Discrimination in the IEP process?
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Anonymous
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In another thread another parent wrote: For what it's worth, I later learned some lore which may or may not be true and it may explain why the SN counselor was fighting the IEP so hard. Apparently some Asian American families have learned to game the system by trying to get IEPs or 504s before high school so their kids can get extra time on the SAT and ACT. So there is a sudden increase in applications for IEPs and ACTs just as kids enter high school. Hence FCPS is on guard for that... We also heard something similar from the group that did our daughter's evaluation and they are very well known in the area and well connected! It seems insane that SN coordinators would have this attitude!! Has anyone else heard this or experienced this sort of discrimination? It makes me so angry to think that just because of a child's race some SN coordinators would come into an IEP meeting with a bias. Very unfair to the child. |
Anonymous
| I am PP and wanted to clarify that the people that told us this do NOT think anyone is trying to game the system but that SN coordinators are using this as an excuse to justify denying children services. They told us that if one or both parents are Asian and the child has on grade level scores and average (B or higher) grades some SN coordinators make it their mission to make it very very difficult to get a 504 or IEP even with a diagnosis like ASD or ADHD. |
Anonymous
| I've heard of it in FCPS - not that FCPS is necessarily gaming the system against Asian Americans but that they are wary of IEP requests that suddenly pop up the summer before freshman year because students are looking for extra time on PSAT, SAT and ACT. We just happened to be in that slot because we were coming in from a private school into public. We did experience pushback from FCPS. Later I heard this. |
Anonymous
| The persecution of asians continues |
Anonymous
| Sounds like an urban legend to me. One of the common threads in this forum is the difficulty in getting IEPs especially for older kids. Another common thread is that kids who were able to keep it together in elementary school hit a wall in middle school and find themselves struggling. Doesn't matter what race they are. And, given my own experience getting the school to even evaluate my (white) DS ('nothing about your child stands out'), it sounds like BS. |
Anonymous
| PP, With full sympathy for your situation, asking a school to evaluate a child who may or may not have any issues is very different from asking them to evaluate a child who is known to have ASD or ADHD. |
Anonymous
| We experienced significant pushback issues with FCPS going into Langley. Autism. Still they fought the IEP. I didn't think the office operated in the spirit of the IDEA and ADA. |
Anonymous
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This is so insane.
I would say that roughly 99.9% of families with kids with IEPS experience "pushback" in the IEP process. I have a severely disabled child -- motoric, speech, every single sphere -- and I experience "pushback" in the IEP process. I am currently fighting for several measures to be included in his IEP, with pushback galore. This happens every single year. I'm NOT saying discrimination doesn't exist. But to blame pushback solely on discrimination? You'd have to be nuts. |
Anonymous
| Why should tnere be any push-back at all? Doesn't push-back fly in the face of the spirit and laws of the ADA and IDEA? |
Anonymous
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We also experienced significant pushback in middle school and our (white) DS had had an IEP since 2nd grade. It started the second week of 7th grade. The teachers (special ed and mainstream) were the ones that instigated it and were backed up by the administration and the SN case worker and Head of SN. After we went up the chain of command and got someone at central administration (FCPS) who said everything we were saying and did some behind the scenes education, the mainstream teachers and the head of SN came "over to our side" for the duration of MS. The case manager, the special ed teacher and the Principal never did- it was really sad in that respect.
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Anonymous
$$$$$ |
Anonymous
My observation is that the FCPS administration doesn't give the schools enough resources to cover all the services in IEPs. There is no relationship between how many children with IEPs and with what needs a school has and the human resources available at the school to provide the services. |
Anonymous
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You have two issues here: schools can't serve everyone with an IEP due to lack of funding and resources, so they try to make sure the kids getting services really need them.
A lot of interventions a regular classroom teacher should be doing anyway. The other issue might be that some parents are trying to get extra time on the SAT but the schools have no influence on that. The parents have to apply to the College Board and provide evidence that it is needed. It is very difficult to qualify for. |
Anonymous
We did not find this to be true. We applied last spring for this past fall's PSAT- to give us enough time to work things out if they balked. I dropped the form off at our school on a Friday, the school added their stuff and sent it out that afternoon. We received notification two week later in the mail. We received all that we asked (extra time, scribe and reader) for all College Boards tests included APs, SAT subject tests and SATs. FCPS. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP you're responding to. DS had already been diagnosed privately with ADHD as well as expressive/receptive speech delays and fine motor delays. The school refused to accept the outside evaluations and refused to conduct their own evaluations. We had to hire an advocate. So, no, I don't think FCPS is treating Asians any differently than white kids. |