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<p>That is garbage. A school MUST provide special education services to ALL students an IEP team agrees needs those services. The school district CAN NOT have a limited number of IEP “spots”. In fact…an IEP must be written based on what the student NEEDS…not on what the district HAS.</p>
<p>Interesting, it’s a public school, but I know that it was mentioned at the very beginning of the saga that if they tested and accepted by son into speded it would mean there wasn’t a spot for another kid…so I figured that maybe there were limited spots in each district. The outcome didn’t change because they did accpept my son way back then and have accepted him each time he was retested, but interesting that there may not be a limit. If there are a ton of kids to they just go out and hire more speded teachers? Or do you suppose that was this principal’s “vision” of what adding more speded kids meant (that he might have to get another teacher)?</p>
<p>Don’t you think a school which is perpetuating untrue statements like this isn’t really interested in parents knowing the laws and their rights?</p>
<p>I feel inclined to be fair to my own local school district. I think they are basically good people, struggling with limited resources, and I try to be respectful of that. When I encourage a parent to persue something, it’s because I believe that child will truly benefit, but knowing that the resources for it have to come from SOMEwhere. I try not to be frivolous in my recommendations, and I try to maintain a working relationship with the people who can get things done.</p>
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<p>Believe me…there are not quotas for special education identifications at a school. I can’t believe ANYONE would tell a parent this. It’s just hogwash.</p>
<p>Fully agree with Thumper1. Special ed caps are flat out illegal at public schools – including public charter or magnet schools --anywhere in the USA. Districts are absolutely not allowed to use an excuse that they have a certain “budget” for special education as a reason to limit services. (And, in the case of many small school districts, they group together to get special ed services through a BOCES – sometimes as a cost-sharing model, sometimes just to get expertise that they can’t individually afford to support.)</p>
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<p>Well…IF there were a “ton” of kids needing special education, the district would have to figure out a WAY to service them…and yes, that could mean adding teachers and programs.</p>
<p>BUT if there are a ton of special education kids and they exceed the %age that is typical in your state, the STATE will ask why that is the case. They will want to know about your instruction for regular education students and they will want to know if your district is OVER identifying special education students who may not really BE special education students (yes, this happens…a very wealthy, high profile district in this state got their hand slapped for over identifying students at the secondary level…%age was over double the average in the state, and this is a wealthy, full of professional people district). A district near mine got questioned because their numbers of speech/language disabled students was twice the state average. </p>
<p>BUT in reality…there are not quotas. If a student needs services, the district is required to provide them at no charge to the parents.</p>
<p>Interesting. I didn’t really give it a thought all those years ago. I’m guessing it was a random, unthought comment that meant something different than what was said. It always stuck in my head because at that point in time I was listening very carefully to what everyone was saying about my son.</p>
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Actually, it’s not, though not in the way it’s mentioned here. NOT because of limited resources for special ed. kids, but because it looks bad/is not politically correct if your school has too many special ed. kids. Our district has thrown roadblock after roadblock in the way (think procedural things - like paperwork has to be submitted to principal, then up to Area Superintendent, then back to Principal, then 6 weeks or so of extra tutoring/remediation for the kid, then back to Principal, then back to Area Superintendent, then, ooops, the school year is ending so the whole matter gets dropped!). Why? Because “too many” african-american males have been identified at our school as ED or special ed, and because “too many” kids in general have been identified as special ed. (No accounting for the fact that our population is 98% low-income kids mostly from seriously chaotic homes with homelessness, domestic abuse, neglect, absent/jailed parents, child abuse, etc.) So there is not a chance in hell of getting a kid the help he/she needs and/or getting a Special Ed. designation unless he/she is so seriously mentally delayed that he/she can barely function or a serious and constant hazard to others. (And there are several of those students at our school who are STILL not identified as Special Ed. For example, one of them is in 3rd grade and functions on the level of a 5-year-old with serious emotional disturbances including soiling his pants…)</p>
<p>That is so sad because early intervention is so key. I’m hijacking this thread which is bad but the “conversation” is interesting. It wasn’t easy in the beginning and despite the teachers that lobbied the principal and the GC that lobbied the principal, the initial take away was that some kids are just slow starters and catch up by 4th grade. I did decide to have my son evaluated by a professional in the nearby university town over the summer more for my peace of mind and sent the principal an e-mail and that is when they called me and told me they would prefer to do the eval. I would say to any young parent who has a concern about their child to persist even if they have to go outside the system for the diagnosis. I’m sure all sorts of things go on behind the scene as anxiousmom is illustrating and perhaps the schools put up a hurdle just to see if you are serious or trying to take advantage of the system or who knows. I’m glad to know that there isn’t a limit, because as each time his IEP was renewed I had a twinge of guilt that my son was taking the place of someone who had a less engaged family, or somehow a greater need, although I’ll always be greatful to everyone at our schools.</p>
