Advice for difficult child not getting to school

[klmno]

My son is having a pretty good year at school so far, except for not getting there all the time- either for the entire day or going in late. He's on probation so he really can't afford to be truant. We're having a few issues at home, but he isn't really being defiant so much as just sympommatic with signs of depression and anxiety lately. He is also having some major issues with sleeping- going to sleep at a good time and/or waking up in the night and not going back to sleep.

Since the school is happy with his attitude, efforts, etc., so far this year, they have no problem with having an iep meeting to discuss his inability to get to school some days (average 1 day per week) as he should. My question is- what on earth can we put in the iep to cover him (and me) legally while not giving difficult child the impression that he can just skip school at his leisure? And, does this go in a BIP or as a behavior goal or what? The therapist and I have no doubt that the depression is at the root of it, but difficult child still needs to push himself to get there.

Suggestions? Our meeting is Wed morning.

 

[smallworld]

klmno, I'll leave the sped question for Sheila, but I'm wondering what the psychiatrist is doing to address your difficult child's mood sx. Can he be rxed something for sleep? How about anxiety and depression? If the sx are addressed, maybe he'll be able to get to school more easily.

 

[klmno]

psychiatrist is aware- we saw him about 3 weeks ago and he rx'd the generic ativan for difficult child for anxiety. difficult child tried it twice and said he would never take it again- he said it made him feel worse. difficult child has made issue over taking every medication rx'd prn. I haven't pushed that, since I'm mostly concerned that difficult child take the frontline MS's. I did call and leave message for psychiatrist that difficult child is having major sleep issues and asked that he let me know if a medication change is in order. He has not called me, so I assume he doesn't want to change them. psychiatrist tends to put things like this on a therapist. Of course, most therapist's will either put it right back in psychiatrist's court or treat it like it's ODD. We've been though this course several times.

 

[smallworld]

Sleep is a sx of mood instability. Furthermore, the less the child sleeps, the more unstable he becomes. It's a vicious cycles that needs nipping in the bud. I think you need to be firmer with the psychiatrist.

 

[Sheila]

It may be somewhat helpful to address the problem in the IEP. It shows that everyone is aware of the problem and working on it. However, juvenile justice will trump IDEA if push comes to shove.

Sorry.