<p>Yesterday a 16 year old girl, shared she recently qualified for an IEP, based on “emotional disability”. Next year she will be taking both an English “resource” class, and an AP English class!</p>
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<p>In K-12 school, special ed kids can get this accommodation (as they should). In college, nobody gets this accommodation. In college, disabled students have to do the same work as the rest of the student population. They might get extra time for tests, they might get to use a keyboard to write essays, they might get a variety of modifications, but they still have to do the same work.</p>
<p>For this reason, college might not be appropriate for your son. If he’s not doing the same work as the other students in high school, how would he be prepared to do the same work in college?</p>
<p>Agree with Cardinal Fang. The “A’s” that he’s achieving are not true “A’s”. It’s time to develop an appropriate plan for his future.</p>
<p>Agree. That was an important distinction I needed to make with my son’s team going into middle school. I no longer wanted him “graded” with accommodations and wanted him “graded” relative to the rest of his class. I needed to understand if he was struggling in anyway in any particular area and there was no way for me to do that if he was getting special treatment and his grades were artificial contexturally. I suspect that the above posters are correct and your son would struggle in college, but before you make that assumption continue to entrench yourself with the schools and teachers to understand what is happening and how your child is performing in the context of his potential future endeavors. It’s good that you are finally questioning all these things! I suspect we’re all behind you 100%.</p>
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<p>I’m afraid that this, more than anything else, will dash his hopes of attending college. Even forgetting that he must take the SATs/ACT, the reading load at college, even for a math major, can be staggering for someone who cannot read past the eighth grade level.</p>
<p>Still, you may find some vocational programs that he might excel in at your local community college. If you can find a fit, then he’ll go to college – just not a four year one.</p>
<p>Hmmm regarding the reading level, I think it would depend on what that means. A dyslexic might read very slowly and test out at reading below their grade level, but have very strong comphrehension and keep up with academic demands…or not. It can mean lots of different things. My son is now in high school so “that” isn’t really measured anymore but well into middle school his standardized reading scores were below average but he moved from 10th percentile in first grade to just below 50th percentile in middle school. He can read now, and his comphrehension and retention are very good… he just reads slow (comparably). He has to spend more time outside of class to make sure he keeps up. The OP needs to understand what that statement means in the context of her child. If he is having difficulty reading and having difficulty interpreting what he does read that is a different situation than having difficulty reading but having no trouble comphrehending what is read.</p>
<p>Agreed, momofthreeboys. Reading scores include reading comprehension (which should be the key one for college level performance) fluency, rate, etc. Students who have trouble with phonetic encoding or decoding but whose comprehension is intact could function with books on tape, etc. Several colleges have a gizmo which scans the text and reads it aloud to the student. This can be available for vision impaired students as well as for students with decoding problems. </p>
<p>That said, reading between the lines, from what the OP has posted, it does sound like her son is a highly motivated young man with a combination of cognitive challenges that may make success at a traditional 4 yr college unlikely. However, a small school that offers a great deal of structure and individualized attention might have something to offer him. I evaluated a student last year who had number of cognitive issues, a lot of structure, curriculum modifications and services at the elementary and secondary school level and who was accepted to a small regional college. He did not meet criteria as “learning disabled”, as it requires an average IQ score, which he did not have (no matter how we assessed it). Nonetheless, the school was willing to accept him and work with him. I dont know if he was successful in school (he would have just finished his freshman year). I have always wondered.</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest that the OP see if there is a special education advocacy group in her area. Given her son’s age and the apparent lack of planning/communication from the school, it could be very helpful to bring someone else on-board to help understand possible options. Middle school testing sounds very old given the student’s current age, and the OP’s lack of familiarity with the special ed process and framework isn’t a good sign at this point. The child also needs to be involved, and both child and parent need to know what they can ask for, what can be refused, and the responsibilities of the school district. Since curriculum modifications have been in place, has there been annual measurement of actual accomplishment? Is the student gaining ground on the reading comprehension front? Losing ground? What options are available for students who wish to continue to receive services through the school district through age 20/21? Another resource would be to contact your local social services department to find out about services and support, including training and education for developmentally disabled adults – if you get connected with the correct social worker, you may get some very helpful advice on further dealings with the school district.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap: “Yesterday a 16 year old girl, shared she recently qualified for an IEP, based on “emotional disability”. Next year she will be taking both an English “resource” class, and an AP English class!”</p>
