning and social) at school. We did this when my son

had a full neuropsych. We asked that question going into the eval and the doc

had no problem including that info in her report.

Caroline

>

> I have an 8 year old son in the 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with Aspergers

when he started kindergarten. When he started kindergarten he was

uncontrollable. He would not sit still. He would not follow instructions. He

would run around the room, out in the hallway, and into other classrooms.

>

> One his first day of school a little boy that lives across the street from use

came home and told his mother that was in his class that day. The mother

responded that she thought that was in the other kindergarten class. The

boy said yeah, but he ran in there, with an adult chasing after him.

>

> The school did intelligence testing and found that he was very bright. I think

that surprised them. He scored off the charts for what should be expected of a 5

year old. The elementary school did not want him, because he was disrupting the

class. Most of his time was spent outside the class in a meeting room, or any

room that was vacant, with a lady that worked with the Intermediate Unit.

>

> I don't know if the Intermediate Unit is just a Pennsylvania thing or what.

But we live in southwestern Pennsylvania. So he was being rewarded for his bad

behaviors, because he got to spent one on one time with this young lady in her

early twenty's that he thought was fine looking.

>

> And he had always been the center of attention, because he is an only child.

At school he had to compete for attention and therefore he acted up, to be

noticed.

>

> He was placed in a Therapeutic Emotional Support classroom in another school

district. Because our school district does not have a TES classroom.

>

> He is still in this classroom with the same teacher. This is his forth year

with her. And it will be his last. If he stays at that school again next year he

will move to another classroom across the hall from his present class. The class

he is in is for K-3. And the one across the hall is for 4th and 5th graders.

>

> He had been doing well in this class until shortly after Christmas break. He

started refusing to do his work. He would play with pencils; reflect sunlight

around the room with his dry erase board, or whatever else he could think of.

>

> When I ask him why he was doing these things, he said because he wanted to.

When his teacher asked he would say, because I want to see how you will react.

>

> His behavior might be stabilizing. We would take something away from him when

he had a bad day. And when he had a good day, he could get something back.

>

> At one point he had lost his DSi, his Wii, his electronic keyboard, his old

Game Cube. And possibly some other stuff. Currently he has had three good days

in a row.

>

> My wife and I do not want him back in that school next year. We don't feel it

is helping him any longer. He is not in our opinion, being challenged enough

with his school work, and is bored. The school feels differently, stating that

he does not have time to get bored. It is not about how much he has to do, but

the level of work he is doing that is causing the boredom.

>

> His teacher told me recently that when started in her class he was

capable of dong 8th grade math. I just ordered intelligence testing, and

academic testing. If he is no longer working on or above an 8th grade level in

math, then I know he is not being challenged.

>

> My wife and I want him back into a normal, or possibly a gifted classroom,

with an aide. Where he is taught on his level. And with normal children that

don't have behavior or emotional problems. He needs to see how a regular child

in a regular classroom handles everyday problems.

>

> My wife and I are going to have a hard time getting him out of this school.

After his testing, we will have another IEP meeting. This time we will have a

Parent Advocate attending with us. I don't know how much that will help. So,

after this long history lesson on my son, does anybody have any advice?

>

> Tim

>

[Guest guest]

I think asking for a complete evaluation is a good thing. these sped classes are often teaching the kids well below their grade level. So for kids who have an LD and are gifted (2e kids), you have a really tough situation. You probably will have to monitor what he is being taught constantly to make sure they are keeping him at age/grade level or above. You will have to request data at regular intervals, such as having work sent home so you can see what he is doing and how well he is doing. You are also going to have to advocate for what he needs constantly due to his unique needs. The thing is, the IEP is supposed to already be doing that.

Another avenue that should have been done (and maybe it has...) is to have a FBA (functional behavior assessment) done to evaluate his behavior and work on it. I would really push for an expert in autism behavior to come in and do an FBA and then a BP (behavior plan). Your advocate should have lots of ideas to help you get him into regular classes and will probably tell you that they are required by law to educate kids in the least restrictive environment (LRE). They will argue that he can't be in regular classes since his behavior is so out of control. Then you will want to push the FBA and a resulting BP to get his behaviors under better control. At the same time, don't let them say "We can't do that here..." when it comes to educating him at his grade level or above, according to his needs. They CAN.

Roxanna

“Our lives begin to end the day we

become silent about things that matter.†- Luther King, Jr.

( ) Fighting To Change Schools

I have an 8 year old son in the 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with Aspergers when he started kindergarten. When he started kindergarten he was uncontrollable. He would not sit still. He would not follow instructions. He would run around the room, out in the hallway, and into other classrooms.

One his first day of school a little boy that lives across the street from use came home and told his mother that was in his class that day. The mother responded that she thought that was in the other kindergarten class. The boy said yeah, but he ran in there, with an adult chasing after him.

The school did intelligence testing and found that he was very bright. I think that surprised them. He scored off the charts for what should be expected of a 5 year old. The elementary school did not want him, because he was disrupting the class. Most of his time was spent outside the class in a meeting room, or any room that was vacant, with a lady that worked with the Intermediate Unit.

I don't know if the Intermediate Unit is just a Pennsylvania thing or what. But we live in southwestern Pennsylvania. So he was being rewarded for his bad behaviors, because he got to spent one on one time with this young lady in her early twenty's that he thought was fine looking.

And he had always been the center of attention, because he is an only child. At school he had to compete for attention and therefore he acted up, to be noticed.

He was placed in a Therapeutic Emotional Support classroom in another school district. Because our school district does not have a TES classroom.

He is still in this classroom with the same teacher. This is his forth year with her. And it will be his last. If he stays at that school again next year he will move to another classroom across the hall from his present class. The class he is in is for K-3. And the one across the hall is for 4th and 5th graders.

He had been doing well in this class until shortly after Christmas break. He started refusing to do his work. He would play with pencils; reflect sunlight around the room with his dry erase board, or whatever else he could think of.

When I ask him why he was doing these things, he said because he wanted to. When his teacher asked he would say, because I want to see how you will react.

His behavior might be stabilizing. We would take something away from him when he had a bad day. And when he had a good day, he could get something back.

At one point he had lost his DSi, his Wii, his electronic keyboard, his old Game Cube. And possibly some other stuff. Currently he has had three good days in a row.

My wife and I do not want him back in that school next year. We don't feel it is helping him any longer. He is not in our opinion, being challenged enough with his school work, and is bored. The school feels differently, stating that he does not have time to get bored. It is not about how much he has to do, but the level of work he is doing that is causing the boredom.

His teacher told me recently that when started in her class he was capable of dong 8th grade math. I just ordered intelligence testing, and academic testing. If he is no longer working on or above an 8th grade level in math, then I know he is not being challenged.

My wife and I want him back into a normal, or possibly a gifted classroom, with an aide. Where he is taught on his level. And with normal children that don't have behavior or emotional problems. He needs to see how a regular child in a regular classroom handles everyday problems.

My wife and I are going to have a hard time getting him out of this school. After his testing, we will have another IEP meeting. This time we will have a Parent Advocate attending with us. I don't know how much that will help. So, after this long history lesson on my son, does anybody have any advice?

Tim