Is Your Attorney Really an Attorney?

Recently a friend of mine found herself in a difficult situation.  It seemed that her "attorney" was doing everything wrong.  She shared that he was overbilling her for IEP meeting atendance, he was asking the district for things for her son that were not justified.  He requested a Non-public school when that is not what the parents wanted and not what was recommended in the IEEs that the district had paid for.  We began to ask a question, was this guy truly an attorney?  A question that should have been asked at the beginning of the search for an attorney.  But he had led us to believe he was an attorney, when the word attorney was mentioned, he did not deny that he was an attorney, he spoke at training meetings and it was at the very least inferred that he is an attorney.  Well, it turns out he isn't an attorney.  How did we find out?  We went online to the state bar associateion website, put his name in, and you guessed it, he is not listed as an attorney with the California Bar Association.

In the future, if I have any dealings with any attorney on any issue, I will go to the website and find out if they are indeed listed as an attorney in my state.  For California that site is Calbar.org.  Every state will have their own website, but if you are paying for an attorney I would want to be sure that the person is indeed an attorney.

PWN - What, Why, and How it Can Benefit You

PWN tells you a lot.  If the district has real reasons for their denial of a service it wil be included.  If they don't have any good reasons to deny your child a service, such as budget constraints or just because they can (in their opinion), then it is your green light to go the next step - either a compliance complaint or an Alternate dispute resolution, Mediation only, or Due process request.

http://www.specialeducationadvisor.com/using-prior-written-notice-as-a-tool/comment-page-1/#comment-105321

Using Paperwork to Prove Your Case

This is a must read!  What a great way to achieve a needed outcome for your child without attorneys and advocates, without due process hearings. http://www.fetaweb.com/success/priv.placement.riley.htm

How to Be An Effective Advocate

http://ezinearticles.com/?You-Can-Fight-Back-Against-Special-Education-Denials-That-Hurt-Your-Child!&id=6366014

A great article on how to become an effective advocate adn get your child's needs met.

The Power of "No"

"No" is an incredible word, when used judiciously.  We have had occasion to say "no" to changes in our children's IEPs.  When we say "no" to changes we say "yes" to stay put.  Many district will not however, enact stay put unless the parents specifically request stay put.  I always make it a point to tell all at the IEP meeting that I am requesting that they initiate stay put until such time that we come to an agreement, sometimes this may be until we get an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) that confirms the districts belief that my child is no longer in need of or ready for a reduction in services.  I then follow this up with a letter just to be sure that they got my message.  If I wait, thinking they are giving a service as prescribed by law, I may find out months later that they did not do as requested, so I do everything in my power to be sure that services are being provided as they must by law be given.

Following the Money

From Special Needs Advisor:

This is a well thought out view, though sadly, I have to admit, I believe there are some evil people in the world who seem to enjoy doing any trick they can think of to avoid getting services to our kids with special needs.

http://www.specialeducationadvisor.com/the-trickle-down-economics-of-never-fully-funding-special-education/

Troubled Children Grow into Troubled Adults without Intervention

Reading about the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary just confirms part of why we have IDEA and why our schools must take a different role than they usually do, at least around here.  This was a troubled boy who grew into a troubled man.  Instead of ignoring the mom's pleas and instead of taking the stance that we must save as much money as we can, perhaps if districts take the stand that they are here to educate and help our children grow into strong and thriving citizens we will see this kind of thing stop (or at least happen less often).  When they refuse to help these kids and rebuff parents they set themselves up as the bad guys.  Good care costs money, but good care leads to good outcomes.  Which is more important?  I have often wondered when some parent will have taken all they believe they can handle and go and do some violence, now we have seen what happened to a young man who apparently believed he had taken all he could handle.  It's time to start caring for our kids instead of avoiding doing anything for children who are different.

See Aaron Sereboff's post here: https://www.facebook.com/ideabuilder

Why We Get an IEE

When someone goes to get an IEE it is for two reasons. First you are hoping to convince the school district that your child needs more services than they say your child needs. Sometimes this works, but often what happens is your IEE needs to stand up in due process because many districts would prefer to hire attorneys than give your child the services your child needs. So that IEE better be pretty good. 

