Shelly: My son receives Special Education Services as a student with a specific LD. He also has been identified as a student with Dyslexia in addition to the LD. In elementary, my son received the Dyslexia service and showed progress in his reading. Now that he has moved to middle school, the school states that he has to choose between his elective class of Band, or his dyslexia class. I have argued that they are violating IDEA for my son. IDEA specifically states that he should have equal opportunities to participate in non academic classes as his non disabled peers. They are stating that his opportunity is to choose between classes. I am very upset, because I can not seem to get him his services. Please help.
My child had the same issue a few years ago. I did not see it as a violation but more of collaborating with the school. The main goal for us was the dyslexia remediation. My child was still in one elective but also had extracurriculars after school. For us, the compromise was fine due to the focus on remediation. There were enough after school extracurriculars for my child. For us, it was very important as college was a goal to get as much remediation in as possible, as well as using AT, etc. before high school. For us, the school did a great job of collaborating.