What purpose would this serve? | Autism PDD

Glad you have current evaluations. I guess that you will have to see what happens at the IEP meeting (I think you call them ARP meetings).

I think it goes:
You know, it always seems to go
that you don't know what you've till its gone.
They paved paradise and put in a parking lot.

Incidentally in my school district a PDD-NOS diagnosis will get you a 504 plan. Probably illegal to deny the IEP, but that's what we got. Here's hoping that you'll do better.
Hmmm, a tough one, sharlet does act different at school too, but she doesn't have any noticeable change in actual skills or academic function. I find it very hard to believe your ds is intentionally manipulating you, It sounds like the teacher doesn't know much about ASD to me. I have found the odd person working with Sharlet sort of exaggerates what she can do, and I have even seen people doing assessments give her passes when it was obvious to me she had failed. Their reasoning that they believe she can do it. I'm not sure why people do this, but I am interested in peoples experiences.

edited to add that I agree with Kristy, you should go in and observe, if they say he can do math at school tell them you want to see for yourself.
Allegra39339.948287037

Michelle,

You'll never know for sure until you see it for yourself! Set up a time next week to do a classroom observation. Usually they will let you observe for 60 - 90 minutes. Be specific about what you want to see. For example, you might wish to say that you'd like to see your son doing math, and also see him functioning in both large group and small group activities. You may wish to coordinate this with your special education supervior / learning specialist (whoever is in charge of SpEd at your school) and ask that this person observe with you. Then afterward you can debrief on what you saw. I'd give it a shot and go from there.

Well, my fear is that they're going to try to remove services. Ds is in 5th grade. We moved over the summer and are now in a new school district.

Woodman, it very well COULD be the case with ds --- BUT we have all the data from years prior that he wasn't "getting it" in class either. That's why he had the supports that he did in class. They did testing on him last year to see where he was. He's at about a 3rd grade level in math. I sat and thought about what you said for awhile last night. I'm sure some of that could come into play with him. Especially about just being done for the day. But, yesterday afternoon after talking to that teacher, I asked him to come do some work with me. I enticed him by telling him if he works as hard as he can, that I will play video games with him. You have no idea what a motivator that is for him. Besides the fact that ds gets soooo proud of himself when he does well and gets something right. I took some random problems from the homework yesterday. We had the exact same results. Now he did do a little better when I made up work and gave him numbers like 15 rounded to the nearest 10. He would start to answer those incorrectly, but catch himself.

So, I'm just curious how this school -- who DOES NOT have their act together -- managed to "cure" my ds of all the issues in 2 1/2 weeks.

This is the same school where the speech pathologist told me that my ds had no signs of autism at all. This was the 2nd day of school and she had only met with him for 10 minutes. Here in TX we take the TAKS test. DS has never taken the TAKS test before. He's always taken the alternative test. Well, TX has made some changes. Now everyone is taking the TAKS test. There will be some mods available to him I think. But, this school seems to be very heavily test oriented. The teacher did make a comment that all 5th graders have to learn the 5th grade curriculum because of the test.

I just don't know. I am sooo mad right now for messing everything up for him. This move was for his future. (we needed a bigger house -- BUT this house has attached quarters that will be his if he needs it as an adult) We were in the perfect school district before we moved. :(

Michelle

[QUOTE=Michelleb]

So, I'm just curious how this school -- who DOES NOT have their act together -- managed to "cure" my ds of all the issues in 2 1/2 weeks.

[/QUOTE]
You should have kept your old house, rented it out, and then used it as a mail drop to retain residency in the old SD. Probably illegal, but my response is colored by what I hear folks do in the large sprawling city where I live...

We both know that if there were a 2 1/2 week cure for autism, the inventor of the cure would be so rich that Bill Gates would be his gardener. Probably the only thing to do is get some outside evaluations. This can cost, but it maybe the only way to get an unbiased assessment. Our SD SLP took my elder son's face in her hand, turned it to her face in front of me, and then had the nerve to tell us in a later IEP meeting that he faces a speaker.

A lower cost, but slower option, is to wait for the glowing evaluation, and then if you disagree with it, and ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation at school district expense. Wait for approval on that, (or wait out the time limit for reply) and then do the assessments. The details of the process appear to be location dependent so seek out local advise. Also, since you just moved you could try stating that since the SD is not implementing the IEP as written while they are reassessing to create their own placement, you will implement the IEP privately and send them the bills. (need to wait out a time to reply here as well, also legal advise would be good). None of these thing will put you on good terms with the SD, so how you approach this is also a matter of personal style. Some advocates seem to work with the SD no matter what, and some walk softly and carry a big stick. I don't know what works --- only what does not.

Ds has all current evals.

