IEP Supported Classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have to provide the class and the support. The DOE put out a special letter about this because they knew kids with disabilities would be excluded from these classes.

NP here. If you know where to find this letter, would you mind posting it?

NP here but it was fairly easy to google:
https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/colleague-20071226.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted, but what any student can access is peer tutors of after school help or study hall help with math. Honors classes offer that to anyone. The teacher will certainly help some during classwork, but I think if I recall there are issues with regard to the fact a solo teacher cannot guarantee a certain level of support to one student at the expense of all the other students. That is why there are team taught non-honors classes. In an ideal world there should be support, but there is already a regular and sped teacher shortage.

They have to provide it. Otherwise they're discriminating against someone simply for having a disability, which is illegal.

[Anonymous]

1st paragraph of the Dear Colleague letter
"...Similarly, we are informed of schools and school districts that, as a condition of
participation in such programs, have required qualified students with disabilities to give up the services that have been designed to meet their individual needs. These practices are inconsistent with Federal law, and the Office for Civil Rights(OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education will continue to act promptly to remedy such violations where they occur."

I would write an email to the school - attach the Dear Colleague letter - and ask them how they are going to accommodate your child's IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have to provide the class and the support. The DOE put out a special letter about this because they knew kids with disabilities would be excluded from these classes.

This +1..... If math "support" is in your child's IEP now at the beginning of High School, I would advocate to retain it. "Support" doesn't just mean containing the SPED kids with behavior issues. A big reason for a trained "support" in Math could be to help the kids with executive function challenges -- organization, slow processing speed, etc. Since ES, our student (now 8th grade in MCPS) has had a co-taught Math class, with the co-teacher being a Special Education teacher. We advocate for it every year. If it's even remotely possible at your school, I would go for it.

[Anonymous]

OP - what are your child's current needs?

I would assume not a learning disability in math if they are capable of advanced placement. My guess would be executive functioning difficulties?

The question for the IEP team is what direct specialized instruction does your student need to be access the advanced math curriculum. I've worked with many students that a 15 minute pull out weekly to support on organizing materials, looking at due dates and making a plan is sufficient to give them access to the advanced math curriculum.

If its in class behavior of staying on task, are there any accommodations that could be added to support the student that don't include a teacher. I'm a big advocate for students with attention needs to be taught to self monitor behavior and use something like a WatchMinder to help cue someone back to attention. (This would include specialized instruction and support from a special education teacher but not for the duration of the class everyday.)

At the elementary level many SPED services are provided in a teacher who pushes in or out of multiple classrooms. At the middle and high school levels it is a more efficient use of teachers to group students together and provide a co-teacher for the duration of a class period to provide specialized instruction. However this can be a misuse of special education teacher time as students may not need direct specialized instruction for the entire class. However it can create a scheduling nightmare and our schools are very much lacking special education teachers. Not an excuse, we need to give our students the access they are entitled to by law, just background context to help support your discussions with the school.

[Anonymous]

Sorry this is PP. I read your question too quick and then reread after my response.

With HFA I would be asking for someone to do a quick behavior observation of your student during the advanced placement class to see what behavior support they may need. Then I would want the IEP to discuss if this needs to happen during the math class or could be provided with direct instruction at a different time.

For support with word problems, an accommodation could be written like "Highlight or circle key words and numbers on word problems."

A small group testing accommodations would allow for someone in the building to test her in a different location. It doesn't required a co-teacher during instruction however. Empower her to advocate for herself or tell you if this small group does not happen. (Some teachers also lack executive functioning skills and need support in remembering accommodations. Not an excuse but you will run into some teachers who do this with no problems and others who simply forget.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so angry right now ready these posts.

I am sorry that they is what you and your child need to navigate and that the school system can not figure out how to support students the way they need to.

Im angry that they refuse to follow the federally mandated laws to make these classes accessible to students with disabilities. If your kid wants to take a class, including any advanced class and your kid requires support, they can’t say “too bad we don’t offer that class with support”. They have to provide that support. At my kid’s high school one guidance counselor had denied kids with disabilities access to ap classes for decades.

