Sara, Can I Ask You a Ques?

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-22-2004
Sara, Can I Ask You a Ques?
3
Sun, 01-29-2006 - 11:46am

Hi Sara,

If you wouldn't mind, could you please share with the process you went though to get the BOE to cover the cost of private school. How did you "prove" that the programs in the public school weren't meeting his needs? Most schools and teachers that I deal with will rarely admit a child is not making progress. In fact, the standard line I hear is, "Rachel is making progress". Of course, they have no concrete data to back it up. Did you have to hire an attorney?

I realize you don't even know me and I understand that this may be too "personal" to share over a message board site but right now, I feel so helpless. My school district is so much smarter than me. They talk a great talk and have a way of putting a "positive" spin on everything. Of course, my gut screams that Rachel's placement is not meeting her needs but being a mother, I don't know the correct"lingo" to use to get my point across.

TIA!

Robin
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Avatar for cathby
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-16-2003
Sun, 01-29-2006 - 2:20pm

Hi Robin,

Forgive me for jumping in here....

Sara lives in NYC. NYC has notoriously poor special ed. And, as my dev. ped tells me, if you show up to a meeting with a lawyer there they will basically be forced to give you what you want (out of district placement, etc.) The NYC Board of Ed is just too overwhelmed with everything else they have to deal with.

My guess is that if you really want an outside placement that you will need an attorney.

HTH,
Cathy

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-06-2005
Sun, 01-29-2006 - 4:33pm

Robin,

I would head over to the IEP Special Ed board. The CL there is awesome and she can give you concrete steps to deal with your School Board based on the IDEA Law.

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppiep

She's been incredibly helpful to me in the past.

Good Luck!
Gemma

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
Sun, 01-29-2006 - 7:06pm

Dear Robin,

I do not know what your story is, but "she is making progress" is NOWHERE near enough. They MUST document her progress by LAW. I bet you will need legal help. Do immediately head over to IEP Board here and ask Steph and the other gals there every single little question you can think of and what to do to get what you want, need and SHOULD HAVE from your school district. Those IEP gals rock, I go there regularly to read just to expand my braincells.

Even here in NYC, you often have to get a lawyer. We've been so lucky that so far we actually have not needed one, but we are almost the only parents I know of who haven't. If you want to go private, you may also need to go FIND the appropriate private school for your child and get accepted going in, at least that's part of what works here. As I only know THIS crazy world, I can't really speak to other parts of crazy world. This one is weird enough.

As other poster said, NYC is in BAAAAAD shape. I don't know if I can truly explain the insanity without a few drinks and many hours, but I'll try. The fact that they don't have appropriate placements really doesn't have to be proved here, half the time every placement they propose is already completely overbooked or was phased out last week!!! But SHOULD we have had to prove it, back when we transferred from preschool to elementary school, we were prepared to hire a lawyer, bring in outside experts plus teachers and therapists that Malcolm had been working with, to prove that Malcolm would not be able to be educated under the circumstances that might be proposed. Which we would have to go look at before refusing, but usually (having heard from the parents who DID have to fight) they agreed to consider public school placements, and there was nothing to see. No classrooms to look at, etc. And they were asked by the BOE to wait until Fall, beginning of school, for them to COME UP with something for them to see by then (which is way off the legal time limit) and all the parents refused.

If your child was deemed high-functioning enough (we dodged that bullet with help), they would be placed if possible in one of handful of inclusion rooms --- overbooked, understaffed, services misplaced, etc. The parents would NOT accept this, then the lawyers and experts would go after proving that the child would NOT do well in inclusion, in fact, be traumatized. Of course, if inclusion was actually RUN WELL here, many of us might have considered it, but we know better. One of Malcolm's friends was actually in one for 2 months ... don't ask. Bad news. He's at the ASD private school now.

Now, when we go to BOE to request funding for private special ed school, we always ALREADY have an acceptance from the school we want (or if not one we want, ANY private acceptance and try to get in better one later). That's the first thing we do here, well in advance of end of Spring of preschool, already knowing state of special ed in public school and lack of placements. We scour the private schools for acceptance(s) -- Malcolm actually had 3, so we got to go with best one for him. The private schools know they will often have to wait for funding, reimbursements while parents fight BOE, often into the school year (and they WILL start the child anyways, counting on BOE to lose fight, which they do) but eventually, after all the hoops and paper wars and even mediation, the BOE has to pay for the private. This process is de riguer here.

Because I am afraid more of my experience might not help your situation, I will stop now. I could go on even more, 'cause that's just the tip of our nonsense, fascinating yes, but endless. I do urge you to start getting more educated about IDEA and your rights and documentation of progress etc. and get ready to fight, because the tone of what you write sounds desparate. And my heart really goes out to you. Go to Steph. If you want, write here as well about more details of what is happening with Rachel and school and many here will be able to offer advice, etc.

Many (((((HUGS))))),

Sara
ilovemalcolm