How can the director do this??? | Autism PDD

MY WIFE NEVER BACKS DOWN UNTIL SHE GET'S THE YES. YOU COULD ALWAYS SAY FINE LET'S GO TO MEDIATION THEN COURT. QUOTEING LAWS CAN HELP OUT. WE USED THEM BEFORE. WE NEVER TAKE A NO OR A ANSWER.

TELL THEM THE KID HATES SCHOOL AND THREATENS TO QUIT. THIS GOT OUR SON HIS SE ALL DAY CLASS.

1. Unless you put everything IN WRITING, it was not said.

2. Get an advocate ASAP

Here is a little background.

Our son Gabriel (pdd:nos) is in an out of district school. IEP says he is to get 2-3 hours of discrete trial by an ABA certified therapist in our home after school beginning in July 2006.

The district has claimed that they cannot find anyone ABA certified to come to our home. They tried to send someone who was not certified but he didnt have his teaching degree or any formilized training in discrete trial so we said no.

We have been asking for additonal hours totaling 10 hours per week for discrete trial after school. We were told no. Since then we have requesting in writing five seperate times for a reason why the additional hours were denied. Nothing. We filed a complaint in the middle of Oct with the Dept of Ed for the services not starting. By now they were allmost four months behind on his services.

Last Wednesday the director called and spoke with my husband and said if we were willing to have an instructor come out to our home instead of an ABA certified therapist then he would increase the hours to five a week We had to agree the accept this and drop our complaint with the dept of ed before friday when the complaint investigator was meeting with him to discuss our complaint. or he would not agree to anything and would wait for the outcome of the complaint.

I dont know what the right word is to say how we were feeling, maybe trapped or blackmailed???? How dare he threaten us like this. Did this mean he thought Gabriel needed the five hours and was denying our request because we were so vocal in our quest for his education????or was he just trying to bargain to get out of the complaint?

Oh and on Oct 11th we had a review IEP meeting. I got a copy of the IEP in the mail and they had changed the wording on the IEP from a certified ABA therapist to "discrete trial to be done by an instructor"

When i called to ask him why he made this change especially since we were pending a state investigation he said our case manager said we discussed this at the meeting and we all agreed to this change. I told him I had a recording of the meeting and no such thing was ever discussed.

This is the letter we sent regarding the changes:

Upon review of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) we received in the mail, we are addressing the following:

1. On page 4 of 20, under “Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance”, there is no mention of the Physical Therapy Assessment. If it is the Physical Therapist’s contention that Gabriel no longer requires physical therapy, then a report should be included to support this opinion.

2. Also on page 4, Gabriel’s original IEP states “The District has agreed to provide discrete trial services provided by an ABA certified specialist within the home for two to three hours per week beginning in July”. The new IEP now states “The District will provide 2-3 hours of ABA direct instruction in the home by an instructor who is trained in discrete trial and practices under the supervision of a certified consultant and/or teacher”. During our conversation on October 19, 2006, Mr. C stated that you informed him that we had discussed and agreed to these changes at the IEP meeting. I informed Mr. Cappuccio that this was not true, and that a recording of the meeting could be played to confirm. We are extremely upset that this change was made, considering that this issue is pending a state-level complaint. We insist the IEP be changed back to the original statement.

3. On page 12 of 20, under “Placement in the Least Restrictive Environment” the IEP states “Parents are considering placement within the home district”. As previously discussed, we insist the following be added; “or Appropriate out of District Placement”.

4. On page 13 of 20, under “District and State Assessment”, the space beneath the “District Assessment” has a response of “N/A”. The original IEP states a “Curriculum Based” assessment. We request an explanation of this omission.

5. On page 16 of 20, under “Related Services”, the IEP states that Gabriel’s Occupational Therapy (OT) is broken into one 15 minute individual session and one 15 minute group session. His original IEP states that he is to receive two individual sessions for a total of 30 minutes. This change was not discussed or agreed to during the IEP meeting. We insist the IEP be changed back to the original statement.

6. Also on page 16, under “Additional Related Services”, the original IEP states “OT Consultation with teacher and staff one time per week for 20 minutes regarding sensory procession issues”. This statement is removed from the current IEP. This change was not discussed or agreed to during the IEP meeting. We insist this statement be added to the IEP.

7. On page 17 of 20, under “Notice Requirements for the IEP and Placement” the IEP states “Gabriel will continue in his out of district placement at the Child Development Center for the 2006/2007 school year while his parents consider programs within the home district”. As previously discussed, we insist the following be added; “or Appropriate out of District Placement”.

8. On page 20 of 20, under “Procedural Safeguards Statement”, the school district representative is identified as Ms. S. This should be changed to the current school district representative since Ms. S has retired.

Please address these concerns in a written letter response.

Best regards,

We have since filed for mediation and a stay put on his current IEP based on this letter and the last six months of history in dealing with our school district.

I am at my wits end dealing with this. I have so much anger and stress in dealing with this issue. and to find out one of my one year olds has pdd means i will be dealing with this distict for a long time unless we move.

Thanks for any help.

by the way...we did not agree to his deal and are waiting the outcome of the complaint investigation. I get this email today from our case manager saying that she will not speak with us regarding any issues until the complaint investigation is completed.

Grrr she is supposed to be helping us find an inclusion class in the mean time...now nothing

I feel your pain, anger, and fustration!! Been there. My daughter and I went to mediation on behalf of our daughter/grand daughter. Among many things on the list 1. Selena would leek poo in her pull-up at school, they refused to clean her( she is almost 9) said they needs a CERTIFIED BUTT WIPER of course when it came down to it - this is not exist. 2. Because we asked questions about everything we were accussed of harassing the staff. 3. ESY denied. 4. Service dog at school DENIED. etc. etc. We had to two of us, an advociate, and her dd case worker. They had 8 people there, including someone from transportation, (we didnt have a problem in this area, dont know why she was there) Including the ass. dir. of special ed. We are going to court on several issues, but not until we can move to another district. Dont trust them at all. Now everything is in writting only, except for emergiencies and they are followed up in writting. I wish I could send an mini camera on Selena to really know whats going on there. Good luck - sug. get advociate, lawyer lined up. ck out wrightslaw, and have several people there at the meeting, so you dont feel like you are really out numbered.