Response plan for infrequent ASD meltdowns- what does your school team do?

[Anonymous]

We are looking for ideas from others who have been there/ done that.

We have a 1st grade DD who has ADHD/ASD. She is mainstreamed in a classroom with about 20 hours of push in/ pull out support each week. She has been doing really well and making lots of progress with her on task time, managing big feeling etc. But about once every couple of months she will get completely overwhelmed by something and have a meltdown. If she is given space/ quiet/ simple choices with a known adult she can calm down.

If she is pressured, gets more overwhelmed she will hit whoever she sees as threatening her. We recognize this is not at all appropriate and the hitting vs using words has been the focus of many years of ABA therapy. Now she can reliably request a break, but if that break doesn't happen then she will continue to meltdown/ act out.

Each time she has struck out at a staff member during a meltdown this year she has been suspended (3 times). (There have been no injuries, she is a tiny girl who sort of swats at people.) When we talk to the administration they acknowledge that they didn't handle the situation appropriately and could have prevented or deescalated. But they won't change the suspensions. I am at a loss- we are close to the 10 total days at this point so I guess i can convene a meeting to talk about placement at that point. But I would rather get the school to support her more appropriately than hope she has another meltdown so we can force a discussion.

What have others done in this situation?

[Anonymous]

Can she get a 1-1 aide? That seems a bit much with suspensions when she isn't going to fully connect behavior with consequence.

I know at our school kids are pulled out and we have one paraprofessional assigned in our classroom and several floaters. When kids even start to escalate the few times I've been there they deescalate and if not take them outside.

Can you afford a private school? She'd probably be better off in a smaller classroom that is not as hectic.

[Anonymous]

Has she had an fba/bip done? That should have been completed the first time it happened so they could determine triggers. Once that is done and if they still do not follow the plan they create, they would have a much tougher time suspending. My son is a little older now, but at that age the meltdowns were more about 1x a month and he could also get aggressive if not given space. They used to have me come get him for the afternoon but not suspend him (not ideal, but I fully understood).

I would fight for the bip and go from there.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they did an fba but they decided the behavior was too infrequent to implement a true bip. There were no instances of the meltdown during the data collection period. The triggers are too erratic for them to capture in a plan. Every time I bring it up that we need to revisit, they say there isn't a pattern, so they don't see a need for another fba.

Is there a requirement that the fba has to be long enough to capture a low frequency behavior?

[Anonymous]

Suspension CAN NOT be the plan. They need to come up with a crisis intervention plan for her that builds in ways to de-escalate. Does she have an adult she trusts who can be assigned to come to help her every time? Is there an empty room where she can go to calm herself?

We went through almost the same exact thing with our DC who had very infrequent but serious meltdowns. The school never did get an FBA/BIP together in our case and at some point he grew out of it.

You can and should appeal the suspensions to the superintendent in charge of your cluster.
You should call a manifestation determination meeting. They may not change the placement but at least that will get them to take you seriously in getting a real plan in place.

[Anonymous]

At this point I am unsure if I want to escalate the pressure or just try to survive until summer and take this up again next year after a summer where we can go back to private ABA and social skills classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has she had an fba/bip done? That should have been completed the first time it happened so they could determine triggers. Once that is done and if they still do not follow the plan they create, they would have a much tougher time suspending. My son is a little older now, but at that age the meltdowns were more about 1x a month and he could also get aggressive if not given space. They used to have me come get him for the afternoon but not suspend him (not ideal, but I fully understood).

I would fight for the bip and go from there.

We had this experience too. I didn't like the picking up, but that was preferable to a suspension in our case. This year we have a new AP who seems to be really intent on suspending kids with special needs as often as possible. It is starting to feel like there is some sort of agenda since last year these kids were handled much more compassionately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has she had an fba/bip done? That should have been completed the first time it happened so they could determine triggers. Once that is done and if they still do not follow the plan they create, they would have a much tougher time suspending. My son is a little older now, but at that age the meltdowns were more about 1x a month and he could also get aggressive if not given space. They used to have me come get him for the afternoon but not suspend him (not ideal, but I fully understood).

I would fight for the bip and go from there.

We had this experience too. I didn't like the picking up, but that was preferable to a suspension in our case. This year we have a new AP who seems to be really intent on suspending kids with special needs as often as possible. It is starting to feel like there is some sort of agenda since last year these kids were handled much more compassionately.

