Mary: I am a school social worker who supports an 8th grade student with Autism who is transitioning to the high school. The current data supports that both his current teacher and myself are key supports in helping him to regulate behavior, including threatening physical aggression and yelling out prejudiced words that could result in others harming him. The family’s attorney wants me to write in the transition IEP that myself and his teacher must go to the high school to support him (I agree with this until the high school staff are sufficiently able to support him). My school district states that I should not write this into the iep. My first priority is to support my student. Do you have any suggestions? It’s pretty complicated, however for the sake of brevity, I just noted the key points.
I couldn’t find a way to post a new question, so i piggybacked on this one. I hope someone can help answer this question.
Our child is homebound due to medical issues and has anxiety. Today in our child’s Annual ARD meeting we were told that our medically fragile child’s homebound teacher (who he has had for 3 1/2 years and is very attached to) will no longer be his teacher. We asked about a transition time period. We were told only 1 day, tomorrow. What, one day! What can we do to get more transition time? I have sent an email to the school without any response and asked that nothing change until we finish this ARD meeting which had to be extended until next Thursday and I even suggested a transition period of 3 consecutive days and one day a week for a month. Please advise. Thank you.
I am sorry to hear about this. I work with the TX parent training, & information projects to assist parents in dealing with their school. At http://www.partnerstx.org you can find our staff person who works with your part of the state. If you have any difficulty, you can reach me at cnoe59@hotmail.com It sounds like the meeting was recessed until next week. If a parent disagrees at an ARD meeting, the team is to offer a recess for other options to be considered. Nothing should change before the next meeting.
The parent could always opt to not sign the new IEP leaving the old in place with the supports you want until it can get resolved. If necessary an attorney may have to be consulted.
I’m glad the student has you as a resource. Here are some questions, to expand your horizons on what you are thinking about: Is there a good FBA and BIP in place? Have you put a letter in his file describing the child’s needs and the supports you provide? Has the child been evaluated for a tic disorder? Some pediatricians can do this. Does the IEP include services and accommodations that accurately describe what you do? Do the Present Levels include a description of these student needs? Have you collaborated with your counterpart at the high school? Could the family bring the lawyer’s proposal to an IEP meeting, rather than you going out on a limb? Do you think your job would be in jeopardy if you supported the proposal in a meeting? Are the IEP meetings conducted according to Hoyle?