At our office we have had an ongoing battle with Chicago Public Schools creating its own set of rules for when they will provide home bound instruction. They frequently make up rules under the heading "that is not the way we do things here in Chicago." I have come to calling CPS the "Republic of Chicago," as it appears they do not believe they are still part of the federal system of laws including IDEA. Several months ago, my associate Julie Welsh, filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education challenging CPS's refusal to provide home bound services for a Download 1834_0001 student with mental health services because an MD doctor signed off on the request (as required by law) but not his psychiatrist (not a requirement of the law). The attached is the decision from the state investigators not only finding in our favor on this specific case, but ordering CPS to make a systemic change in how they address requests for home bound services. CPS will need to draft new policies for delivery of home bound services, train staff of the new policies and document implementation of the new policy. Santa came a little early this year and we could not be happier for the client and for they systemic changes that Julie was able to bring about for other families in Chicago.
Comprehensive Transition Guide from OSERS–Bring It to Your Next Transition Meeting
The U.S. Department of Education in January 2017, just released a very comprehensive guide to transition services. Download Postsecondary-transition-guide-2017-3. Transition planning is one of the most vital functions of having an IEP for all students. An IEP is not an ends in itself, it is a means to an ends–called adult life. Too often schools take a very narrow and parochial view of their responsibilities to transitioning students. Trips to the grocery store several times a week and preparing meals the remainder of the week are too often the beginning and end of transition programming. I firmly believe that students need to master functional schools, but it cannot be one size fits most, and there has to be more content if a student is going to make a meaningful transition to adult life. Parents need to read this guide prior to their next transition meeting and bring it to the meeting to move the discussion towards outcomes and programs that the school will never offer, without significant advocacy from a parent, advocate or attorney. This guide will provide both the legal and conceptual framework needed to solidly ground those arguments. Good luck and keep advocating.
Parental Guidelines for Access to Athletics, Field Trips and Extracurriculars
Parents frequently raise issues about schools denying access or failing to accomodate students who need support to participate in non-academic parts of the school experience including field trips. Frequently, children who require aides during the school day are told that staff is not available for after school activities, thus resulting in their exclusion from these school-sponsored events. Similarly, parents of children with disabilities are often told that unless they accompany their child on field trips, the child cannot attend. (I have experienced this situation many times during my son's time in school) Some students who require nursing care during their school day as part of their IEP are also excluded from after school activities or field trips unless a parent accompanies the student or serves as the nurse. In the event of a nurse's absence during the school day, some of these parents are even told that they are responsible for providing nursing care or the student will need to stay home that day. These situations are predictable and schools need to make plans or they may be in violation of the law. In fact, the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education (OCR), which oversees and investigates discrimination complaints involving the rights of students with special needs in schools, found that the above listed incidents were in fact 504 violations—either of failure to provide access or denial of FAPE.
Parental Guidelines for Testing Accommodations
I have blogged previously about how essential it is for parents to ensure that any informal accommodations received by their child, particularly those related to testing, are documented in the child’s IEP or 504 Plan. Memorializing these accommodations will hopefully preserve them later for such high stakes testing as college entrance exams. What accommodations children receive for such high stakes testing as the ACT or SAT are determined not by the child’s public school, whose IEP or 504 teams work to develop testing accommodations, but by the private testing services who develop the college entrance examinations. Just because a student receives extended time on a school exam, is provided with a scribe, or has the test read to him or her is no guarantee that he or she will receive these same accommodations on these high stakes tests. When parents call in dismay after their children have been denied these accommodations, I have to tell them that my hands are tied. I can rarely provide them with any real after-the-fact assistance.
Abuse of the Developmentally Delayed
A sad story came out of California in 2012 regarding developmentally delayed adults living in residential centers. Over a four-year period, 36 patients at California’s “board-and-care centers” for the developmentally disabled had claimed they had been raped by caretakers. And yet, their reports were ignored by the Office of Protective Services–the state police force tasked with protecting residents of group homes–and were never referred to the local police for investigation. Officers failed to order even a single rape examination, which is critical for successful prosecution of alleged offenders. At least one alleged offender was accused of later raping yet another patient. Additionally, hundreds of cases of abuse and unexplained injuries among the state’s 1500 patients who live at the five developmental centers have been reported, but few arrests have been made. This report highlighted a particularly ugly truth: individuals with disabilities, both children and adults, are at a far greater risk of physical or sexual abuse and neglect than are non-disabled persons.
