difficult child threatened staff again.

[flutterby]

Wow, Shari. I'm just speechless.


(((hugs)))

 

[gcvmom]

This situation is exactly the kind where bringing in an outside consultant can be helpful. A neutral person can make unbiased observations and recommendations without all of the history and frustrations that build up between the school and parents getting in the way.



I second that. Have you checked into advocates to see if there are any in your area?

I second this. We hired a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) to observe difficult child 1 in preschool when his ADHD was becoming more and more apparent to us but we didn't know what the problem was.

She spent a couple of hours shadowing him and he didn't even know it, because he didn't know her. Then she gave us a report and her assessment of the situation which allowed us to take the next step in seeking treatment for him.

From what I remember (it was 10+ years ago) our insurance covered it.

 

[SRL]

I second this. We hired a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) to observe difficult child 1 in preschool when his ADHD was becoming more and more apparent to us but we didn't know what the problem was.

She spent a couple of hours shadowing him and he didn't even know it, because he didn't know her. Then she gave us a report and her assessment of the situation which allowed us to take the next step in seeking treatment for him.

From what I remember (it was 10+ years ago) our insurance covered it.

In our case the district hired a consultant who did several school observations, did one home observations, met with both me and school seperately to present findings, and then sent a lengthy report in with findings and recommendations for the IEP team. Despite being hired by the school the consultant was still objective. The school made the suggestion and paid for her because we weren't making progress on an issue that was causing a lot of problems at the time.

 

[Shari]

At our urging, they are finally doing an FBA. But it won't start til next week. We'll be lucky to have any results by the end of this school year.

I have a rep at our insurance co...I'll call and ask her abotu the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). I think they are covered outside of the clinical setting on our insurance...that may be a way to faster results.

I applied for an advocate but was denied. I am appealing but haven't heard back. SpEd Director has also requested I bring in docs to the next IEP meeting. There is a group that trains parents in the iep process, too. I've gotten most of my legal info from them or here (verified, of course!). I might be able to beg someone from there into attending with me, I don't know.

Thank you guys for the suggestions and wording. When I go in tomorrow to drop off difficult child, I am going to pull SpEd teacher aside and verbally apologize in advance for any fallout she may receive and let her know its not personal, I just gotta do what I gotta do to get what's best for my kid. I don't have to, and I probably shouldn't, but I really beleive if she were allowed to do her job, this wouldn't be a problem. She can read difficult child.

Then when I get to work, I'm going to email her and ask for, as you said, a first-hand (from the para) recount of the events leading up to the safe room, as well as to have the para who was with difficult child included in the reports I'm getting. That right there is gonna set an ugly wheel in motion cause pretty boy will know i'm questioning his staff again, and he doesn't like that. But I think its an important piece of this puzzle and we need to know if there's a pattern that includes who is with him or not. Her training may have helped so its not the problem anymore - but regardless - WE NEED TO KNOW.

 

[SRL]

I applied for an advocate but was denied. I am appealing but haven't heard back. SpEd Director has also requested I bring in docs to the next IEP meeting. There is a group that trains parents in the iep process, too. I've gotten most of my legal info from them or here (verified, of course!). I might be able to beg someone from there into attending with me, I don't know.
.

There also may be advocates for hire in your area, which is the way I would go if I could afford it. Even if I thought I couldn't afford it I still probably would find a way because it would be way cheaper than me needing to go to therapy after dealing with a district who was dealing out this junk, cheaper than sending the child to private school, and cheaper than whatever future medical costs difficult child would probably incur from becoming unstable. And in your case you'd also need to factor in the possible financial repurcussions if you did get hired on as a para because there would be no job security.

 

[klmno]

Make sure they have someone who is qualified leading the FBA. You might be able to find your state DOE regs online for disciplining kids on an IEP. It probably follows IDEA- it has to be at least as "strict". Here, our regs say that a FBA must be lead by a person knowledgable about how the disability effects the academic learning, or something along those lines. That was pretty useful after the VP had lead a FBA for difficult child and determined that his going out of control after a doubling of prozac dosage was "not a manifestation of his disability".