I looked up in Pa.  Rights for child's education but it's foreign to me.  She has an IEP that has been changed numerous of times.  Is she really getting all the help she needs.  She is having difficulty on her work,  where is the help!  She gets fustrated and angry.  Can't concentrate!
124974
Since she has an IEP, the reasons for why she is considered Emotionally Disturbed are already clearly outlined. That is not the place to begin.\n\nFirst of all, is DVHS her neighborhood school?  If it is, they cannot refuse her attendance, unless an IEP has been written to provide her with full services in another environment (specialized program elsewhere, or homebound). If they are refusing her enrollment, you are within your rights to start due process.\n\n1. Get a parent advocate for your state. While this site is about parenting autism, they may be able to link you up to an advocate who can help with E/BD cases:  http://www.lccare.org/\nSome other good organizations to contact to start looking for an advocate include: http://www.pde.state.pa.us/special_edu/cwp/view.asp?A=177&Q=61680\nhttp://www.slc.sevier.org/parents.htm\n\n2. Bring a COPY of every IEP you've had this past year with you wherever you go on this, as well as progress reports, etc. That way you can quickly reference them if there are questions or objections by any of the officials you will meet with.\n\n3. I am assuming you have already met with the principal at DVHS. If not (if you have only met with Assistant Principals, counselors, etc.), walk in and refuse to leave until you have spoken with the principal (if he/she truly is out of the building for the day, get a specific time they expect him/her back, and come back then). Explain your situation, and state that either the district follows the IEPs, meets to write a new one to provide adequate and correct services and education to your daughter, or you will go to central office.\n\nIf the principal says that a new IEP will need to be held, point out that the school is held by the current IEP until the new meeting, and he/she must admit your daughter. \n\nHopefully, at this point, your daughter is enrolled, and a new IEP meeting is scheduled. When you walk into the IEP meeting, refuse to leave until you are certain that your daughter will receive complete instruction every school day in all the core subjects (English/Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies), psychological counseling (since her behavior impacts her education, she qualifies for counseling), and placement in the best environment for her educational need (whether homebound or in a behavioral-focus self-contained on-campus program). The parent advocate you round up from Step 1 (above) will be an essential support in surviving the meeting and ensuring a good program for your child.\n\n4. If the principal absolutely refuses to admit your daughter, the next step is to go to the central office and speak with the Director of Special Education and the Superintendent. Explain your situation, tell them you have already spoken with the DVHS principal. and state that either the district follows the IEPs, meets to write a new one to provide adequate and correct services and education to your daughter, or you will submit a request for a due process mediator.\n\nIf they listen and get your daughter enrolled, follow the same thing as for if the principal had listened in Step 3, but now it is at the district level.\n\n5. If they also refuse, submit a written request for a state mediator, and a due process hearing. Send one copy to the principal, one to the superintendent's office, and one to the state department of education. Once again, your parent advocate can help you with this. At this point, if you have not already located one, it is extremely important that you bring in someone as an advocate. Check with other experienced special ed parents in your area, ask local law offices about who handles education law in your area, etc.\n\n6. Hopefully, the mediation process produces a decent program plan for your daughter. If not, the next step is filing a lawsuit against the district in court. For that, you will need a lawyer's advice.\n\nRemember to keep copies of every piece of correspondence between you and the schools, and keep a phone and vi
667338
First of all, if your child is in special education, she CANNOT be held back. If she is not learning effectively in the general education setting, then she needs additional Resource pull-out. You need to have a new IEP called, her difficulties with academics discussed, and additional instructional supports put in place. If your child is receiving speech, she may need more phonics-intensive reading and writing instruction than what is provided in the regular ed classroom. \n\nHolding a child back in elementary school, who is not receiving special services, is an effort to avoid putting the child in special education. Sometimes a repetition, especially of kindergarten or first grade, allows a child with a mild developmental delay to "find his/her academic feet" and be able to perform effectively at general education instructional styles and pacing.\n\nHowever, No Child Left Behind limits the number of children that can be held back in any given year, so many students aren't held back when they should be, and end up in special education for "Developmental Delay" or even "Specific Learning Disability"  when a simple retention would have kept them out of special ed.\n\nSpeech-Language Impairment is not a matter of developmental delay, however. No, retention will not help your child.\n\nAn IEP is supposed to be designed so that a child is accessing learning effectively, at his/her potential. A child with an IEP should be making appropriate gains each year compared to him/herself, and it is the IEP that needs to be revised if failure is happening. And yes, a "speech-only" student categorized as Speech-Language Impaired CAN be given Resource room academic instruction, if his/her learning needs warrant it.\n\nYou need to have a new IEP meeting, and increase your child's time in special education services, if her academics are that shaky right now.
