Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Would you play the "disability" card on this?

So my kid with dysgraphia is just a wee bit forgetful, spacey, disorganized ... ok. He's a LOT spacey and disorganized. He transitioned out of all of his special ed pullouts for OT, reading and spelling and spends 100% of the day in regular ed for the first time since 1st grade. And he's doing great - got his first report card with all "meets standards" for the first time as well.

Except for science. His 5th grade class switches to another teacher for science, and this teacher does not like my son - and it's quite mutual. She yells a lot, is punitive, and should have retired ten years ago. She assigned a powerpoint project which half the class did not do correctly, and so she failed that half for the entire 9 weeks. My opinion is that when half the class fails it is an indication of a failure to teach on the part of the educator, not the class. My kid, in particular, was singled out for failing to bring note cards for the presentation and leaving out one part of the presentation. I let him do it independently, because I think it is more important for him to learn to use the tools, follow the guidelines and stand on his own two feet than get a perfect score on any one project.

So, personally, I didn't really care that she failed him.

Today he came home with additional work that was assigned to him - workbook work - because he forgot to do a summary over the holiday of two science movies he watched the day before Thanksgiving vacation. Seven kids forgot they had to do a summary during vacation, and she made all of them do different work during class and take extra work home.

Here's my problem. She told the kids that didn't do the powerpoint project correctly that they would not get the privilege of doing projects again until they could prove they could be responsible, and that they would have to do textbook worksheets instead. I fail to see how preventing these students from doing another project is going to help them get better and doing the task they failed to do correctly. She also told my son that for every time he forgot something, he would not be allowed to do the classwork the other students are doing and would have to do worksheets instead.

Now I have no problem penalizing my son for being forgetful. But I have a serious problem with preventing him from doing regular classwork so that he is at a disadvantage.

I have a conference with the teacher either tomorrow or Friday, and I'm wondering for those of you with kids with exceptionalities - would you fight for all the kids who are in this boat and question the policy in general or play the disability card and pull out the IEP that says my son shall be given projects over worksheets whenever possible?

Yep, I sure would. I'd take it further and see about getting her punished.

If the IEP says it... I would do it. What have you got to lose, she already doesn't like your kid. I am just remembering an experience D15 had in 8th grade before we got her non-verbal learning disability diagnosed. She had a teacher who really did not like her. It was apparent in our conference with him that her disorganization made him crazy. His focus on this completely overshadowed the subject matter in the class. This subject matter has become D's passion in high school, but I often think that fire could have been lit sooner if we could have gotten him past this issue. If we had an IEP then, I think it would have helped us. But we didn't even have a diagnosis, so were pretty clueless and helpless.

So... if you haven't shared the IEP yet, I would do that. I would introduce it as a whole (not just the project part), and explain what his issues usually are. And how other teachers have supported his needs. I try to take the attitude that of course we need to work together to help him, and that I am sure this information will be useful to the teacher. Maybe she will come around without you being super specific. However, if you have already had some discussion on his IEP in the past, and she is ignoring the info you gave her previously, that is tougher.

Of course, she should already have read the IEP. But this teacher sounds like the type who won't have done that and doesn't like special pleading.

Usually these battles work best when kept specific. The IEP is your easiest way to do that. A principal will often tend to side with a teacher whose methods aren't all that effective, because it's hard to force the teacher to change old habits and there's an "us vs. them" cohesion about school staff; but they will not usually back up a teacher who's violating the law.

I'd use the IEP. I'd also get that special ed teacher into this conversation right away, as well as the person who administers special ed services in the building. And document everything in ink: dates, missed assignments, conversations. It's likely everybody knows this teacher isn't doing right, and pressure from the rest of the staff may be the best way to help those other kids indirectly.

