Timeline for eligibility report

[Anonymous]

Question- my child has an IEP. School has been clear that their high academic achievement might disqualify them from IEP (which makes no sense). School sent my kid to be reevaluated and report came back in April. I got a copy today and a demand for meeting.

Is there a time limit for me to get the report? It seems so weird to me that they took months to get it.

Second, the report is insane. DOB is different, age is different, and it doesn’t sound my child. And surprise surprise, they no longer find evidence of disability!

Any thoughts on handling this?

[Anonymous]

You should immediately forward the report to your district’s office of special education. This is not acceptable.

-veteran special education teacher

You do not have to sign agreement to change the IEP or drop it. You have the final say.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I’m so upset about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question- my child has an IEP. School has been clear that their high academic achievement might disqualify them from IEP (which makes no sense). School sent my kid to be reevaluated and report came back in April. I got a copy today and a demand for meeting.

Is there a time limit for me to get the report? It seems so weird to me that they took months to get it.

Second, the report is insane. DOB is different, age is different, and it doesn’t sound my child. And surprise surprise, they no longer find evidence of disability!

Any thoughts on handling this?

Schools have 65 business days to complete the assessments. They can share the report in that timeline. You should be offered a phone call or meeting to discuss the results of the assessment before the eligibility meeting.

It does take that long. Errors with birthday/age are not good, but could be an honest mistake (not that it’s right). I’d point that out in the meeting.

Students can present differently in different situations or perform differently on different tasks. All data is considered for eligibility. An assessment is one piece.

[Anonymous]

First of all; thank you so much.

I don’t know what I’m doing here and am so grateful for any help.

Our child’s dc charter hired some new people and basically wants to purge the IEP rolls.

When does the 65 business days begin? The evaluation date until I received it was well over 65 days. Or is it from when it was requested? Because that was early January.

[Anonymous]

The timeline depends on the state. In DC for an initial evaluation, they have 60 calendar days (not business or school days) to do the evaluation and hold an eligibility meeting.

In all jurisdictions, if the school did a lousy job or you disagree with it, you can ask them for an IEE. They have to either say yes or file for due process -- they cannot just say no.

[Anonymous]

Does the 60 days count for a reevaluation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The timeline depends on the state. In DC for an initial evaluation, they have 60 calendar days (not business or school days) to do the evaluation and hold an eligibility meeting.

In all jurisdictions, if the school did a lousy job or you disagree with it, you can ask them for an IEE. They have to either say yes or file for due process -- they cannot just say no.

Op here- I appreciate so much your help.

I just don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m furious reading this crazy report. I genuinely think the psychologist mixed two reports together- not just because the basic information is wrong but because there are mentions of behavioral issues neither I nor the teacher believes. I’m ready for a really big fight because the teacher “doesn’t believe in SpEd”. She’s terrific but I’m pretty sure she’s going to side with the school and say nothing is truly wrong with my kiddo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I just don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m furious reading this crazy report. I genuinely think the psychologist mixed two reports together- not just because the basic information is wrong but because there are mentions of behavioral issues neither I nor the teacher believes. I’m ready for a really big fight because the teacher “doesn’t believe in SpEd”. She’s terrific but I’m pretty sure she’s going to side with the school and say nothing is truly wrong with my kiddo.

It sounds like it's time to dig in and push through the procedural stuff. We've got a lot of rights as parents, and the schools find it far easier if we don't know them. The Wrights Law website is a good place to start when you're digging into the nitty-gritty of what you can do. This is also a good time to bring in an educational lawyer.

In your evaluation meeting, you want to calmly point out factual errors and areas where you have not noticed, and the school has never documented, problems. If the eval says that there's no disability, expect the school to want to end the IEP--you're fighting that, not a particular teacher or evaluator. You want to request the independent educational evaluation (IEE) at public expense, and as a matter of law, they must either pay for it or go to a due process complaint. If they go to a due process complaint, documenting the factual errors that the school evaluator made will be really beneficial for you.

Meanwhile, they can't remove your child from services while you're in this process (this is called "stay put" rights.) I believe you have to either ask for mediation or start a due process complaint to have Stay Put apply, and you have to act within fifteen days of the Prior Written Notice that they want to remove services. From what you wrote, it sounds like they haven't said that yet--they're still in the process of evaluation and documentation. But if the evaluator recommends removing services, expect to get the PWN and be ready to act on it within the 15-day window.

As soon as you're at the due process stage, you should get an educational lawyer, if you possibly can. It is normal for the school system to pay lawyer's fees as part of the resolution of a due process complaint, so if you have a good case, you likely won't be out of pocket for the whole cost. Unfortunately, you have to pay the retainer up front and hope the due process comes out in your favor. We're in the DC area and our retainer three years ago was $2500, to give you an idea of the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the 60 days count for a reevaluation?

In Maryland, the timeline for reevaluations is 90 days, not 60.

[Anonymous]

Can you clarify -
are you in a DC Charter?
are you doing the required tri-anneal?

Or did you request new testing in Jan based on some other trigger?

These things all matter with regard to how to respond.

[Anonymous]

So I re-read your post and I have been there.
As I understand it:
Your child currently has an IEP
The school triggered a re-evaluation and did testing earlier this year.
You just got the report AND the school is trying to schedule a meeting to go over the re-evaluation - with the potential of determining that your child no longer qualifies for an IEP.
You belief that your child still needs the services to access the curriculum.