<p>IEP’s are not just for students with limited intellectual capacity. Very bright kids can and do have IEP’s if they have a condition that requires special modifications or adaptations in order to benefit from a free, appropriate, public education. A hearing-impaired student could easily be enrolled in AP English Lit, and also have an IEP that specifies that a sign language translator will be in each class to translate the teacher’s words, or that the class will be located in a room with a sound amplification system. A student with an emotional disability may have an IEP that allows the student to have an emotional support animal with him or her in class. I’ve seen both of these, and there was no question that the kids in question were very bright. </p>
<p>This isn’t the kind of situation the OP’s child is facing, but since it is a common myth about special ed, I thought it might be helpful to clarify.</p>
<p>I bow to all the entrenched “experts” here. If I had a do-over in life I would study this “stuff” --it’s utterly fascinating. I attributed all my child’s “oddities” when he was very little to being ambidextrous which I guess is kind of unusual but not in dyxlexics. He sure drove the pre-school teachers nuts but now I know why.</p>
<p>arabarb is right on this one.</p>
<p>Repeat-- when was your son’s last physical including an assessment with an optometrist and audiologist? Make sure he doesn’t have a vision issue or a hearing problem which is exacerbating his learning issues. It is sad to learn in retrospect the number of kids with speech and language issues who were reading below grade level due to a mechanical problem. Kids catch up quickly when this stuff is identified very early on… it becomes harder to do (but not impossible) when it’s caught in HS.</p>
<p>The disability is not “trumpeted” on every page of the IEP…AND IEPs are not distributed willy nilly around the school. They are confidential documents. The disability is on ONE page only…not over and over.I agree, most families do not want to have “rubbed in their face” and I agree with that also. BUT the family SHOULD know what their child’s disability is…regardless of whether it’s stated on the IEP or not.</p>
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Arabrab:
I am assuming you are referring to a stuffed animal, not a live one</p>
<p>I fully agree that if the OP has questions or concerns about her son’s IEP and/or educational program, she should look for a special education advocate to help her understand the process better. In addition, federal and state laws require TRANSITION planning…planning for what is going to happen after high school…once a child reaches the age of 14. This is a requirement of the IEP process, and is something the parents can and should understand. The team which includes the family…can look at multiple options for this young man as he prepares for life after high school. All options are on the table. The school team should be HELPING this youngster realize his highest potential, and career goals. That is not an unreasonable thing to be doing.</p>
<p>There is some kind of post high school option for every student…in fact multiple options. These should be researched for this young man.</p>
<p>“JYM626 I am assuming you are referring to a stuffed animal, not a live one.”</p>
<p>No, actually. These are live animals (at least the ones I’ve seen have been live.) Usually a small dog that might sit quietly in the child’s lap. We’re required to automatically allow service animals (which these technically aren’t) but under ADA we’re also required in most circumstances to allow emotional support animals, though there are a few more restrictions.</p>
<p>At schools I’ve been at we’ve had a seizure alert dog for a teacher, a dog trained to alert for blood sugar problems in a teenager with brittle diabetes, and at least two emotional support animals for students with some kind of anxiety disorder. The animals have always been very well behaved, other kids really like the animals – which creates a nice opportunity for social interaction between kids that might otherwise not interact a whole lot – and we never had any problem with allergies among the other kids. If a child has allergies, we physically separate the child with allergies as far as we can from the child with the dog. In reality, it was much less difficult than what we had to do the year we had a child with a life-threatening latex allergy when no balloons could be a school at any time, all of the exam gloves had to be changed out for latex-free ones, and quite a bit of PE equipment had to be replaced.</p>
<p>Thumper, what are some post-high school options that typically appropriate for young men such as the OP’s son, assuming that his cognitive disabilities preclude college? This kid, according to what the OP says, has a lot going for him. He needs to find a situation where he can utilize his strengths: persistence and the tendency to challenge himself.</p>
<p>There are numerous options…some kind of apprenticeship or mentorship program, technical college in a field of interest (I’ve know students who weren’t great readers who were terrific doing more manipulative jobs), college in a supportive environment (there are schools with programs for students with developmental disabilities), job coaching situations. </p>
<p>The key is to look at the student’s strengths and interests, not the student’s weaknesses and disability. If the student has strengths and interests (and most do) these can be used to build a career path for him. What does this student do well at? What is interesting to HIM? What level of support does he need or not need?</p>
<p>arabrab-
It never ceases to amaze me how varied the regional differences are re: the range of accomodations that would be considered for students. I have never heard of therapy dogs in classrooms here. I’ve had adult patients with therapy dogs, but none in classroom settings. I could see poeple here raising the “I’m allergic” response to that.</p>
<p>The animal “thing” is interesting given the “allergy” sensitivites these days. I was surprised when my son told me there was a kid in his class that had an adult that went from class to class with him. This was an Aspie kid when my son was in middle school that was prone to being disruptive and unfocused so the adult was there to “help” him . Funny story is that my son got to know him when the kid “stabbed” my son, who sat in front of him, with a pencil for no reason…they sorta/kinda had a friendly detente over the course of that year. I had never heard of a “helper adult” like that.</p>