I need some help.

My son is 14 and a freshman in high school. He has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder and autism spectrum disorder. He struggles with the mechanics of writing (spelling, punctuation, capitalization), penmanship, verbal, multi-step instructions, organization and anxiety. His math assessments have been off the chart. I don't even know where he lands as his recent ACT Explore Exam math result was 100% and his MAP results have been between 99% to 100% for years.

So... he entered high school with his algebra credit. He chose to double up and take geometry and algebra II concurrently. He has 112% (an A) in Algebra II and loves his Alg II teacher. He has a C in geometry. His geometry teacher is docking his homework and tests for spelling and hand writing on all of the proofs.

During conferences, I noted his 504 plan that gives him accommodation in these areas. His teacher told me, 'he does not give students a pass in any area. If they can't do all the work then they don't get the grade'. To get ammunition, I asked for copies of the tests. The teacher told me he would send them home with my son the next day. I never got them. I emailed to ask again. Here's the response, "I was expecting DS to ask for them again. I believe that students should learn to take care of themselves."

I'm livid. A kid with an anxiety disorder is not going to ask in front of other students. I need help with my response.

My email so far, "I did not realize that he needed to ask for them again as you told me you would give them to him. I've heard you tell me verbally two times that students should learn to take care of themselves and once now in writing. I feel I need to remind you that (my son) is on a Section 504 Accommodation Plan. <here is where I want to define a 504 plan but I want to emphasis that it is intended to accommodate a child to learn to their POTENTIAL and can't find verbiage>

I will also note DS's past assessment scores (or do you think that's overkill?). I struggle with fighting for my son and being the helicopter parent that ultimately hurts him.

Can someone with experience help me with this?

Hello - if I were you I would substitute DS (dear son) for all occurrences of your son's name. You wouldn't want this post to show up wth a Google search of his name. This would definitely increase his anxiety...

I thought I had. I missed one. Thank you!!!

Oh, yes, the "he should self-advocate" even when that is soooo hard for them. Bypass DS altogether, and ask the teacher to leave the tests in the school office for you to pick up.

This teacher has the wrong mindset and is likely not in compliance with the 504. You may need to have a meeting with the school to make sure that the 504 is followed. If you do so, make sure you have all of the evidence, e.g., emails, etc. that shows your DS's math scores, his disabilities, and this teacher's refused to accommodate for them.

As an intro, I have a ds in high school who is dysgraphic and struggles with expressive language (difficulty putting thoughts into words, hence difficulties talking to teachers). We've had a similar struggle with a particular teacher. My advice, at this point, is to talk to your school's 504 coordinator rather than pursuing this with the teacher at this point. You can start by emailing the 504 coordinator, briefly state what you think is happening that is a potential 504 violation, and then ask that they look into it. At my ds' school, this would generate a conversation between the 504 coordinator and the teacher. If this didn't resolve the issue, you can call a 504 team meeting, with the geometry teacher in attendance. It's possible you may need to request to add something to the 504 re communication if there's nothing in the 504 at this point that accommodates for a situation like this where your ds needs to communicate with a teacher but his ability to communicate is limited due to his disability (anxiety and/or other).


I think many of us who are parenting children with disabilities (and even nt kids) feel this way at times. For me, it helps to reframe how you look at and approach what you are doing for your ds. When you advocate, you are teaching him how to stand up and advocate for himself, which he will need to do someday, when he's ready, and when he's prepared. There are things that the school can do for our kids, accommodations and remediation, but there is nothing more powerful in a child's life than the lesson they learn when they see their parent stand up and advocate for them. When you speak up for your ds, you are showing him how to speak up for himself, and, added bonus, you are showing him that you believe in him and that he's worth standing up for. So throw away the worries about helicoptering - that's not what you are doing here.