If I was in your shoes, I would:
Not highlight the issues with the report. I would wait until the meeting to ask questions about the report. Say things like - I see the report here says X - can you please tell me more....This is not my experience and this is the 1st time I am hearing about this. Do this for every error you see in the report. You want to slow roll this in order to buy yourself some time.
In the meeting the person will say that they made an error and will be getting a new report. When they say this, recommend that they meeting is put on hold until a new report is developed because they will want to push forward without the report. Hold your ground and say - I do not understand how we can move forward without having an accurate report. Isn't the report a key input for the meeting?
You need to have the report AT LEAST 5 days before the meeting. Do not allow the school to bully you into having a meeting before that time. Say - I am sorry, I need time to review this. It is overwhelming and it takes me time to digest. I was looking at the procedural guidelines issued from OSSE and it says that a materials need to be sent at least 5 days before a meeting. I understand that you want to wrap this up with the end of the school year but I think that this is important that I understand the report in order to be a part of the IEP team and come to the meeting in a way that I can meaningfully participate.

Good luck with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I re-read your post and I have been there.
As I understand it:
Your child currently has an IEP
The school triggered a re-evaluation and did testing earlier this year.
You just got the report AND the school is trying to schedule a meeting to go over the re-evaluation - with the potential of determining that your child no longer qualifies for an IEP.
You belief that your child still needs the services to access the curriculum.

If I was in your shoes, I would:
Not highlight the issues with the report. I would wait until the meeting to ask questions about the report. Say things like - I see the report here says X - can you please tell me more....This is not my experience and this is the 1st time I am hearing about this. Do this for every error you see in the report. You want to slow roll this in order to buy yourself some time.
In the meeting the person will say that they made an error and will be getting a new report. When they say this, recommend that they meeting is put on hold until a new report is developed because they will want to push forward without the report. Hold your ground and say - I do not understand how we can move forward without having an accurate report. Isn't the report a key input for the meeting?
You need to have the report AT LEAST 5 days before the meeting. Do not allow the school to bully you into having a meeting before that time. Say - I am sorry, I need time to review this. It is overwhelming and it takes me time to digest. I was looking at the procedural guidelines issued from OSSE and it says that a materials need to be sent at least 5 days before a meeting. I understand that you want to wrap this up with the end of the school year but I think that this is important that I understand the report in order to be a part of the IEP team and come to the meeting in a way that I can meaningfully participate.

Good luck with this.

Yes my child is at a dc charter.

They have an IEP with a lot of supports.

In the areas where they get support, they’re going much better. In the areas where they don’t get support- they’re not doing well.

I am okay reducing some supports, with heavy pressure from the teacher. But I’m not okay getting rid of IEp and all support.

I suspect the school has completely stopped providing support.

The report that they made was given to me 5 days before the meeting is scheduled. The report has a zillion issues, but what really springs out to me are the incorrect factual information. Like really obvious stuff like dob and name. Also it appears about halfway through to refer to another kid, even naming them.

I’m tired of fighting the school, and I think they were disgusting to hold on to this report for months, while they unilaterally stopped services. They also lied and attempted to say we got it a month ago, which FALSE.

I am willing to hire an attorney and make sure that the new director (who weirdly I know) is aware of their shady and unprofessional behavior (I actually quickly identified the other child from the report). But at the end of the day I just want what is best for my child.

This was their triennial report. Another thing that has happened is that my child is without a full time teacher since this report was issued (yes dc charter is going up in flames)- so I’ve been tutoring her like crazy after school and hired two tutors. They are being tutored around the clock, which is terrible considering the long schooldays.

So basically I just want them to have some pullouts and an IEP, especially since middle school is coming up next year.

Any chance I can get them evaluated with my own dr as well?

[Anonymous]

Do you agree with the core of the report?
My experience with DC schools is that you have a seat at the table - but they can make decisions that you disagree with. If there are things you disagree with, you need to provide evidence.
Did your tutors do any assessments?
Do you have MAP scores?
Work samples?
The 1st hurdle you need to get over is providing evidence that your child still qualifies for an IEP. Did you child get a new IQ test and Academic Achievement testing? Is there 2 standard deviations between expected performance and academic achievement? This is the easiest way to demonstrate that your child continues to be eligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you agree with the core of the report?
My experience with DC schools is that you have a seat at the table - but they can make decisions that you disagree with. If there are things you disagree with, you need to provide evidence.
Did your tutors do any assessments?
Do you have MAP scores?
Work samples?
The 1st hurdle you need to get over is providing evidence that your child still qualifies for an IEP. Did you child get a new IQ test and Academic Achievement testing? Is there 2 standard deviations between expected performance and academic achievement? This is the easiest way to demonstrate that your child continues to be eligible.

I had no idea that tutors can do assessments. I can definitely ask them.

IQ is showing low average. This is the only test we have done showing IQ.

The core of the report is nuts. It is like they’re describing another child.

Work samples and all are kept by the school. I might get some beforehand but it would require cooperation by the school.

The report describes on one hand my child and then a few paragraphs down another child with behavioral issues, and suspected autism. Autism has never been suspected as far as I knew.

I’m super blindsided by it all.