164589
I totally agree! We have massive problems in our school district. My children are fortunate enough to have a parent who is involved with their school. PK-5 these children are taught ridiculous ways of working their Math. Most of the questions are in the same format, so they memorize the formula. But if you ask them, "What is 100 divided by 5?" they cannot give you an answer. Our schools focus on TAKS tests, and this is what is coached all year. My 10 year old says "This is a waste of my time" they are not provided with any art classes, or recess (they do have PE), they are getting burned out by 4th grade. sorry for rambling.
405757
Please tell me, are you in the U.S.A.?  Including your location will help us answer you better, because laws and opportunities vary and mentioning your area may encourage answerers from your location.\n\nIn the USA the laws  are such that the public school which cannot provide the appropriate learning environment may have the option to send the child (until 21 years of age if needed) to another public school in the county or an "approved private school" (at least that's the term in Pennsylvania, USA) and the public school pays the cost of tuition and transporation.\n\nIf your son has a specific diagnosis, you may be able to find the right public or private school by searching on the internet using the diagnosis for example "autism", "private school", "reviews", and your general location fro example "Montgomery county, PA"\n\nThere are schools and knowledgable & caring educators out there!   Your teenager is not the only one who needs special attention and structure.  There are also parent/guardian support groups on line and probably in your local area, ask the doctors or specialists you've dealth with or the area hospitals or libraries as groups often meet there.  Depending on your situation, you may find some ways to teach or support his learning at home with specifically designed learning materials -- ask his doctors or therapists for recommendations and since he is 16 you need to get him "on board" with the desicions, if he can help make some of the choices and work with you as a team he will be better motivated to work hard and continue to develop.\n\nAsk more questions about specifics as you need to, there are teachers, parents, siblings, and child advocates "listening" who understand your situation (I'm all of the above and still advocating for my adult brother and my teenager)  God Bless you!
239769
HI I have a 9 y/o son with autism and I have run a support group with autism for years. I recently moved to Wisconsin, however I was from northeast Illinois prior to this move. If you would like to contact me through yahoo messenger or at haleigh_anna4u@yahoo.com, I would love to give you some info on schools and area's in Illinois with GREAT school programs for autism. The early years ( 0-5 y/o) are the toughest. If your daughter would like the opportunity to talk to a parent who has been there feel free to pass on my contact info. My son was diagnosed in 1998, at 2 y/o. He was diagnosed severe and I was told that he would never speak.  I found him great speech and occupational therapists that helped me start a communication program with him of PECS/SIGNS paired with verbal communication and a sensory "diet" to get him comfortable in his own skin. He received ABA within his preschool special ed program as well as speech and OT in school. I included him in everything if only for a short time so that he experienced many things. Many children with autism don't know what is expected of them in new situations and that causes them to have what the parent see's as bad behavior, but in a child who cannot communicate, these behaviors are his way communicating when verbal communication is difficult.  My son is doing AMAZING now. He is in regular ed 3rd grade for 70% of his day and communicates only 2 years behind his age level. There is and always will be signs of autism, but due to a lot of hard work, understanding and LOVE he is a happy, healthy and loving boy.
54156
dear tia-alld,  The blame is to be put any where. You son may have a disability such as ADD, ADHD or most likely Dyslexia.  Dyslexia as many forms, and just recently a co-worker and I came across the same thing. Out of all the dyslexia cases on file, only one out of every two to three thousand people end up with this condition.  In the school setting ask the teachers to try using different color chalks, or putting homework on color paper.  The condition is referred to as "black on white". and there are several sites on the internet that talk about absents of color in learning.  Another great tool are color overlays.  You can get these any where and all they are, are colored clear platic sheets a student would place over their work to change the back ground of the paper. \nEither way talk to your son any try to learn if when he looks a the chalk board does the writting look funny or strange.  A very good first sign.  If so have him checked by your local doctor and explain what you know and ask for special testing.  None of this type testing is advasive to a child, in fact it seem rather fun. (seminar experience).  Either way don't give up.  By the way I failed to mention I Have been working with children and young adults with special needs, disabilities for over four years now.  P.S. please forgive my spelling errors and grammer, some days are very long.  Hope I hepled.
483554
The school has a speech therapist.  My daughter has a language disability and takes speech therapy at school.  It is free of charge and they are trained professionals that can help you.  The school must test and provide this to you under the "no child left behind act".  Don't let this bother you.  No 2 people are the same.  We all talk different, look different and learn different.  The people that treat you as if you are of lower intelligence ..well lets just say that is there disability.  Stand up for yourself and show them what you know when they try to give you extra help.  Show them you are not afraid and how smart you are.
