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<blockquote data-quote="klmno" data-source="post: 198502" data-attributes="member: 3699"><p>I know you are doing the best you can and I hope I didn't sound critical of you. I think you need something to back you up in the IEP struggle. If the psychiatrist is a struggle, is it possible to change to another one (not to bring to the iep meeting, but for tweaking medications, etc)? </p><p></p><p>Regarding a Special Education attny, I didn't have $10,000 to go thru the due process, but I did speak to two different ones. Here's how I kept the fee minimal- call a referral place, they will give you the name to speak to someone for about 20 mins on the phone for little ($50 or less) or NO fee while you explain your case, they make suggestions, and you can decide whether or not you want to hire them. Or, look online and find a local place that you can email your problem and they will get back to you and explain whatever points would make a case for you, then they will discuss taking your case. They don't necessarily know that you can't afford for them to take your case and you don't need to mention that to anyone at sd either. </p><p></p><p>So, then I did my homework on wrightslaw and IDEA and BiPolar (BP) and symtpoms and documented my son's reaction to things, any efforts I'd made at home with him for HW and contacts/requests with the school. I printed out emails that I had sent to the school informing them of any issue he was having and their responses that showed they were blaming him and not mentioning one thing about helping him. I documented any inconsistency that they conveyed to me. Anything I found that the sd had dropped the ball on, I documented that, too.</p><p></p><p>Then I started writing letters and sending them certified mail to the principal, Special Education director for sd and school board (superintendent). Put "cc: Mr. XXX, attny at law" at the bottom and sent the attny a copy (not certified). I attached copies of any facts to suport my case to the letters to the Special Education director and school board. </p><p></p><p>If you go this route, more than likely, this will get you a couple of phone calls from the sd and they will be trying to find out if you are about to pursue more with the attny. Possible conversation: "Ms. XYZ, we received this letter from you and we're not sure what the problem is, we have tried to accommodate your son by doing ABC, yet he continues to make poor choices. I noticed you refer to an attny in your letter, could you tell me what it is you think we could do that we haven't already tried that will make your son change the choices he makes?" If you just say, "well, I have spoken to an attny about this situation, but really my objective is to get my son the help he needs; I understand that you feel it is all my son's choices and this is where I think the problem lies. He's on an IEP because he need accommodations to help him do better, rather than providing that the sd is treating him like he's just a bad kid and not even acknowledging that he needs accommodations" then let that conversation lead to them getting the Special Education director to attend an iep meeting. Bring proof of diagnosis and things he struggles with to that meeting. The more they try to put this back on his shoulders, the more it really proves the point that they aren't focused on helping him, they are focused on blaming him.</p><p></p><p>I'm just suggesting this route because what you are describing sounds exactly like what my son and I went through- the approach the school took and how my son reacted to it and how I became increasingly frustrated with trying to deal with the school and hold my son accountable, all the while things were getting worse. When this action was taken and the sd started agreeing to different approaches in his iep and then (after another struggle) actually started implementing the iep strategies, we have seen changes in my son. </p><p></p><p>Follow your gut- I just wanted to throw this out to you as a possibility. Has your son had neuropsychologist testing done? Did it show the executive functioning, memory issues, or other areas of difficulty for him?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="klmno, post: 198502, member: 3699"] I know you are doing the best you can and I hope I didn't sound critical of you. I think you need something to back you up in the IEP struggle. If the psychiatrist is a struggle, is it possible to change to another one (not to bring to the iep meeting, but for tweaking medications, etc)? Regarding a Special Education attny, I didn't have $10,000 to go thru the due process, but I did speak to two different ones. Here's how I kept the fee minimal- call a referral place, they will give you the name to speak to someone for about 20 mins on the phone for little ($50 or less) or NO fee while you explain your case, they make suggestions, and you can decide whether or not you want to hire them. Or, look online and find a local place that you can email your problem and they will get back to you and explain whatever points would make a case for you, then they will discuss taking your case. They don't necessarily know that you can't afford for them to take your case and you don't need to mention that to anyone at sd either. So, then I did my homework on wrightslaw and IDEA and BiPolar (BP) and symtpoms and documented my son's reaction to things, any efforts I'd made at home with him for HW and contacts/requests with the school. I printed out emails that I had sent to the school informing them of any issue he was having and their responses that showed they were blaming him and not mentioning one thing about helping him. I documented any inconsistency that they conveyed to me. Anything I found that the sd had dropped the ball on, I documented that, too. Then I started writing letters and sending them certified mail to the principal, Special Education director for sd and school board (superintendent). Put "cc: Mr. XXX, attny at law" at the bottom and sent the attny a copy (not certified). I attached copies of any facts to suport my case to the letters to the Special Education director and school board. If you go this route, more than likely, this will get you a couple of phone calls from the sd and they will be trying to find out if you are about to pursue more with the attny. Possible conversation: "Ms. XYZ, we received this letter from you and we're not sure what the problem is, we have tried to accommodate your son by doing ABC, yet he continues to make poor choices. I noticed you refer to an attny in your letter, could you tell me what it is you think we could do that we haven't already tried that will make your son change the choices he makes?" If you just say, "well, I have spoken to an attny about this situation, but really my objective is to get my son the help he needs; I understand that you feel it is all my son's choices and this is where I think the problem lies. He's on an IEP because he need accommodations to help him do better, rather than providing that the sd is treating him like he's just a bad kid and not even acknowledging that he needs accommodations" then let that conversation lead to them getting the Special Education director to attend an iep meeting. Bring proof of diagnosis and things he struggles with to that meeting. The more they try to put this back on his shoulders, the more it really proves the point that they aren't focused on helping him, they are focused on blaming him. I'm just suggesting this route because what you are describing sounds exactly like what my son and I went through- the approach the school took and how my son reacted to it and how I became increasingly frustrated with trying to deal with the school and hold my son accountable, all the while things were getting worse. When this action was taken and the sd started agreeing to different approaches in his iep and then (after another struggle) actually started implementing the iep strategies, we have seen changes in my son. Follow your gut- I just wanted to throw this out to you as a possibility. Has your son had neuropsychologist testing done? Did it show the executive functioning, memory issues, or other areas of difficulty for him? [/QUOTE]
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