<p>I found this thread interesting, and thought I’d bump it up. I wonder what is going on with the OP’s son now?</p>
<p>Thanks, bluealien, thanks a lot; my blood pressure shot up rereading the first page of the thread again!! I’d forgotten about this thread, and hope the OP’s son is having a better school year this year.</p>
<p>Now I have to go find some nails to gnaw on or a tree to topple or some such!!! Or the kid’s teacher from last year – maybe whacking him with a clue by four will settle me down some!</p>
<p>Thumper’s earlier post: In fact…an IEP must be written based on what the student NEEDS…not on what the district HAS. </p>
<p>Agreed: That’s the law and that’s the ideal.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in practice…well…my experience in our co-op is that the IEP <em>team</em> (or at least the school’s portion of the team…) offers what they already have available. If that’s not what your child NEEDS, let’s hope you are a very persistent parent. “Well, let’s just try this and see if it works.” Sure, even though we all agree alternative #2 is much better. By the time we can reconvene to determine that way doesn’t work, 2/3 to 3/4 of the school year will have passed.</p>
<p>My children’s actual sped ed personnel in the school have been fairly good, although overworked and drowning in paperwork. However, the administrative level (and decision makers) would be better labeled as gate-keepers.</p>
<p>I carried a 3.8 GPA at a Community College in Northern California above Santa Rosa area for two years or four semesters until a new counselor at the Disabled Students Office decided to make her own diagnoses regarding my disabilities and had me sign a paper stating she would personally have my instructors sign my accommodations letters herself in person and told me not to worry about it. Instead for two semesters, she and another woman who was a stalker at best went to my instructors and lied stating I wasn’t disabled and not to allow accommodations behind my back. They were caught, the counselor resigned when my doctor sent a letter to the college who called a special meeting to have all the “F” grades that resulted changed to “W” for Withdrawal. One teacher even threatened my nurse physically who was so afraid to assist me during class that my nurse stood outside the classroom and waited in case she was needed by me. Then the stalker took some of the same courses and would stand up and address the entire class and state I was not disabled and was only trying to use sympathy to gain higher grades and accused me of cheating which she did in several classes several times. This stalker also worked at the learning center and lied and told me that the finals for two courses weren’t dropped off by the instructors purposely refusing to give me the exams which resulted in failing grades as well. The stalker and some of the instructors, especially the one who threatened my nursing assistant is still there and pretty much nothing else was done. The college was so afraid I would sue them they hired an attorney group and a private detective to try and discredit me and only made a fool out of himself. I also caught the financial aid office of receiving kick backs and commissions from the big student loan companies for signing up students for student loans and found them very lacking in helping with the Cal-Grant and other financial aid grants I should have qualified for after one worker openly admitted the kickbacks to me which the supervisor overheard and yelled at the employee for telling the truth and told her never to talk about that again.</p>
<p>They know who they are!!! It took a lot of persistence and a very good counselor at the Student Disabilities office (Who is awesome) who helped straighten these things out but I still had to pay the college loans back for the courses I was wrongfully graded for. The stalker was even able to access the system and changed some of my grades which were again reversed from failing to where originally at a B. </p>
<p>Teachers, counselors or even Deans have no business diagnosing anything!!! One Dean even threatened to expel me forever if I was caught using a electric wheelchair on campus and I ended up with pulmonary embolisms to both lungs after trying to walk too far and was given less than two hours to live at the ER. I made it but since I have no qualms about telling the truth about these colleges and their outright discrimination towards the disabled. I couldn’t find one attorney willing to even listen to my case because the college was also known for retribution.</p>
<p>A good college that does not diagnose the disabled and accommodate without allowing instructors to make their own diagnoses as well in how they respect the accommodations letters are worth their weight In college loans but be careful in choosing a good college if you are disabled because regardless you still have to pay back the college loans.</p>
<p>I think he was or is in the wrong school I’m mildly mentally handicapped, I have never met teachers who downgraded me, I fought hard to be where I’m at now, I think Jonathan has a great heart and he’s fighting to get to the top. Jonathan deserves to be what he wants, to me I think those teachers and counselor a needs to go back to the college they came from that taught them how to be a teacher cause its obvious that they don’t know how to be teachers. I’m sorry Jonathan was talked down like that. I know what he’s going through, it took me awhile to get where I’m at now. I had to go through three different schools to find the right classes so i can be up with my class. Finally I found a school who ha everything I needed, they set me up with voce rehab, I got the opportunity to learn about how to get Honda and how to be in my own, I’m still living with parents but I’m farther than where I used to be. So I give Jonathan all thumbs up and Jonathan keep it up, your a great guy, your smarter than those teachers show them how it’s done. I hope I was a little help but to answer your question, there’s job corps all around, one is in Chadron, one is in Denison Iowa, I hope that was a little helpful but I wish you a great day, good luck to you and Jonathan. I hope you guys find what he needs and te best teachers he needs, I wish you and Jonathan luck.</p>
<p>Please use old threads only for information.</p>