The school district does pay for his ood school. For that reason alone i cant see why they would not want him back in district at least half the day and then eventually the full day
You are right- they should want him back, ood is very expensive for school districts.
I have seen this type of stonewalling before, and it is really a drag. One word of caution about your lawyer's involvement: make sure you are not starting any official legal proceedings until you are CERTAIN that there is no other way to get the school district to listen to you. Once legal proceedings begin there is a "stay put" rule that goes into effect, meaning that your son's current placement is where he will stay until all legal proceedings have been completed.
When you get to a point of talking with them (perhaps through your mediation) try to get them to tell you honestly what the problem is. For example, maybe they don't have any other students with ASD in the school and they are scared of it. This was the case in the school where I work before the autism program started there. EVERYONE was afraid. Or, maybe they think that the end goal of full inclusion is not the best way to meet your son's needs so they don't want to even start down that road. Maybe class sizes are really full and they are overwhelmed at thinking of adding a child with special needs at that grade level. Perhaps you already know their REAL reason for stonewalling, but if you don't it can be super helpful to you to find out. Personally, I would not talk with the district (I am an autism teacher and work on placements all the time) about the end goal of full time inclusion. People get stuck on weird things and prevent you from even taking the first step. Appeal to their administrators about finances. Most school districts are really hurting financially. Point out that a full time paraprofessional is cheaper than an out of district placement. You might even try some video tape of your son doing work in his current environment so the school staff can more clearly picture how this will work.
Tony Attwood is a strong advocate for general education placements, with all of the appropriate supports in place. You might try looking on search engines to see if he has written anything on the topic. When I last communicated with him he shared that he believed this philosophically but had not written extensively on the topic due to the limited research available regarding "best" placements specifically for ASD. At least, that is what I think he said- this was last winter, my memory sucks right now, and I sure don't want to put words in his mouth. Anyway, he might be a good source of information.
This site might help you to find research supporting inclusion:
http://ericec.org/faq/i-long.html
This site might also help support inclusionHMM, sounds like they have done some pretty screwy things so far. It sounds like the district is playing hardball with you because of filing mediation for a seperate reason. Make sure you are taking the right route with your lawyer. When IDEA was re-authorized, a new provision for parents to sue schools was added. I can't remember the name of it, but when your "paperwork" is filed under that category, whatever is brought to court and decided upon can never be brought up again.
For example, if you were filing under this new provision about the in home services, and the mediator ruled that he would get 10 hours a week in your home for a year, you can never bring that up against the school system again. It is over and done with and doesn't stand against them ever again in anymore problems you have with them. I hope I am saying this right, I know I've probably just confused you. I remember learning about it this summer in one of my grad classes. The professor was postive because the law did provide a new route for parents to resolve issues ( I think it may be called resolution) but negative because of the way it is worded. Just be sure to check with your lawyer and make sure you are doing due process and mediation, not resolution.
I don't know about studies, but there is wrights law. go to it--www.wrightslaw.com. There you can find out about the law concerning special ed services and limitations.I second the motion to go to www.wrightslaw.com
Is the lawyer "assigned" to you an expert in education law? If not, you could be getting screwed.
The LAW states that FULL INCLUSION is where a child, theoretically, STARTS. It is incumbent upon the district to PROVE that full inclusion cannot work. Once they've done that, the law states that they must put the child in the LEAST restrictive environment in which, with all the appropriate supports and services, the child can learn. At this point, that sounds like the Inclusion Class, as long as your child is provided with enough support. What you seem to be saying is that a full day in the inclusion class is still not enough for him and that you and the school must consider the NEXT least restrictive environment for the academic work. That sounds like the school's self-contained class. OF course, there may be transition issues which make an even more restrictive environment -- his current school -- be more appropriate. Since you haven't been allowed to even SEE the classes they've proposed for your son, I don't think they've allowed YOU , the PARENT, to be a full participant in the IEP process, and that's a violation of IDEA 2004. Not every single decision made by a school district is secretly based on money (it cannot publicly be based on money -- the decision about placement MUST be based on the INDIVIDUAL needs of the child). What I've discovered over the nearly 14 years of going to these meetings (for my own son and with friends for their kids) is that a school district is a bureaucracy and behaves the way all bureaucracies do. Eventhough the law states that each plan must be individualized for that particular child's needs, individual treatment is anathema in any bureaucracy. The bureaucracy CRAVES sameness. Fitting children into molds is what bureaucracies do best. So the IEP team, as the agent of the school bureaucracy, craves fitting children into program that exist. It is allergic to unorthdox approaches, eventhough the I in IEP MEANS Individualized. Also, there is DEFINITELY still a prejudice against incorporating autistic kids into the general population. Most school districts see autistic kids as loose canons. They can understand mental retardation, they can understand physical handicaps. But autism is seen in the same light as emotional disabilities -- liability for the district. Autism is a puzzle (note that the puzzle is the SYMBOL of autism) and districts HATE puzzles. So a lot of districts do whatever they can, including spending lots of money, to keep autistic kids out of the general population of their schools. There is increasing pressure from the government to quit doing this (Brown v Board of Ed said more than 50 years ago that SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL and every school law since then has supported that), but some schools, maybe MOST schools, are still resistant. I certainly hope you have a lawyer who knows all this and will tell those District folks what their DUTY to you and your child is. BTW -- there are tons and tons of studies that support inclusion. Google "inclusion in schools" And please let us know how your mediation goes.
