Reply to IEP and services at the high school level

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Glad to see I got some responses. My DD has a friend at the Catholic Good Counsel in a program for kids with learning disabilities (after being frustrated by public schools). We're not Catholic and we don't have anywhere the money to go to a private school for kids with LD.

I did just call my DD's high school to try to start getting an IEP meeting set up. Was told that had to go through her counselor, who won't be back until next Monday. So I sent an email in hopes she would see it earlier. I may also try emailing the principal. [/quote]

Don't call, write.  There are legal timelines that the school must meet and the clock starts ticking when you write a letter telling the school that you have had your child tested and that you believe that she has 1) and educational disability that 2) has an adverse impact on her education and 3) necessitates specialized instruction.  You do not need to put the numbers in as I have, but you do need to hit these three elements in your letter.   You should also enclose the testing if you are planning on using it to show that your child has an educational disability that requires special help. Tell them that you are requesting an IEP screening meeting.  This is the first of 2 legally required meetings to get an IEP.  At the screening meeting, the IEP team (which includes you and anyone else you would like to invite) meets to determine if there is a "suspicion" of educational disability.  Then, if the IEP team determines that there is a suspicion of disability, they decide if any further testing is warranted.  If so, the IEP team must provide this testing free of charge and will ask you to sign a consent form to have MCPS people do the testing.   MCPS has 60 days from the date that you sign the consent to assess form or 90 days from the date of your request for an IEP meeting (whichever is shorter) to hold the IEP evaluation meeting.  It is at this meeting that the IEP team (including you and your invitees) will make a final determination as to whether your child needs an IEP.  Then they have another 30 days to finalize the written IEP.

You can write anyone at school, but I always write the principal.  They or their designee are members of the IEP team, and ultimately they are responsible for supervising the special ed coordinator.

You said you got private testing.  What did the testers say about "treatment", "therapy" or "accommodations" that your child should have?  If your tester did the testing but didn't provide an recommendations, you should call the tester back and ask them to develop recommendations based on the deficits they found in the testing.  This is a normal part of every report.  These recommendations are what you should be asking the school to carry out.

The school does not have to use the exact program that your tester recommends, but they must address the deficit.  For example, for a child who has difficulty reading because of weak understanding of sound/letter correspondence, the tester might recommend Phonographix reading instruction.   MCPS provids Wilson reading program which has similar goals (explicit phonics/letter testing), but is not the same exact program.

Money might be tight, but consider hiring an advocate or attorney to help you at your meeting.  If not, plan on reading up on the law and process.  There are many good books.  Our experience at MCPS is that they will tell you everything is fine until you show them that it is not and that you meet every criteria in the law.  My expectation with the system was that I would go into the meeting and tell them that there was a problem and that they would look at the data and the testing and figure out what was wrong and how to address it.  I could not have been more wrong.  I had to go in and show them why they were legally required to do everything that I wanted them to.  Only then would they agree to do anything.  
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