504 to IEP writing
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Anonymous
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We are in process to try to get IEP instead of 504. Child has ADHD and some LD. 504 does not do the trick (extended time, computer etc.)
Child's major issues are writing (in all subjects) and advanced reading comprehension (mostly testing related) - no problems with direct reading comprehension for info. Major issues with writing - avoiding it as much as possible, and write as little as possible with not enough details. What would be suggested reasonable IEP for end of MS and first years of HS in MCPS? We never had IEP, so I am not sure. Should we ask for total pull out for English or partial? Thinking about: -pull out at lest twice a week for 3-4 hours total for English? -modified assignments? -some special intensive writing program? With current writing level, kid cannot take any English, Social Studies courses in HS. Any ideas? What worked for you? What to do with reading? Technically advanced reader with good Vocab, but fail tests. We do not want just program, we need something that would work and would help. |
Anonymous
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OP - what is the LD?
What remediation / instruction you should ask for depends on the cause. Has your child ever received specific writing instruction, even when he/she was younger? |
Anonymous
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OP here. It is LD- non specified... No official disgraphia or dislexia.
Never got any individualized instructions in school. |
Anonymous
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So you understand you need to go through the eligibility process for special education first. You can't just turn a 504 into an IEP. The school district will donsome of their own testing to make sure there is an academic impact of the disability. Then they district has a month after your child is found eligible to write an IEP which details goals and services.
If you meet today, you are looking at an IEP st the earliest in August right now. |
Anonymous
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OP. Totally understand and school performs tests now (was privately evaluated couple years ago, so we got 504).
There are obvious issues. Issues are visible to teachers, and they agree that child needs extra support. Now the question what is reasonable and common in MCSP to ask in this situation. |
Anonymous
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OK, please clarify process. We suppose to get results of school testing next week. Then we will have meeting (end of May). I guess that would discuss test results and approaches.
Would they come up with program at that meeting, or in another meeting one month later? How many meetings before the plan? Should we better have advocate or not necessary if child eligible to IEP. Advocates are horribly expensive, and we are on tight budget now. Hate to pay $200 and hour with 1 hour of travel, and 1 hour at meeting unless absolutely necessary. I am not sure what is advocate value if school is agree with IEP. Still not clear what is reasonable to ask as special education in our case. |
Anonymous
Have you already had a screening meeting and they have agreed to conduct assessments? If so, what are the results? |
Anonymous
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Well we are waiting for results.
I do have info that during testing they observed exactly what we were concerned about. No official results yet. |
Anonymous
| Next you will have a meeting to review results and get a determination as to whether he needs/qualifies for an IEP. If the team agrees, there is another meeting to develop the IEP. |
Anonymous
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You will have an eligibility meeting to review the results of the testing. Each person who tested your child (SpEd teacher, speech, OT, psych) will share the results which you will also get a few days ahead of time.
Then you will all decide if child is eligible for one of the 13 disability classifications under IDEA to receive sped services. If so, then the district has 30 calendar days to meet and plan the IEP. Usually the district develops a draft beforenthat meeting with proposed goals and accommodations. However specific services are not usually discussed or determined until the actual meeting. I would not bring an advocate to the first meeting. If you are not happy with what they propose at the initial IEP meeting, you do not have to sign the IEP at that meeting. I would see if you are able to come to an agreement at the meeting and if not- don't sign and then look at bringing in an advocate. |
Anonymous
| ^^^Thanks for detailed explanation. |
Anonymous
| As the previous person noted, it is important that if you do not agree, do not sign. We have had the school play games with writing (in our case dysgraphia)-have been told several times that you cannot get an IEP for this, which is not the case. Just wanted to mention in case you have this issue. |
Anonymous
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1. Get a full neuropsychological eval privately.
2. If it's a reputable practice, the psychologist will suggest what to ask for from the school. 3. That report will have a identifiable LD and all the details. 4. Tell the school what you need based on this report. That is the best way to spend your time and money, honestly. |
Anonymous
| PP again - is your child medicated? If yes, has the dose been adjusted? If no, you'd better get on that pronto. Accommodations and services are supposed to be used in addition to meds, for moderate to severe cases of ADHD with accompanying LDs. |
Anonymous
Other well-worn excuses not to provide an IEP that I have heard in my 10 years dealing with this. Your child is doing better than the average student (said when grades are not "failing" - you still can get an IEP with above average grades). Your child has average skills (said even when the psychological assessment is showing low average, close to borderline scores, discrepant from IQ. Achievement scores which are highly discrepant from IQ indicate there may be a problem necessitating special instruction. ) Your child just isn't motivated, or is lazy.... that's the problem. Your parenting is the problem, you just want your child to be smarter than he/she is. You need to accept your child is just not that bright. Your child's 99th percentile IQ scores are not representative of his ability. All kids from wealthy families who are able to provide good environments for their growth and development have high IQs. Thus, the discrepancy between IQ and achievement is nothing to worry about. All students have trouble with this. (This line is especially used in the lower grades when all reading and writing skills are considered "in development" and nothing to worry about... until it is too late and harder to fix.) Our testing shows your child is doing fine. (Said when the school has not done any standardized, norm-referenced testing, but merely tests that are scored on a highly subjective basis.) The teachers think your child is doing great. (I have actually had schools deliberately fail to include teacher reports from classes where DC was struggling, hoping I wouldn't notice their absence in a stack of last minute papers. I have also had a teacher report describe the student as doing very well, even though the student had gotten Cs, Ds, and Es on all tests and quizzes which were only pulled up by homework completion.) We can't give you an IEP until we have done "response to intervention". (This is where the school tries to convince you that you can't get an IEP until they try additional teaching methods in the classroom and see if your DC responds. This delay is explicitly forbidden under IDEA.) Also, if you disagree with the IEP, make it clear that you will do more than not sign -- that you will pursue your "due process" options. Make sure you audio record the meeting. Make sure that you follow up the IEP meeting notes with any addition to the record you want about what was said and promised during the meeting. We find that the IEP meeting notes are often a very skewed record, and we use FERPA to ask for an amendment to the "educational record" so that our view of what was said during the meeting is on the record. |