Freaking out!! 1st conversation w/ lawyer | Autism PDD

Hi alnraf226,

 

Could you tell me which school district this is in NJ?

I am no expert on this, but I have heard that once some complaint is filed with DOE, the people have to wait for DOE to do something before they include that issue in the due process.  This sort of thing requires excellent legal advice.We have a complaint filed with the DOE for the way the district is and has not looked for anyone to start the home services and mediation for all the other issues.  Our lawyer is for the mediation.  She told us anything metioned in the complaint cannot be addressed in the mediation.b u m pThat is probably right because the complaint has been sent to the DOE for resolution, which means THEY are going to resolve it, not the Mediation session.I understand your feeling of being helpless,  been there, don that.  We just finished up in mediation just last June.  We came to a meeting of minds (sorta of) The state dept of special ed. provided a meadiator at no charge.  We also got info from an advocay center here in our state (OR) also got alot of infor from wrightlaw.com.   Best site ever. please ck it out.  It explains a lot, and you can navagiate thru to find answers for your specific needs.  Hope this helps.   Umfortunatly this is pretty much an ongoing problem thru all grades, and appeats most school districts.  Keep trucking.  KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

First off our lawyer is from the NJ Protection and Advocacy inc.

I had my first intital conversation and went over the four main topics we filed mediation over:

1.  at home services not started that are listed in Gabriel's IEP.  These services were supposed to start July 10, 2006.

2.  Level of experience of person doing these services.  IEP states it is to be done by an ABA certified specialist.  School district says it can be done by an instructor even though IEP states this person is to be ABA ceritifed.

3.  Increase in hours of at home services from two hours per week to 10.  We asked for 10 initially and the district agreed to two and will not tell us how they determined the hours even though we have asked for an explanation at least five times in writing.

4.  We have requested for a 1/2 dy to be spent in an inclusion class.  Meaning Gabriel would spend the morning in his self contained ood class and the afternoon in an inclusion class.  We dont know if it would be an in district classroom because the district will not let me observe their classrooms. Even though his teacher, OT, ST, and two different dev peds recommend it the district is saying if he changes schools at all it will be in their self contained classroom with limited access to NT children only.

Pretty much our lawyer, who has still not agreed to take our case, told us unless we have independant evaluation saying he needs the services we are fighting for there is no way we will win.  Our mediation date is Dec 4th and there is no way we could have the evals done by then.

She also said anything that is in the complaint at the DOE cannot be addressed in the mediation until it is settled and that once a decision is made there is no changing it.

She said she wanted to review all the documentation, letters, emails, etc before she made a recommendation.  I have to bring them to her office which is about an hour away tomorrow.  My binder of  notes, emails, ieps ,etc barely fits in a five inch binder!!!!

Does this sound right?  Who is going to give me an evaluation saying he needs to be in an inclusion class?  I have letters from his teacher, OT, ST, and two dev peds recommending this.  She said that is not good enough.

I am feeling really helpless right now and that the district is probably laughing at us...

please help

 

 

Mediation is not binding. It's the first step toward a Fair and Impartial Hearing.  Your lawyer is right that the decisions about your child will be based on factual evidence as shown in testing, etc.  I see no reason why, if you want an Independent Educational Evaluation, why you can't ask for THAT and postpone mediation until the evals are done.  In IEE, the school district pays the bill but you get to choose the evaluator(s).  Good luck. And definitely go to Wrightslaw.So you actually have 2 processes going on?  I could very well be misunderstanding this.  But you have something  filed at the DOE and going to mediation on that, plus you have contacted a lawyer about other things?  Can you not add stuff to the paperwork filed at the DOE?  What is not in those papers?
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