Anonymous wrote:Hello DCPS! I was a past contributor to this thread. And I did it. I am an inclusion teacher at a 5 star ES. It was impossible to meet the hours on my caseload & I was told to ‘make it work’. Kids with in hours were being pulled out. I was encouraged to count recess duty as meeting kids hours. I felt AWFUL about the work I was doing & the lies we were telling.
I finally involved OSSE, sped central office, & office on integrity. I made a schedule and the excess hours that just don’t fit are going to be filled by the Sped coordinator.
I am now HATED at my school/ because I put it in writing & called in the Troops. But for the first time in nearly 2 years I feel ethical about the work I’m doing.

Thank you!
As a family going through challenging times with a DCPS elementary school and questioning the delivery of services, are there any insider tips you would offer?
Example - ask for __________

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not be surprised if it is Janney - the SPED coordinator is a nightmare to deal with.

I always thought the teachers who interacted with my child did have the best interest of my child in mind - BUT I do not believe the IEP is being implemented per federal law.

For example - I do not believe Federal Law States that - if teachers are needed to proctor PARCC exams, services for children not taking PARCC can be truncated. There is always some story.

Oh, yes. We've heard all the excuses, too, but only after confronting them about missed services. They've never let us know when they've missed services due to the numerous meetings they attend.

Services can be delivered on a different day - so long as total hours are reached. Special instruction or related services do not need to be made up if they are missed because the school is closed. And if the child's entire class is doing something like an assembly or a field trip that happens when instruction or a related service is usually provided it needn't be made up.

PP here. Yes, I know this, but that's not what's happening here. Instruction is missed because the teacher is in a meeting or has to deal with another child who is having behavioral issues. The teacher is not delivering services on a different day to make up the difference.

And that circles back to understaffing. There aren't enough hours in a day to meet the needs with the staff they have.

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that under Betsy Devoss that the department of education OCR is not investigating complaints like they used to. So I wonder if it might be more impactful to wait for a change in administration and tip off parents in the meantime.

Has anyone ever considered trying to certify special ed cases as a class?

If you don't file a complaint, they'll be able to say they had no complaints during their time; must be a problem with a different administration, not us!

Good job.

Hello DCPS! I was a past contributor to this thread. And I did it. I am an inclusion teacher at a 5 star ES. It was impossible to meet the hours on my caseload & I was told to ‘make it work’. Kids with in hours were being pulled out. I was encouraged to count recess duty as meeting kids hours. I felt AWFUL about the work I was doing & the lies we were telling.
I finally involved OSSE, sped central office, & office on integrity. I made a schedule and the excess hours that just don’t fit are going to be filled by the Sped coordinator.
I am now HATED at my school/ because I put it in writing & called in the Troops. But for the first time in nearly 2 years I feel ethical about the work I’m doing.

Don’t. First, in DCPS a para can deliver specialized instruction as long as it’s been planned by a sped teacher. So although you may want teacher A, para B does not fall outside of legally acceptable limits. Secondly, in classroom hours can be met through co-planning. No one likes it- but it’s legally acceptable. 3. Don’t ask the gen .edu teacher to dock the minutes. For reasons 1 &2, it’s not the ‘gotcha’ you think it is. 4. I’m not a Lafayette. However- if it’s anything like my school everyone gets an IEP. Parents bring in an EII & the LEA assigns hours that no one can meet.
Please- if you want real change don’t try to track a teacher. We are the ones being pulled to test, cover extra recess, chase kids ect. Go after the administration that is over promising with an over extended staff.

Lafayette administration is skipping or ‘phasing out” hours and also has off the street substitutes giving students hours because there are so many kids and there aren’t enough teachers. At Parent Conferences ask to see their schedule and who is servicing them on a daily basis. Also put it on writing to the teacher to please notify you if your child does not receive their services for the day. Covers the teacher from the admin BS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re an amazing person. As a mother of a child with special needs I thank you. That said I seriously have no idea where you would go. Anyone else?

+1. Thank you so much OP. I second another pp's idea to call AJE. They could point you in the right direction.

AJE also has a summary of past litigation against DCPS regarding special education: http://www.aje-dc.org/special-education/

Anonymous wrote:Those schools have a ton of reporters as parents. Just saying

It's not really fair or appropriate to ask someone to mix their responsibilities of their job with something as personal as where their child goes to school.

Those schools have a ton of reporters as parents. Just saying

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not be surprised if it is Janney - the SPED coordinator is a nightmare to deal with.

I always thought the teachers who interacted with my child did have the best interest of my child in mind - BUT I do not believe the IEP is being implemented per federal law.

For example - I do not believe Federal Law States that - if teachers are needed to proctor PARCC exams, services for children not taking PARCC can be truncated. There is always some story.

Oh, yes. We've heard all the excuses, too, but only after confronting them about missed services. They've never let us know when they've missed services due to the numerous meetings they attend.

Services can be delivered on a different day - so long as total hours are reached. Special instruction or related services do not need to be made up if they are missed because the school is closed. And if the child's entire class is doing something like an assembly or a field trip that happens when instruction or a related service is usually provided it needn't be made up.

