I e-mailed my son's school principal on August 9th 2018 requesting IEP assessment for my son. She has not said a word to me. My son's class room teacher told me that she needs to talk to the teacher from last year and my son needs to be evaluated by SSPT first. Is it true that school is supposed to get back to me within 60 calendar days?
Second question:
My son hit another student in after school. The program director said she is going to discuss with principal and let me know what kind of consequence my son is going to get. I am having an informal meeting with the program director today and I would like to record it. I actually would like to record every interaction with this after school director. Is this something that parents are allowed to do?
Once your child turns 18, and not conserved, he will hold his own educational rights. The school may then contact him and not you in regards to education and IEP matters. A full conseravatorship is not needed to assign educational rignts. There are forms online your son can sign to assign his educational rights over to you his parent if he is agreeable. But you may want a special education attorney to facilitate the signing of this form. They will conduct a brief interview to ensure this is what your son wants an that he understands what he is doing. You can then take this form to the school and they will continue to have you as the primary contact for his educational needs as you will again hold his educational rights. If your son is lower functioning and does not understand what he is agreeing to, you may want to consider contacting an attorney to find out about conservatorship. This can be done on a full or partial basis.
How can I continue to make educatioal dissions ones for my son after he turns 18
Thank you so much for your guidance. I called an attorney and retained her.
Your post is very concerning to me. When I respond to posts on these type of forums, I can usually give some background and the parent can then navigate. In this instance. I think you may want to contact an experienced special education attorney. Not an advocate, an attorney. I say that as an advocate and this is not something I advise lightly in forums like this.
When a parent initiates an assessment for an IEP (as you did to the principal on Aug) the district has 15 days to respond with an assessment plan for evaluation. They cannot assess without your written consent. After an assessment plan is signed, THEN they have 60 days to complete the assessments and present them to you at an IEP determination meeting.
They may say no- but would usually do so formally via Prior Written Notice, within the 15 days and even at this, you still have rights and recourse to pursue assessments.
In regards to different types of Student Study Teams. When a DISTRICT is considering a referral to special education,(prior to any written request) they may use the resources of a regular education program like a Student Study Team to see if regular education modifications and supports have been tried before making the referral to special education. But there is no law or regulation that a student has to go through an SST process before they can be assessed for special education. In fact, the law is very clear that if you have requested a special education assessment, an SST cannot delay the timelines of an IEP assessment. If there is a written request for assessments, they have to adhere to IEP timelines.
In regards to behavior in the afterschool program. If the afterschool program is on school campus and a child has a disability or an IEP, then it may be that an IEP or 504 would need to support the child even in the after school program. If the behavior is due to a child’s disability, then this is important information to have both for a possible IEP, but also to help support the child even in the afterschool program.
It is a misdemeanor to audio-record without someone’s consent. You do have the right to audio record IEP meetings so long as you give 24 hr written notice. And it is reasonable to be able to audio record 504 meetings with their permision. You may inform them via email that you are audio-recording the meeting. But if they say no, you would want this memorialized also in email. Then I would take notes during the meeting. You may want to email a summary of the meeting since they would not allow you to record.
At this point, I think you may be able to get the district to fund Independent Educational Evaluations. These are assessments done by reputable “qualified” assessors of your choosing who do not work for the district. A good advocate or attorney could refer you to a good independent evaluator. While it is true that usually, IEE’s are granted when district assessments have been completed and a parent disagrees with them, it is also true that when a district fails to assess, a parent may also be pursue reimbursement for IEE’s.
You may be able to hire an advocate, or use what you now know of the rules, to say – hey, you need to assess, but at this point I question a team that would be this egregious to ignore or sidestep the rules. Would they give an appropriate assessment even if you compelled them to assess? Maybe, but I would speak to an attorney. If you have a case to move forward with really good independent assessments, you may want to pursue this route
Barbara Major
Lead Advocate
San Diego Special Education Advocate Team