I'm worried about the sd

klmno

Active Member
difficult child had not been expelled or arrested at school, ever. He had a lot of absences his last year in public school (8th grade- middle school) but no truancy charge. They were happy with him. Now, it's our state law that when a kid is released from Department of Juvenile Justice, they have to see the hearing officer of the home sd and the hearing officer determines if the kid is allowed back into their mainstream school- they have to provide FAPE but they can make the kid go to alternative school (where kids who are in trouble a lot go). I had been told by Department of Juvenile Justice's schhol people that our district sd was not too bad about making kids do this , unless they were expelled when committed to Department of Juvenile Justice or committed to Department of Juvenile Justice for a drug or violent act at school, which did not apply to difficult child, but some other sds are. Also, I had been told by Department of Juvenile Justice that the PO always has to go to this meeting with the hearing officer to advocate for the kid getting back into a mainstream school.

difficult child's PO told me that's not true- it has nothing to do with him- and he won't be there. I didn't think it mattered since everyone had been telling me that this disrict will let difficult child right back into mainstream. But today I talked with a couple of people from this sd- one is the person from the disciplanry office who sets up the meeting with the HO and the other was the registrar at the actual high school difficult child would be attending. They both sounded less confident and told me that now this disctrict has a basic "course" that lasts a minimum of 9 weeks at an alternative school for kids getting released from Department of Juvenile Justice and he mmight possibly be going to that. I asked why difficult child would need that if his charge had absolutely nothing to do with school and asked if they ever discussed the child with the previous principal to get her opinion. No- they don't talk with previous school admin. She said the hearing officer makes the sole determination based on what "they" think is in the student's best interst. (Huh Huh And just why would being forced to go to an alternative school in this situation be in difficult child's best interest?) Then she tells me "oh don't worry- it's not a big deal- this school (the mainstream one) would still be his home school. (That mmeans nothing if the kid isn't attending there.)

We have an IEP eligibility meeting at the Department of Juvenile Justice school first thing tomorrow am. I don't care much about any of that now as long as difficult child is still found eligible, no major changes to his current iep are recommended (the next school has to do another one anyway), and I can get them to recommend in writing that difficult child go to a mainstream school. My gut tells me sending him to alternative school would be a downfall. I'm also going to tell them that the PO has no intention of going to this meeting and advocating for difficult child. Hopefully, since they are big supporters of these kids being accepted back into the community, they will call the PO and stress the importance of his attendance. That would go a lot further than me calling him- any time I talk to him I just feel like I'm being pumped for info then all he ever says is "don't worry- we will cover all this at a later date".

He called yesterday and said oh, we do need to meet face to face before difficult child's release because it's been 90 days. He wanted to stop by. No that's ok- I'll come in. Well ok but we don't really even need to talk, just see each other for a min to meet the rule, he tells me. How stupid is this. I'm not the one on parole. Anyway, I'll be seeing him at his office on Fri- we will be talking about his attendance at this hearing. How much you wanna bet he refuses to go? PO's over there really never do anything but order things.

difficult child's judge will be gone in a few weeks. It looks like the replacement (if the budget allows a replacement) will be a person who is currently on the state bar's discplinary panel for attorneys. At least there's a slim chance that someone "in the know" might get into our county's J&DR court to see how they are really doing things over there- I would love for this person to discover how difficult child's GAL really works.
 
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