DeeDee

Do you have a Behavioral Intervention Plan? IDEA 2004 requires behavioral problems be addressed with redirection and positive interventions that address behavior, by teaching approiate behavior. Google, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports(PBIS). Also Functional Behavioral Assessment(FBA). You write into the IEP positive supports and modifications to address the forgetfulness...ect related to the disability so the teachers know how to provide approiate supports and modification for your son,(and required to do it). The FBA, each teacher fills out forms that lists any issues related to non-performance of accademics, not focussing, forgetting work, disorganization, or behavioral problems. Parent also provides their list of issues related to childs difficuilties that are impeading childs ability to learn and any commentary to provide support for the IEP team, helping them to understand childs needs. You can request all your sons teachers come to the IEP so everyone is on the same page, working together to assure your son suscess at school. Things you can consider doing are. You can contact your State Department of Education and ask who is the person that is director of their PBIS Program and ask the Director to mail you information about the program. Ask when the next training conference is and you would like to attend. Also ask who is the Director of Focused Monitoring, name, e-mail, phone #. You can write a letter like this one and ask that your distric be monitored for non-compliance and not providing FAPE,(you might not want to do this unless your distric refuses to fix the problem.) You can take a class for free called Wrights Law, you can contact your Disability Law Office in your state and ask when the next class is. It is a required course for all Special Education Teachers. Parents of children with disabilities can register to attend class for free and get free books. You can contact your Parent Center, they are listed online in every state in USA. Tell them what your problem is and if you like, can sign a form saying they can talk to school and you give them copys of IEP. They provide training classses for parents to educate about disability laws so we can advocate for our children.

It is very sad that a Teacher would treat any children this way! But we have disability laws that protect children with IEP's. I would definately use the disability card. Regular Education teachers often need support from parents and Special Education Teacher to understand how to provide approiate services for our children with IEP's. I shared with my principal, teachers who yell and use punitive types of discpline cause all children to become anxious and stressed. Also it lowers their self esteme. When children are stressed it impairs higher order thinking and long term memory retention, according to scientific research studies. Which is counter productive to the schools goals of meeting required high testing scores on Core Curriculum Testing, to be in compliance with NCLB. You're shooting yourself in the foot. But as he is aware, for children with disabilities, it violates their civil rights, when a teacher is punitive, verbally abusive, using public humulation as a educational tool and punishing the child for issues related to the disability. I mentioned, I was sure he would like to know so he could talk to the teacher and address the issue through professional development, possibly PBIS training for all the schools teachers. Schoolwide PBIS training would help raise the distric scores and improve parent, school, community relations. Parent involvement also has been proven to raise children's accademic scores and emotional well being. I expressed my appreciation for him being so kind and helpful when adressing problems at school. The principal addressed the issue by talking to the teacher and it changed the way the teacher teaches all the children now.

If you intend on addressing your concerns of how the teacher is teaching all the children, you had a very convincing argument on why the teachers methodology on teaching were counter productive to the children learning the missing skills. Due to funding cuts, many schools are not hireing teachers back or letting teachers go. Your persuasive way you addressed the issue may be instrumental in influnceing the school boards decisions. Parents that provide input to school districs in positive constructive ways are appreciated as a asset to the school and the community.

You can request the School Psychologist do testing to determine degree of impairment of memory, short term?, long term?, what percentle is your son.(ask for full battery of tests in all areas of functioning, in writting to school distric). Often children with high IQ's are disorganized and have memory problems that require supports and training to develop compensatory skills to be functional as adult. When you chart the accademic scores and scores on functioning on bell curve, it is a visual tool to show to teachers so it helps them to understand how uniquely designed your son is. Highlighting areas of weakness with yellow and red, color coding chart green in all high scoring areas provides a visual presentation easy for all teachers to understand. Have you identified your sons learning style and documented it in the IEP? Providing information about learning style written into the IEP helps the regular education teacher to provide approiate modifications and supports.

Hope something mentioned may be of help! Wishing you the best!

I would use the IEP for sure. I wouldn't consider it "using the disability card" even though other kids in the class are affected and won't necessarily be helped by doing it that way.

I am selfish when it comes to my kid because I don't have the time and energy to help all the kids. I am my kid's advocate; other parents are their kids' advocates.

Also, probably pulling out the IEP is the only way you can be sure to get results. A general letter of complaint will be ignored if this teacher is doing this to the whole class. For whatever reason, the school is holding on to this teacher and there is no way other parents haven't complained.

