Well, I am still mulling the pros and cons of this over and would value any input on these thoughts:
1) I think Due Process can cover a violation for the past two years (the state compliant is one year). This would allow the issues of last year's BIP (which outright said one more violation and he's removed- that was his entire BIP they proposed and I refused to sign), manifestation determination and no education for last quarter of school (except the 3 weeks in detention that they counted but that was a joke), along with this year's not complying with IEP- they never used "safe place", at least that I am aware of (they will say they didn't need it but I have emails expressing concerns from teachers on this one) and they haven't initialed homework agenda 2/3 of the time. There is also a sticky one about reduced homework in stressful periods when agreed upon by case manager at school and me. They will find a loophole with that one.
2) What is really bugging me and I believe to be the root of the problem is that they keep saying, "but his IEP is FOR BEHAVIOR". Well, his diagnosis has changed to mood cycling/bipolar this past year. They have seen proof of his diagnosis. Knowledgable people know how this can effect behavior, memory, cognitive abilities, etc. It is more than obvious that mood cycling and resulting medications effect his ability to do homework, classwork, etc. His grades reflect it. His neuropsychologist evaluations from 2 years ago reflect impairment in memory, executive functioning (organizing), and show borderline adhd. This year's different type of adhd test was inconclusive. I don't think he is adhd- I think the adhd results are like that because of the mood cycling. Yet, because I can really only present two highly qualified child& adolescent psychiatrist reports saying the kid has mood cycling, they refuse to see it as anything other than behavior that should be punished. If he's had a meltdown at home and work doesn't get done, he gets a zero from some teachers and some teachers let him make it up for a lower grade. Then, they ask me why I didn't oversee his homework time. If he sits and class and stares at wall instead of doing anything, they let him then give him a zero, If he disrupts class, he gets sent to the office, not his "safe place". Now this is a mainstream school and he is in mainstream (a couple collaborative) classes, but still, isn't the IEP supposed to address these things and be implemented? All they want, is to look at the whole thing as rewards and punishments for behavior. And, I was told by the ed spec from school that this is preferable over letting the teachers know that he has mood cycling because of what they are taught, they would single him out and treat him differently. As much as I would love to fight that discrimination- how do I prove that Ross Greene's collaborative problem solving works, and that mood cycling and resulting lack of work done is not all intentional behavior, etc? Even with an attorney or advocate at an iep meeting, half of them don't understand mood cycling and wouldn't they end up "buying" the school's team members (which would greatly outnumber us) that '"they are there to treat symptoms and the only symptom he exhibits that effects them is behavior- because lack of completed work, etc., is all intentional behavior and manipulation".
3) I would much prefer not to fight the whole thing- but there isn't another school around that would do any better- there are private schools where behavior must be great and there are schools for severe behavior problems. He doesn't fit into either- as he saves the raging and meltdowns for home, even when they are triggered by the way school handles things. If I found a way to homeschool the rest of this year, what would I do next year? If I still filed for due process and took him out of this school, the attny told me they wouldn't put much weight on solving the problems when the kid has been removed from that system.
4) The attny said most of the due process cases get resolved before ever going to court- he said they are settled and implied that there could be compensatory (sp) damages paid. Great, but then the sd is no more bound legally to do anything any differently, right? Wouldn't this mean mediation- which is not legally binding and has no accountability built-in?
5) It is bad enough that I cringe at the thought of difficult child going to this school every day, but it disgusts me more to think of having another iep meeting with them because no matter what is signed, they do or not do what they want. And the meetings really are BS anyway. I feel like his classification and everything should be reviewed- by someone knowledgable about mood disorders, they told me they would provide this- did they, NO. It all a joke.
6) And then, there is the issue that Dreamer and I have "discussed" on other threads- there is real valid reason to worry about retaliation against difficult child- the type that could really change the course of his life.
So, my unofficial poll here- what would you do??
