Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional School doesn't know how to write a 504

So, DD has ADHD/processing speed issues. Last year I tried talking to the school psych a couple times about a 504 and was always blown off saying "she's doing fine" and only kids who have their learning severely impacted would qualify for a 504. Since DD is a high achiever, her learning was not severely impacted (so the reasoning went). I tried to educate the school psych but ultimately just dropped the issue.
Fast forward to this year I actually have a teacher who admits she is "slow" and that she is impaired when she is not medicated. I have an outside report in my hands, an educational assessment done by a private psych, stating that she is 2e and would benefit from a 504. I found out who the 504 coordinator for the building is (not the school psych). I gave him the report and he read it and said it was very helpful. The 504 coordinator has been there since DD started K 2.5 years ago. He told me this role was thrust upon him when he started there, and he has never written a 504 but he is willing to learn. NICE guy and so much better than the other school personnel we have been dealing with in terms of DS and his IEP--people who, if they don't understand something, just dismiss it.
But I'm wondering, how is it that in 2.5 years, no child in this school has apparently had a 504 written? What does that say about the school? It is a large school with hundreds of children. It blows my mind away that apparently no one has a 504. DD's teacher, who has been there for years, didn't even know who the 504 coordinator for the building is.
Also, should I call the special ed director for the district and ask him for help, like I did with DS and his IEP or just wait and see if the school's 504 guy can figure it out? Does anyone know of a resource I can use to make sure the 504 is written the right way with appropriate accommodations?

I would. You probably have to make a request in writing-- you can find out from that person what the procedure is.


Wrightslaw.com. See how it goes, though-- you may want to consider hiring an advocate if you are stalled indefinitely.

In our state/district the 504 people and the IEP people are different...although the school psychologists are in both groups and the guidance dept play a role in both things.

Here, 504 is under guidance and the psychology department and IEP under ESE department. If someone has an IEP then whatever needs to go on a 504 can be combined on it....for example...if they have a learning disability and some sort of medical condition like cystic fibrosis that needs accommodations then you don't do both you just include those in the IEP even though the main focus is the learning disabilities.

Someone can have a disability and need a 504 but not need special education programming (IEP). Some can need both but you just combine it all onto IEP. Some start with 504 and the move on to needing IEP.

Yes, this would be the guidance counselor who writes the 504, and he was completely uninvolved with DS's IEP. I am hoping he doesn't know anything about that fiasco (although I'm sure word gets around). I'm worried he is going to start bringing in incompetent people (like the principal or psychologist) to "help".

Ditto to everything DeeDee and Sweetie wrote. You might be able to find out what your school district policy and procedures re 504 plans are online at your school district website.

Re pulling in other people, the principal and school psych might be a part of the process - there is an initial meeting in our district with many of the same tam members who would be pulled in for an IEP eligibility meeting - school psych, teachers, school 504 coordinator and in some cases principal.

Do you have parent advocates in your area? Not paid advocates, but one of the groups that is funded by Federal $? Our local group was able to provide us it's very quick over-the-phone (at no charge) when we were seeking a 504 for our dd. we found the group on the wrightslaw yellow pages.

Good luck!

polarbear

Well, I can tell you what that tells ME, if it's even true to start with--


EPIC failure of child-find obligation, that's what it says.

Because it seriously beggars belief that there is not a single child in that building that is eligible for protections under Section 504. If they haven't "found" some kids eligible, it's because they aren't evaluating them.

Shame, shame, shame. I suspect OCR would be interested, fwiw.

Agree. Our state has a free legal advocacy service for people with disabilities-- that would be another angle to try if you don't want to pay an advocate.

DeeDee

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/AccommodationsManual.pdf
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20071226.html (acceleration)
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq5269.html (hidden disabilities)

The first one is the manual for accommodations and should give you a good idea of how to write the 504.

The second one is about acceleration (in case they tell you that your child can't have acceleration and a 504)

And the third is about disabilities (in case they push for the disabilities not having an obvious impact)

We wrote our 504, but if you have an IEP, I believe you can just add the nondiscrimination 504 accommodations to it. I don't think in general there is a separate document.

Thanks everyone. One of the top people in the district (one person below the superintendent) emailed me and said she is going to call me tomorrow about DS. If I have the opportunity, I will ask about this situation with DD as well. I will also point out how odd it is that the school has no idea how to write a 504. Luckily the outside psych who wrote the report laid out a lot of examples of accommodations that should be made, so as long as the 504 guy can figure out the basic format it shouldn't bee too difficult. What is awkward is putting certain accommodations in there to avoid scenarios of things the teacher is currently doing wrong, like keeping her in from recess basically every day to finish work, not letting her finish spelling tests because she can't write the words fast enough, etc. I don't want to sit in a meeting with the teacher and a bunch of other people there, and complain about the teacher. On the last spelling test, literally half of it was marked wrong, not because she spelled words wrong but because she didn't write anything at all for those words.