Parents file complaints. This has been going on forever and lots of it is based on a belief that kids with disabilities shouldn’t be allowed in advanced classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted, but what any student can access is peer tutors of after school help or study hall help with math. Honors classes offer that to anyone. The teacher will certainly help some during classwork, but I think if I recall there are issues with regard to the fact a solo teacher cannot guarantee a certain level of support to one student at the expense of all the other students. That is why there are team taught non-honors classes. In an ideal world there should be support, but there is already a regular and sped teacher shortage.

You are arguing that students with disabilities who require support should be barred from advanced courses. That is outrageous. Love the calm justification for gross discrimination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just posted, but what any student can access is peer tutors of after school help or study hall help with math. Honors classes offer that to anyone. The teacher will certainly help some during classwork, but I think if I recall there are issues with regard to the fact a solo teacher cannot guarantee a certain level of support to one student at the expense of all the other students. That is why there are team taught non-honors classes. In an ideal world there should be support, but there is already a regular and sped teacher shortage.

They have to provide it. Otherwise they're discriminating against someone simply for having a disability, which is illegal.

Bumping for the people in the back.

Schools get away with this because parents don’t fight it. I think a lot of us worry that our kids will struggle keeping up but what makes it even more insulting is that there are lots of general population kids in the classes who can’t cut it. They deny students with disabilities the classes but kids who struggle academically do get in them. My kid with disabilities helped some of his classmates so much that a parent mentioned it to my spouse and I.

My kid was denied access to an ap class and I requested an iep meeting to discuss this violation and included the doe letter. They knew they were in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - what are your child's current needs?

I would assume not a learning disability in math if they are capable of advanced placement. My guess would be executive functioning difficulties?

The question for the IEP team is what direct specialized instruction does your student need to be access the advanced math curriculum. I've worked with many students that a 15 minute pull out weekly to support on organizing materials, looking at due dates and making a plan is sufficient to give them access to the advanced math curriculum.

If its in class behavior of staying on task, are there any accommodations that could be added to support the student that don't include a teacher. I'm a big advocate for students with attention needs to be taught to self monitor behavior and use something like a WatchMinder to help cue someone back to attention. (This would include specialized instruction and support from a special education teacher but not for the duration of the class everyday.)

At the elementary level many SPED services are provided in a teacher who pushes in or out of multiple classrooms. At the middle and high school levels it is a more efficient use of teachers to group students together and provide a co-teacher for the duration of a class period to provide specialized instruction. However this can be a misuse of special education teacher time as students may not need direct specialized instruction for the entire class. However it can create a scheduling nightmare and our schools are very much lacking special education teachers. Not an excuse, we need to give our students the access they are entitled to by law, just background context to help support your discussions with the school.

It’s all well and nice for us to understand that there is a shortage of special Ed teachers but take a look at the date of the DOE letter. The denial of access to advanced classes for students with disabilities has been a problem since idea was created. I dealt with this a decade ago. Schools will continue to do this whether they have the resources or not.

[Anonymous]

As a parent who had to deal with something similar recently - you just get to the point of exhaustion trying to get the schools to do what they are supposed to.

And you know there is a small window of about 5 days to get it resolved before schedules are final - and the school drags their feet - and your child does not want to switch all of their classes as it would be too disruptive and you move on to the next thing.

Any parent who has the ability to push this - please do. It is only through the collective that we are able to make change. Maybe it isn't for our kid (this year) but I hope that the constant reminder to the schools helps move the needle a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent who had to deal with something similar recently - you just get to the point of exhaustion trying to get the schools to do what they are supposed to.

And you know there is a small window of about 5 days to get it resolved before schedules are final - and the school drags their feet - and your child does not want to switch all of their classes as it would be too disruptive and you move on to the next thing.

Any parent who has the ability to push this - please do. It is only through the collective that we are able to make change. Maybe it isn't for our kid (this year) but I hope that the constant reminder to the schools helps move the needle a little.

Exactly. Thank you.