Our son, Jake, is 12 years old and has a
diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (high functioning) and ADHD. Since
Kindergarten, we have fought
many school districts in Hawaii, Texas and Maryland to provide a Free,
Appropriate, Public, Education that is mandated by IDEA. On top of the stressors of being a military
family, our family has endured the agony, stress, many tears and financial burden, to help our son be successful at school through
an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that he is entitled to by state and federal laws.
Please allow me to explain the arduous process
of fighting for our son to receive a Free, Appropriate, Public Education, and
the challenges that we have faced each time we go to the table to implement goals,
objectives and accommodations into Jake's IEP.
Jake attends 7th grade at a charter school in Maryland. In September of 2014, we attended
an IEP meeting and gave the school permission to conduct a full, comprehensive
evaluation of Jake. When we met again on November 17, 2014, we were
told that we had one (1) hour to go over the IEP, and once that time was up, the
school would finalize the IEP. We were told in this meeting that an academic
assessment (WIAT III) of Jake had been done, and based on the results, his grades in
school and one observation done by the Principal, that our son no longer had a
Specific Learning Disability. The school concluded that because Jake no longer
had a Specific Learning Disability, he no longer qualified for his 4 hours of
Math services and that they would be removing all of his goals and objectives from
his IEP. Jake would be left with one (1) hour of requisite learning (organization, etc) help each
week. When we disagreed and asked for Math goals to be put back into the IEP,
we were told that the school was not going to provide anything they did not
have to provide by law, and if we disagreed, we could seek due process or
mediation. We chose not to sign the IEP and requested to reconvene the meeting
because we needed time to process the blow we had just received. Immediately
following the meeting, I contacted numerous special education attorneys in the Maryland/DC area, desperately seeking help in our situation, only to realize that our
family would have to pay thousands of dollars in order for our son to receive
services he is entitled to by state and federal laws. I contacted Parent’s Place of Maryland and one
of their parent advocates agreed to call into the IEP meeting scheduled for
November 19, 2014, even though it was the very next day.
On November 19, 2014, we reconvened for the IEP
meeting and again we were told we had one (1) hour to discuss our son’s IEP in
its entirety. We decided it was in our best interest to audio record this meeting. To our
disappointment, the school did not treat us as equal members of the IEP team,
nor did they care to listen to our concerns. We were the only people in that
room that could provide firsthand knowledge and continuity of our son, however,
our words fell upon deaf ears. The parent advocate did a fantastic job of
quoting IDEA laws but it was not enough to convince the school to do the right
thing. Instead, we were told that the school serviced 600+ students and they
could not focus on Jake’s needs
We walked away from that IEP meeting
completely heartbroken and worried for our son. In the months that followed, we
would see Jake go from loving school to hating it. He would cry in the car on
the way to school and beg us not to make him go. He would wake up at all hours
of the night, heart racing and with a stomach ache, because he was constantly
thinking about no longer receiving the services he needed at school. He told us numerous times that he was lost and had no idea what he was doing at school, specifically in Math class. He has also endured months of unfair punishment, from what we feel is due to retaliation, however, the school would most likely disagree. I don't expect them to agree since they have to maintain their innocence.
After months of
dealing with this, our family was exhausted and ready to just give up. We
decided that the only way the school district would provide our son with a Free, Appropriate, Public Education and take us
seriously, would be by hiring a special education attorney. I contacted numerous
attorneys in the Maryland/DC area, and all requested a retainer fee between $10,000-15,000 , plus $300-500 per hour to take on our case. There are thousands
of special needs children going without their IEP services at public schools simply
because their parents cannot afford to fight a school district for services
mandated by IDEA. There is nothing FREE about having to do this. To help you
understand how horrible the situation has been for our son---he has gone his entire
6th grade year and 5 months of his 7th grade year without appropriate IEP
services. Almost 2 years of his education lost, just in the state of Maryland.
This isn’t counting the school years in Texas and Hawaii where we fought many
years to get Jake individualized services based on his needs, without success. I must make mention that Jake attended a different school in the same school district for his 6th grade year, and we applied for the lottery at this charter school, due to the fact that he had not received appropriate IEP services at this school. Two schools in the same district failed to provide him with a Free, Appropriate, Public Education.
