Is not being assigned homework a reasonable IEP accommodation?

[Anonymous]

I have been told no. HW cannot be completely removed because that would alter the curriculum exposure and would mean the student isn't on the diploma track anymore. You can ask for an accommodation that the student will only do odd numbered math problems, for example. For reading/writing, I don't see how you could modify. IN MS/HS, they are often assigned HW to read to a certain page number so they can discuss in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t homework stressful for everybody?

Not to the same degree.

What degree of stress is a disability? Is it more or less stressful for the kid who is a little hyper or the perfectly behaved “neurotypical” kid who has to watch his younger siblings every night after school while his single mom works her second job? Where is his IEP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say doing homework is stressful for the student. Would it be reasonable for the parent to ask for accomodations that either the child will not be assigned homework or will do the homework in class instead?

We had this all through elementary for my kid with RAD (among other things). No homework was in the IeP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

It could work, but OP cannot then claim the school is failing their child if child starts falling behind because they aren't doing the homework.

[Anonymous]

NO.
Homeworks helps the student grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say doing homework is stressful for the student. Would it be reasonable for the parent to ask for accomodations that either the child will not be assigned homework or will do the homework in class instead?

That sounds like coddling

[Anonymous]

Had a DC with serious post-concussive disorder. No homework, limited homework or really long extensions on assignments were all appropriate at different phases of DC's recovery. School objected at first, but brought attorney in and wrote to assistant superintendent for special education.

we also refused state assessments - because they were of no direct benefit to DC and could only harm/lengthen recovery.

For LD DC (different), no homework was not an appropriate accommodation, but limited by some measure ( # of probs, time, etc.)

TBH, getting a tutor (and taking parent out of homework support/executive function) to support homework was a better solution than an accommodation.

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard of no homework for a kid who needed the homework free downtime after school to essentially decompress after school so that they could stay regulated during the school day. Without the downtime, they couldn’t manage to make it through the school day without becoming too dysregulated to make it through the school day. I think it was an accommodation needed for a couple of years in early school years that wasn’t needed after their brains matured, and the kids were otherwise still on a diploma track. Over the long term, such an accommodation could probably impact the likelihood that the kid could complete their diploma. This wasn’t in the DC area - I heard this through the facebook group for my kid’s particular syndrome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

It could work, but OP cannot then claim the school is failing their child if child starts falling behind because they aren't doing the homework.

I have a DC like PP w/ the AP Calc kid. And we heard doom and gloom all the time from the school like the immediate PP above - "you can't succeed if you do less homework", "if you don't do all the homework and you fail, you can't blame us." At our insistence, DC had all kinds of homework accommodations - extra time, extended deadlines, and sometimes reduced. But, often, DC just "self-accommodated", i.e. he didn't do all the homework or he didn't do a homework assignment at all and suffered the lower grade from it. He, like PP above, still took classes like AP CalcAB and AP Physics C and got 4s and 5s.

I am a tutor, and frankly so much of the homework I see assigned is crap - busy work or poorly designed and without could teaching explanation in class. But even worse and much more common, was that the vast majority of homework is never corrected in a way that would allow for learning. Math homework had to be done but answer keys were never provided. Kids were never taught how to find their mistakes, how to track their mistakes and analyze for underlying causes and correct habits or misunderstandings. Sometimes homework was collected and never returned - not even before a test, so kids had nothing to study from. Often essays and other written homework was returned with a grade but no other comments or correction - no spelling, grammar or punctuation corrections, no analysis of argument, no encouragement about sentence or paragraph structure.

Mostly, homework was pointless or far less valuable than it could have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

This is just so ridiculous to read. How can you have dyscalculia and score so far ABOVE grade level in math while doing minimal work in calculus?