You want a person who understands the particular area, who understands schools and what they cover as opposed to an evaluator who is working under a medical model and is used to writing evaluations for insurance companies. They are very different. Even if they can do an evaluation under your insurance, you want to make sure they have experience in with educational reports, and then you want to be sure that they will attend an IEP meeting and be able to defend their report or your child will not get the needed services.  You can pay for that, or ask that your district covers part of the IEE but I wouldn't tell them which part.  I have found the district is unlikely to work this sort of thing out with us though, so it may or may not work, even if the person who takes insurance, who is covered by your insurance, is good at educational evaluations.  

The best IEEs include arguments from the start that your child needs this intervention that will stand up in court, even if you don't have to go to court, which hopefully we don't have to do. I have found that most of the medical people we have used for treatment have not been able to even say if my daughter is getting appropriate services at the school, even though they know very well what to do under the medical model.  It isn't their fault, they are just not trained in the educational model.

Let Your Pediatrician Help

I just got back a from a visit to our pediatrician with our youngest.  He had a traumatic brain injury suffered at birth and has some learning and behavioral issues as a result.

He is a great kid - but when he gets into what for him are overly sensory and auditory stimulating environments he has trouble taking in information and behaving appropriately because he gets stressed out.  He doesn't listen well in that environment and he has trouble thinking.  Really, who can think when they are stressed out?  Anxiety and thinking just don't go together!  Anxiety creates an instinct response, which is going to be fight or flight, not helpful in the classroom.

So our attorney suggested that we see our son's pediatrician.  I explained our concerns to her and told her what is going on in the classroom.  She felt that we could go a couple of ways.  One is having him attend school for half days for the time being, and the other would be for him to go into Home and Hospital Instruction (HHI) for the time being.  She asked me what I thought would be best.  I have already been taking him for half days and things haven't gotten any worse, but they also aren't getting better and he is missing significant chunks of instruction.  It is difficult for him to keep up this way so I said I think to go to HHI is the best for him right now.  That way he won't get to school and be expected to take a test the others are taking when he hasn't been there to practice what he will be tested for, and other similar situations.

She immediately wrote a note for him to attend half days until HHI can be set up and she will sign that paperwork once I get it from the school.  This is so much better than continuing to fight for him to try to fit in where he can't succeed, yet it keeps the district responsible for him getting an education and services.

The"Nice" IEP Meeting

The last IEP I attended was much "nicer" than previous meetings.  The "team" was very positive about my daughter with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.  She is doing "great" in all of her classes, she is a "superb" student, she is "well organized" and is "turning in her assignments on time".  Her IQ total has climbed a whopping 23 points since she was first tested at age 6.  She is incredibly pleasant to have in class, she is a leader, she is well liked by peers and staff alike!  They all seem to believe that she is very talented, creative, and going to have great opportunities to excel at a University.  All those quotations marks?  Yes, they are actual quotes from the IEP notes page!  So, maybe you, like me are wondering why she is in Special Education and why she needs an IEP.

Before I go any further.  My oldest daughter is one of the hardest working kids you will ever find.  Fortunately she doesn't have the aggressive tendencies of FASD that her brother who we also adopted has.  She doesn't do all of her work but she does a lot, she often times forgets to turn in completed or near completed work though.  She has a good strong work ethic and she has come so far, I am really proud of her.  At the same time I am not the type of parent that thinks my kid can't do anything wrong.  I know she needs extra help and I know that I have to keep on top of her or she will miss turning in (or maybe even doing) assignments, and she has never studied for a test without my bugging her to do it.  She thinks she is smarter than she is - she thinks she is smarter than her dad and me (what 15 year old doesn't) and because of that she doesn't think she needs to study for tests.  She can be a really pain around the house, but she behaves very well at school and at others' homes, typical for 15 years old I think.  She is more like her non-disabled peers than she is different, I take heart in that fact!

