Frustrated with School District

Soapstone

My daughter will be three next month and is set to transition out of EI. Our state has mandated pre-k for all four year olds so instead of having a special needs preschool, kids are mainstreamed at three in the pre-k classrooms. We had our eligibility meeting yesterday and I am so frustrated. Our home school (one of the best in the state, literally half a mile from our house) was deemed inappropriate after an acoustic evaluation. They want me to drive her to another school that is one of the worst ranked in the state (371st out of 399 elementary schools) and 20-30 minutes from our house. They have not performed an acoustic evaluation on this school but it is identical in layout/materials to another school which was tested. We have requested an evaluation of this school but I really do not want to send her there. I don't think it's fair that she has to attend one of the worst schools, outside of our zoning area no less,  just because she is disabled. Furthermore, because she has done well on the testing she does not qualify for speech therapy services. My DEAF kid does not qualify for speech. This just blows my mind. So because we have worked hard getting her the therapies she needs we now have to wait for her to fall behind before she gets any help from the school.

Has anyone successfully had their child's placement changed? We have our IEP meeting coming up and that will be my last chance to argue against this placement. They sprung it on us at the eligibility meeting and the people that make the placement decisions weren't even there. We haven't even met them and I have no idea if they will be at the IEP meeting.

JoJoGee

I'm ignorant when it comes to having a child who is deaf, or acoustic evaluations... But, if you think the local school is truly the best placement for her, I don't understand why you can't just say "I considered your proposal to send DD to the other school, but I feel she would be better served at her local school." She is your child after all. You should have final say as to her placement.

As for the school ranking... I wonder what that information is based on. In my state, schools are ranked based on their standardized test scores - not really the best yard stick when evaluating a schools effectiveness.

Soapstone

-auntie- said:

I'm sorry this is upsetting you. Transition to the school district is hard even when they're giving you exactly what you anticipated.

Soapstone said:

My daughter will be three next month and is set to transition out of EI. Our state has mandated pre-k for all four year olds so instead of having a special needs preschool, kids are mainstreamed at three in the pre-k classrooms.

So, are they placing threes with IEPs into classrooms with fours?
Yes, threes with IEPs are put in classrooms with four and five year olds.

We had our eligibility meeting yesterday and I am so frustrated. Our home school (one of the best in the state, literally half a mile from our house) was deemed inappropriate after an acoustic evaluation. They want me to drive her to another school that is one of the worst ranked in the state (371st out of 399 elementary schools) and 20-30 minutes from our house.

Might be a good idea to look at the language contained in IDEA. Be very, very careful how you express yourself vis a vis school placement. Your DD isn't entitled to what you think is "best"- she is entitled to what the IEP/CST deems is appropriate. The language IDEA uses is "free and appropriate" not best available. 

The tone of your rant comes off a bit condescending, as if you are looking to avoid "those" people who populate a poorly performing school. This will not reflect well on you, so you'll need to base your appeal as a full member of the IEP team another way.
I know that this argument won't fly, but I don't know what will. For comparison, across standardized testing 70%+ of the students score proficient or above. At the proposed school, only approximately 30% of students score proficient or above. We moved to this area so our children could attend one of the better performing schools.
What about the school that is the acoustical "twin"? Is that a possibility that would be easier for you to consider?  Transportation can be written into an IEP if driving her is a hardship for you.
They have not offered us a choice of schools, so I don't know if that's an option. Because pre-k is now mandated, there is not enough room in the schools for all of the students. This has all happened in the last two years. Many students end up at collaborative schools (daycares) because there simply isn't enough space for everyone. I feel like they are putting her in this school just because they have an opening. We were told at our transition meeting in July that she would go to our home school. The classroom teacher was at that meeting. We had no idea that they had changed schools until we showed up at the meeting yesterday.

I get that you are disappointed that she won't be at the neighborhood school; I would be too. But the thing is, while you are the expert in your LO, they have educated and serviced a range of students and have determined the building's acoustics are not conducive to learning for those who are deaf/HOH. If they have historically transferred kids who are deaf/HOH to this building, the team there is probably quite experienced in teaching kids with this difference.
Neither of these schools has ever had a Deaf/HOH student. There are three Deaf/HOH students currently in our district. Two attend schools that are significantly further away. The third attends a school that is actually closer than the proposed school but for some reason they are not considering it for her placement. It's difficult because the people who actually make these decisions do not attend any of the meetings so I have no idea what they are basing this decision on.