593924
Didn't her IEP transition plan include connecting you (and her) with adult support agencies?  It should have!\n\nTry these links:\n\nhttp://www.handsandvoices.org/articles/misc/voc_rehab.html\n\nhttp://www.dhs.state.il.us/\n\nhttp://www.disability.uiuc.edu/\n\nhttp://www.nichcy.org/pubs/outprint/ts8txt.htm (read the transition information carefully!)\n\nhttp://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=2842\n\nhttp://www.nichcy.org/pubs/outprint/ts6txt.htm
599186
Having posted this in "Special Education," are you looking for a student advocate to attend an IEP?\n\nOr are you someone looking at student courts who miscategorized his/her question?\n\nIf you are asking about someone who can be a student or parent advocate and help you with the IEP process, most states have organizations for experienced volunteers. Most of the time, all that is needed is a well-trained volunteer, usually a parent who has a child of their own with special needs, and lots of years of experience in the IEP process.\n\nIf that's what you are looking for, you need to Google the name of your state, and the words "special education parent advocate." For example, here's the site for New Mexico (my home state):  http://www.parentsreachingout.org/\n\nIf this is not what you are looking for, you need to ask your question again, with more detail about what area the advocate will be addressing (student justice in a school student court, for example) and post it under "Primary & Secondary Education" or "Education - Other."
578975
Many public school systems, like the ones in New Jersey, created a No Child Left Behind Act which tries to enforce that all children will learn through modifications - whether that means having a child study team evaluation for an IEP, or having a teacher make modifications within their lesson plans to help a child learn.  \n\nPublic school teachers HAVE to do evaluation assessments on all the students they teach during the school year.  Usually if we see a "problem" (possible learning disability or non-specific LD) we will contact the parents for an initial meeting.  PARENTS NEED TO BE THEIR CHILD'S ADVOCATE and many times must push the school system to evaluate a child and offer assistance.  Assistance may be a one on one aide, involvement in a special education class, large print books, occupational and physical therapies, etc.\n \nI believe that many children slip through the cracks because parent/teacher communication may be weak.  I also believe that it is a teacher's NUMBER ONE priority to ensure the students in his or her class can learn.  Sad to say many teachers become complacent in their careers and are not looking to hard for the children who need help.
268273
There's nothing you can do about it.  Legally she has every right to it.  I know how you feel, my parents did the same thing to me when I was a kid.  Hey, why aren't you in school?
644559
no, not at all. The special ed students shouldnt be writing papers for other students, that violates proably half of their IEP's and she can be sued and fired. The test answers we had that problem with our school on the teacher handing them all the answers so they would pass and not get held back. That again violates the conduct and you can basically take that to the higher ups, State education. :)
562024
I am a special education teacher, and also the mother of a child with special needs (learning disabilities, ADHD, OCD, and a bunch of other diagnoses).\n\nMom to mom.... don't freak about this.\n\nYou hit the nail on the head when you noted that HE is not phased by the idea of doing kindergarten again.\n\nThe BEST time for repeating grades is in Kindergarten and/or 1st grade.  This allows him to get a good foundation of those basic skills, rather than falling farther and farther behind while being presented work of greater and greater difficulty.\n\nEven at higher grades, if he did the repeating thing early on, most kids won't notice that he's that much older than them. However, bullies will be bullies, and they find something to pick on with everybody... just report them and the school should deal with it.\n\nWhen he is 30 years old, nobody will care if he graduated at 18, 19, or even 21! All they'll care about is whether he has a high school diploma or not. If he goes to college...the college won't care what age he got the high school diploma, either!\n\nYou said he is in a private school. Is he getting speech therapy for his apraxia? Is his teacher trained in special education methods? You do know that the public schools will still provide speech therapy and special educator resource services for children in private school (required by law).  \n\nIf this private school he's attending didn't get you and him linked to the services he needs, if their teachers do not have special education training... I would strongly recommend that you seek a different school for him. With his learning differences, he really needs teachers highly trained in instruction methods for kids with language disabilities and ADHD, as well as speech therapy. How's his handwriting? Have they discussed Occupational Therapy for him? \n\nTwo years retention is really the most he should ever have. In public school, especially in special education, retention is rare and usually only involves repeating kindergarten once and/or 1st grade once. Additional instruction needs are taken care of through pull-out special education with specialists trained in helping students with learning differences build their learning skills.\n\nThe earlier the correct intervention, the better off he will be in the long run. \n\nIf you want to keep him out of public schools for faith reasons, you may need to look at moving to a place where there is a Christian private special education school.  If you can't afford to move, you may have to trust that your and your church's instruction of faith will be enough to compensate for the concerns you have with public schools, and send him to the special education teachers and therapists that can give him the academic help he needs. \n\nLook at these sites:\n\nhttp://www.wcris.org/WebFiles/ResourceFiles/ESeries4.doc\n\nhttp://www.policyreview.org/jan99/fox.html\n\nhttp://dpi.wi.gov/sped/doc/prischpart.doc\n\nAn example of public school provision of special ed to private school students: http://www.sandi.net/comm/factsheets/special_ed_pppss.pdf (requires Adobe Acrobat)\n\nFinding a new private school? Try these:\n\nhttp://www.privateschoolreview.com/\n\nhttp://www.stlrcga.org/x439.xml (many states and large cities offer this sort of listing)\n\nhttp://www.napcse.org/\n\nhttp://www.schoolfinders.net/\n\nhttp://aerkis.com/\n\n\nTake care, pray on this, and trust that G-d will guide you.
