Wake Up!
Community Speaks Out!
Wake up! Read what the community is saying...
"The one
sure way to assure that your child receives the correct services and
accommodations is to KNOW THE LAW. I know it's not fair that we as parents,
have to be legal eagles, but I have found that once you do know the law, it
still takes a long time to get what you need, but you can do it. The other
very important piece of getting sped services is continually document every
single conversation and decision that is made and to make use of all of your
administrative remedies (and there are many). I've always thought it would be
helpful for parents just starting out to be able to read the laws, rephrased
in layman's terms, so they could at the very least, know when the school is
telling them the truth, or not." - NY.
"I am very
happy someone has the resources to try and take this to the next level. My
son has dyslexia. My school has basically no services that would help him.
We have paid privately and he has excelled. And school is amazed. Of course,
they still offer nothing for all the other children. I was told he could if
he wanted to, they brought their attorney to meetings because I was
"adversarial", they repeatedly humiliated my child. So I did get a little
adversarial, went to the school board, complained successfully to the state
when they tried to ignore me. Still, the next child, the next family, will
have the same struggle. Maybe they can afford to pay for private services and
their child will read, may they can't afford it and the school will say "some
kids just can't" Please help all children, all families, educate our
children. None of them are throw-a ways until someone arbitrarily decides
they're not worth the time, trouble or money. Let's go get 'em!" - TX.
"My son is
a 10 years old 4th grader. He has been in special ed since 2nd when I told
the school that he had reading problems. They said he did not qualify for
reading help but they would help him with his poor handwriting. He is now in
4th grade with a reading rate of a first grader and a fluency level in the 2nd
grade. He has trouble reading his own handwriting. Because of this he is not
able to keep up with his grade level curriculum and I often spend hours after
school and on the weekends reading and re-teaching him what he did not learn
at the warehouse, I mean school that he goes to everyday. I have asked for
help all along with no success until this year when I started to learn about
Special Ed law and asking for things that were denied him in the past, all of
a sudden they have a few services to offer my son. This is too little too
late for my son who has a superior IQ of 128 trapped in a brain that can't
read or write. He needs intensive reading remediation now but with the program
he is being taught with it's only going to have him reading at grade level by
the end of 5th or 6th grade if it works. This school has stolen my son's
future which is so unbelievably sad and wrong. Our school district has a fail
rate of 17% on the CA High school exit exam (according to the Orange County
Register). Had this school district taught these kids to read in 2-3 grade
many of these kids who would be receiving their diplomas and would have
different futures ahead for them. Instead these poor readers will be limited
to less of a future because they will not receive their passport to life,
their diplomas. So many will drop out, become criminals, and have lifelong
difficulties because the school failed to teach little Johnnie and all the
rest how to read."- Ca.
I know
that your agenda is about schools saying they don't' have money for special
ed, but all the money is just 'sitting around'.
I'd like
to tell you part of the reason why the money is just sitting there.
This is
my own experience with public school, and to my surprise this has happened
all over the country to MANY parents.
I have 2
daughters that I 'tried' to get help for them through the special ed dept of
the school. In over 8 years of the school 'fighting' with me, and with
documents to prove my point, I have put the pieces together and figured out
what the school is doing. They are using the schools 'intervention team'
which is different from special ed, and making parents think this
'intervention team' IS the 'special education' process, and the parents
don't even catch on to what the school is doing.
It's
complicated, but I'll *try* to make it short. Parents ask schools to do
testing for their child. They usually don't know IDEA laws. So, the school
gets the 'intervention team' to do the testing instead of the special ed
team, which is who IS suppose to do the testing. The school 'tricks' the
parent into thinking the intervention team testing IS the special ed
testing, specified by IDEA laws, because the school tells parents things
like 'child does not qualify for special ed' AFTER the intervention team
testing is done. This is violating laws in so many ways. First of all,
intervention team testing can NOT be done to determine eligibility for
special ed. And parents don't know this. Another thing.. when this
intervention team takes over the testing process, they don't have to give
the parent a copy of 'parents rights' as specified by IDEA, because the
intervention team process is not part of special ed and they don't have to
abide by IDEA laws. So this keeps the parent in the dark about IDEA laws and
the parent thinks the school is doing things legally.
Another
thing is this.. when a parent wants the school to do testing for their
child, the school will tell them the child HAS to go through the
intervention team process first. This is NOT true! No where in the IDEA laws
does it state that a child HAS to go through the intervention team process
first before they can be testing by the special ed dept. and have
the initial eval done that is specified by IDEA laws. Now, if the
'intervention team' wants to decide if the child needs testing to be done
by the education dept, then yes the child DOES have to go thru the
intervention team process first. But, when a PARENT requests the testing
that is specified by IDEA laws, the child does NOT have to go thru the
intervention team process first. AND, the schools will NOT tell parents
this. And, the school will NOT tell parents that they can request the
testing specified by IDEA laws THEMSELVES without their child going through
the intervention team process.