He said he can attach the psych report with the IQ testing and recommendations to the 504 so anyone/everyone can see it (teachers). I wonder if that's a good idea or if it should be summarized.

DS has an IEP and the accommodations are summarized right in the IEP(not that he really has accommodations). But with DD we just need a 504.

Thanks MON. This is off-topic but I emailed DS's teacher last week and told her that DS told me that he hardly ever uses his slant board in class, he hardly ever gets reminders, and can't remember to use it himself. I have asked about this to the school OT and teacher about 3 times already, and always get back "It is available for him to use and right next to him." I am getting angry. It's like telling a 6 year old that he has a behavior chart available to use and he is free to put smiley's on it when he catches himself doing something good. What good is the modification/accommodation section of the IEP if he is expected to do everything on his own. He is 6 with executive functioning issues, and they know that since they tested him themselves.

I can see that any accommodations will have to be extremely specific or teachers will simply not follow them. For the spelling tests we will have to say "DD will not leave words blank on spelling tests. Teacher will look at spelling test when she is finished, and repeat words that are unfinished or left blank."
Her teacher read the psych report already herself and the psych specifically mentioned the spelling test issue and what should be done about it. The teacher has just chosen to ignore it.

In terms of talking about the 504 and how odd it is the school can't figure this out, I meant when the top level admin lady for the district calls me. She needs to know the school is not giving kids 504s, doing evals, etc.

I agree-- someone needs to know that the school is failing in its child-find obligations. Any school official that will tell a parent "we don't DO 504 plans here" is potentially a major liability if, say.... some other parent... (like, I'm not that kind of person... I'm a reasonably person, but WOW, not everyone is... )

wanted to cause problems. This is a gaping area of noncompliance.


Also agree about keeping the focus on what SHOULD be in that document... and not on what hasn't been working in the classroom. If you keep accommodations positive "Child will be encouraged to advocate for her needs as follows:" then that opens up the door to put specifics in there like having the teacher actually COACH asking when the student needs an accommodation which is on an "as needed" basis.

In my research into 504s and interactions with our school I found it clear that if we did push for a 504 it would have to be extremely specific. Our teacher and school were very difficult to even speak with about accommodations and in the end we took advantage of the option in our district of partial homeschooling, so that our DS ends up spending very little time with the teacher that was the largest problem. If we'd pushed for a 504 the way we would have gotten things through would have been I believe to have an outside OT look at a detailed copy of his schedule and co-write some specific accommodations that we then showed to the school as a professional's recommendations.

Wording such as, "child will have a reduced writing expectation" is quite vague and in our case would have left far too much thought up to the teacher. A more specific accommodation would be "For journal time, the child will not be required to write more than 10 words".

Even something that sounds clear, such as, "Child will be allowed to use large ruled paper" might be made even more specific by saying, "For spelling tests the teacher will provide the child with 1/2 inch ruled paper at the start of the test".

To make the accommodations so specific and so clear that they can not be misunderstood or changed easily by the teacher, a detailed understanding of the daily schedule and requirements is needed.

I think one can do it gracefully though, emphasizing just wanting to make sure everyone has a chance to have input and feel comfortable with the specifics ahead of time, so that it goes smoothly and so the teacher is not inconvenienced by more meetings.

I know and it makes me wonder if she is doing anything at all for DS, either in terms of the IEP/special needs or the giftedness.
He also is not being pulled out for service minutes for his IEP, other than possibly being pulled out by the occupational therapist once since we signed the IEP a month ago. The rest of them aren't doing anything, as far as I can tell. I wrote an email saying that DS claims that he is not being pulled for services. I asked what exactly is going on, and stated "I hope I don't need to call the State and/or the special ed director again."
No response, other than from the OT (who I didn't email, so obviously my emails are being forwarded all around again). I'm tired of playing nicey-nice with everyone and I'm done. If the teacher does not give me an acceptable response, I'm calling the special ed director, and if that doesn't help, I'm going to have to file a formal complaint with the State. The whole situation with that school is crazy and bizarre. I first talked with them last spring after he had a TBI about needing his services/IEP updated and now here we are about 9 months later and STILL nothing is happening. So it makes me wonder why i'm even bothering about DD and a 504. He figured out that I need to sign a form and he sent it to me, but I'm not going to sign it til I know if I'm going to pull the kids out this year. I think I may have to at least pull DS.

Blackcat, we had a similar situation with our ds and received some excellent advice from our local pro-bono law group which provides services at no charge for people with disabilities. The agency was able to suggest very specific language to use in the IEP re documenting and reporting. I am not sure if you have an agency that does this type of work in your area, but if you can find one I suspect they would be willing to help out here -

Best wishes,

polarbear

The admin lady that I talked to a while ago said that she is going to call the Principal and look into this (the situation with him not getting IEP minutues). That might be successful in "forcing" the school to get their act together, but is it really going to help DS if we're dealing with a bunch of apathetic people who are trying to do the bare minimum that is required of them.

MON--I just sent you a message.