This is such a disjointed forum. There are so many parents who post that their kids have true struggles in a subject like math as in "I am not sure my kid is going to be able to pass math to get high school degree" or "how is my kid going to pass at least the bare minimum college math" despite spending money on tutors and having accommodations. Then others will declare their kid also has dyscalculia but can score in the top 20% of students taking AP Calculus AB while not even having to do the same amount of homework problems

And only around 16% of students in the country even take calculus sometime in high school to begin with. Roughly 3/4 of students take calculus AB and 1/4 take BC. So with a 5 on the AP Calc test that child is in the TOP 10% of math students in the country but they somehow have dyscalculia. No way is any reasonable person buying that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been told no. HW cannot be completely removed because that would alter the curriculum exposure and would mean the student isn't on the diploma track anymore. You can ask for an accommodation that the student will only do odd numbered math problems, for example. For reading/writing, I don't see how you could modify. IN MS/HS, they are often assigned HW to read to a certain page number so they can discuss in class.

They straight up lied to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

This is just so ridiculous to read. How can you have dyscalculia and score so far ABOVE grade level in math while doing minimal work in calculus?

This is such a disjointed forum. There are so many parents who post that their kids have true struggles in a subject like math as in "I am not sure my kid is going to be able to pass math to get high school degree" or "how is my kid going to pass at least the bare minimum college math" despite spending money on tutors and having accommodations. Then others will declare their kid also has dyscalculia but can score in the top 20% of students taking AP Calculus AB while not even having to do the same amount of homework problems

And only around 16% of students in the country even take calculus sometime in high school to begin with. Roughly 3/4 of students take calculus AB and 1/4 take BC. So with a 5 on the AP Calc test that child is in the TOP 10% of math students in the country but they somehow have dyscalculia. No way is any reasonable person buying that.

This was true 10 years ago and maybe some teachers are still assigning a worksheet with 20 problems where you could request a reduction. That’s rare. What’s changed is online textbook and adaptable hw for all. I assign 5-6 questions now and students only have to do more if they get them wrong, indicating they need more practice, or if they want to for additional practice. They are online. This has created just as many parents requesting accommodations for the previous style, the old paper worksheet with a key because they don’t like the reduced adaptable online textbooks we have now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child is middle or high school maybe instead the accommodation is that there's no grade penalty if homework isn't fully completed? That way if they need to do only 5 problems instead of 20, the teacher can evaluate based on those 5. Same with flashcards for foreign language class or something like that.

You do still run into the problem of your child not getting the reinforcement that extra practice brings but can ease up on the anxiety of not being able to complete everything because it takes them longer as a result of their disability.

This might work for math, but I don't see how it could work for a social studies of English class. Should the kid just read half the book or write half the essay? I think in HS, it is not a reasonable accommodation.

Math requires pratice and repetition. Just doing a few problems isn't going to help a child whose struggling.

That's your kid. My kid with dyscalculia has reduced problems and still managed a 5 on the AB Calc AP test, albeit with extended time.

DCUM maxim: what works for my kid works for everyone's kid!
And its corollary: what doesn't work for my kid doesn't work for anyone's kid!

The "I" in IEP stands for "individualized". Not "one size fits all".

It could work, but OP cannot then claim the school is failing their child if child starts falling behind because they aren't doing the homework.

I have a DC like PP w/ the AP Calc kid. And we heard doom and gloom all the time from the school like the immediate PP above - "you can't succeed if you do less homework", "if you don't do all the homework and you fail, you can't blame us." At our insistence, DC had all kinds of homework accommodations - extra time, extended deadlines, and sometimes reduced. But, often, DC just "self-accommodated", i.e. he didn't do all the homework or he didn't do a homework assignment at all and suffered the lower grade from it. He, like PP above, still took classes like AP CalcAB and AP Physics C and got 4s and 5s.

I am a tutor, and frankly so much of the homework I see assigned is crap - busy work or poorly designed and without could teaching explanation in class. But even worse and much more common, was that the vast majority of homework is never corrected in a way that would allow for learning. Math homework had to be done but answer keys were never provided. Kids were never taught how to find their mistakes, how to track their mistakes and analyze for underlying causes and correct habits or misunderstandings. Sometimes homework was collected and never returned - not even before a test, so kids had nothing to study from. Often essays and other written homework was returned with a grade but no other comments or correction - no spelling, grammar or punctuation corrections, no analysis of argument, no encouragement about sentence or paragraph structure.

Mostly, homework was pointless or far less valuable than it could have been.

Okay so how about no one does homework then?. My goodness the accommodation requests are getting ridiculous and this is why people don't take parents of kids with special needs seriously. If your kid can't handle diploma track then find an alternative.