View Full Version : Educational accomodations for special needs students



SoonerDave
11-26-2013, 10:20 AM
Hi all..

I have a question for the education/legal experts out there.

Friend of mine has a meticulously documented special needs child (adopted) due to in-utero substance abuse. For whatever reason, he and his wife have been engaged essentially in an ongoing war with their local elementary school to get him the proper support he needs and, from what I understand, is legally entitled to receive and the school is, at least theoretically, supposed to provide. At a minimum, the school doesn't want either a) the expense of the special needs student, or b) the "hassle" of a special needs student (from their view). The warfare this family has been going through over the last several months has been amazing.

Now, the particular principal involved is trying to assert a right to force the child into what's called a "Day Therapy" group (one I won't name specifically), without parental approval or consent, or give them the option of removing him from school permanently. Can the district do this? Can they force this option on a family? Supposedly the family has been told by their physicians and specialists their son needs coping and management skills, not therapy, thus this "day therapy" option isn't practical or useful - except to get their son off their district's rolls.

I feel horrible for these guys. They know their son has problems, yet the district is seemingly fighting them at every step to get him the help they are (at least in my naive view) supposed to provide. And from what they've heard from other parents, this is not the first time this particular principal (or this particular district) has waged war to get a special needs child out of their "hair," as it were. Is there any parent advocacy or support group, or even legal assistance organization specializing in this area that can help them? It seems to me they're as much at war with this principal as anything else.

I won't mention any names or even the district given the volatility of the situation (yeah, its really that bad), but I cannot fathom in the 21st century that there is this kind of fight/warfare about special needs kids. I really want to help them, but I don't know how. They're kinda at the end of their rope, short of pulling him out and homeschooling him.

zookeeper
11-26-2013, 04:35 PM
nm

zookeeper
11-26-2013, 04:39 PM
Here's a good pdf about parental rights: http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/SpecEd-ParentsRights-English.pdf

Here's the main page for Special Education at the state Dept. of Education. Special Education | Oklahoma State Department of Education (http://www.ok.gov/sde/special-education)

Midtowner
11-26-2013, 04:54 PM
I referred you to an excellent education attorney I know. You really need a lawyer here and once you lawyer up, you can expect the school board to start singing a different tune.

SoonerDave
11-26-2013, 05:25 PM
I referred you to an excellent education attorney I know. You really need a lawyer here and once you lawyer up, you can expect the school board to start singing a different tune.

Got it and I appreciate it, Mid. Expect they'll take every advantage they can get.

Its got to be tough enough to deal with the regular, day-to-day needs of a special needs child, let alone having to deal with this...situation. I really don't think I would have had the patience they've shown so far.

Thanks, everyone...have received some PM's on this and will be relaying the info provided.

mugofbeer
11-26-2013, 05:30 PM
Good luck to your friends. They are fortunate to have friend who cares enougb to seek help for them.

okcboomer
11-26-2013, 07:49 PM
No disrespect but if this was truly going on for months, then there must be an entirely different side to this story. There are so many advocate organizations that I can't imagine it being this clear cut after months. Plus, the last thing schools want to do is to fight this battle. Are you sure there isn't more to this story?

kevinpate
11-26-2013, 09:15 PM
With respect okcboomer, not every senior campus player in every district seeks to avoid headaches. They are human, and with that comes varying attitudes, opinions and intellects. Like any profession, some are spectacular, some are great, some are adequate and some are, well, to be charitable I'll just say they're something else further down the scale.

SoonerDave
11-27-2013, 07:05 AM
No disrespect but if this was truly going on for months, then there must be an entirely different side to this story. There are so many advocate organizations that I can't imagine it being this clear cut after months. Plus, the last thing schools want to do is to fight this battle. Are you sure there isn't more to this story?

okc, I surely appreciate your perspective and understand entirely where you're coming from.

I hope you'll believe me when I offer that there is a mountain of additional information on this issue that I simply chose not to post here, primarily for reasons of avoiding to the extent possible putting out enough information such that individuals might be identified by someone perusing the thread. I actually think I already posted more than I probably should have, but c'est la vie.

If I were to have heard of this case as you did, okc, I'd almost certainly have drawn the same inference you did. This is one of those "wait a sec, what's the scoop here?" But as I have peeled back layers of this particular avocado, each one gets more ridiculous than the one before. I've related parts of this story informally to other education types with not even nearly as much detail as I've provided here, and one mention of the district involved in terms of special needs students draws a consistent and immediate response of "oh, brother, not xxxxxx district." Even my own wife (schoolteacher in an entirely different district) echoed the same sentiments.

I wish I could post more, okc, but I really don't think I can/should, so all I can do is try to help these folks that, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a position in which no parent (in my opinion) should - at war with a school district over a special needs child.

Hope that makes some sense, okc, but its the best I can do. It really is just as ridiculous as it sounds.

Jeepnokc
11-27-2013, 07:29 AM
nm

I have seen this a few times. What does it mean?

SoonerDave
11-27-2013, 07:41 AM
I have seen this a few times. What does it mean?

Variously, no message or never mind. Can happen if someone starts a post and opts not to finish it, or completes a post, then later has second thoughts about what was said, goes back in, and deletes the contents if the board software doesn't allow for post deletion after a few minutes.