Disappointing IEP meeting

Rink08 · February 2013

We had our first IEP meeting with DS1's school. In the beginning of the year, they had suggested speech for about 30 minutes a week which we had declined because he is only there for 2.5 hours and we were able to get him into a therapy school which currently gives him 7 hrs a week of speech and OT combined and he also qualifies for the therapy school's summer program. Now, we were given a CAPD dx, with significant finding, with possible ADHD and were given recommendations by our audiologist and ped for him to have a fm system at school. So, we initiated this IEP and brought our testing results and one of his therapists to the meeting.

It was flat out rejected based soley on his age. They will not acknowledge any CAPD testing until age 7, DS1 is 6. We were also told that any of the classroom accommodations that we had discussed would be up to the discretion of his current teacher, who is great, and next year's teacher since he will not turn 7 until during next school year.

ETA: Also, they claimed that he is not having issues in class however he qualified for and is participating in the Title 1 program there and also had multiple "below proficient" and "not yet" marks on his progress report as well as being below the benchmark reading level for his grade since he does not hear the difference between similar sounds.

mommyof4boys · February 2013

While legally a district only has to consider outside evaluations, they can't disagree with a diagnosis. I would request an independent evaluation at the district's expense. In addition, accommodations are up the the IEP team NOT the teacher.

Rink08 · February 2013

mommyof4boys:
While legally a district only has to consider outside evaluations, they can't disagree with a diagnosis. nbsp;I would request an independent evaluation at the district's expense. nbsp;In addition, accommodations are up the the IEP team NOT the teacher. nbsp;

Ok. According to them, they won't recognize a CAPD diagnosis until age 7. We have already been in contact with a lawyer who specializes in special education, IEPs, and 504 plans. Although, we are going to try to get this solved without taking legal action.

Rink08 · February 2013

At this point, the CAPD diagnosis is printed on the report from the audiologist which recommends an assistive listening device. His pediatrician also gave us his written recommendation for an fm system with the reason being CAPD. We specifically asked if it was just because it was an audiologist report and how we could get the needed report and the principal stated again that they do not acknowledge CAPD at this age.

While reading is a concern, our larger concern right now is comprehension. He can not follow long directions, differentiate between similar sounds, cannot focus when there is background noise such as the heater or kids tapping, he needs things repeated multiple times, forgets his homework multiple times in a month after being told in a list of things to get it from his mailbox, and many other things. He cries while doing word problems that are sent home and even having them simplified is difficult for him to understand. We started listening to audiobooks of his favorite series and asking questions after a chapter or two and most times he cannot remember anything other than the end of what we had just listened to.

Title 1 was only offered to him for math although he has the speech issue and is below benchmark for their reading standards.

Rink08 · February 2013

The possible ADHD is only on the report from the audiologist which they were disregarding. However, I just spoke with DS1's ped who stated that "This is unacceptable." and has scheduled him with a ped. behavioral development person and a language pathologist so that we "will have reports and documentation from all angles".

Rink08 · February 2013

We are absolutely in the second situation described. Wealthy school district where athletics are highly regarded.

We will not be doing anything with the lawyer in the near future and hopefully not ever. Kindergarten is not a time that we want to cause an issue in the school that we will not only have DS1 in for many years but also our other children and not a situation that we want at all. We also do not plan on mentioning it to anyone involved with our situation.

I'll respond to the rest when I get to a computer. I'm currently on my phone.

Rink08 · February 2013

-auntie-:
It's wise to follow through with a developmental/behavioral pediatrician, the audiologist was way out of her area of expertise to weigh in on ADHD. Even if the dev pedi does dx ADHD and CAPD, your district may be able to successful argue that it has no educational impact at this grade level or that the traditional kindie class has the accommodations he needs.

Auntie, Thank you.

The "possible ADHD" from the audiologist was based on a certain part of the APD testing that was done and was not something that would determine if he did, in fact, have ADHD only to point to whether it may be present. So, we need to have a better evaluation for that.

-auntie-:
The district is not bound by their gold standard recommendations for services and support; you pedi's suggested accommodations are not like a prescription they have to fill. Your son is entitled to FAPE- and sometimes FAPE is a used Buick and not the shiny new BMW you'd like him to have.

This is something that DH and I both absolutely agree with and were prepared for. While we did not expect to have the recommendations or our/dr.'s/therapists suggestions matched, we were not expecting for them to completely disregard them. We'll gladly take a beaten down Geo Metro if it gets him where he needs to be Smile Since the school does not currently have the fm system in the classrooms, we were hoping that they would allow for him to do a trial period even if it was something that we had to provide.

-auntie-:
Has he had an MFE that included a basic IQ test or an eval for ADHD at school?

I do not believe that he did have an evaluation for ADHD through school or for his IQ. The only one that we have been told of so far was the original speech eval. Although I honestly do not know what MFE stands for...

-auntie-:
He could have global or auditory memory issues- these can be hard to sort out at this age? Does he otherwise have a good memory? Like DS could only handle a 3 step verbal prompt, but he could tell you the license plate numbers on our cars and those belonging to our neighbor. Or he could recall a trip we made to see the trains in Lancaster and which trains we saw weeks later. (Today he could tell you the road numbers and locations of every working steam engine in North America) But the verbal list of 5 unrelated things to do? Probably not.

He has a very good visual memory and can tells you almost every item that we bought at the store a week ago or describe every tie that he owns (more than most grown men).

He frequently misunderstands things that are said to him such as:

"293", he often will repeat to you "253" or "2Ninety" whether it was right after you said it or a little while later. -Memorizing our phone number was incredibly difficult for him and he would argue that we "changed the numbers" even though he was able to see the number written down and say "Oh, that's Mommy's phone".

I recently told DH, "oh that was close." and DS1 said "Why was that gross?"

When I pick him up from school, I'll ask him "What did you do at school?" and he'll reply "Good."

"Get your hat." puzzled face, "It's not hot."

His homework last night that had him crying was a few short sentences about it being Friday night with that phrase repeated multiple times. The answer to the question that he need to answer should be It's Friday night. He answered: I don't know, we read it a few more times while he started to get upset and broke it into the smaller sentences while having him think about the question. His final answer was that it was Family night. According to his teacher, these shouldn't be difficult, yet they are still stating that this is not a problem.

He is VERY obsessed with police. By obsessed, I mean that he incorporates it into his daily life as much as possible and changes things to incorporate it. It has been a slight concern (that has since grown) since he was 3 and was pointed out by his then preschool teacher and something that continued to grow into more of an issue. When we mentioned this during the discussion, we were told that yes, they know how often he does it and that it is adorable. They do not want to discourage it because they can use it as a motivator for him.

-auntie-:
The word problem thing is interesting. Does he typically do OK with math facts or is that a glitch as well?

He currently skips number 15 when counting unless he says it as five-teen. If you say to him 14,15,16 without a visual prompt, he will either ignore 15 completely(14,16) or repeat 16 (14,16,16). If you show him a page with numbers 15 and 16, he will say 15 (fiveteen) and 16. If you show him 16 circles and have him count them, he will count them as 14,16,17. Which means every single math problem requiring him to count in his head past 15 is off by one number at this point.

According to his doctor, my parents (pediatric therapists), and his speech therapist, he most likely does this because he hears them the same and his brain either disregards it as a stutter or he blends them together. According to the school therapist, it's normal. Although that is one of the reasons that they placed him into the Title 1 program.

Other than that, he can add or subtract up to 15.

BunnyCookie · February 2013

i don't really have advice, just want to say i'm sorry the meeting was disappointing and i hope it all works out.

Disappointing IEP meeting

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