In accordance with 2004 revisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, state and local departments of education now make a summary of parental and student rights, policies, and procedures available to parents of children who are classified for special services or who are requesting an evaluation. Usually available in the form of pamphlets or booklets, these summaries really help to cut some of the confusion for parents who must advocate for their children.
When my son was evaluated in New Jersey in 1994, I was provided with minimal written information about policies, procedures, testing, classification, and so on. The current booklet, revised in July, 2005, is a great improvement. It features copies of forms required for mediation/due process hearings, emergency relief, and complaint investigations. While it is by no means an easy read, it strives to be as clear and concise as possible, so that the parent is informed and can make good decisions within the school system.
One of the items that struck me when looking at the revised book was the process for enrolling a child in private school when the public school has not met the child’s educational need. This was an issue for my family in 1994 – largely for the stability and safety needed for my son to deal with the neurological and emotional issues that were as much a part of him as his academic giftedness. We were told basically that we could hire a lawyer – and spend the rest of his school years in court. Or we could just go to a private school. Goodbye. Good riddance.
Two criteria must be met for placing a special needs child in private school and receiving reimbursement: the school has not made a program available that could meet the child’s educational needs in a timely manner and the private school program must meet the child’s educational needs. Parents are also obligated to state their concerns at the IEP meetings and inform the district of their intention to enroll the child in a private school at public expense.
In all likelihood, we still would not have met the qualifications for special education in the private school we chose – our son did not receive any “special services” there. We provided the “special services” though counseling and medications, and the private school provided the safety, structure, and individual attention that made it possible for him to succeed. So it truly was a private choice for my family. But at the time, not having a clear understanding of the system for special services in public school, it just seemed like we were bamboozled at every turn.
Maybe having a clearer sense of what his rights were in the public school could have meant that we could have advocated more effectively for his education there before it deteriorated so badly. The child study team wanted to place him in an out of district program for children with mild emotional disabilities. I did agree that the program was a good one. I did not agree that taking him out of a mainstream classroom was a good thing – because he was gifted, he needed the company of other children like himself. The program they wanted to send him to was self contained. His disabilities would get attention – but his strengths would not. My request to visit the program to see for myself BEFORE enrolling him was met with surprise, disdain, condescension – I was told how highly irregular this was, for a PARENT to want to OBSERVE. But I told them that I was pretty irregular too – and I got what I wanted. I came away with a sense of admiration for the classroom teacher in that setting – and a clear sense that it was not the best of all educational worlds for my son.
The final straw came during an IEP session when I asked what was being done for him in the resource room. He needed help with dysgraphia, and also with concentration. The answer was that he was the resource for the “troubled” kids, in the hope that he could make friends with them and they would stick up for him on the playground. It was nothing more than a glorified study hall – a deprived him of classroom time. If his teacher “forgot” to send him with homework to do for the resource room period, or if he completed it early (bright kids do that) then there was no plan, no activity, no goal for him within that time. What stunned me at the time was that there was no interest among the team in working with him. He was a weird kid because his parents were weird troublemakers. Besides, a kid who qualified for the gifted pull out program AND resource room….wow, how unusual. As time went on, I realized that among gifted/LD kids he was not unusual – his issues were actually rather predictable. But at the time, there really was not much interest locally in mainstreaming a boy with learning disabilities.
If I’d had this little concise pamphlet then, written with the clarity it shows today, I would have had a better sense of how to address specific educational issues that were not being met for him. I also would likely not have found the process as intimidating as I thought it was. I might have still made the decision to enroll him in a private school at my expense – but I would have had the satisfaction of truly knowing what the district was obligated to do for him. In writing. In English.
Every parent I have ever known who navigated the daunting course of special educational services comes away perplexed by how oppositional it can be at times. Many wonder, what of the children whose parents do not advocate for them? In the 21st century, hopefully a clearer understanding of the rights of students and obligations of school districts will lead to an emphasis on educating the whole child, not just addressing the disability. These informational booklets are a step in the right direction. Don’t leave school without one!