That is an excellent link! I read the entire document and gleaned many specific ideas we had not yet thought of, heard, or discussed. Thank you for sharing it!
The book link (two posts above) ... . I borrowed it from the library and found it to be educational and yet too aggressive for our needs. Its tone and approach seemed rather adversarial to me and so far (other than counselor) our district has been very professional and cooperative. In fact I think an aggressive approach would have backfired and would have made it very hard to work with them. (applying the Golden Rule here)
Here is an update. We had our big meeting on Wed. to review the evaluation results. It was again educational and opened my eyes as to just how much her interactions with peers and teachers has deteriorated. For many years everything was directed to us her parents at home and of course we thought maybe it's just us. No longer the case as she is acting out significantly at school as well now. The results of the testing also triangulated well with other testing that was done in the hospital, strengthening validity.
The school psychologist did deem that she is eligible for special education services but surprisingly to me, not under the emotional disturbance category and that I think in my opinion is on a technicality. For EBD there must be consist behavior across three settings in the community, one of which is home and the other two of which can count as two different classroom settings at school. In those to classrooms, her behavior was not consistent. I would think this is rather BPD of her and will bring that up and ask how they differentiate.
In the meantime, she does qualify for special ed under OHD or Other Health Disabilities. Which if all else fail for your own kid, OHD or sometimes called OHI is a catch-all other category where they should easily fit.
In the meeting we discussed a number of options which I list next:
structured study skill class for kids with an IEP
shorter school day
attend school at different location operated by the school district for kids who would other wise drop out
attend at local private school at our expense ($400 per month), smaller class sizes, learn at your own pace kind of thing
eventually testing for GED
1-on-1 para
11th/12th grade at arts academy boarding school in metro area 3 hours away at our expense if they accept kids on IEP
split schedule, partly in the school for electives and partly on-line in school library or at home or at her dad's work place
behavior plan for teachers to follow
The school pushed us for a response as to if we want an IEP written up since the school year is ending. We just took one or two days to talk and think and research and then replied with a yes. I am now pasting in the letter we wrote and sent to them which next I need to write a follow-up documenting further suggestions from the pdf link I just accessed in the previous post. Their response to our message was well-received.
Hi All --
We would like the district to go ahead and prepare an IEP for our daughter. As her parents, we believe the following items would be appropriate to include for fall 2013 at school based upon our meeting discussion and the evaluation results we reviewed:
1. study skills class (for credit)
2. a para to assist her with transitioning from the bus transfer station, from class to class to maintain regular attendance; to assist with school work, maintain focus, record assignments, plan and organize materials, turn-in assignments, and transition her back to the bus. Also for safety purposes because she is prone to self-harm and we are not sure if she does that at school or not. (She says she knows several of the paras and she definitely has opinions about them, so it would probably help her buy-in if she had some input on who her para would be.)
3. The para should be experienced/trained/skilled in working with a student with the complex and hefty medical diagnoses that she has acquired.
4. The option of a "cool-down" room when she is having trouble controlling her emotional responses (attended by para or counselor or other appropriate staff). Her teachers should have the option of asking her to excuse herself (with para) when she becomes disruptive in the classroom.
5. A quiet place for study, test-taking, and work completion.
6. A behavior plan for her teachers -- the school psychologist described this very well but I didn't get further detail in my notes.
7. Flexibility in adjusting her requirements for graduation (is this the right verbiage?) We spoke of some examples of this in the meeting yesterday. As suggested, we also agree that loading her up with art/music classes would likely be motivating for her.
8. The para has possession of her iPod/phone during class times. Or some other solution to this distraction assuming she'd be willing to cooperate with it (leave it in office?)
What we would like to see as a result of the IEP is:
1. Increase in her attendance in class.
2. Decrease in class tardies.
3. Increase in her returning to class if she leaves/leaving on-time at the end of class.
4. Increase in her positive participation in class individually, peer-to-peer, and in group assignments, being on-task, and bringing materials needed to class.
5. Increase in completion of work.
6. Increased frequency in turning in work
7. Increased frequency in turning work in on-time.
8. Improved grades on her report card to at least passing in all of her classes, ideally even better (baby steps).
9. Increased motivation to learn, satisfaction with school, and acquisition of skills as demonstrated by increased proficiency in doing all of these things more and more independently.
10. Decrease in the number of times she is asked to leave the classroom by teachers and use cool-down room.
This evening, we reviewed with our daughter the different options developed in our meeting yesterday. Her
initial response was:
1. She could take or leave the study skills class.
2. She'd like a shorter school day.
3. She'd like to go to the alternative school in the district.
4. She does not want to attend private school or on-line school.
5. She would like a one-on-one para at school.
6. She does not want a split schedule.
7. Longer-term (11th grade), she would like to go to the arts school.
The longer she talked and thought about it, the further she narrowed her options. First down to just three: shorter day, alternative school, and para. Then ultimately just to one: alternative school. As you know, most or all of us do not believe that to be a viable option for her due to her demonstrated history of academic success prior to this semester and other concerns. So we as her parents took her middle of the road level options with the recommendations in the report and added some more detail to come up with the first list at the start of this message.
We see that list as a template for fall and that it would need to be subject to change depending upon how things go for her. Second semester might look very different for better or for worse.
I think this is all for now. We look forward to your response and are glad to discuss that message further and we truly appreciate all you are doing to try and help make her high school education as workable as possible.
Sincerely, Me and her Dad
Next, I am going to start a new thread with a separate question on using county case management. But I will be back on this thread to share the next email we send to our team including the added accommodations and questions that we now have after reading that pdf.
Thank You All for your Continued Interest and Support!
