Hi guys. I’m so upset. I need your help. This is my son’s first year in college and the community college that he is attending now over promised services and is now failing. This college supposedly offered up in person Notaker, since my son has a learning disability, and is unable to write legibly. he is now failing his class. we have already passed the deadline to drop the class. I may sound like a very irresponsible parent, but I can assure you I am not. I have tried to be very understanding of the community college given how everyone has been impacted by Covid at a very high cost to my son. When theythey were not able to provide the in person, no taker, they offer to install a software on his laptop that would hide light the text and it would read it back to him and also he would be able to record lectures. for a specific class, he is not able to use the software because the presentation is locked. For some reason he cannot use the software on it. My son, because he’s not able to advocate for himself never told me and was doing the best he could. let me tell you there is another piece to this since he is autistic. The regional center was funding 90 hours a month for a coach to attend college with him. I found out a week ago that this person was never present during class, he left my son alone, and was ultimately fired, I just found out two days ago. My son has a D in his history class I found out he was not able to read the material I found out the coach never took notes I found out in order to get any material given to him in PDF. I have to request for a special software to be installed on my sons computer, but that takes time which I don’t have now I’m just trying to get him to drop the class without it affecting him I don’t know who to contact in the college, I didn’t attend college myself and I don’t know how to verbally speak to them in a way that they will understand where I’m coming from. I just don’t know what to do or what department to go to. Please help me my son deserves better he’s stressed out he does not want to sell and he’s blaming himself for this. Excuse my writing.
Your first course of action has to be contacting the Disabilities Office. Is there documentation that he was supposed to have these accommodations?
I suggest getting in touch with the Dean and any advisors you can, including staff at the Disability Office. Email, call, and go in in person. You’ll probably need to accompany him to any meetings, if you’re allowed to.
Perhaps a medical withdrawal is possible. If indeed they didn’t give him the accommodations he was entitled to, that seems grounds to withdraw or have the grades wiped from his record. Then he can try starting over. And it seems that you will have to stay on top of things going forward.
It might be beneficial for him to get some additional help, if you can afford it, before he goes back to college. It does seem as though this first semester is a wash. I hope he can get his grades wiped out. Good luck.
I agree with everything Linda suggested. Get the Dean of Students involved.
Absolutely agree.
Also, when I referred my LD students to this office, I always suggested that the parents put up a notice, at the career center, offering a “job” as a “personal assistant”. The PA would often be a another student at the CC, with strong grades, who would be willing to monitor the student’s progress, on a weekly basis, and receive a stipend (books, or Gift cards) per semester. The family would have to be responsible for the time sheet and signature, as witnessed in the DO, by a student intern. The office staff often agreed to that.
I’m sorry that you’ve had shoddy follow-through on the part of the CC, but now that you know the level of care he requires, you can stay on top of it. Contact the Regional Center staff and let them help you to intervene on his behalf.
Good luck!
He should be able to get a withdrawal from the class but it will probably include a W on his transcript. This is okay but try to get a withdrawal without the W. Proper accommodations were not provided, assuming he was registered with the Office of Disabilities/Acessible Education Office.
Given his autism and learning disability, it is reasonable for you to advocate for him by contacting the dean, head of student affairs, whoever handles these things. Start by asking who to talk with and go from there.
Good luck!
They absolutely can grant a late withdrawal - don’t let them tell you otherwise.
My very-dyslexic nephew tried to take an ASL class at community college. He immediately had difficulty because the teaching and testing were relying heavily on captioning, and he could not read the captions fast enough, much less simultaneously take in the ASL. He requested accommodations - copies of the videos in order to pause/replay as needed, and/or having the captions read to him. Instructor saw any deviation from his standard teaching methods as an affront to his own disability. (Side note: I know that many Deaf people do not consider themselves to be disabled; I’m just trying to paraphrase what this particular instructor expressed.) Disability services urged my nephew to stick it out and assured him that accommodations would be worked out, but they were not. After a truly unnecessary amount of drama, they acknowledged that he hadn’t been accommodated and granted him a late drop (with no W). (He later took ASL at his 4-year school, with a more helpful instructor, and did just fine.)
Are there other CC’s in your area? Some are much worse than others; it might be worth shopping around if you’re having to fight this hard for the accommodations your son is entitled to.
@aquapt we ran into a similar situation with our local community college. I had helped my kid register with the Disability Office initially but kid did not reregister as I had suggested. When a problem arose, did get the withdrawal retroactively but it came with a W because she had not registered with the DO. And no refund!