The AP is suspending SN kids as often as possible? That needs to be looked into at a higher level. Can you complain to the District?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has she had an fba/bip done? That should have been completed the first time it happened so they could determine triggers. Once that is done and if they still do not follow the plan they create, they would have a much tougher time suspending. My son is a little older now, but at that age the meltdowns were more about 1x a month and he could also get aggressive if not given space. They used to have me come get him for the afternoon but not suspend him (not ideal, but I fully understood).

I would fight for the bip and go from there.

We had this experience too. I didn't like the picking up, but that was preferable to a suspension in our case. This year we have a new AP who seems to be really intent on suspending kids with special needs as often as possible. It is starting to feel like there is some sort of agenda since last year these kids were handled much more compassionately.

\

In our experience, if the school wants your child out of the general ed class and into a more restrictive environment, they will suspend up to their "free 10 days". After 10 days, they can't suspend a child based on issues related to their disability.

In our situation, my child hated school so guess what happened once he realized that aggressive behavior or running off got him suspended?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they did an fba but they decided the behavior was too infrequent to implement a true bip. There were no instances of the meltdown during the data collection period. The triggers are too erratic for them to capture in a plan. Every time I bring it up that we need to revisit, they say there isn't a pattern, so they don't see a need for another fba.

Is there a requirement that the fba has to be long enough to capture a low frequency behavior?

This. I agree with the other PP that suspension can't be the plan.

Lobby for her to take the Unstuck and On Target social skill class. She needs to make a Plan B when she doesn't get the break that she wants. I can understand if this request can't be honored every time. (Don't ask for a 1:1. That won't help her long term. She needs to build skills.)

[Anonymous]

You should be aware that having a child with this number of suspensions is not an infrequent issue. This is predictably frequent and very detrimental to your child.

Suspension is completely inappropriate and may be damaging to your child's self esteem and desire to be in school. Please escalate this with your school. I would request an autism consult (if this is MCPS). This is where the Autism Specialists are brought in to consult with the school team on how best to serve your child.

This happened with my child. We eventually had him placed in the Aspergers Program. His meltdowns were more frequent though (daily meltdowns involving crying and work refusal). But I threw an absolute fit when the school disciplined my child for his tantrums vs putting supports in place that helped him.

[Anonymous]

Are suspensions tracked at the school level anywhere? I would love to see year to year school trends.

There is a boy in my son's class who is on the spectrum and he has been suspended twice in the last 3 weeks for meltdowns. The poor kid is moving in just a couple of weeks, so I know his world is falling apart around him. It makes me so mad, but my kid has special needs too so I can't afford to alienate the school team because I know they will take it out on my son.

[Anonymous]

https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/pti/

I found a website that you can run reports on individual schools. There are definite differences in years for my school - I wonder how long it will take to get this year's data posted. They should really add fields to report whether the suspended children have IEP/ 504 plans in place at the time of suspension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should be aware that having a child with this number of suspensions is not an infrequent issue. This is predictably frequent and very detrimental to your child.

Suspension is completely inappropriate and may be damaging to your child's self esteem and desire to be in school. Please escalate this with your school. I would request an autism consult (if this is MCPS). This is where the Autism Specialists are brought in to consult with the school team on how best to serve your child.

This happened with my child. We eventually had him placed in the Aspergers Program. His meltdowns were more frequent though (daily meltdowns involving crying and work refusal). But I threw an absolute fit when the school disciplined my child for his tantrums vs putting supports in place that helped him.

NP. I wish I had been this knowledgable and brave when this happened to my child. It took me a really long time to figure out how horribly this was impacting my child. Thank you for posting this advice. OP, please consider doing this. My heart goes out to you and your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suspension CAN NOT be the plan. They need to come up with a crisis intervention plan for her that builds in ways to de-escalate. Does she have an adult she trusts who can be assigned to come to help her every time? Is there an empty room where she can go to calm herself?

We went through almost the same exact thing with our DC who had very infrequent but serious meltdowns. The school never did get an FBA/BIP together in our case and at some point he grew out of it.

You can and should appeal the suspensions to the superintendent in charge of your cluster.
You should call a manifestation determination meeting. They may not change the placement but at least that will get them to take you seriously in getting a real plan in place.

So on what grounds do I appeal? My child did strike a teacher. But I do believe the behavior was a manifestation of her disability. I can't find any mention of that as a consideration in the FCPS guidelines.

Any tips?