Delay Tactics

I have learned over the years that the number one tactic used by the school district is delay tactics.  They have so many ways of doing this that seem legitimate but aren't that it would be impossible to name them all.  I will put down the ones I've encountered or heard about and I hope that those who read this will add to them with what you've faced.

The primary way this is done is to avoid telling you the rules.  They don't have to live up to time lines if what you have not made requests in writing.  So, we must put every request in writing, from evaluation for special education or for speech therapy or whatever issue concerns you.  It doesn't have to be fancy, just a little handwritten note will do, though I do suggest dating it and making a copy before turning it over to the district to be sure that you have proof of your request.

Secondly, if you are coming up on an IEP I have heard, "Why don't we just wait for the regular IEP date?"  We don't wait because we don't need to delay anything any longer than it already has been delayed.  If we are talking the difference of a week, we might wait, but a month?  No waiting, let's have a meeting. 

Another tactic would be to spread the IEP out - not have answers so have to meet again in a month and in the meantime, nothing happens.  Then deciding an evaluation is needed, so another 60 days goes by, and on and on.  Unnecessary evaluations are often a delaying tactic, make sure they explain why an evaluation is necessary, who should do it, and when.  Watch the time-lines, they will use them if they can to delay, most often scheduling meetings at the end of a legal time-line rather than earlier, if they can.

We asked for an evaluation for assistive technology, a speech device, and after the initial time period was done, they told us they had evaluated for one device, but now they needed to evaluate for another, this went on for a year, all the while we were being told it was important not to hurry the process since she needed to get just the right device.  We finally went out and got an outside expert to evaluate and she was able to do the evaluation in a couple of hours.  Still the district had another idea for another device, thus delaying everything by another 6 weeks since we couldn't just choose the device without the entire team getting together again, and that took 30 days to organize.  Once the district received the device we had to wait another three weeks for staff to be trained on the device.  This kind of delay cost our daughter over a year and a half before she got the device.  They were already late at even looking into a communication device, using the excuse that she wasn't using PECS, when in fact she finds the device interesting, but finds PECS boring.  By the time she got the device (thanks to all the delays) it was already outdated for her.  Then when we told them we had purchased an iPad and wanted them to get one for her for at school, the response was, "we need to do another evaluation".  Pretty rich! 

Most recently, our district has told us they cannot discuss placement for when my daughter returns from Home and Hospital instruction until she returns, which makes no sense.  For one thing, she is out on HHI because the school keeps messing around and she doesn't get what she needs at school and in fact they do what they do so badly that she actually develops behaviors and learns almost nothing useful at school.  We asked the doctor to to put her on HHI so we could find the right school and then request that she be placed there, now they say they can't discuss it until she comes back.  So we get a doctor's note, but they want another note - they don't feel we got the note from the right doctor.  These are all delay tactics.  They don't want to talk about placement because they know they are going to have to pay for her to go to a Non-public school because they don't know what they are doing.  It was so gratifying to go to the doctor today to get the second note and have her comment on how much better my daughter's behaviors are now that she hasn't been in school for a while.  She very happily wrote whatever we needed on our note to the school.    

A noted school district attorney group, Fagen, Freidman, and Fulfrost is known for their trainings, one of which is on how to avoid doing what the district is supposed to do "legally".  I correspond with a woman who went to one of their "trainings" in which they belittled parents by using nasty little nicknames such as Mr. Suesalot and Mrs. Evalstoomuch that sort of thing.  The entire training was on how to delay within the law.  So, if it feels like your district is just trying to delay - don't be surprised, they probably are.  They just try to avoid until the child is out of school.  They've probably been trained by attorneys on how to do it.  No wonder so many people have such bad impressions of attorneys.  The only way to deal with this sort of thing is to call it out.  You can call it out directly and see if they decide to stop, you can file a compliance complaint, or you can file for due process.  Even though they are trained to delay 'within the law', it really isn't within the law.  They get away with this because they can and we let them, not because they are right in doing it.  If you take them to court they aren't very likely to be able to keep delaying - because that isn't what education is about.