? about homeschooling and IEP

[jcox]

Yes, I also asked in the Special Education section, but I always get more answers here and think another parent might know the answers.

Elijah's new psychiatrist is talking about wheening him off of most of his medications. He is concerned about a child his age being on all of them. I am worried about him being in the school atmosphere with all the issues he has these days. Before the medications he would rage for three hours and belly talked to him alot more. I am worried about him being at school like that and I believe he would be better here at home. I believe I could homeschool him during the hours and days he is doing good.

Would this be acceptable with an IEP? Do you think the school would approve it? If we did this just for a couple months to get him stable would he still have his IEP and same substantially seperate classroom when he came back... would all his accomodations still be there? I wonder what would happen to his IEP if we did this? I would only want to do it for a couple months until he got more stable.

Has anyone else tried to homeschool a mentally ill child? If so how did it go?

 

[smallworld]

Is it possible to put him into a day treatment program or in a therapeutic school while he is being weaned from his medications? That way he would have mental health professionals monitoring him during school hours as he's coming off the medications.

 

[Janna]

I was thinking that, too.

My son is in a "Partial Hospitalization Program" through the day, 8 AM to 2 PM, Monday through Friday. It's school - kinda.

His "partial" part is in the mornings. They do hygiene (brush teeth, hair, wash hands, face - for those that can't/don't do it at home), then they usually go on hikes, do theraputic type things like art therapy, etc. This is when the psychiatrist (board certified M.D.) sees them, on Fridays - in this type of a relaxed environment first.

Then, the afternoon is all academics. The psychiatrist, again, EVERY FRIDAY, goes and observes, in the classroom. He has an IEP, they do FBA's - it's very professional.

Then, she takes notes. Dylan also has an individual therapist, and between her, the psychiatrist, the teachers and myself, we can all compare notes on behaviors and such.

This has been an excellent environment for D stabilization wise. The goal, as always, is to get him back to regular education in regular school.

And, they could do all the medication work right there during school hours.