A few other thoughts - fwiw. This teacher has a mindset that he isn't going to bend for your ds. He may very well treat other students this way too. Have you heard anything about him from other parents? Not that that will help with the issue for your ds, but it may give some perspective on his personality. Another thing - quite a few of my ds' high school teachers do *not* send graded homework and tests home - ever. The reason? They reuse the same tests/assignments year after year. This caused an issue for our ds in a few of his classes the first year both due to him not being able to review what was marked off on writing assignments in a way that allowed him to try to improve his work the next assignment, and also it made it impossible for me to ever have a clue if his 504 was being followed re spelling/etc accommodations. We were advised to ask for an accommodation that specifies all graded classwork will come home for one night, and then be returned to class, to be sure that parents saw it and that our ds has a chance to review the graded work.

Best wishes,

polarbear

sooooo this apparently is a penmanship and spelling class and not a math class.

So sorry you and your DS has to deal with this teacher. Just reading your post makes me angry. This is exactly the kind of BS (grading on things other than the actual material) that made me disengage in HS.

Making things worse, the teacher seems to think the 504 doesn't apply to him. Review the language of the 504. If necessary, can you have it changed to make the accommodations more specific, i.e.. "points will not be taken off for spelling or penmanship"?

Another thought, since this seems like an uphill battle with this particular teacher, if you pulled DS from the class could he take it next year with another teacher?

Wish I could be more help.

It would devastate DS to drop and have to retake. He has his math all mapped out. He's 2 years ahead and can begin college math his senior year of h.s.

I re-wrote my email and said, "It is important to know and distinguish whether DS understands the geometry concepts or if his disability is preventing him from expressing his understanding of concepts to your satisfaction." I also copied the 504 coordinator on my email.

From what DS tells me, he can do the regular problems fine but writing out the proofs is killing him.

Additional thought - would it help him to take the hand-writing out of the proofs? There are a variety of apps to support keyboarded math.

I had the same thought as Platypus. I'm trying to convince my ds to try writing proofs with his Surface 3 using OneNote. The pen can be used to draw though I haven't checked yet to see if OneNote can support drawing tools; I really like that you can click anywhere and type.

I'll second the suggestion to type the proofs.. or any math homework he wants/needs to. Also second spaghetti's suggestion to be sure he understands how to do the proofs.

It's tough knowing what's up when you can't see the graded work, but you could have your ds show you an example of what he's doing on his homework to check understanding.

Best wishes,

polarbear

This infuriates me. Your son has a disability with a legal document protecting him from discrimination, and allowing him to access his education. If the class was required to copy problems from the board, would the teacher refuse to accommodate a blind student? If a student was hard of hearing, would he refuse to let that child sit near the front of the class? What if a kid broke his arm? Would the student get marked down for poor handwriting until his arm was out of a cast?!!

If it were me, I'd be on the phone with the 504 coordinator today, demanding that the teacher get schooled in how to properly follow the 504. I would also want to see the tests to see how many tests and papers were effected by the teacher's refusal to follow the 504. Especially since your son is in 9th grade, and this grade will be in his high school transcript, I would want the grades changed to reflect how your student is performing in class, rather than reflecting the teacher's prejudice against a student with a documented disability.

Just me, but I wouldn't tread lightly. The teacher sounds like a jerk and you need to meet his bully-bombast with equal conviction.

Wait... so it's your DS's responsibility to ask the teacher for the papers that the teacher already agreed to send home to you? Which is the responsible adult: your DS, or the teacher??

I don't think you need to waste time defining a 504. He should know. If he doesn't, he'll find out soon enough. I second the recommendation that it's time to write to the 504 coordinator instead, with the following points:

- DS is currently earning a C in Geometry
- DS's teacher has stated directly to you that the reason is because DS's scores are degraded for handwriting and punctuation
- This is in direct violation of the 504.
- You have asked for test copies to validate, the teacher has failed to provide them, and when asked about it, transferred blame to DS.

And ask for immediate intervention to resolve the issue.

Dude: precisely so.