PS -- One thing you can request is an outside autism consultant. That person can come into the district classrooms with you and the current placement with you and observe your son. Between the classroom visits and observations of your son, the consultant can make an expert recommendation about the most APPROPRIATE placement for your son. Special ed law (IDEA 2004) GUARANTEES a Free Appropriate Public Education to your child.
would back up my case that my son would benefit from being in an inclusion class for the second 1/2 of his day. Right now he is in a self contained autism classroom.
So far our district does not believe
I am trying to find past studies that show this would benefit Gabriel socially and academically.
Any help is appreciated
You mention the out of district school. Is your son currently in an out of district placement? If so, is this placement an entire school for special needs? Or is it a self contained classroom in a regular ed building that is simply in another district? How important to you is 1/2 of the day? Would you be willing to have it be 40% of the day in general education instead?
What you are seeking to do is change your son's federal setting from the current setting which is a fed setting 3 (or 4 depending on your answers to the above questions) to a fed setting 2. To accomplish a change in federal setting the team will want substantial documentation to support the change. All of the professionals who share the opinion that your son is ready for the change should be able to produce documentation of progress that supports the change. You should be aware that if your son were to spend 60% of his day in self contained and 40% in general ed, this is still a fed setting 3 which might be an easier move to make- that 10% can make a difference in people cooperating with you.
I am trying to clarify this. Your son is out of district and you want him to go to a class that would put him back in his district? This district is saying no, so you are going to due process? Are you taking the school system to court because they say no? Or are they taking you because you say yes? If you are taking them, then the burden of proof of why you want him in a different placement lies on you. Documentation of progress and strengths and weaknesses is a great place to start with proving that. Plus, I assume you are going to have all the therapists and teachers testify on your son's behalf.
I just can't understand why a district would want to go to court instead of change the placement, especially when I am understanding you to say you want him back in his home school. I might be way off.
My son is in an out of district school for autistic children. The entire school is special needs. There is zero exposure to typical children.
The district thinks he is ready to move back into their school in their pre-school disabled program. They offer a self contained autism class, two preschool disabled age three and age four, a 1/2 day inclusion in the afternoon or morning, and a full day inclusion class.
We want him to spend his morning and lunch in his current school and the afternoons in an inclusion class so that he is exposed to "typical" children.
They want him in a self contained classroom even though the rest of the team says that exposure to typical children would benefit him. I am not asking to put him in a general ed classroom , I know he would be lost but simply an inclusion class for a portion of his day.
He is ready to change schools. The school he is in is for much more severe children. My ultimate goal is to slowly transition him into the full day inclusion class within district (if i could see the school) with all of his supported services. They are making this very difficult
Did I mention we are waiting for our date for mediation(Dec 4,) because the district will not even let me observe any of their classrooms to see if they are even an appropiate placement for him.
I just got a lawyer today and wanted to have as much evidence as possible to support our decision.
thanks for your help
Is your school district paying for him to go to the out of district autism school?
The main problem I see is that you want him to stay in the current setting for half a day and that is probably costing the school district money and that is why they want him back in their school.
However, money can't be the excuse.
Wray,
A little history
We are taking the district to court because they have not complied with his IEP which states that he is supposed to be getting two hours of discrete trial starting last July. To date these services have not started. In additon to this we have requested at least six times in writing over the last five months for additonal hours. The district will not respond to any of our requests verbally or in writing.
We had an IEP meeting mid OCT at his ood school where the team said they thought he was ready to be around typical children for a portion of his day. We agreed to look at the in district classrooms and then decide which was a good fit for Gabriel. Our case manager was open to Gabriel spending 1/2 day at his ood school and the other 1/2 in an inclusion class provided that it was an appropiate classroom
After that was when we filed the paperwork for the home services issue. After that the district sent me an email saying they didnt want to speak with me on any issues until the mediation was settled.
I called our case worker to ask about seeing the classrooms and she said that the only class they would put him in is the self contained autism classroom but that it was not an appropieate place for him at this time because of staffing issues. I asked what the staffing issues were and she said they did not have anyone on staff to do discrete trial. (I never asked for a classroom with discrete trial) So I said do you know another setting that has an appropiate setting and she said no so i said then what would she recommend and she said leaving him where he is but since the district is not recommending an inclusion class at this time there is no reason for me to observe the classrooom and since they dont have an appropiate classroom there is no reason for me to observe any of their classrooms.
So I am planning to ammend my mediation papers to include this whole inclusion class issue. I just am looking for additional ammo with statistics etc. I already have letters from his teacher, ST,OT, two dev peds from different practices
any help is appreciated
pmubBUMP!