481623
If he is already in an IEP program his team needs to meet again to discuss different options for him. There are other ways of going rather than sticking a child in a special needs class within a public school and not getting any help. There are private schools that are considered level five or level three schools where you would not have to pay considering that he meets the school criteria or they feel as though he is suitable for the program. I hope that I answer your question or helped you in some kind of way.
261879
If his score is 60, then he does need special programs to help him learn at school. They should also have done an "adaptive skills" screening. In order for him to be "mentally disabled," he must also have a big delay in learning life skills (such as dressing himself) and/or in social skills and communication.\n\nRemember that, by law, your son will have to be retested every three years.\n\nA person CAN learn to think quicker, and build his/her memory skills. However, a test that is given correctly, and that gets a person to show their top level of skill, is a good measure of how that person will do in school without supports. A person's IQ score CAN change over his/her lifetime, but usually only around 10 points or so. \n\nWith some kids, different testers get very different results. This is especially true with a child who is sensitive to his environment.\n\nThe point here is that whether the score is a "true" one or not, your child is struggling in school. He needs extra help right now to succeed. If you want to get a new test done independently, the school MUST pay for it. However, if the test comes back with him NOT needing special education support, your son will fall farther and farther behind.\n\nThe big question is whether the program they are designing in his IEP fits his needs.\n\nYou will want the following:\n\n--an excellent special ed teacher. Do not just think that because the teacher is certified in special ed, that he/she is a "good" teacher. Ask other parents about him/her. Ask several parents, because every teacher has that one parent who hates him/her....and you want to know if the teacher is generally good with most of his/her students.\n\n--if your son is continuing to be in some activities with the regular ed classes, you need a very open regular ed teacher with excellent skills. You also need a regular ed teacher who is willing to listen to and work with the special ed teacher.\n\n--regular therapies, especially Language therapy with an SLP. If he is "mentally disabled," then communication skills are affected. If he is not seeing an SLP, make a written request for a speech-language evaluation.\n\n--Academic goals that move your son toward the regular ed curriculum. Remember that these goals are what they want to see your son do after one year in the program. A bad goal says, "Student will make gains in reading." A good goal says, "Student will decode and comprehend text at the 1.0 grade level with 70% accuracy, as measured by standardized tests, teacher-made tests, student product, and teacher observation."  Some districts use this, "Student will show measurable gains toward the 2nd grade level in reading decoding and comprehension, etc." which is also OK.\n\n--Modifications that help him learn. Seating close to the teacher, re-stating instructions, "chunking" or task analysis of skills being taught, manipulatives, multi-sensory instruction, etc.\n\n--Does your school/district focus on moving students back into regular ed classes if they gain the skills they need in special ed, or are they "parked" for life? If you are in a district that "parks" kids, you need to move. It means the district, as a whole, does not expect high achievement from your son. If they do have a history of moving kids into regular ed classes as they reach grade-level skills, you're in a good overall program set for your son.\n\nFind other parents with children in special ed programming in your district, and talk about it with them.
621439
Kind of sad, there only child and they won't support her education, the only way i don't support my children's education is if there screwing around and partying instead of working hard at getting good grades.\nBut the answer is YES
437012
Only you and she can really know the answer to this question. Why don't you speak with her? Tell her what you'd like to be able to do and ask her why you are not allowed to help others, particularly if you are her "assistant"\n\nSigh. Thumb trolls strike again. My answer is a valid possible way to handle the situation. Talking with the teacher is a good way to try to resolve the issue.