She has good grades, a "B" average, with one "D" due to her general ed teacher not being informed of the accommodations he was to have been giving, so the first half of the semester really brought her grade down.  Once she got the accommodations and I was on her to make sure she got every piece of work done and studied for all of her tests she squeaked through.   But, my concern is, is she going to get those accommodations at a University?  And, even though I would be paying for it, is anyone going to send me e-mails telling me that she is falling behind so I can light a fire under her?  I don't think so.

Fortunately, the meeting had to be continued because others had to leave and I had to go pick up a child from another school.  This was the best thing that could have happened!  I took home all of the paperwork that I hadn't received ahead of time, I read over all the comments in the notes section of the IEP, "superb" (really?), I hadn't heard that comment but it sure did make the my daughter look good didn't it?  And I got to think, something there is too little time to do in a meeting with many people talking at the same time.  I find I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out who is trustworthy (sort of) in the meeting and who I need to be very leery of this time around.  That is why I never sign an IEP at the meeting unless they offer to give every service I went in to ask for and even then, I usually want to read the fine print, and then I still often times look back the next year and wish I had objected to something I didn't object to!

Well, after checking my feelings about the meeting, looking over the paperwork, and spending a bit of time realizing that there was a reason for all of the insanity, I got to work.  First, the reason for trying to make it seem like my daughter is the first kid in the special ed system at  her school that should go to a University and major in a creative major is that they have everything to gain from making it seem she is super-girl!  It will cost them a lot less in services and special classes if they can make her seem like the "Incredible Super Smarter Kid".  So then I was able to get to the details.  They weren't actually suggesting that she leave special ed, of course not, they get Federal funds if they can keep her in Special Ed and yet give her nothing over and above the regular special ed classes.  So they want to keep her just disabled enough to need a few special ed classes but not disabled enough that she needs any services - even the ones they just started giving her last year!  Here are a few of the things I found were in that paperwork and were to have been suggested at the meeting - since they included recommendations in the notes - written before hand since they knew what the recommendations would be even before the meeting (called predetermination).

They say she is organized - probably a lead in to not needing any more OT services!  Just two weeks before  she had received a progress report and in one class she had not turned in 8 assignments out of about 20!  That does not signal organization to me!  She had missed 4 assignments in another class and in another she was behind by only one assignment,  but it was worth almost half of her grade so she was suddenly getting a "D" in that class too!  She is in an English 9 class, but since it isn't called "language arts" her teachers determined that she did not need to work on the goal that was related to her language arts class!  I think English 9 is a language arts class, and that isn't a big stretch.

For reading, the only goal is for increasing fluency.  Okay, fluency is nice, it is important, but what good does it do to increase her reading fluency if she isn't understanding what she is reading?  Her comprehension is at fifth grade level, but they want her to read faster at the ninth grade level, even her Language Arts (oops, English) teacher said that increasing fluency will come from reading things that are below her actual reading level so the whole thing seems to make no sense.

One goal was written that she will "complete ---- at 80% 4 out of 5 times".  So 4 out of 5 times is already 80% and then 80% of 80% is  actually 64%, is "D" level work an appropriate goal?  I don't think so.  My daughter may do her best and end up doing 64% but that should not be the GOAL!

Another suggested goal was for her to complete a resume that is 80% correct.  Is a resume that 80% correct okay?  I say keep having her do that task until it is 100% correct.

She has auditory processing disorder so she has been given a listening device that helps her to focus on what is said and screen out background noise.  She has been forgetting to use it but they have objected to a goal for that.  A simple "------ will wear her listening device 90% of the time" seems easy enough, but they don't want that.  Okay, why?

Everyone admitted that my daughter sounds very young for her age yet the SLP denies hearing her speak in anything other than a perfectly appropriate voice.  Funny how in a room full of people the only person who doesn't hear how young she sounds is the person who is supposed to help her with her speech.  And really, try getting anyone to take you seriously when you sound like you are in early elementary school.

