As many of the kids here, DD10 started school a week and 1/2 ago. She actually has done well bringing home homework and taking it to class. This is AMAZING, but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's her first year in middle school so she is anxious to do the right thing. I emailed the teachers on the second day to give them the heads up about DD's 504 ADHD accommodations (checking on her planner the end of the day and making sure all work is in the backpack are the ones I am most concerned about). I asked if she could email the homework to class as she had a history of losing it, and stated that I would be asking for that at the upcoming 504 meeting. The only teacher who replied was the one going on maternity leave. So, a couple of questions for you all:

-Coming up is "meet the teacher". Do I bring up the 504 info then? Very little time to do so. If not then, when or should I wait for DD to revert back to losing everything so I can prove my point (she lost her lunch yesterday so didn't get to eat).

-No one is following the 504 at this point. Go to the counselor (she's in charge of 504's)?

-I want the "email in homework" clause in the 504. My fear is that it won't be allowed at this time since she is doing well. Shall I sit on it for awhile?

Thanks in advance!!!

You should try to make every teacher (including specials) aware of the 504, either in person or via phone or email. Bring it up as soon as possible and provide a list of her accommodations. If the 504 is not being followed, address that as well.

And if you have an email the HW clause, start using it now. It should not be ignored regardless of her performance.

I wouldn't wait until the "Meet the Teachers" date - even if it's tomorrow. Have you tried emailing the 504 counselor to give her a heads up re the teachers not following the 504? If not, I would the counselor an email, tell them there have been some issues (state the exact issues) and ask if the teachers have all been given a copy of your dd's current 504 plan. What I'd do as follow-up depends on the response I got from the counselor.

I wouldn't push the email for HW until your actual 504 review meeting - if the review meeting is going to happen in the next few weeks. I'd focus instead on what's in the current 504 and not being done. If there is homework lost in the meantime due to *not* having that accommodation, use that as data showing she needs it at the meeting.

Also, fwiw, our ds has email turn-in as an accommodation, and it's not all smooth-sailing. Some teachers are fine with the accommodation, others don't like it. We encourage our ds to only use it when he absolutely has to - it's been helpful to him to turn his assignments in on paper (he uses keyboarding for all of his work but prints out homework at home and has printer access at school). The upside to having him turn things in on paper is two-fold - he gets practice at the organizational skill (he's extremely organizationally challenged), and it makes the teachers happier who do not want to deal with having a student turn in homework via email. He also gets clearer marks on written papers (explanation of grades) when the assignment is graded on paper. He uses the email accommodation as a back-up, which has the upside of being proof that he did, indeed, turn an assignment in

Good luck with your 504 meeting... this is such a stressful time of year getting started with a new school year.... hopefully things will smooth out for you and your dd soon!

polarbear

At our school, "meet the teacher" wouldn't be an appropriate place to bring up 504 since it's all the kids, their parents, kind of open house and sign up for conferences thing. Trying to discuss accommodations would be like trying to get information in the carline. YMMV

Yes, tell the counselor about 504 compliance.

I don't know how successful you'll be with the scan/email accommodation without demonstrating it's an issue, first. We have this one but long history of assignments hanging out in backpack forever, never to be submitted. I think it depends on the exact issue--forgetting to bring from home is somewhat different from forgetting to turn in what's in the backpack.

Good luck! Back to school...not for the faint of heart.

Yes. IME having the special ed teacher education his/her peers works much better than having it come from the parent. Even if the same things are said, it goes better peer-to=peer.

Update:
Went to Open House and did a quick chat with the teachers. The social studies teacher stated that she expects good spelling, but will redo the grade if the student writes the misspelled word correctly 5 times. DD can't spell worth a flip (just mentioned it in another post about dysgraphia)so my stomach sank. She sure can spell correctly if she writes her papers online which is another reason to do the work on a computer!!! She has an editor's eye for spelling if it's not her handwriting. Also, I know I wasn't supposed to bring up her 504 per your advice, but no parent was around and the teacher stated something about it so I asked how it was going in class. Next thing I hear from the teacher is that she had read the accommodations, but she understood them to mean that all the work was being done by the parents. What?? I said she must not have received all the info, and then the teacher gave me the big "huh?" look.
Good thing you all gave me lots of good advice.
Question - if she is supposed to do her work on a computer wouldn't that cover the spelling problem?

At this grade level, doing work on the computer will probably include the spelling accommodation, but strictly, spellcheck, word prediction (that's like autocorrect on an iPhone), typed responses, and electronic submission are all separate accommodations. For many dysgraphics, typed responses helps greatly with spelling, even without the spelling aides, because it takes enough of the working memory load off (in the form of letter formation) to allow self-monitoring of spelling.

