You have the right to ask for what is known as the "District Plan." This is a list of all the special education classes offered by your District anywhere in the District. The Administration must keep this on file. You have the right, as a parent, to fully participate in the development of your child's IEP. In order to fully participate, you must have access to the same information as the other members of the IEP Team have. That means they MUST give you information about what is generally available WITHIN the District. Also, what is available OUTSIDE the District. Without information, you cannot be expected to be able to fully participate.
It is REQUIRED that schools perform Functional Behavioral Assessments on kids who are disruptive or have other behavioral issues. And THEN to develop and implement a positive Behavior Intervention Plan that MUST be followed by all teachers and staff. If the teachers and staff don't know how to do this, they MUST get trained by a professional who DOES understand. This is the law, not some nicety.
Of course, the bottom line on what constitutes an appropriate environment for YOUR child depends on whether or not your child can actually MAKE PROGRESS in a given placement. Grace has the right to be educated "in the least restrictive environment in which, given appropriate supports and services, the child is able to make educational progress." LRE for Grace may or may not be where she is now. This is where parent advocacy is the rubber that meets the road. Learn all you can about how to advocate for your child. And getting your special ed info from the secretary or learning what your rights are from the school is not going to lead you down the right path. Become a daily visitor at www.wrightslaw.com and also purchase Pete and Pam Wright's excellent book, From Emotions to Advocacy. It does not matter what school district you live in. ALL school districts develop both good IEPs and bad ones. So we parents MUST learn the way to get the best IEPs we can from whatever school district we're in.
[QUOTE=NYMommyof3]You already got some got advice, but I also did want to reassure you that your child won't be turned away from school if she isn't potty trained. My son is in pullups and we still have a long road ahead with it.
[/QUOTE]
In the event that my Grace is still in diapers (I do have some hope that somehow she won't be but I realize it will more than likely be the case) how exactly do they change diapers in a public school setting? I can't imagine a regular teacher being o.k. with changing diapers. What about the other children, I can guess "normal" children would tease or make jokes.....how does this get handled?
They actually have a changing table type thing in one of the bathrooms next to the classroom at my sons school.
When the kids are being potty trained our aide will close the door of the bathroom letting people know it's in use.
Is your daughter being put in a special ed class or just jumping to a regular class right away?
The reason why I'm asking is I'm sure a special ed teacher totally understand and probably dosnt bother them changing diapers at times.
[QUOTE=MamaKat]Hire a lawyer, get an advocate and GO NUTS!!!
What this school is doing to you is illegal. [/QUOTE]
I agree, but that's all I get.......everyone that I speak to tells me how illegal it is but nobody helps. I've done soooo much research on my own but when I start talking about it I hear "Thats not how we do things here"........I'm like WHAT? I find it hard to believe my child is the only Autistic child in my County, where are all the other Autistic children at? How do I find them?
[QUOTE=mishy]They actually have a changing table type thing in one of the bathrooms next to the classroom at my sons school.
When the kids are being potty trained our aide will close the door of the bathroom letting people know it's in use.
Is your daughter being put in a special ed class or just jumping to a regular class right away?
The reason why I'm asking is I'm sure a special ed teacher totally understand and probably dosnt bother them changing diapers.
[/QUOTE]
I will describe my daughters school like this:
It is a big brick building with 2 rooms. 1 room is special needs pre-school and 1 room is a regular pre-school. This year they combined the 2 rooms so now it is just called a pre-school. It is a public facility, but not a school like k-12, the pre-school is the only class in the building. This building is located behind our County's Technical School. There are 4 Teachers. 2 Special Needs and 2 Regular Teachers.
Next Year my daughter will go into a full-blown public school. Pre-K - 8th grade. My sons started pre-school there and they are in 6th & 7th grade now. Very small County school, we live out in the County.
It does not seem right. You have been given some good advice, just want to add that I hope things work out well for you and Grace just wish we don't have to through this with the various school systems.
Concernedpa.
[QUOTE=KaKingsbury][QUOTE=mishy]They actually have a changing table type thing in one of the bathrooms next to the classroom at my sons school.
