My Kindergartener got SUSPENDED for 3 days!

[Jules71]

5 y.o. gfg in Kindergarten got suspended for biting, pulling hair, and swinging his coat at his teacher yesterday!

We met with a private psychologist this morning and his opinion is definitely ODD (he meets 7.5 of the 8 criteria). Het met with just DH and I this time. Next week with gfg.

I am appalled that my request to have him evaluated by the school district was received on 9/4 - and nothing has happened about it yet!

I don't know what to do!!!

[Jules71]

Am I crazy for thinking something should be done to help him? What do they expect me to do, pull him out of school? This is why I asked for the eval. So what if he keeps getting suspended?

[starcloaked]

Oh Jules.

I feel your pain. Like I said, we're really living parallel lives.

They can suspend him, but I think not more than 10 days total. It's a slightly different situation, because he's not yet identified officially as special needs, but I think that the fact that you initiated the evaluation process may give you the same protections. There's a decision-tree they need to go through before that point--they need to decide whether he's disabled, and that's where I'm not sure how your request for eval affects things--then if so they need to determine if they're providing FAPE (appropriate being the critical thing), then they need to do an FBA and develop a behavior plan. I've been trying to get my district to do this one thing for a month now, and they haven't, but saying those words "have you done an FBA?" has made people take a very different tact with me.

Find out how long they *actually* have for that evaluation, and start writing people letters. Make sure they know you're documenting everything.

Hang in there. I know how awful this feels. I've been riding the same roller coaster for a month now and it's horrible. My only other advice is to get on a waiting list for a neuropsych eval NOW. You can ask the school for one, but a private one is worth its weight in gold.

Strength to you...

Star

[--Eleanor--]

You may want to visit the Wrightslaw website and look at some of the articles about the process the school needs to go through to comply with IDEA. They definitely can't just ignore your request and deal with the problem by suspending without evaluating. If the school seems to be ignoring your evaluation request, you might also try suggesting that the district should reimburse you for a private evaluation. (We ended up getting the district to pay for a private eval last year, but it took a lot of fighting...)

[AllStressedOut]

My oldest GFG was suspended from Kindergarten on his first day. I am sorry for what you're dealing with. I don't have any answers, I just wanted to let you know you aren't alone. I'm amazed at what our GFGs do some days, then some days I'm not surprised at all.

[SRL]

In my district I suspect they would provide a homebound teacher and short list him on their assessments.

[Sheila]

If you sent a letter to the school district via certified mail, your child falls under IDEA/IEP Protections for children not yet eligible for special ed:

Statute: TITLE I / B / 615 / k / 5
(5) Protections for children not yet eligible for special education and related services.--

(A) In general.--A child who has not been determined to be eligible for special education and related services under this part and who has engaged in behavior that violates a code of student conduct, may assert any of the protections provided for in this part if the local educational agency had knowledge (as determined in accordance with this paragraph) that the child was a child with a disability before the behavior that precipitated the disciplinary action occurred.

(B) Basis of knowledge.--A local educational agency shall be deemed to have knowledge that a child is a child with a disability if, before the behavior that precipitated the disciplinary action occurred--

(i) the parent of the child has expressed concern in writing to supervisory or administrative personnel of the appropriate educational agency, or a teacher of the child, that the child is in need of special education and related services;

(ii) the parent of the child has requested an evaluation of the child pursuant to section 614(a)(1)(B); or

(iii) the teacher of the child, or other personnel of the local educational agency, has expressed specific concerns about a pattern of behavior demonstrated by the child, directly to the director of special education of such agency or to other supervisory personnel of the agency.

HOWEVER, even children with IEPs can be suspended for up to 10 days per school year unless their BIP says otherwise.

The school district has 60 days to complete their evaluation. You might want to send a follow-up letter asking when the evaluation will be completed -- via Certified Mail, of course.

Don't mean to be a downer, but an ODD dx after one visit to a psychologist should be taken with a grain of salt, IMHO. These type diagnosis are suppose to made made only after other disorders have been ruled out. As I understand it, the reason for this is because many disorders have the same symptoms. Most of the gfgs you'll see diagnosed on this site could have been diagnosed with ODD and some were. It's the underlying problems causing the ODD behavior a parent needs to get to in order to create an overall, appropriate multimodal treatment plan.

Every child's treatment plan will look different depending on the needs of the child. And it doesn't happen overnight. See http://www.sbm121693.homestead.com/multimodal.html for one example.

You're doing good! Keep on going forward. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/warrior.gif[/img]

[Sheila]

BTW, send that letter to the District's Special Education Director. I'd include a copy of the original evaluation request, also.

[SRL]

Knowing how communication sometimes doesn't work between principals and special ed administrators, it wouldn't hurt to put a phone call into the director of special ed in your district to discuss this latest situation and to find out the current status of the assessment. It's possible there may be an alternative to out of school suspension during this assessment period since it's very unlikely that an un-dxed, untreated gfg is going to function well at school or to gain anything from this sort of punishment.

I'd assure the director that you are a very concerned parent and that you've already had your first appointment for private assesment.

[Jules71]

I sent the evaluation request and parent input report certified mail to the director of spec svcs and got confirmation they received it on 9/4. 9/5 was school day #1. 10/11 will be day 25 in which they are supposed to complete a review. By day 35 (10/25) they are supposed to complete the evaluation (at least that is what it said in the copy of a letter I got - given to me in person by the school psych). The only thing that has happened since then is I sent a copy to the teacher after the first week of problems and she then made copies for the others in the school. We have a SST (Student Success Team) meeting tomorrow with teacher, parents, principal, school psych, etc.

They are trying to get me to withdrawal my request for eval to try interventions first (because they are running out of time). I am not going to do that. My understanding is they have to try interventions first but I am not going to give them more time. I thought my son was protected because I sent all this information in. I did not think they could suspend him. I guess I was wrong. Maybe I did not think they would because I have been clear about my concerns from the beginning and he obviously needs help.

Sheila, What exactly does that statute mean for me? They did have prior knowledge.

The private psych's opinion so far was ODD just based on what we told him. We plan to dig deeper. He also said maybe some ADHD, and agreed that he has some OCD type tendancies. We were told from the Children's Hosp we could not get a neuropsych eval until after the sd does their eval and only if we have concerns after that.

I am so exhausted. I don't know how you all do it. Any advice is certainly appreciated! Thanks for being here!