Comments from the NEUROLOGIST,
A 12-year-old patient with add came to my office for a review of his meds. During the course of his visit his mom mentioned that her son was doing very well both with his medication and because he had a checklist that he was using to get his work done in school. Her son’s teacher told her that they wanted to do away with this support so that he could attain a greater level of independence. The mom told me that she was fearful this might be “pulling out the rug from underneath him.” I asked the attorney.
Comments from the ATTORNEY,
A child, especially one with ADD/ADHD, may rely heavily on organizational supports. It is quite likely that organizational problems will re-appear if supports are “faded out.” There will appear to be a relapse. The need for organizational supports reflects executive function problems, not a problem with maturity where “gaining more independence” could be an issue. Certain types of organizational supports (such as checklists) are often necessary in order for the student to be successful. The school can’t pull away supports that may be necessary for successful performance. Rather your child should be taught to independently use these supports that are necessary for his or her successful performance in order to have a life-long tool to help deal with weakness in executive skills.
Fortunately this “fading out” of supports, supports which are provided for in the IEP cannot be done unilaterally by the school. The IEP must be modified. The CSE has to bring the IEP team together to do this. At this meeting these issues can be raised.
As always, do your homework in preparing for this meeting!
You could send the letter suggested by "S" but it seems to me very likely that the CSE will simply reiterate its refusal to give your child an IEP. Such a letter cannot hurt. Set out the reasons your child would benefit from special ed. and the ways in which his or her disability is getting in the way of his receiving an “appropriate” education. Possibly the district would reconsider. Much depends on the way you are able to present the data contained in both the schools evaluation and your own independent evaluation. You are trying to convince them that your child has unique needs. When the CSE refused to give your child an IEP the denial should have been accompanied by a written notice setting out your rights including that of requesting a hearing to appeal this denial. At this point you should probably request such a hearing before an impartial hearing officer. An excellent resource for all special education/IEP questions is www.wrightslaw.com.
There may be some, but none that I have seen, non-disabled children receiving special ed benefits that they may not need. A child goes through an entire evaluation before receiving an IEP. It is not simply the declaration of a parent that "my child is disabled". More often it is a child NOT receiving special ed benefits that he or she should be receiving, or ones that are not sufficient for his or her unique needs. A big part of the problem is the financial straits that school districts, like the rest of us, find themselves in. Hopefully some day in the near future this will straighten out so that education and special education can receive the priority they deserve.