In NC can home school force me to put my 5y. autistic in a self contained room in another school?My 5 year old's been homeschooled mostly prior to now. The one thing we lack is avenue for socializaton. His verbal skills are emerging, will say "I want to go, see, eat......etc with prompting. I want him to be in the school for the less structured part of the day. Like:computer, library, center time, PE art and EC, as well as speech and OT. EC teachers told me they don't know about autism to put him in a self contained classroom in another school. The principal & staff do not want him there. What can I do? The self contained rooms are not appropriate for my son at this time. |
Hello! I am new to NC and also to the special ed process, but I want to say welcome. From the little I do know, it sounds like the schools are out of line. Is the school you would like your child to attend his neighborhood school? Have you gone through the school evaluation process and gotten an IEP in place for your son?
I know that the law heavily stresses that the child be put in the 'least restrictive environment' possible (using supplementary aids and services if necessary). If you have gone through the IEP process, you should have been given a packet explaining your rights and what recourse you have if you disagree with the school. The parents are supposed to be equal participants in the IEP process, and your views of what is best for your son cannot just be discounted out of hand.
I hope you will get some more specific info from the other members here. From here on, make sure you get everything in writing!!
You might want to check out the NC Department of Public Instruction website--exceptional children section (?). I think I found some useful information there. There is also an Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (ECAC) in Davidson that might be able to help or you might want to get in contact with the local Autism society chapter for some info on your rights and/or advocacy.
There is also a book called From Emotions to Advocacy that is very helpful. You can find a thread about this book in the Parents section of this forum. A discussion just started this week.
I hope that you can learn your rights quickly and find the best placement for your son. Best wishes!
Shannon
Homeschooling laws vary from state to state. You can go to your state ed dept to ask of the schools in your state can reject a student for part of the day. I have heard that some states DO provide lots of non-academic time IN SCHOOL for home schooled kids, but I don't actually know anything about it. You need to find out your own state's position.
In terms of special education. Not only can NO child be rejected (there is very firm caselaw on this) but it is the local school district's responsibility to actually go SEEK OUT children with special needs. IT's called the Child Find portion of the law. YOu can search that on your state ed website, too. If a child is found by the school district (in this case, they already KNOW about your child), it is incumbent on that school district to ask the parents to have the child evaluated BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. If the parent does not sign permission for the initial special education evaluation, the school district CAN take the parents to a hearing in order to get the parents to sign permission for initial testing. However, once an IEP is developed by the school district for that child, the parents CANNOT be forced to sign their OK to place their child in school or to allow their child to get any of the provisions in the IEP. THe school district is ONLY obligated to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education IN the public school. THe parents CAN accept only part of the IEP if the child IS placed in the public school, but NOT placing the child in the public school absolves the District from ANY responsibility for an IEP. Except that the District MUST have an annual meeting to create a new IEP each year. Every 3 years, the District must offer to do a triennial evaluation, but the parents can sign or not sign for this eval. If the IEP developed yearly is not accepted by the parents, that is OK. But, again, the school district is then absolved of any responsibility for providing FAPE.
SO the direct answer to your question is -- it depends. IF your state says that homeschooled kids DO get access to some school district amenities, you might have a chance. But since you've rejected the IEP, your child will only get modifications and accommodations at school activities through a 504 plan, if you can prove he has a legal disability (a disability is something that negatively affects a major life activity). He is not getting an IE implemented unless he's in a public school placement. Of course, you can take the IEP the District has created and implement it at home, but the District has no obligation to help you implement it, either at school activities or at home, since you legally rejected it. In theory, an individual state can liberalize this rule, so checking with your own state's ed dept. is key. What I'm mentioning here is based on the Federal law, IDEA 2004.
NO CHILD EVEN A HOMESCHOOL CHILD CAN'T BE DENIED ANYTHING. THEY MUST HELP ALL KIDS IN THAT DISTRICT YOU LIVE IN.Ask them to do a Functional Behavioral Assessment with the target behavior being the repetitive behaviors. Stims usually serve a purpose, the purpose being relief of stress. Ask the IEP TEam to send in an autism consultant to assess the classroom situation, train the teacher and aides and put together a Positive Behavior Intervention Plan based on FBA data. Tape the meeting at which you ask for these supports. As a parent, you are a vital member of the IEP Team and your right to fully participate in your child's education is protected. Your suggestions are just as valid as the suggestions of anyone on the team. Push to get that consultant in. THe best sort of person to get is a BCBA.
