Followup
So yesterday morning was mostly spent at Robert's new school, and if all goes as planned he'll begin on Wednesday of next week. We spent the bulk of the time hammering together his IEP, which describes in some level of detail the special services he'll be receiving, such as counseling, academic accommodations, the criteria upon which his performance will be measured and other related materials.
I'm expecting a call sometime today instructing us to come down to his former school -- which still maintains him as an enrolled student, even though they're paying for services elsewhere -- to sign the IEP and get this ball rolling.
After a quick lunch, we headed up to the lawyer's office, and he seems like he's quite knowledgeable in this area. About 80 percent of his practice is dedicated to special ed-related cases, so he knows the ins and outs of the system in the state. He'll help us initially with the judicial end of this -- trying to find a mutually satisfactory solution to the charges brought against Robert -- and he'll also help us on the educational advocacy end of things.
Through just a cursory examination of the documentation we showed him yesterday, he found numerous procedural violations that deserved further scrutiny; he's also recommended we get in touch with the Department of Education's Quality Assurance group to file a complaint against the school.
Thanks to the way the courts in this state work, it seems remote that we'd have a successful civil complaint against the school, and it's even more unlikely that we'd get any sort of monetary damages unless we were able to prove that they had it out for Robert -- that they were intentionally and maliciously denying him services because they disliked him or us.
As I said yesterday, never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity -- or, at the very least, bureaucratic incompetence. And it seems to him that there's plenty of that to go around.
So we will definitely try to go through the right channels here and, at the very least, try to hold them accountable for their actions.
Comments
As a parent of a child with an IEP, and someone who works as an advocate for parents of special needs children, I want to mention just a couple of things.
One, it sounds like someone flaked out on your IEP meeing -- why do you have to go to the old school to sign it? Why weren't you able to sign it right there at the meeting at the new school?
It is required, by federal law, that there be a 'district representative' at every IEP meeting -- this is a person who knows about, and has the power to allocate, resources of the school district (for equipment, for special services, for whatever). They have to be IN that meeting. If there's no such person in the meeting, they've violated the law.
Additionally, about your complaint that your son was denied services -- it doesn't matter WHAT the reason. You can file a complaint with EITHER the state department of education (as your attorney mentioned), or the Office of Civil Rights (they have a branch office in Boston). The department of ed complaint is best if you're looking to fix an immediate problem -- e.g. there's something written in the IEP and it's not being done. The OCR complaint is a good idea if you want to get it on record that they violated your child's civil rights by denying him appropriate services.
(I had to deal with this earlier this year, and decide which kind of complaint I wanted to file. Generally, the OCR won't take a complaint if you've already filed with DoE, and vice versa, according to the agent at OCR I spoke with. Also, OCR complaints seem to require more documentation and receive more scrutiny, so DoE might be easier.)
Of course, as you say, none of these is going to get you any monetary damages...but no school wants an OCR letter in its docket.
Good luck!
Posted by: kerri | November 4, 2005 03:29 PM
The intake person at the new school wrote up the IEP -- literally hand-wrote it while we were sitting there. I guess it was going back to the Mashpee school for approval today.
We got the ball rolling with the DoE today -- called their Quality Assurance department, told them we had reason to believe our son's civil rights were violated, and they're sending us the paperwork. So I guess that's the route we're going down.
Regarding damages, what we're hoping to get out of it rather than money -- beside teaching the school a lesson and *making* them get their shabby house in order -- is to hopefully get some additional compensatory services for my son. Stuff they've denied, stuff they've hemmed and hawed on up until now, and so on.
Posted by: flargh | November 4, 2005 03:53 PM
--The intake person at the new school wrote up the IEP -- literally hand-wrote it while we were sitting there. I guess it was going back to the Mashpee school for approval today.--
Right, that's what I'm saying. It shouldn't *have* to go to Mashpee for approval. Someone from Mashpee's school district has to BE AT the IEP meeting. That's specified very clearly in the IDEA, so, it is federal law. And stuff.
There is a good discussion of the law at http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=978 :
"IDEA 2004 retains the IEP team composition...
...It is essential that the district representative be someone with the authority to commit the resources of the district so that parents are ensured that whatever services are stated in the IEP will actually be provided. In updating the IDEA, Congress noted that too often IEP meetings are conducted without a school representative, as called for, and that many disagreements between parents and schools that arise during IEP meetings could be resolved if such a member was present."
The fact that the school district didn't send a district representative to your IEP meeting is telling.
One last thing, you might want to become involved with your local SEPAC -- cheaper than calling the lawyer every time you have a question. :-)
http://www.mashpee.k12.ma.us/Special%20Education%20Parent%20Advisory%20Council.htm
Posted by: kerri | November 4, 2005 04:07 PM