When the kids are being potty trained our aide will close the door of the bathroom letting people know it's in use.
Is your daughter being put in a special ed class or just jumping to a regular class right away?
The reason why I'm asking is I'm sure a special ed teacher totally understand and probably dosnt bother them changing diapers.
[/QUOTE]
I will describe my daughters school like this:
It is a big brick building with 2 rooms. 1 room is special needs pre-school and 1 room is a regular pre-school. This year they combined the 2 rooms so now it is just called a pre-school. It is a public facility, but not a school like k-12, the pre-school is the only class in the building. This building is located behind our County's Technical School. There are 4 Teachers. 2 Special Needs and 2 Regular Teachers.
Next Year my daughter will go into a full-blown public school. Pre-K - 8th grade. My sons started pre-school there and they are in 6th & 7th grade now. Very small County school, we live out in the County.
[/QUOTE]
I wonder if they have special ed class though that she might be in. Our school is 4k-6th grade and my son's in the EC/4K.
I also want to add that I talked to the Secretary at the public school Grace will attend next year and she told me that while there are children with Disabilities at this school they are for the most part very functional, not like Grace. She also explained that with children in the past they would provide some type of assistance but if the childs disability is too disruptive then the child will not go there. I asked the Secretary "Where do they go?" and she replied that she had no idea!
If we could, we would move right now!
Absolutely. And potty goals need to BE on the IEP.[QUOTE=mishy]My son also attends preschool/early childhood in our local public school system. I totally understand hating to see your kid in diapers at school. But that's what we are going thru here to.[/QUOTE]
Is your child in a regular school now or a special needs pre-school?
The class he attends is called Early Childhood Special Education it's kinda like a special needs preschool. But the class is held at our local elementary school so he does go to a regular school.
You already got some got advice, but I also did want to reassure you that your child won't be turned away from school if she isn't potty trained. My son is in pullups and we still have a long road ahead with it.
Hire a lawyer, get an advocate and GO NUTS!!!
I've been dealing with this for a while, but I've got nowhere!
I live in Alabama, NorthEast, in Marshall County. My daughter is in her 2cnd year at the Special Needs pre-school which this year they just changed into a regular pre-school with 2 Teachers from the Special Needs pre-school. Grace (my daughter) is the only child with Autism. There are 3 other children with disabilities, but none have Autism....one has down-syndrome.
Grace was suppost to go 4 days a week from 7:45a.m. - 2:15p.m Tuesday-Friday but right off they changed it to just Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8:00a.m. - 11:00a.m. same as last year which is very hard since we live 40 minutes one way from the school......I drive Grace to school, turn around come home, then right back to pick her up!
Grace didn't get an I.E.P., and when I brought it up the Teachers said she wouldn't until next year when she starts at her public school(same school our sons go to) which will be pre-school. I've got mixed responses on this. I spoke with the President of the Alabama Autism Society whom told me Grace should have gotten an I.E.P. and she would have an Advocate contact us......but we never heard a word!
Now we're almost 1 month into this school year which right away Grace has gotten sick and also has an eye stye so she's missed over 6 days. I'm just soooo frustrated because she goes sooo little that I don't believe she gains anything from it. My County does nothing for summer breaks and next year Grace will be thrown into a public school setting on a 1 1/2 year old level - except for fit throwing and meltdowns.......she's like a 14 year old girl in this area.....she almost broke my nose the other day!!!!
Did I mention Grace is not potty trained? How can she go into a public school in diapers? Grace has a compulsion with water and anytime she poopys she smears it all over her body......or anyone standing in reach!!!
Please tell me what to do next! I bring up all the Laws and try to get my point across about what my child is suppost to recieve but to date.....it falls on deaf ears!
As long as Grace is at least 3 years old, she MUST have an IEP, according to FEDERAL law. Below are the contacts for legal advice (private pay) in ALabama. I got them from www.copaa.org These are reliable folks.My son also attends preschool/early childhood in our local public school system. I totally understand hating to see your kid in diapers at school. But that's what we are going thru here to.