PP here. Yes, I know this, but that's not what's happening here. Instruction is missed because the teacher is in a meeting or has to deal with another child who is having behavioral issues. The teacher is not delivering services on a different day to make up the difference.

It would need to reach a significant level to be a denial of FAPE -- e.g. 10% of total service time. In my kid's experience, so long as the kid was making progress, if they got 70-75% of the hours in the IEP I could live with it because the staffing is just not adequate.

That's why most parents push for more hours than are probably needed, because they know some just won't happen.

Not making a stink about it isn't going to improve the situation for the students or the instructors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not be surprised if it is Janney - the SPED coordinator is a nightmare to deal with.

I always thought the teachers who interacted with my child did have the best interest of my child in mind - BUT I do not believe the IEP is being implemented per federal law.

For example - I do not believe Federal Law States that - if teachers are needed to proctor PARCC exams, services for children not taking PARCC can be truncated. There is always some story.

Oh, yes. We've heard all the excuses, too, but only after confronting them about missed services. They've never let us know when they've missed services due to the numerous meetings they attend.

Services can be delivered on a different day - so long as total hours are reached. Special instruction or related services do not need to be made up if they are missed because the school is closed. And if the child's entire class is doing something like an assembly or a field trip that happens when instruction or a related service is usually provided it needn't be made up.

PP here. Yes, I know this, but that's not what's happening here. Instruction is missed because the teacher is in a meeting or has to deal with another child who is having behavioral issues. The teacher is not delivering services on a different day to make up the difference.

It would need to reach a significant level to be a denial of FAPE -- e.g. 10% of total service time. In my kid's experience, so long as the kid was making progress, if they got 70-75% of the hours in the IEP I could live with it because the staffing is just not adequate.

That's why most parents push for more hours than are probably needed, because they know some just won't happen.

Yes, I need my child to make progress (and not fake progress - I've seen some cooked up assessment results before ) and if so I am fine if he get 70% of his pull-out hours. I understand that sped is an underfunded mandate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not be surprised if it is Janney - the SPED coordinator is a nightmare to deal with.

I always thought the teachers who interacted with my child did have the best interest of my child in mind - BUT I do not believe the IEP is being implemented per federal law.

For example - I do not believe Federal Law States that - if teachers are needed to proctor PARCC exams, services for children not taking PARCC can be truncated. There is always some story.

Oh, yes. We've heard all the excuses, too, but only after confronting them about missed services. They've never let us know when they've missed services due to the numerous meetings they attend.

Services can be delivered on a different day - so long as total hours are reached. Special instruction or related services do not need to be made up if they are missed because the school is closed. And if the child's entire class is doing something like an assembly or a field trip that happens when instruction or a related service is usually provided it needn't be made up.

PP here. Yes, I know this, but that's not what's happening here. Instruction is missed because the teacher is in a meeting or has to deal with another child who is having behavioral issues. The teacher is not delivering services on a different day to make up the difference.

It would need to reach a significant level to be a denial of FAPE -- e.g. 10% of total service time. In my kid's experience, so long as the kid was making progress, if they got 70-75% of the hours in the IEP I could live with it because the staffing is just not adequate.

That's why most parents push for more hours than are probably needed, because they know some just won't happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not be surprised if it is Janney - the SPED coordinator is a nightmare to deal with.

I always thought the teachers who interacted with my child did have the best interest of my child in mind - BUT I do not believe the IEP is being implemented per federal law.

For example - I do not believe Federal Law States that - if teachers are needed to proctor PARCC exams, services for children not taking PARCC can be truncated. There is always some story.

Oh, yes. We've heard all the excuses, too, but only after confronting them about missed services. They've never let us know when they've missed services due to the numerous meetings they attend.

Services can be delivered on a different day - so long as total hours are reached. Special instruction or related services do not need to be made up if they are missed because the school is closed. And if the child's entire class is doing something like an assembly or a field trip that happens when instruction or a related service is usually provided it needn't be made up.

PP here. Yes, I know this, but that's not what's happening here. Instruction is missed because the teacher is in a meeting or has to deal with another child who is having behavioral issues. The teacher is not delivering services on a different day to make up the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a mother of a child in PK3 with an IEP, please take the advice of posters that provided you with information. Thankful that I stumbled upon this thread, I will be sure to not have full confidence in staff to do what the IEP states and question the services they are providing.

question the availability of the staff to do what they are obligated to do. One of the problems @ core is that dc doesn’t staff resource teachers by hours- but by caseload. I currently have 15 kids- each with an average 4 hours inside the classroom per day @ outside hours. Do the math- it’s just not possible.

This right here is 100% the problem. It’s not the teachers not doing their jobs. It’s the lack of staffing. DCPS knows this and doesn’t care. Every PD teacher bring up this problem. It’s the central problem throughout the district.

+1
It's not just DCPS. I teach in PG. I had 27 on my caseload last year in grades 9-12. They were supposed to get an hour in reading and math, but English 9 and 10 were at the same time as Pre-Calculus and Algebra II. English 11 and 12 were at the same time as Algebra I and Geometry. If I was lucky, I could do 15 minutes in a room. Once you factor in the IEP meetings, standardized tests, and initial/re-evals...I rarely ever saw my students.