If the two schools are twins, one would assume the acoustics to be essentially the same. Our district did the same thing when designing two of their newer 100% ADA compliant schools.
I would assume they are very similar, however they could not provide us with the acoustic evaluation of the twin school. They only gave us the report for our home school which was deemed inappropriate. Therefore we have requested one. I would like to know what makes this school a better placement than our home school.

 They have not performed an acoustic evaluation on this school but it is identical in layout/materials to another school which was tested. We have requested an evaluation of this school but I really do not want to send her there. I don't think it's fair that she has to attend one of the worst schools, outside of our zoning area no less,  just because she is disabled. 

It's not fair. Things never are.

Furthermore, because she has done well on the testing she does not qualify for speech therapy services. My DEAF kid does not qualify for speech. This just blows my mind. So because we have worked hard getting her the therapies she needs we now have to wait for her to fall behind before she gets any help from the school.

Educational need drives services. Sometimes kids who respond well to EI transition to preschool sans services- in fact that is a model of EI success. It seems counter intuitive that she wouldn't need speech, but the bar for skills is so low at three I can see how this happens. I have 2 deaf cousins who didn't get services and I know a lot of bright kids with autism who don't have-or really need-IEPs.
I think she is doing well because on top of EI services, she also goes to a specialized school for children with hearing loss nine hours a week. It is out of state and therefore not an option for us once she turns three. I hate that they are just waiting for her to fail before they try to help. At her transition meeting the speech therapist assured us that she would qualify for and receive speech therapy. So I feel like this was also sprung on us yesterday.

Has anyone successfully had their child's placement changed? We have our IEP meeting coming up and that will be my last chance to argue against this placement. They sprung it on us at the eligibility meeting and the people that make the placement decisions weren't even there. We haven't even met them and I have no idea if they will be at the IEP meeting.

It can be done a number of ways. But denigrating the other school is not going to make it happen. I know a few people who were able to present the home school as a preferred setting for enhancing social success by keeping the student in the same community in which she lives and has activities. This might be a harder sell with a three than with an older student.

I think what bothers me the most is that there are several elementary schools that are closer to us than this school. One of these schools even has a HOH student, so it is acoustically appropriate and has teachers experienced with deafness. This would be our preferred school if she cannot attend our home school since our home school (only pre-k to 3rd grade) feeds into this school starting with fourth grade (this school goes from pre-k to 5th grade). I don't understand why this schools is out of consideration, unless it's simply a space/budget issue.

If you don't like the placement and won't be getting services anyway, you can opt out for a year and do a private program with OOP speech. I would avoid asking for an acoustical study if you know in your heart that you won't send her to that school. It's a waste of time and money that will reflect badly should you find yourself at the IEP table in the future.

I would be fine foregoing the acoustic eval if they were able to provide us with one from the twin school. If there is not much difference between the schools then I think we could argue for keeping her in our home school. But they have only given us the eval from the school deemed inappropriate so we have no means of comparison right now.

Good luck.
Thanks. We are considering going private for this year and requesting our preferred school (the one with the HOH student) for next year. I think a big issue is her Fall birthday. The schools have already been filled by the time the district makes her placement.

Assembly_Reqd

Find your state's Hands and Voices chapter. They may have some language and documents that can help you out. 

You could also look at the county's bussing guidelines for how long a child 'should' be on the bus per day since the school is a ways from your area. How are they transporting her? Would she be the first on and the last dropped off because of where they are drawing their other students from? This information is important if you are weighing your options for a private placement instead.

This does suck, but keep in mind that if she is placed at a low performing school it will not mean that she will be a low performing student. Nor does it mean that the teachers are sub-par. There are many challenges that children from lower performing schools face that I am sure your daughter doesn't. Your child has an IEP...an 'Informed Educated Parent'. I am hoping that everything will be O.K...

Now, the ST issue on the other hand....grrrrrr....Again, check with the Hands and Voices website to see if there are any chapters in your state or info on the website for getting ST.