Marie: My 10th grader (ADHD and Dyslexic) is reading at a 5th grade reading level, went into 6th grade at a high 4th grade level. He attended 2-3 summers for ESY, a summer of 1 on 1 with using the FASTFORWARD program , all recommended by the school and showed little progress and team agreed FF was not working for him. Last summer (another school recommendation) used JUST WORDS and showed some progress but now it is not being done to fidelity so once again no progress. Although IEP team agreed FF was not an appropriate program the school continues to use it with him. We have had several IEP meetings to try to agree on his new IEP but have not signed it. My understanding his last signed IEP should be the one being followed until new one is signed. Is this correct? We are looking to seek outside placement due to lack of progress, not following accommodations and he has never mastered an IEP goal (just moved on and made new ones the following year)We have been down this road before and did get compensation and feel the door is closing if we do not make a change.
My son was reading at preprimer at 8th grade. The school insisted that they were helping him but were not. We requested a reading/language arts, writing evaluation & it was discovered that my son had not improved 6 months in a year. It is my understanding that the old IEP is used until a new one is in place but that stay put is in place once a due process lawsuit has been presented to the school. We had an outside evaluation done by a reading specialist at school expense & had plenty to prove that there was no progress. We found an outside reading tutor using a program called “Alphabetic Phonics” . The school paid for this outside person & my son finished school one year after the normal time & went from pre primer to 10th grade level reading. goodluck
The exact rules for invoking “stay put” depend on the state you’re in. In some states, e.g. Virginia, you can object to specific changes staff propose; in others, e.g. New York, “stay put” can only be invoked when filing for due process. However, it’s sometimes possible to apply some leverage at the level of the IEP meeting process by ensuring the district is following procedural rules such as allowing for meaningful parent participation, keeping to timelines, etc., or by bringing an outside expert to an IEP meeting.
Yes, the current agreed upon IEP is to be followed, however, it sounds like you have bigger issues. It appears that you are familiar with the state dispute resolution process. You can use this to try to reach a solution that helps your son.