Through the attorneys we ended up retaining, we
filed a due process complaint against the school district.
Before a special education due process complaint case goes to trial, a mediation session, where a judge sits
in and listens to both parties’ cases, takes place. In order for families to be successful in trial, they must hire an expert witness to
testify on their behalf. In this case, our expert witness would be the
psychologist who performed Jake’s comprehensive psychological evaluation and found that the
behaviors from Jake’s Autism and ADHD were impeding his learning. This
psychologist listed many suggestions on how Jake would be successful at school,
one being a private placement for children with high functioning autism. The cost to have this psychologist as an
expert witness came at the price of $2,000-4,000. By the pure grace of God, the
mediation session on March 25, 2015 went in our favor, and the school agreed to
all of our requests, except one---private placement. As I mentioned before, we
are a military family and we recently found out that we will be getting
stationed in Texas in July 2015. In the
case that we were not moving, our family would have taken the school district
to trial, have to pay the $2,000-4,000 for an expert witness, and pray that the
judge would rule in our favor. An extremely low percentage of due process
hearings are ruled in favor of the parents, so it would have been a gamble our
family would have had to take. There is something very unjust and unethical
about the outcomes in due process hearings. This school district cannot be forced, by law, to
pay for private placement and compensatory damages in Texas because Texas does not
fall under Maryland jurisdiction. The mistakes that this school district made came at a very
small price for them; and a very huge price for our son. As our family moves on
to our next base, we hope and pray that this nightmare of unethical and unjust
practices from school districts will forever be a distant memory. However,
realistically, the odds have not been in our favor.
Our frustration comes from the fact that we took our concerns
about the non-compliance of our son’s IEP to the principal, assistant principal,
counselors and IEP facilitators of the school, as well as the special education
director, regional superintendents, legal and compliance specialist and the
school board. We also contacted a
Maryland state senator twice, and he personally contacted the Superintendent twice on our behalf, and we still could not get the school to provide our
son with a Free, Appropriate, Public Education. Just this school year, the
process to go from an IEP meeting to mediation took almost 5 months, plus all
of 6th grade that Jake went without appropriate services. That is a very long
time for a special needs child to go without IEP services tailored to their
individual needs.
Our job as parents is to raise civilized, well-educated children, however, our special needs children fall behind because the special education system in America does not set up our children for success. Schools are given numerous chances to fail our special needs kids, with little to no reprimand, prolonging the timeframe a special needs child goes without services.
I know many of you are in the same boat that our family is in, and you feel like giving up. My hope is that you will stand up and fight for your child because YOU are your child's ONLY advocate!!! I won't say that the road is easy, but I will say that it will be worth it.
My goal is to raise awareness about the injustices done to our special needs children, and I hope that you will join me! I would love to see every state in this country adopt a Burden of Proof law that would force school districts to prove that the IEP they are providing to our children is not only adequate, but tailored to their individualized special needs. Parents should not have to bear the burden of proving why the IEP is not adequate for their special needs child. I would also like to ensure that full faith and comity laws, in terms of compensatory damages awarded to a special needs child, would be passed. This would mean that the compensatory damages awarded would carry over to another state. This is extremely important for military children that must move around so frequently.
The only way to raise awareness, is to talk about! Share it with EVERYONE! We have the great privilege of contacting our state and national representatives and voicing our concerns. Please take advantage of that! Also, please familiarize yourself with the federal and state laws that govern IDEA. Empower yourself with this knowledge so that you can adequately fight for a FAPE for your special needs child! Lastly, DO NOT GIVE UP!
In the coming weeks, I will personally be writing letters to the President and First Lady, as well as to senators around the country to shed some light on special education and IEP's in public schools. Please join me in praying that someone will listen!
I am not an expert in special education laws and IEP's, but I have BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT! So, if you need advice or even someone to listen to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Chances are, I've already dealt with the same thing you're dealing with. And if I can't provide you with an answer, I will help you look for one. If you need someone to cry with you, I'm an expert in that area. I have shed MANY tears over fighting public schools and IEP's.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read about our journey through an IEP world!
If you'd like to contact me, my email is LSNESLONY@gmail.com
