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Post by Chester on May 15, 2007 16:34:01 GMT -5
I sure appreciate all of you who gave me some advice a bit ago about my wrong assumption that JT would be welcomed to attend our neighborhood school for Kindergarten.
The story has gotten longer and even more unbelievable. It is 2007 right?!
Big sigh....to say the least, we haven't had our ARC yet, but I'm still being told that "his school" is 4 schools away from us.
I'm calling my advocate back tomorrow. Sorry if this is vague, but it really is overwhelming!
Dawn
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Post by Monique on May 15, 2007 19:41:18 GMT -5
Aww Dawn. I hope you have better luck than we did. We started our son in the District school last year in the inclusion Kindy program. They gave us an aide and everything but it was almost like they were setting us up to fail. They did not modify the program well, they had a terrible special ed teacher and quite honestly, it was so stressful on my son we had to make a choice to either continue to try and change the curriculum in drips and drabs or take him out of that environment and put him somewhere where they were more amenable to his issues. Ended up we have put him in a school only for children with disabilities. He has no interaction during the school day with "typical" children but overall, he is doing very well and progressing and we try to give him typical interaction where we can.
Trust me, my overall goal is to get him back into the district but not at the expense of shabby provisions. I understand to fight and all but realistically, i just dont have the time and emotional strength with working full time and raising two other small children to take on the whole system right now. We are living in this district temporarily for another year so i dont feel the investment may be worth it but we already sued the district once (we won) but you can only afford to do that so many times and can take months to complete.
I am just saying, Take in all your options, make sure you explore all the school settings, decide what is the most important thing for you now and the future. If you are willing to put the time and expense in (and you may have to right up to actually creating an academic curriculum for the teachers to follow and going often to observe how they are handling it) and if you will be in this community for a long time (meaning integrating him into the community at this level is important for the community in their ability to accept him as the years go on) it may be worth the fight.
They really cannot deny you his admision into Kindy without trying it first! So keep saying "least restrictive environment" they have to let him "fail" before taking the next level so I dont see how they can so no before they try it!
Let me know if you have any details as went through this entire situation last year! I might be able to give you a few tips!
Good luck and keep me posted. I think if they give him a full time aide, and do alternative clases (meaning some self contained and others inclusion) they should be giving it a shot! Trust me, if you say you want to go to mediation if they continue to say no, they will try it first!
M.
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Post by momofrussell on May 16, 2007 10:12:21 GMT -5
AW Chester that bites! I agree with Monique... do look at ALL placement options and yes, they can't say NO to the kindy at the local school for you.. they can't. That is NOT how the law is written...  I'd suggest you put your request in writing AND.. when they say NO.. ask them for THAT in writing and to show you where in the IDEA laws that says he can't have typical kindy w/supports at the local school. HIS school is NOT 4 away... their program is Make the program come to him a. |
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I'd suggest you put your request in writing AND.. when they say NO.. ask them for THAT in writing and to show you where in the IDEA laws that says he can't have typical kindy w/supports at the local school.