Academic Support for Kids with Concussions?
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Anonymous
My child has seen many doctors and is following their plan of care. She has avoided as much stimuli as possible since the accident but is now ready to take baby steps to see if she can do cognitive activities without becoming symptomatic. The doctors advise her to try out small tasks at home before she resumes half days. 15-20 minutes of working then a rest break as well as listening to books on tapes vs. reading herself. The problem is that she doesn't have materials or instruction to do the work. I am also unable to tutor her in many of the subject areas because I do not know the material nor do I have any books to reference that show the objectives and how the problems are intended to be solved. The high school could help my child if: 1) They would give me the paperwork for Interim Instructional Services to send to my child's doctors. It will be a long time till she will resume full time status at school and any help IIS can offer to teach my child would be greatly appreciated and would be better than no instruction at all. 2) Call a school team meeting to develop a plan of action and accommodations so help is coordinated across the curriculum. My child is truly disabled by her concussion/traumatic brain injury. Despite the letters from doctors, there has not been a coordinated effort to support her so she can access her classes. It would be vital for a plan to be in place BEFORE she returns to school. Thus far, I have waited over a week for the school to respond to my written request as well as the request by her doctors. All I get is silence from the Principal, Vice Principal, and her school counselor. 3) Assign an academic coordinator to get down to the heart of what my child needs to make up in each class. Can some of the assignments and assessments be exempted? What is the workload and is it manageable? Who will help schedule for makeup instruction and activities so conflicts between classes do not arise? Should my child make up first what she has missed or start where the class is now and chip away at the other as she can? Given how many students suffer concussions during the school year both as a result of high school sports as well as accidents outside of school, why are MCPS and schools ignoring the academic impact and letting these kids fall through the cracks in the system? It seems money should have been allocated for educational support of kids with concussions before hiring athletic trainers for each high school. |
Anonymous
Perhaps it shouldn't be necessary, but the parent will need to specifically ask for an IEP meeting when informing the school of the injury and condition and do it in writing. Include information from the physician. You may not get an IEP, the school will probably want to do a 504 instead. But the level of support you are seeking - including involvement of an academic coordinator - requires an IEP. Once you have asked for an IEP in writing the school has 30 days to respond. It is a legal process. May be worth hiring an advocate who can help things move along faster. It's not easy, especially if you haven't navigated the special education system before. |
Anonymous
Here are some suggestions: 1) The application for IIS is available online. The school does not need to give it to you. You can print it and fill it out and give it to them. Go to this page and click on the blue small print that says "Application for Interim Instructional Services". Be sure to read all the tabs including the FAQs so that you fill out the form and provide all necessary information properly the first time to avoid delay. If you have a letter from the doctor stating that she cannot yet be in school flu time, MCPS Mmust give you IIS if you request it. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studentservices/schooling/instruction/index.aspx Read the MCPS regulations about Home and Hospital (now IIS) http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ioerb.pdf. The school is mandated to act on your request and supply a teacher not later than 10 days after verifying your request. Note that you have to supply a medical note that verifies an anticipated absence of 4 or more weeks, but that if the absence is shorter, the school doesn't supply IIS but instead is mandated to work directly with you and your student to make up the missed work. If you get IIS, then it is part of the IIS teacher's job to be the coordinator. If you don't get IIS, the school should identify someone for you (ideally, IME, someone with special education experience so they know how to cut work and provide accommodations). 2) If you have waited more than a week for a response, resend your email and copy someone else. Non-response requires escalation to a supervisor. My rule is any email that has not been responded to generates a call to the individual to follow up. If after 5 days you can't get any response, escalate. If you sent your written request for a 504 plan to a counselor or special education person, forward your original written request to the principal with a copy to the person to whom you made the original request. Express your concern that a meeting has not yet been arranged and provide at least 2-3 dates and times (or ranges) when you can be available. If you do not hear back within a week, escalate again to a level over the principal. If you already made the written request to the principal, with no response, escalate to Steve Neff, the Section 504 coordinator immediately. Explain that you are concerned that the school has not scheduled a meeting to provide your student who has been disabled by concussion, with access to the curriculum. Please make sure that your request for a "meeting" specified that you want a 504 plan meeting or an IEP plan meeting ( the latter only if you think that your student needs "special instruction"). The school system must comply with federal legal and state timelines regarding these requests. If you just request a generic meeting, you are not invoking the protections of the law and the school can ignore you without consequence. 