He also has a medical dx for PDD-NOS. He also has a genetic syndrome, epilepsy, etc.... We took him to the MIND Institute just this past Feb. for full evaluations. (This is to add to our evals by local psychologists and the TX Childrens Hospital)

We only moved within our city so no need for any new evals by the current school district. He has had full evals for the 3 year review within the last school year. So, this school district has ALL the info and data they need on him. But, for whatever reason..... Since we moved in state they can accept the current eval from our other school district, don't need to do any of their own.

I will not agree to a new ARD meeting with them until they implement the comparable services for a full 30 days. We'll see how this goes. I've been through this before. :) Well, not quite to this extent. What's that saying?? You don't know what you had until it's gone?? lol

Two very different interpretations of the same situation. At this point I would not know which is correct. My interpretation is colored by how my school district has treated me in the past.
Dad2Luke&Alan39339.8414583333You asked why the school would exaggerate your child's abilities. I would imagine that it is a start to denying services as being no longer needed, and then blaming the resultant lack of progress on the parents, and the student. By the time the excrement hits the impeller, the teacher who did this is no longer in the picture.

If you have time, you might check out Wright's Law site (www.wrightslaw.com) for their article "The Blame Game" (or similar title).

I think that "highly qualified teachers" is a phrase from the No Child Left Behind Act. But tzoya would be a better authority. I must say at least for me I was a different person in school then out of school. I expended all my energy at school, and once school was done I wanted to relax and play. HW does not allow for this, and as well as I did in school, doing class work, HW was a struggle, my parents would sit with me and every night I would whine and cry and it would take a while do complete even the simplest task.

I think you sons problem is that in school he truly gets it because, and its hard to explain, but help is avalible and since they just taught the way to acomplish the work, its fresh in his mind, so he appears to do well in class, but at home, the info is old, or steps forgotton, add to the fact that he feels he is done with work since he has been at school for 6 hrs and now he has to work still, it becomes, at least for me at that time, unberrible, and the result is a meltdown.

I think me and your son are very similar, at least at that age, it sounds like we had the same issues. I dont beleive hes putting on a show, my parents had the same complaints as you did, and although your school may have issues (and i hope you get them solved) it is the student (your son and at that age me) having the difficulty.

Update:

The teacher called me in response to the note I sent her letting her know of the difficulties ds had with the homework.

The conversation started with her telling me that ds KNOWS how to do this. He does it at school with no problem. She tried to say that ds was lying/acting/tricking us. Let me say that if this is the case, his "performance" was worthy of an Oscar last night. She then said that maybe ds just doesn't like working with me or dh at all. She then used info I told her yesterday against us. I told her we were having behvior troubles at home and that he has had meltdowns when coming home from school.

She then tried to say that we got him emotionally distraught and then made him do the homework. Which is not the case. He had some wind down time afterschool. He never once got upset during the homework --- just didn't understand the concept.

She then told me that there is a program available afterschool (daycare) where he could complete his homework and then we wouldn't have to worry about it.

She also confirmed that ds is not in a co-teach math class like he is supposed to be. She also said that there was no co-teach class available. That is in direct conflict with his IEP. So, I will be handling that.

I also found out from one of our advocates that this particlar elementary school is the worst in the district for special ed. They've had 4 lawsuits against them and an incident of handcuffing an 8yo hfa student they pushed into a meltdown.

I am just floored because I THOUGHT I had done our homework before we moved. Now everyone is coming out of the woodwork with this information. I have also confirmed it with internet searches. :(

What purpose would it serve teachers to either fudge your childs behaviors or abilities?? If they exaggerate how well he is doing both behaviorally and academically, doesn't this in effect punish the teachers in the long run??

We started in a new school district ---- very unhappy with it. But, ds is having major meltdowns when he gets home from school. Literally the second he walks in the door, it starts here. He's very defiant, aggressive, etc.... It also starts when I wake him up in the morning.

The school says his behavior has been absolutely wonderful. We've been in school for 3 weeks. I find it so hard to believe that he has been so horrible here at home and then no hint of trouble at school. at all. At this point his behavior has usually started to show at school.

Also, what about exaggerating his academic abilities to me??? Just yesterday I got to speak to his special ed. teacher for the first time. I told her homework wasn't coming home with him. The one piece he did bring to me last week, he just didn't understand. It was graphing in math and all of his answers were totally from left field. She was totally unaware. She then told me that he did great today because they were working on place value and rounding.

Well, he brought home the work. It took him to 2 hours to complete the 20 problems. That was with my dh and I sitting with him and reteaching each problem step by step. He did not get it at all.

This is for Tzoya ---- this district is supposed to be providing comparable services until we write his new IEP. He is to be in a co-teach classroom for math. His ratio on the autism supplement is to be 2:18 in his classes. He is in a classroom with 1:24 in math. I heard there was an aide in the math class. That is not a co-teach classroom. Co-teach is one certified general ed teacher and one special-ed teacher. Am I to understand then, that they are out of compliance with comparable services? Also with the highly qualified teacher guidelines from IDEA?

I am getting really frustrated with all that's going on. This is really just the tip of the iceberg so far.

Michelle