I'm trying really, really hard not to write a novel in response here. Please bare with me...
Throughout all the trials and tribulations with our district we have been paying our consultant to work on smoothing the waters and working out solutions when district personnel have created problems. Really, really big problems. Our consultant takes a conciliatory approach and does not take or remain involved in cases that become too contentious. He feels that the only way to remain effective for all his clients is to maintain a good relationship with the district. If we go to due process or file a Dept of Ed complaint we will have to do so solo or hire an attorney. He will remain our consultant moving forward but won't be involved in the complaint process in any way. This is why I need input here.
Before the former Director of Special Services left the district he had worked closely with our consultant and the 2 of them are the major reason DD has so many services in place now. Before he left, and before the explosive IEP meeting in June, we met with him to iron out a plan for this year. The IEP meeting was really supposed to be mostly a formality and there was still the issue of classroom placement. It was the one area that he could not control - it was a unilateral decision to be made by the principal, "principal prerogative" according to the district. After our meeting and before the IEP meeting consultant and DSS discussed that they would reach a mutually agreeable solution to reimbursing us for the excess costs we were facing as a result of bad behavior on the part of the district. With the explosion of the June IEP meeting that discussion never occurred. Instead we faced even more expenses that should not have been necessary if district personnel behaved appropriately. i.e. The new DSS contacted our consultant and requested a meeting so we could bring her up to speed since former DSS left right after everything fell apart and no one else in the district had any idea what was happening. We then had to reconvene another IEP meeting to complete what was not done in June. In other words - twice the meeting time, twice the expenses for our consultant.
As the school year has gone on we have had some pretty significant issues with the classroom teacher failing to accommodate, modify or differentiate appropriately. I have communicated our concerns to the new SW (who is the case manager), the spec ed teacher and the new DSS. The SW and Spec Ed teacher have tried to work with her on doing more of these things but she just doesn't get it. DD is now back in a migraine cycle and her school anxiety has resurfaced. We believe that the principal selected this teacher - going so far as to move her from 6th grade down to 2nd - specifically because she would be a "chip off the ol' block" and do things the principal's way. She will not change anything in her classroom unless specifically directed to do so, and of course the principal is not doing any such directing.
While dealing with all this the new Director of Pupil Personnel Services has refused to reimburse us for the extra expenses that we have faced. Her reason - we didn't get prior authorization from the district for the expenses. The fact that their personnel contacted our consultant for meetings and caused a duplication of services to be required doesn't seem to matter. I have told the district that because of this short sighted position we are no longer willing to take on the financial responsibility of having our consultant try to work on reaching solutions when their personnel create problems. They can do it right. They can correct the problems when we point them out. If they choose not to do this they cannot expect us to write unlimited checks to fix the problems. Instead we will prevail upon the existing - and no cost - formal option of having the Department of Education intervene and get them to correct the problems.
While it is the current issues with the teacher that will open the door to the complaint I plan to bring the whole situation to their attention. If someone is going to try to address what is going on in this district they need to know the whole story. That means my complain as drafted in 24 pages long and outlines 14 different issues.
I read somewhere that Dept of Ed complaints never help because it just gives the district a road map of what to avoid to win at Due Process. Has anyone heard this? If we want to try to stay in the district I think the Dept of Ed may be the way to go. If we are ready to cut loose and go for OOD then probably going straight to due process would be better. I just can't help but feel like if the principal was removed and we had an appropriately supportive teacher the local district could work. I just don't know how likely that is so I am not sure which route to take.
Any and all input and advice is welcome.