Use the ammunition that you have, the IEP, and do it!

(Likely, you will be helping the other kids because this teacher isn't going to give a project to just your kid...it is easier to give them all the same thing.)

Ugh! Good luck! Nan

Thanks for the all "got your back" feedback. I'm headed out to have my chat with her. My husband thinks it will simply be the first polite warning shot before we have to go to the principal with it, but I'll start with the teacher first in hopes of resolving it there.

And I think my approach will be that as a mother of any child, I'd be concerned about using as a punishment the removal of a student from appropriate learning time and activities - but as a mother of a child with an IEP in place to address his disabilities, I am compelled to advocate on his behalf that the IEP guidelines be respected and utilized.

Ds10 is having a pretty rotten time with remembering stuff this year, too. Seems 5th grade is the year the teachers tend to completely change how they approach 1. giving assignments, 2. reminding kids about assignments and 3. asking kids to hand stuff in.
There doesn't seem to be any gradual way that the teachers have found to introduce kids to the new level of organization they'll need upon entering middle school, so a lot of kids just fall off this cliff in 5th or 6th grade, whenever it first hits.
I have discussed this with several other parents in our area and this seems to be 'the way of things'.

Anyway, I am trying to get ok with the teacher not particularly liking my son, probably rolling her ideas at the idea that he is gifted, etc. We got home a 2 part end-of-unit test. Part 1: 2 computation questions. Get one wrong and you get an F. Guess who got an F?
Part 2: 25 questions on math concepts. Guess who got an A? I suppose the total grade there is a C, but it just seems a ridiculous format.

But that is a bit of digression about the sort of crazy teacher...

Strategies I am employing on the organization front are:
Not overreacting to the idea that ds10 forgets stuff, (like this is big news).
Looking into some good books on organization for students, Grinity recommended one called 'The organized student', so I have
been reading that and working with ds to create a better 'paper-flow' as detailed in the book.
Showing the teachers that I understand (most of) this is Ds's responsibility, so trying not to coddle him too much.

If it doesn't clear up soon, then more action is needed, and I will cross that bridge when we come to it.

As to punishing a child by removing his regular lesson plan, well that does seem a bit absurd, thankfully we haven't gotten any of that sillyness. Sorry to hear you are having to deal with that!

Well, I am very happy to report that I actually got the best possible outcome - something I was not expecting.

She was on the defensive when she first met with me, so I put her at ease by explaining that I wanted to make sure I understood exactly what was happening since sometimes information filtered through a 10-year-old could be less than complete. Once she didn't think I was there to attack her, she opened up and talked freely about what was going on.

She said that she knew my son had recently exited special ed, and that she was concerned that being completely hands-off wasn't working out for him. She said that when an assignment (like writing the movie summary) was a writing assignment, he just packed up his stuff and waited for class to be over. And when she gave them time at the beginning of class to finish it up, he didn't even try to put something quick together. So she made him do a different project over the same material to make sure he'd gotten what he was supposed to from the movies.

When I explained that a kid with dysgraphia has issues with organization and putting words on paper, she got it. She said that she would communicate more with me when he is given writing assignments so that I can make sure he has a block of time at home to complete the project. She also said that she would continue to give him the same classwork but with a shorter leash.

It's funny, but she advised me to keep his IEP in place in midschool, saying that she thought he would need the extra support and accommodations to keep up with the busier schedule. She said she really liked my kid but knew she was hard on him. She said she was trying to toughen him up so that he didn't drown next year with the major transition.

So her misguided approach was actually coming from a good place. I think now we're on the same page, and we actually put some changes in place for the entire class instead of just for my son. From now on, the kids will be required to take their agendas when they change to her class and she will verify that the kids have written the assignments in the agendas.

Yea for small victories!

ABQ, that's all pretty good! Nicely done on your part.

I'd still talk to the special ed teacher; it sounds to me like your DS needs extra supports for writing pushed into the regular classroom. Even a dysgraphic kid can make big improvements with the right supports, and maybe that teacher can also learn something about how to present assignments that work for *all* students.

Dee