Last post Mon, Apr 21 2008 9:04 AM by nancycccslp. 1 replies.
This looks really great!
I have a question for Nancy Stein. If your child is in an IEP program and you don't like something on their IEP, how do you go about getting it changed? A friend has a son who is Autistic and she doesn't like the method of discipline his IEP outlines, but the school doesn't want to change it and says it is for the safety of other students.
This is a great question. In a nutshell; do parents have any recourse if they disagree with their Committee on Special Education? What rights do they have? And, can their child be penalized if the parents don't agree to the Committee's findings and refuse to sign off on the recommendations?
And what if an IEP has already been implemented and the parents have issues, either with the goals or with the way they are being implemented? Are you "stuck" for a year? Simply put, you are not stuck. An IEP must be evaluated NO LESS THAN yearly, but can always be revisited if either the school or the parent is dissatisfied with the progression of the year. A phone call with a request for a meeting is all the parent should have to do. If that request is not responded to adequately, a registered letter to the Chairperson of the Committee for Special Education for your district should do the trick.
My suggestion is always to try to work with the school district initially to find a compromise. I tell parents to go to meetings not only with a list of what they are unhappy about, but also with a list of ideas/what they would like to see. If a parent has complaints but also suggestions on how to make the situation better, then the district is often more "available" to make changes and try new approaches. An open mind is also a "must;" an in-depth description of the behavioral techniques being used may be enough to assuage the concerns of parents. Parents have the right to completely understand what is being done with their child, and why. In my own experience, concerns by parents have often been put to rest merely by losing some of the "jargon" and simply talking to the parents about their child and what is being done. The CSE process can be absolutely overwhelming for parents; that meeting may be very intense with a great deal of information being handed to the parents all at once. There is NOTHING WRONG with telling a district that you need a bit of time to process all of this; can we reconvene next week?
But what if you still can't reach a compromise? For more specific answers, let's refer to the official legislation that gives children the right to special education services. I'm referring to PL 94-142 (enacted in 1975), updated in 1997 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which was itself last updated in 2004. Without going through every line of the documents, I'm going to focus on the rights of parents in a dispute. If you have a dispute with your district and you cannot resolve it, a parent has EVERY RIGHT to request a "Impartial Hearing." This can be done at any time in the process; once an IEP is written you are not "stuck." (By the way, a school district can ALSO request an Impartial Hearing). It only takes a written request (and not "signing off" on the IEP, if that is an option) to get the process started. While the dispute is being resolved, the child will continue to be educated according to the previous documentation that was agreed upon; the child cannot be penalized during the process. An impartial hearing officer must be assigned; this is NOT an employee of the district. Parents have the right to information about low cost/free legal counsel; the district must provide it. Within 45 days of receipt of your request for a hearing, the hearing officer must offer a response.
The use of an impartial hearing can be stressful for both parents and district. It can be necessary, but I typically find that less official negotiations with the district can lead to a successful resolution of issues. Districts and parents share many of the same goals; keeping the similarities in mind and keeping a cool head turns many a negotiation into a positive experience.