I'm sure you are aware but you should put into the 504 an accommodation that says she doesn't need to writing the spelling words five times. Not a real effect method of teaching spelling to someone with dysgraphia and it's going to be a lot of busy work.

Even if the work isn't turned in online can it still be typed? It's not too uncommon to include using a computer for essay writing as an accommodation. And I know a lot of students that type almost everything, outlines from chapters, short answer questions unless the teacher tells them it has to be handwritten.

FYI What teachers don't like about typed/emailed work is it's hard to prove it's not plagiarized or copied. Cheating is a BIG deal at DS's high school and it's one of the reasons the teachers prefer hand written work in many cases. Most of the time if a essay is typed at home they required the work to be sent through a website like Turnitin. I have also seen teachers OK typed work as long as there is a handwritten first draft included.

Our HS prefers electronic submission, for the reason that it is easier to check for plagiarism. But all our students use school-provided netbooks, and teachers are actively encouraged to favor assigning word processed and electronically-submitted work, in keeping with our push to become a paperless campus.

I just wanted to make clear that I don't know that DD has dysgraphia. I have been following other posts about it and so made mention to a question I had made about it. Sorry to be unclear. She is supposed to use the computer for her work which is so important since she cannot spell or write well enough to read. I will be asking the school to assess her.

Does she have difficulty with reading?

I'm coming in to this a bit late, but just saw your reply under another post asking about dysgraphia. Before I read this reply (with the mention of reading difficulty) I was going to mention that writing challenges sometimes go hand-in-hand with ADHD. My dysgraphic ds was once diagnosed with ADHD (which he doesn't have) but at the time I spent a considerable amount of time reading about how writing can be a challenge for kids with ADHD (thinking that might be his challenge!) (and clearly I have a challenge with run-on sentences lol).

Anyway, if you're wondering about dysgraphia there are a few things you can look for just to see if there's anything obvious going on (there are different ways dysgraphia presents, so if these *don't* sound like your dd, that doesn't mean she's not dysgraphic... I'm posting them more so you can see if anything matches what you see in your dd, which might be reason to move forward and check out your concerns re it.

* Does she have odd posture or pencil grip when writing?
* Does she tire quickly when using handwriting?
* Does she reverse letters/numbers?
* Does she have uneven spacing of letters/words on the page when she writes?
* Does she drop words or switch numbers/drop signs when copying?
* Does she have uneven pencil pressure when writing?
* Does she hold either her arm or wrist while writing?
* Is there a noticeable difference in the quantity of words and complexity of thought when your dd answers a question verbally vs writing down the answer?

Those are things you can look for at home as red flags for dysgraphia.

Another thing you can do is measure her handwriting speed - have her write the full alphabet, upper and lower case for each letter, and time her. Then divide to get the measure of # of letters per minute. You can find "letters per minute vs grade level" info online - the numbers will vary, but you can get a sense if she's relatively slow from just looking at this in a general way. Also look at the letters she's written - is she forming letters consistently top to bottom, does she stop and think before she writes a letter, etc.

Best wishes,

polarbear

polarbear,
You asked about trouble reading. In what manner? DD tends to read lots of graphic novels or Horrible History books that are well below her reading level. I posted about this before because she stated that all the heavy text in a book without illustrations bothered her. I was going to give her some large font books to see what they were like for her. Her regular eye exams have not indicated any problems.
I thought that I read something about a connection with ADHD and writing challenges. Thanks for mentioning that. I just wonder sometimes about DD. She brings home her agenda, and even she can't read the words. She was famous in grade school for her teeny horrible handwriting (unless she really worked on it). I plan to pull one of her many journals and really look at the handwriting. The journals are mainly stories and illustrations that I can't read which is too bad because her writing is really funny and sarcastic. I can't wait to do the timed handwriting. I will let you know what I find out!

I would ask your DD's teachers if they have trouble reading her handwriting. I regularly complain about DS' handwriting but apparently all his teachers can read it fine, as it hadn't ever affected his grades. With my DS, he writes very fast, which aftects legibility considerably. See if your DD's handwriting improves if she slows down. You may also want to check how many assignments are done on the computer, at least the final graded product. Fortunately, at our middle school, it is standard to submit typed work for longer writings so it is mostly an issue of the short assignments.

As far as reading, it may be easier to have your DD compare reading the same novel using different font sizes on a e-reader.