Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy When to let it go...

Thank you, everyone. I think I needed to hear that I'm not totally insane because that's the way I feel. Thank you also for sharing your experiences.

polarbear, I did look at the yellow pages on Wright's Law. I contacted a couple of local places that actually didn't offer advocacy services. I'm going to have to hire someone, aren't I? This makes me anxious but I'm seeing now that it may be the only option.

Just yesterday I found the Parent 2 Parent organization. I called our state office and the representative was helpful in answering some questions. The 2e angle did stump her though. I asked if he had to be measured against the state standards for services and she wasn't sure. There are also parent mentors as part of this organization and we have one in my county. They are to act as a liaison between parents and the schools. However, they are the school district payroll and I don't have high expectations. Has anyone heard of this organization or used them?

Don't let it go. Even with a dysgraphia diagnosis and an IEP, I've started this school year having to resist math homework for DS8 which is nothing more than a handwriting exercise. I am dealing with the same administrative people as last year, only the classroom teacher has changed, but they all appear to have had their memories wiped over the summer holidays. Because I persisted, DS8 has an IEP and I am able to point to that document, which they signed off on, to address their memory deficits instead of starting at square one every September. It's hard, but worth it.

DD has ADHD and I was also told that she does not qualify for a 504 because she's not failing. I ended up forwarding information about laws and eligibility to the school psych who had told me that. She ignored my email but then a month later she wrote back and said she talked to the special ed director. I also had problems with DS and his IEP and the special ed director started coming to his IEP meetings and made sure things were done correctly by the school. Once you start talking about laws, I think you will see some action. I also smiled and said pleasantly a time or two, that "I hope I won't have to call the State again to clarify this." (the people in the Special Ed dept. for the State in "Compliance" were very helpful over the phone...more helpful, actually, then when I tried an advocacy group.) At one point Compliance actually called the Spec. Ed director. I was never nasty or over-emotional, I just made it clear that I knew about laws. I think that's what got me furthest ahead.

We were in this very same situation about 2 years ago with my older dd. She hasn't tested as gifted but she does have high average cognitive abilities, close to being gifted but not quite. We fought the school for 2 years trying to get her help and they were less than helpful. We had a horrible team where the psych even rolled her eyes when I tried to point out the areas of the test results that showed my dd needed help and had a LD. Even with a diagnosis from Children's they wouldn't even give her a 504. Meanwhile dd continued to fall further and further behind in class. I won't go into a lot of details but in the end the school dropped the ball in regards to getting her help, thinking we were switching schools when we weren't. The second to last day of school we were able to get her an IEP, mostly thanks to her current teacher and a much better IEP team. A team that actually knew what they were doing. They looked at the very same tests the previous team had and were able to see what I had been trying to tell them for nearly two years. It was a relief that somebody finally got it and understood how my dd was struggling to 'access the curriculum' in the classroom.... that's the phrase they would stick to for eligibility determination.

Last year was the first school year she had an IEP but the special ed teacher was useless and didn't accomplish much with her. The only progress dd made was thanks to the outside tutoring we did/do. At the end of last year dd ended up qualifying for more services and it seems crazy that a child with an IEP continues to fall further behind.... It's a constant battle it seems... even with an IEP.

Luckily this year seems to be going better. They fired the old special ed teacher and the new one is awesome and dd loves her. So I'm trying to stay optimistic.

The point I'm trying to make is that be prepared to be in a constant battle. You need to follow through and get your child the help he deserves. And imo even with a 504 or an IEP you are always gonna have to be aware and fight for what your child needs. The documentation isn't a given that they will get what they need.

Oh, and my dd (diagnosed with dyspraxia, dyslexia, and dyscalculia) was the very same way in 1st and 2nd with spelling tests. If she wrote them out she'd miss nearly all of them, but if the teacher tested her orally she'd get them all right.

So, the speech therapist from the school just called me and apparently DS is being fast-tracked through RTI for speech. I knew his teacher last year had been doing some informal work with him on pronouncing R, but I had no idea that they were moving through RTI. She acted like moving through tier 3 and onto a speech IEP was no big deal.

Is there a way that I can leverage this to get him some help with dysgraphia? Has anyone else tried this?

Yes-- note that they are OFFERING HIM SERVICES/ACCOMMODATIONS.

Ask "where is this in his plan?"

They are trying (potentially, probably) to get around formal identification so that they aren't on the hook for anything that they don't feel like doing down the road.

Make them follow the process. Getting accommodations/interventions in place BEFORE identifying what his needs are (via the procedure that they've established for the school/district) is technically not kosher under the law. Just so that you know that.

Actually, it IS kosher and standard practice now. Response to Intervention (RtI) is supposed to be done with any student who struggles-- you differentiate and try to meet the needs, take data on what works, and then write that all into a plan so that you continue doing what has been established as actually helpful.

However: RtI is NOT allowed to be used to delay writing the plan. I'd use this as an occasion to ask them (in writing) to start a formal educational evaluation toward reconsidering an IEP, listing everything you're concerned about.

And thank them for seeing the need and offering the services in the meantime.

I think my concern is how to connect the two. Dysgraphia and pronouncing the letter R aren't in the same ballpark. How do I make the connection?

Again-- ask where they are in the process.


Understand, also-- that while RTI is an appropriate thing in suspected LD's under an IEP, it's NOT okay with a condition that requires "accommodations" or a change in placement-- both of which have to be determined to be "needed" by a group/team.

I'm pretty sure that dysgraphia can't be considered a thing that could be "remediated" so much as a stable thing that is "accommodated" by modifications to policies/practices/procedures. In that instance, you're not looking at "what progress has the student made toward goal X as we've done Y and Z" but "is this working for the student so that s/he has the same access as unaffected peers?"

(Not sure if I'm explaining that well-- but the point is that access-based interventions like that aren't necessarily things that have to be empirically determined-- get the right people together in a room around a table, and they can KNOW what to do for that student. Because the impairment is stable and predictable.)

If RTI is being invoked, then they've already started the process. So the real question is then-- why aren't they telling YOU that? (That's the part where legality gets weird here.)