failed mediation

[Anonymous]

So our attempt at a mediation with DCPS has failed, and we are left without the dedicated aide that our kiddo needs for next year. Has anyone failed at mediation but had a successful due process hearing in DC? We understand that it will be expensive and draining and are weighing our options - due process, pay for the aide ourselves, private or public sped placement. Anyone been there done that?

[Anonymous]

How old is your child and why specifically does he/she need a one-on-one aide all the time? The philosophy today is to have an aide at least shared at least among a couple of students? Would your child do better in a smaller self-contained classroom for some parts of the school day AND a clear request for why an Aide is needed at other times of the day when out of that classroom setting? It might be a point of getting a reasonable solution. From all that I have seen here, DCPS will stall which will be expensive and will ultimately prevail. I have also not seen that any close in school district has a policy of direct aide support all the time, unless possibly for a medically fragile student requiring direct nursing support.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, Is this an LRE issue? Is DCPS trying to move your child to a sped placement you don't want and you want an aide to keep your DC in gen ed? I know one family, not in DCPS, that went to due process and got an aide to keep the child in gen ed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we are trying to keep him in general ed and the school is saying he needs an aide to succeed.

[Anonymous]

LRE is the law and if you feel he can do well in a gen ed class with an aide you should fight it if you have the resources. Is it a physical issue or something else?

Will the district consider private placement?

[Anonymous]

Wait, they are saying that he needs an aide but they won't provide it? That sound very wrong. Do you have an attorney already?

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we are trying to keep him in general ed and the school is saying he needs an aide to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we are trying to keep him in general ed and the school is saying he needs an aide to succeed.

Are you the author of the other thread about requesting a dedicated aide in DCPS?

Just posted this link there: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/relsvc.aide.steedman.htm

However, it is extremely weird that they (DCPS? Or the evaluator? a private evaluator?) needs an aide to succeed -- but they won't give him one? Sounds like a recipe for a legal loss!

You could start with http://www.aje-dc.org.

maybe we are misunderstanding things though?

[Anonymous]

The good news is that I think the odds of winning are better in DCPS than MCPS which has a brutal outside counsel.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I didn't write the other post, just a coincidence. But am following with interest!
The situation is that the school told us he needs an aide but that they asked the district and they said "no," because they "no longer provide aides for instructional support." And the district (not school) is recommending sped placement out of general Ed. But the school says he can succeed with an aide.

[Anonymous]

If you can get the school to say what you just wrote I think you have a strong case. It may be expensive and will cost you a lot of time but that seems like a slam dunk. I'm not a lawyer, however.

[Anonymous]

In a case I know of the district, MCPS, settled right before going to due process. Mediation didn't work but once due process proceedings were initiated they started to actually follow the law.

[Anonymous]

But it needs to be said that once you start with outside (your own) lawyer, the process can be prohibitively expensive and long. I know of several cases in FCPS and DCPS where the parents in the end wished they hadn't lawyered up. It's hard on everyone in the family. OP, have you tried the DCPS Compliance Officer? I don't know if DCPS has one but FCPS does and everytime we had a noncompliance issue and I called her, things changed and there is no cost involved. It's the compliance officer's job to make sure the schools county-wide (district-wide) are in compliance with federal and state law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But it needs to be said that once you start with outside (your own) lawyer, the process can be prohibitively expensive and long. I know of several cases in FCPS and DCPS where the parents in the end wished they hadn't lawyered up. It's hard on everyone in the family. OP, have you tried the DCPS Compliance Officer? I don't know if DCPS has one but FCPS does and everytime we had a noncompliance issue and I called her, things changed and there is no cost involved. It's the compliance officer's job to make sure the schools county-wide (district-wide) are in compliance with federal and state law.

Can you tell us who currently is the FCPS Compliance Officer? I've been googling and have not been able to come up with a name.

[Anonymous]

Start here. http://www.fcps.edu/ada.shtml

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about this OP. Have you tried the critical response team?

contact the Office of Special Education Critical Response Team at [phone] or send us a message. Real people are available to provide real answers from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each business day.