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

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.