My friend, a school BD aide, needs help

[BusynMember]

This is the story of a thirteen year old in her class. She's a foster child living with a very good foster mom, however the foster mom has moved to another district. The child has a slew of diagnosis. The FM is a single mom and drives the child to school every day, since she is now out of district. A social worker from DCFS has to pick her up every day and drive her to where the FM works. All of a sudden, DCFS decided that the child should move to her home district three months before she graduates, so that she can not enjoy graduation with her friends and has to adapt to a new school in the middle/end of the year. My friend thinks the social worker is just too lazy to drive her to her FM every day. She and the other teachers to do not feel it is in the best interests of the child to have another IEP that will move her to a new district until next year. They feel it would be very disruptive. This girl has come a long way and has been in many bad placements before finally bonding with and being well taken care of her new foster mom. The IEP is scheduled for Tuesday, with the teacher's dead set against moving her right now. Of course, the social worker is not saying she doesn't want to drive the girl to her FM after school. She is using other reasons, as yet undisclosed (and my friend just can't WAIT to hear how she spins it). This is happening in Illinois. Does anyone have any idea how the school can stop this social worker from removing the child from the district? Shouldn't the State have to pay for a cab to take this child to her FM after school? It's not far from the school. The child has too many problems to be left alone in the house when her FM is at work. Any suggestions will be instantly passed along to my friend, who doesn't have home internet access, but I can e-mail her at work. Thanks :smile:

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I can give you my opinion, Martie and Sheila can give you the law.

I don't believe this is a case where the school has to pay for transportation. That is done if your zoned school cannot provide the services necessary to educate your child under the law. They would then step in and provide transportation to another facility, or in the case of behavior issues, provide private or small bus transportation.

In your friend's case, the foster mother moved out of the school district and the school has nothing to do with that. My opinion. Now that is not to say that fm cannot appeal the decision dps in regards to her fd's best interests.

Sharon

 

[tiredmommy]

I would appeal & appeal & appeal, and in effect drag it out through the end of the school year.

 

[Sheila]

Unless there's some agreement between the Districts' involved or it's controlled by state law, this really isn't an IEP/IDEA issue since the student has been moved out of the District. I'm actually surprised that the original sd continues to allow the child to attend their district without some type tuition arrangements. Kudos to them.

Appealing is a good idea perhaps. Also, if the child has a Guardian Ad Litem, consider involving the attorney. Another potential option: the SW has a DCFS department head, Director.

Hope it works out. It'd be a shame to trigger a destabilization because of transportation issues.

 

[JJJ]

I'm pretty sure Illinois has a law allowing foster children to remain at their current school in spite of placement changes.

Could the aide offer to drive her to FM's work?

 

[JJJ]

Another idea,

is there another foster home in the school district that would be willing to do day care for her and the school could just bus her there?

 

[Martie]

Apparently, this child was being bused prior to the move or wasn't she? This is important.

There is a court decision requiring a SD to bus an IN-DISTRICT child to a daycare slightly out of district (1 mile) because it was the only day-care that would take the child. Court's reasoning was best interests of the child and that the request was no financially burdensome.

I am surprised that the SD will continue to keep the child without tuition also. I think the best solution is to get in-district day care where the FM can pick the child up IF the child previously had transportation as a related service. That way, the current SD only has to bus half as much as previously and the SW is out of the picture.

Martie

 

[Sara PA]

I think it's unwarranted to call the social worker "lazy" for not continuing to chauffeur a child home from school every day. It's not like the social worker has nothing else to do or no other children in her caseload. Doing that requires that the social worker plan every afternoon around having to be at the school when the child gets out, regardless of what other appointments she made need to make. Besides, the aide doesn't know if it's the social worker's decision or a supervisor's who decided that the arrangement is a poor use of the social worker's time.