3) You should also write an email to all teachers explaining the situation and asking them to give you a plan to make up the work pending the 504 meeting. They should be forwarding you the missed assignments every day. They will tell you at first that it is the "child's responsibility to get the work from the teacher or fellow students when they are sick." But this kind of policy can only apply for a few days. Teachers can either drop the assignments in a folder every day and you or someone you designate will pick up OR they can post the assignments daily on Edline or send them to you electronically by email attachment either directly or after scanning. Teachers can provide the daily lesson that they put up on the whiteboard and you can have your DD follow it at home by download the MCPS copy of ActiveInspire. Call the HIAT office (High Incidence Assistive Technology) and someone there can walk you through where to find it on the MCPS website and any other installation issues. HIAT is 301-657-4959. The tag line to any escalations (all of which should be in writing) should be a polite reminder that "school systems have a legal obligation to ensure that disabled students can continue to access the curriculum" and that you "hope to resolve this cooperatively without having to resort to due process rights." This is code for telling the school that you know that they are legally obligated to cooperate and know you can sue or file complaint if you have to. Put all communications in writing (either email or registered letter). Document phone calls with short thank you emails recapping the discussion and decisions, so that they are captured in written form. Try to stick to facts and try to keep emotion out of it. |
Anonymous
PP - An IEP takes 30 days for the screening meeting, then 60 days to evaluated, then possibly another 30 days to write. By that time (hopefully) the OP's child is hopefully much improved and no longer needs supports. A concussion is uniquely debilitating medical emergency. What ever label MCPS choses to use for such a document, a couple of components are needed to keep a child afloat what he/she recovers: 1) A collaborative team meeting ASAP so the doctor's recommendations can be discussed and a multidisciplinary plan can be developed quickly so the entire staff is onboard with how to support the child and to minimize the child slipping behind. 2) The plan must be followed for the child to receive FAPE - free appropriate public education. Again, it goes back to the issue that the child needs supports to access the enrolled curriculum which is mandated under Section 504. The child needs access at the level of curriculum he/she is at whether it be a magnet, honors, AP, on-grade level, or below grade level curriculum. 3) Through the Interim Instructional Support Office, at home support is available for students who have medical conditions that prevent them from going. This office helps to mitigate loss of instruction till the student resumes full time status. School staff should be referring parents to this office immediately. Delay in referring kids causes a loss of instruction that could be avoided. Early response and intervention is key to prevent a child from falling too far behind. 4) There needs to be a school liaison or coordinator to help gather information, refer for services, track the workload, see what can be exempted, and to follow the progress of the child. 5) As the child recovers, the team should reevaluate the child's needs and remove supports as they are no longer needed. Clearance for school team sports should be based on the child returning to their full/pre-concussed academic status without the need of additional supports. |
Anonymous
| School meeting just left me dumfounded. The AP kept saying over and over that they are following the ACE Care Plan despite the pitfalls that MCPS is not teaching my child. No help whatsoever. School points the finger to IIS (who they did not invite to the meeting) and IIS points the finger back at the teachers. Meanwhile no one is teaching my child. They said they still needed to collect data to write a school plan. WTF. Meanwhile, some teachers want my child to finish work that she is not able to do right now and very little has happened as far as pairing down the work to what is most essential. |
Anonymous
Have you called the IIS office? The office doesn't know anything until the form is sent in. Parent/guardian sends form to the school first. Keep in mind that IIS is an extension of school services; it's not a school. This is the form - http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/forms/pdf/311-15.pdf Call the office. That's the best advice for now. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studentservices/schooling/ |
Anonymous
| Have you and the doctor submitted the completed forms to receive IIS? Nothing can happen until that paperwork is submitted. |
Anonymous
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MCPS ACE policy INFORMATION:
http://www.mcps.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_92164/File/Athletics/RegulationsforPolicy7-4.3%202.pdf |
Anonymous
Unfortunately, this link is for Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia. Bravo to Virginia for developing policies to provide proper academic support for kids with concussions. Many of the guidelines both on the academic side and sports side make sense and considers the health and well being of the child. Too much too soon whether going back to sports or returning to academic activities can be detrimental to the recovery process. Having a Board of Education policy such as this gives the school administration a blue print of what the steps should be. The implementation is immediate with guidance that a 504 Plan should be developed at the 3-4 week mark if the child is not progressing. My child is a student in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. Here, there is a policy for a "gradual return to play for student athletes" but our Board of Education has fallen short on developing a policy for a "gradual return to school". MCPS in Maryland has deemed school sports including funds for School Athletic Trainers as a higher priority than academics and instructional support for children with concussions. |
Anonymous
The school was slow to tell me such a program existed. It took me emailing the principal, AP, counselor, and school nurse 3 times before someone gave me the form. I took it immediately to the doctor who filled out his portion the same day but the school was closed by the time the form was ready. I therefore gave the form back to the school the next day which it then took them a day to get their staff to sign off on the form and fax it to IIS. IIS now has the form but their answer is they are swamped with requests and they need to hire the tutor. It can take up to 10 days AFTER IIS gets the form before a tutor is assigned. Only then is an appointment made so in reality, it can take over two weeks before your child actually has the first tutoring session with IIS. So what my child is potentially looking at is 4 weeks at home with NO instruction by MCPS. |
Anonymous
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My child has been out of school for 3 weeks. Yesterday, she rwas finally able to get an appointment with one teacher to get the work she has missed. The teacher bluntly told her she did not have time to get my DD caught up on the work. The teacher gave my child worksheets and asked would she be able to take 2 quizzes and an unit test by Friday since that is the last day of the marking period.
WTF?!?!? MCPS sucks. Kids with concussions have no hope to access the curriculum because the attitude is that a child who has cognitive impairments needs to teach themselves the material. They are an inconvenience and no one cares if an A/B student suddenly fails because they were out for 3 weeks for medical reasons. I get that the teacher has her student clubs and several hundreds of kids to teach but the school administration has said the teacher needs to help my child in this situation. What should I do if the teacher says she doesn't have the time? Multiply this scenario by at least 3 of the teachers my child has. |
Anonymous
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Our experience is that IIS is overwhelmed right now by the number of kids who need their services. Instructors are hired on a as needed, part time basis. This short term approach and outlook affects their ability to hire and retain quality instructors.
With it being football season, has anyone considered or studied how many kids play sports for their school who become injured and subsequently need IIS services? If money is a factor on IIS ability to hire and retain instructors then perhaps funds for IIS should be subsidized by the sports programs that impact the need for services. Increasing the extracurricular fees from $35 to $50 with the $15 increase designated for IIS to cover the additional expense if children are injured would be one option. IIS then should consider hiring a core group of well qualified full-time instructors who are enticed to stay with benefits similar to what MCPS teachers receive. |
Anonymous
You can't give benefits to people who work on an "as needed" basis. Furthermore, working FT means a 40-hour week. Even if the IIS teachers were permanent PT employees at 20 hours a week, there's no guarantee there would be 20 hours of instruction. Most of the kids on IIS don't have the stamina to work in longer shifts, which means these FT or PT permanent teachers would be paid for not instructing. Even if you paid them more hours for designing lessons, there would always be an imbalance btw planning and instructing b/c each case is different. Allocation of funds is a whole other issue, too, as transferring $ from pot to pot isn't typical. It's a tough situation all around. |
Anonymous
There is more demand than teachers available for IIS. There is enough work to keep a core group of teachers on a full-time 40 hour a week basis. MCPS choses to not hire full-time teachers for this program, like they do other staffing positions, so they don't have to pay benefits. The net result is less qualified individuals and difficulty filling the positions. You could have a core full-time group - especially for English and Math - then supplement with part-time as needed for the waxing and waning periods of demand. |
Anonymous
Not a bad idea, but I would prefer to see that the head injury-causing sports programs should be stopped. |