Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Advice on trying to get IEP for dysgraphia?

I have found that IEPs are pretty much useless unless you have buy-in from the staff and teachers. They can pull a kid out and say they are doing things, but how much effort is really going in? How honest are they going to be when it comes to reporting progress? At the last school the sp.ed teacher very obviously did not want to work with DD. She thought it was crazy we were trying to get an IEP for a gifted student and had a caseload that was already too big. I still tried, though, knowing that we could take the IEP to another school, but ultimately the school proved so toxic that we took her out sooner rather than later. I pursued an independent educational evaluation (making the school that denied services pay for it), and then took that to a new school and they used it to write the IEP. There was no way the old school would have ever become enlightened and helpful. Once they dig a hole, it's unlikely it can be escaped.
If you think the school staff are uncooperative or just don't want to do it, I would suggest trying to get private therapy and coverage through your insurance (which you may be doing already, I don't remember from your post). Meanwhile try to get a 504 with the school. Schools don't seem to be quite as adversarial about 504's because most of it falls on the teacher. Once you have it, it will apply to the next teacher as well so you don't need to fight the same fight every year, or explain repeatedly what your concerns are to every teacher. 504's also require buy-in, but this time it's mostly from teachers rather than other support staff. We had teachers that signed the 504 and said they wanted to help, but then simply didn't follow it. It was like they didn't even read it or thought it was just a list of guidelines or suggestions. I think this was the result of extremely poor training of teachers/staff regarding special ed and probably very few students had 504's.

Thank you for the great input! It's so helpful to get insight from people who know what we're going through. And I had to laugh, because I've heard "He's not the best, but not the worst" too. Last time I was at the school, most of the 1st graders were pretty solid about capitalizing their names. My son can't remember this yet! After practicing and talking about it daily! He tries and he gets so upset when I point it out to him.

I requested an evaluation and something is scheduled for next week. The teacher wasn't sure exactly what is scheduled, so I'm waiting for clarification. I feel encouraged that the school is moving quickly.

I kept getting that line too..."there are other students that are doing worse..." Um, Ok, does that justify not evaluating a child? Maybe they should all be evaluated then?
I was told that DS's motor skills were "average" and there are other students who are worse. Then when I finally pushed the eval, DS was at something like the 2nd percentile. Last time I checked, that's not average.

I was just logging on to post a similar topic so I'm following. At our previous school I knew the OT would be a joke, and combined with other SLDs we just pulled out to homeschool. We are investigating a gifted full time public school near us and thinking about enrolling again with accommodations now that we've been remediating for a year and a half.

Things I think DS would have to have to be able to participate in a classroom: ipad with snap type app. It can take a picture of a worksheet and then you can type the answers on the picture. DS doesn't type fast but much faster than writing. It eliminates reversals of numbers and (most) letters.
Also an ipad can be used for dictation, spelling, anything. (spelling tests or lessons you would have to eliminate the autocorrect things).

There are also math apps that allow typing and doodling for working through problems.

We are still working on dictation with an ipad. And I think a lot of the classroom work would still need to be scribed for DS or made easy to answer (circle answers, etc). I will never assume the classroom would help with OT for dysgraphia unless it's a school for disabilities. Our last public school, for the kids who had significant physical and/or mental differences who needed a lot of intervention frequently had to wait months for OT services (to hire help per parents), and would get instruction for a limited time during the week. I plan on pushing insurance to cover what they can (they usually refuse), paying out of pocket for a lot, and doing what I can myself.

Update: I got a call from the school psychologist and I'm feeling optimistic. She agreed that his writing is a problem and it is affecting him academically. They are going to start RTI, which I believe they have to do as a first step. She said the interventions they will do during RTI are likely very similar to what would happen if he gets an IEP. So I'm happy with that, I don't care what they call it, I'm just so happy that they finally see what I'm talking about and they are going to do something. She said that she will do a visual motor test also during her assessment.

This is so much better than talking to the school RN that was my first contact. She just kept repeating "your son will never qualify for services."

Thank you to everyone for your support. Aeh, your reply was so helpful, I can't thank you enough. As a lay person, I didn't know what to ask for... what you suggested got the ball moving, which I had been unable to do by myself.

It sounds like they are pursuing both angles simultaneously, since the SP also referenced what she will do in her assessment. The RTI data feeds into the special ed assessment, and, when done right, can be extremely informative regarding appropriate accommodations and interventions. The special ed eligibility process will most likely take longer than a single round of data collection for RTI will, anyway.

After a few days of the interventions, one of my son's teachers said, "Obviously nothing we do in the classroom will help."

Yeah, unfortunately that is probably correct.