Sorry if i confused anybody by interpreting the original post incorrectly. I just assumed home school to mean homeschooling.Thank you so much everybody. I have been so much more enlightened. I meant homeschool as in neighbourhood school. My older child is there. My autistic son has been on trial 2 weeks. Had no regular aide. Different people different days. Neighbourhood school does not want to help as much or be patient. I just want him there for as many hours as he or they can handle for now. And gradually build up. Want to start with things child is familiar with and not stressed at like computer time, PE, center time, OT, speech, EC and outside playtime. I have nothing against these people trying to do their best for so many children. I just wish they would try and work with my son in a way that moves him forward. We have tried a special mixed abilities room that came highly recommended by the district before, that left a bad taste in my mouth. My child picked back up on repetitive behaviors he had stopped before. He began other things, that took a lot of work to stop. I have looked at different self contained rooms. None of them gives me peace of mind that we would not go through the same thing again.
Thank you for your response. I am willing to register my son in school and stay for the maximum hours required by law. The self contained rooms that I have gone to look at (other schools outside of my neighbourhood school) are not better suited to my son than having accomodations made for him in his home school. Please if there is any parent out there who chose one on one in regular classroom over self contained class let me know how you worked it out. Thanks
Concernedpa, so if I understand your post correctly, your child is not being refused services by the District; they are refusing to allow your child to attend your neighborhood school, and instead forcing him into a self-contained special ed classroom at another District school?
Yes, they can do that.
The only way I got around it was to pull my child from the school district, place him in a private placement with an aide, and prove that he can "hack it" in typical classroom settings. Ancillary services such as ST, OT, and ABA take place outside school hours... but my kid's only in school 3 hours a day (he's still a little guy).
If your son can make it in a typical classroom with an aide that's where he legally should be, but as long as some benefit is provided in the self contained classroom they're proposing, you'd have a hard time convincing a judge that FAPE was being denied.
ETA: sorry, just remembered. Make sure you get it in writing on your IEP document that you believe LRE would be a typical classroom with an aide/modifications, and you are only agreeing to the District's placement in order for services to begin.
I'm confused here. Are you wanting to continue to homeschool your son for his academics and then send him to public school for his non-academic stuff? Or, are you wanting to enroll him in the public school, and his neighborhood school is telling you he has to go to another school because of his autism? I am not sure if you are asking if they can send him to a different school for the part of the day you want to send instead of his neighborhood school or if you are asking if they can send him to a totally different school for everything, and homeschooling will stop.
I might have just confused you and if so, I'm sorry. No child that is homeschooled around my area is able to go to the school for that much of the day. Things like computer, pe, center time, art, etc are not a special education service, so the public school doesn't owe him that if he is not enrolled. So this may be one reason you are facing opposition. OT and speech are special education related services, so you would be able to take him to the public school for this if this is how the services are set up in your district. That really has nothing to do with your question, but some information you might find useful.
If you are enrolling him as a public school student, MCA2 is totally correct. Sometimes the most appropriate class is not a class at the neighborhood school. But more of the most appropriate class within the district. The way I understand it, it's not your child's homeschool that is charged with provided the least restrictive enviornment. It's your child's district, so long as they have appropriate services that are free and one in which is as least restrictive as possible. Most of the time, districts try to keep kids in their neighborhood schools, but like Karolysgirl said, this is not always possible.
Oh jeez, I missed the homeschool part, sorry, I thought you meant your "home school;" as in your local neighborhood school.
Sorry
Homeschooling and then wanting certain services is a tough road... but there are, I think, many web sites about it... have you looked up homeschooling and autism, and seen if there are any advocacy groups or anyone who's gone through something similar?
The most important thing in trying to get services for a home schooled child is your state's laws. The Federal special education law does not offer individual services to homeschooled or private schooled kids AT ALL except to the extent that some of the "equitable services" money gets spent in a particular place. Typically, this would be granting money to some private school for some reason, but those grants, as long as they represent a certain percentage of the District's total spec. ed. budget, are not required to be given for the benefit of a particular child -- just the privately placed special ed kids, in general. "Privately placed" means kids whose parents are providing their education, either in private schools, parochial schools or at home.
From what I understand, concernedpa is now considering placing her son in the public school and then supplementing his education thru homeschooling activities outside of school hours, correct? We did this and found it to be a very good approach. Of course, after a long school day and doing whatever homework the school assigns, my son is not always up to much more intensive work at home, but we generally do about an hour extra. And an hour a day, one-on-one, is very helpful in pushing the ball forward.