Parents’ Frustration with IEPs With Video Humor
It this video was not so true it would be very funny. It rings so true to a number of cases that I have had especially in this age of RtI.
Using RtI Data To Your Advantage this IEP Season
I was asked to write an article on preparing for your next IEP meeting for the website specialneeds.com. Here is the article that I hope will be useful this IEP season.
Guidelines for Mediation and Resolution Sessions
Mediation and resolution meetings are among the primary ways that many special education cases get settled. For many parents they have never attended anything like a mediation or a resolution session. An advocacy center is DC has published a useful handbook that is very accessible guide to mediation and resolution meetings.
RtI Guidance from NCLD
RtI despite its frequent inservicing and discussions appears to be an elusive topic for many schools. Parents need to understand RtI if they are to effectively advocate for a meaningful process to take place for their child. The following guidance is a useful guidance document from NCLD.
Idaho School Focusing on Effective Suicide Prevention
Suicide is a serious and widespread issue for many students and in turn schools. Unfortunately the magnitude of this issue is sometimes only realized after a death occurs or even more than one. Administrators and principals in the Coeur d’Alene School District recently held a management retreat to address the issue of suicide prevention. The special session was the result of four tragic suicides committed students within the district in the past 15 months. One of the saddest things about this brief blurb in the local paper was the comment posted to the newspaper’s online website, which said, “Why are we coddling these people and using taxpayer money to do it? School is only to teach the 3 R’s, nothing more. And only through the 6th grade, then these parasites are on their own!” [Can only hope this person is not a parent or at least has no children under his roof!]
The callousness of the writer, who is clearly fortunate to not have had loved ones struggle with suicide or mental illness, is stunning. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens and young adults from 15 to 24 years in the United States. The National Health Association estimates that up to 2.5% of children and 8.3% of teens in the United States suffer from depression. At any given time, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology estimates that about 5% of children are suffering from depression.
And what about our children with special needs? The data is limited, but Steve Forness, professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at the University of California, estimates that 30 to 40% of students in ED classes and 10 to 20% of students in LD classes suffer from depression. Experts believe there is no mystery as to why students with special needs are more prone to depression. These children may be predisposed to depression due to biological factors related to their disorders. In addition these kids may suffer from the stigma of having a disorder, and their disabilities may make them stand out to their peers. As a result, children with special needs are two to three times more likely to be victims of bullying than their non-disabled peers. A study in a British journal stated that 60% of students with special needs reported being bullied compared to 25% of their non-disabled peers. The unfortunate reality even faced with empirical and reliable subjective data from parents and other sources, many schools continue to deny that there is an issue with bullying especially towards students with special needs. If only denying a problem could make it true, but it cannot.
Children with special needs are not alone with higher rates of depression. Many experts believe that gifted students are also prone to depression. These are the students who tend to be perfectionists and who are overly harsh in their self-criticism. According to James Webb, the founder and co-director of Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted, a “B” on a report card can be shattering to a gifted student. Furthermore, Webb argues that these students can suffer from “existential depressions,” where they confront basic issues of existence, death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness—all issues that are difficult and painful for any 16- to 18-year-old to confront. The even larger problem here is that given the good and even exceptional grades that gifted students receive, schools refuse to even consider these students for a case study, even in the face of a clear and imminent risk to the student’s emotional well being in school.
Fortunately, organizations like the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), as well as the Coeur d’Alene School District, are attempting to be proactive in an effort to help depressed students and head off potential suicides. NASP, which states that suicides may be preventable, offers detailed information and suggestions on risk factors, warning signs, what to do, and the role of the school in suicide prevention. Many, many, many other groups are also recognizing this sobering issue and confronting it. Parents must be aware that our children are at risk for depression. We must not be afraid to seek help in the form of an IEP or out of school mental health services, when we suspect our children are in trouble emotionally, even when that student is getting average or above average grades.
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