Goals were written with a baseline that says "student had difficulty with --------- in her triannual evaluation".  So even if she regresses by next year we won't know that because we don't know what she can do now.

These are the kinds of things that we need to go over privately, away from the IEP team, when we can think.  The goals drive the services so goals need to be good.  We should to be able to recognize the kid they are talking about in their evaluations and in the notes.  If they say our kid can cut normally we should ask them to cut in front of us so we can see if they really can cut.  We can't test everything, but there are many things we can test.  I know my daughter behaves better away from home than at home - I probably did too, but she should not be unrecognizable.

"Nice" is just a way to act, and it probably fools a lot of us into believing that they really care, but the two are very different, and the best IEP teams are made up of people who will tell you the truth.  Talking about your child's strengths is "nice" but talking about their weaknesses and and how to help your child overcome them is what makes an IEP meeting helpful.

    

Things I'm Learning From Megan - 1

I have to stop myself from saying - "She just said hello to you" - with some attitude when people ignore my daughter's cheerful "Hi".  She is teaching me that it doesn't matter how they react to her, that I should just do the kind thing, the nice thing, the loving thing, like her.

Educating the People in our Life

It is very sad that people who are supposed to be educating our children have the attitude that our children are a waste of time and money, but it's true, many of them believe that our kids use too much of the precious resources that is to be used for kids in special education.  The more sever the issues, the more likely we will have to face that attitude.  I believe that our only course of action that will make any kind of an impact is education - of our communities.  I hate to admit it, but I was one who believed it was "silly" to spend so much to educate people who would never learn very much anyway - but I have learned that we are trying to help our children be able to speak up and get their needs known and to be safe and to need as little from society in later years as possible.  We hope to help them become productive, but number one we want our children to be safe in a society that does not always consider our kids fully human so they are taken advantage of at a greater rate than any other group.  It costs more to educate them because they learn differently than other kids and need more intensive attention and assistance to learn - but they do learn and they can become more when we give them the chance. 

There was recently a story in the news of two men who were working with severely developmentally disabled women, and they were sexually assaulting these women - and it was believed that they did this quite often.  There is even film of their crimes.  These women were unable to defend themselves or to speak up and get help.  That is something none of us wants to see for our children.  They feel pain and humiliation just like any other woman - they are not immune from feelings due to their disabilities.  

We have two very big jobs when we are the parents of children with disabilities - one is to advocate for our children and make sure their needs are met and the other is to educate those around us rather than acting out the anger we instinctively feel toward those who would discredit our kids and expect far too little of them.  This is not to say that we won't FEEL angry, but we have to overcome ourselves and make sure that our friends and acquaintances know more about why our kids need more funding for education and job and social skills.  We need to positively impact those around us who can then impact those around them.  We need to change deep seated beliefs that people don't even realize is discriminatory.

Thank goodness we have support groups to go to and vent our feelings of frustration and anger and discouragement because we will have them.  But we have to learn to be educators and sadly we even have to educate our regional center CSC's, supervisors and beyond, school district administrators and staff and often times our families.  Education won't do the whole job, because there are evil people out there who know the truth and lie and cheat and do anything for the almighty dollar, but it is only through educating others that we can ever hope to make lasting change with the majority.  The people of our state will only accept reductions that are geared toward those they consider a waste of money - we must show them that our kids are not a waste of money and that the investment now will mean less expense as they age and are able to do more and care more for themselves.  Our kids will cost less if they can live more independently than they would otherwise because of what is done to help them now - and they are generally adults much longer than they are children.

Should the public school pay for a private tutor? Part 2 - National special education

Should the public school pay for a private tutor? Part 2 - National special education

This was an excellent post, with more to come. I highly recommend it to anyone who is starting out in advocating for your child. Or for anyone facing adversity in getting your child's needs met through the school district. If you don't end up facing unethical school personnel, great!  If you do, you will know what is happening, and you will have some ways to deal with the situations that keep your child from getting the education they deserve.

We've have recently changed our methods, and this post explains our current methods and why we ended up here very clearly.