The
parent actually thinks this testing done by the intervention team process IS
the testing that suppose to be done by the special ed dept. as specified by
IDEA laws. So now, the school just got out of doing child find, they didn't
do the initial evaluation at all as specified by IDEA laws, and the school
just tricked the parent into thinking they DID do this so the parent won't
'tell' on them.
Every
time the school has the 'intervention team' to do the testing, they will
usually always say 'child doesn't qualify for special ed' because the
intervention team CAN NOT do testing to determine if the child can qualify
for special ed to start with! Of course they have to say the child doesn't
qualify! Because if they did say the child DOES qualify, some where on down
the road someone is going to find out that the school did the WRONG testing
to determine this!!
But the
parents don't' know this so the school does this anyway.
ALL this
has happened to BOTH of my daughters and so many across the country. Another
thing the school has done to me is this- when I found out about IDEA laws
and requested the initial eval to determine special ed eligibility for my
child, the school actually give me the WRONG parent consent form to sign!
They give me the 'intervention team' testing form to sign. I have proof they
did this. So of course they had to come back and say 'child doesn't qualify
for special ed' because they just did the whole process ILLEGALLY.
Now, I
have sent to my state dept. of education all of my written proof, plus
about 100 other documents, plus an 8 page letter describing all the events
that have happened for just one of my daughters, to explain all the school
has done wrong. NO REPLY. I have also written a letter about all this to the
US dept of education and OSEP. NO REPLY
There is
no one to enforce the schools to follow the IDEA laws and do the whole
special ed process legally, so they keep on doing these things. So, in
getting out of the testing that even shows a child is eligible for special
ed or not, THAT is WHY there is so much money sitting around. Because the
schools are 'tricking' the parents into thinking that they DID do the right
testing to say the child is NOT eligible for special ed services, but in
fact they did NOT do the testing as specified by IDEA laws. So many, many
children across the country don't even get a foot in the door to the special
ed process, when the parent thinks they did.
I have
filed formal state complaints for what the school has done wrong, and in the
states investigation report, they did not even write what the school did
wrong! It is worded in a way that shows the school did right!
I have
been wanting to find a way to let parents know the tricks of schools in
getting out of helping children in the special education process, which is
not even having the child tested to start with! They get out of all of it
from the beginning and the parent has no clue what the school did.
There
are many other things that schools do to keep children out of the special ed
process, but I feel this is the most serious, because the schools are not
even giving the children a chance to see if they qualify for special ed to
start with, which is a violation of child find laws.
If you
could, I would love your comments on this situation. This is rampant all
across the country. Thank you so much for your time and for reading this". -
GA
"I look
forward to helping my child and others who need services that are only
minimally if at all provided beat down the doors of ambivalence. We left
private school to access services we found were ongoing and necessary for our
child. We paid privately and used our insurance as we could, until the funds
ran out. Now we are here and the gates to services were closed. It has taken
me literally 5-6 days a week and evenings learning about learning
disabilities, learning about the testing, the laws, how to navigate the maze,
and how I need to talk to the SPED departments only to find the gate is opened
to allow a trickle of services. Mind you we had been paying privately, it was
working so we thought there should be no issue. We were shocked at the
offering even after we brought to them a team of private doctors and
professionals who had a plan for our child. The public school laughed and told
us they knew better.
Do I want to look the politicians in the eye and ask why do SPED directors
making 6 figure salaries tell us they have to cut funds and will identify less
students because they don't have the money? Yes I do.
Somebody is working hard to keep kids out of Special Ed and not the other way
around. It truly diminishes the good of those who are in the trenches actually
remedying the kids. Why, Why, Why?" - CA.
"This sounds very interesting. I am very passionate about improving the
learning environments for children and especially making it make more sense
for children who have learning issues (whether it be a disability or language
difference or whatever) so they can be empowered and can feel like they can
accomplish themselves to be productive self sufficient people when they grow
up. I think our school systems need to change processes and procedures to fit
the here and now and not keep using the same 1900’s approaches. No matter how
much you know about your issue, it is an everyday struggle with the schools
and the districts. There are so many families and parents who don’t know how
to stand up to the system or even that they can stand up to it and that is
tragic. Tragic for our kids and tragic for our world." - Ca.
"Something
needs to be done. The returned funds could have helped children. Who knows how
many children was left out. The returned funds should be send back... so there
will be "No child left behind". H. P - King City, Mo.
"Dyslexia
is not educational term per the school. We have been trying to get assistance
since Kindergarten -- she's now in 4th grade. We have spent money on
diagnosis, attorneys, and tutors. We finally got her a 504 plan that in its
totality it secured her a set of her books to keep at home.
Meanwhile I am tutoring her at home. There are two standard deviations
between her achievement and IQ. Yet Pinellas County requires that in addition
to this the child must exhibit a "broad cluster" score of less than 85. If
that is the case bright dyslexics are disqualified from getting an IEP." - Fl.
To
add your name..
How can you help?
1) Tell your friends and family
2) Email
this link
http://www.passionsdreams.org/brokenpromises.html
to everyone on your contact list
3) Post it on websites, blogs and
forums
Thanks for your support - every little bit helps.
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