Revoke consent for Special Education

TiredSoul

Warrior Mom since 2007
Has anyone ever revoked their consent for special education services because they do not agree with the school district and have been fighting too long and have realized nothing is going to change? That's where I am right now. I just want to make sure I am not making a huge mistake by revoking my consent.

My son has ADHD and ODD and had had an IEP since Kindergarten. Looking back there has been no real benefit. It has been one fight after another and I've gotten nowhere. I've written letters and had advocates and gotten the district heads involved. I have determined there is nothing to gain with this district. Moving is not an option, nor is online or home schooling at this time.

So I am resolved to revoking my consent, getting him out of his worthless sped class and discontinuing his IEP which was never followed, or written right, or agreed on.

Can anyone think of any backlash or downfall for doing this? We will make up for the support he is failing to get at school. There were some problems with behavior in the past and an ineffective behavior plan was written - will that go away too with my revocation of consent? I am not really worried about him being suspended for more than 10 days unless they do it just to screw with us (which would not surprise me), but for the most part his offenses are small and result in one or two days of ISS.

I am thinking that getting this monkey off our back will really help to improve all of our attitudes with his education. Any input or advice??
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
No direct experience with getting out of a US-style IEP. But... the only way we were able to substantially change anything for my younger kid was to pull out of school entirely and switch to on-line. As long as the student is in the school environment, you are totally at their mercy, and if they can't get an IEP done correctly and/or can't actually follow it, then I'm guessing there is likely to be some major fall-out if you now want "out". Sometimes, the fall-out comes from other students who catch on that this kid is "no longer protected" by an IEP, even if it was relatively ineffective. Ditto for teachers.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I would really think about it. I know you have had horrible dealings with your school and it makes me so angry on your behalf! Without being qualified he will not be eligible for any services at all. If you decide that you want services later it may be difficult. I can certainly understand your frustration and, of course, we will support you in whatever you decide. Sending some hugs your way.
 

Copabanana

Well-Known Member
My son has ADHD and ODD and had had an IEP since Kindergarten.
Can anyone think of any backlash or downfall for doing this?
Absolutely Jules. Special Education confers protections for the child that make very difficult their being suspended, expelled or even punished for behaviors that are related to their qualifying condition. In ODD and ADHD there are many behaviors that school personnel hate. They might just love the opportunity to punish, suspend or otherwise harass your child who may be disruptive, disrespectful or just time consuming.

If the IEPS are not serving your child, insist they write better ones, with more interventions, supports or even non-public school placement. From 6th grade until graduation my son was rarely in a regular classroom. I insisted.

Do not consider revoking Special Education or you will regret it.
 

Sheila

Moderator
I recommend that you not do that for the reasons copa stated.

Any chance of transferring to another school within the district?

Have you discussed filing a complaint(s) with your State Ed Agency and/or Us Dept of Ed and/or OCr?
 

HMBgal

Well-Known Member
As a Special Education teacher, once you let the IEP go, it can be a real mess to start over again. And the manifestation determination becomes a big deal. That means that the district can expel or in other ways make you and your kid's life miserable because any misbehaviors will not be excused because of a function of a disability, and no help will be forthcoming of any kind. The IEP is a contract between you and the district to assist your child in being successful in school. If the school district isn't upholding the IEP that you both signed, it's a compliance issue and there are legal avenues. That being said, I totally understand that there are districts that just plain do a crappy job with this (I work in a district that does an amazing job, but I've in a district that does a crappy job) and the battle with them, along with dealing with a challenging child, is so very hard. You may have to demand a change in placement. Get your battle boots on, Warrior Mom.
 

TiredSoul

Warrior Mom since 2007
Crud I typed a response on my phone and lost the entire thing! Let me try this again....

I have a 7-8 page complaint written to the state that I have not yet sent. The reason I have not sent it yet is because I do not think it will do anything to change the situation. Sure they might get procedural violations for failing to schedule an IEP meeting one time, and for not giving us a copy of the procedural safeguards, but it will only piss them off more and in turn will make things worse for my son.

This is a middle school (7th/8th grades). My son will be in 8th grade this fall. Apparently this school has only two sped teachers. One teaches a social skills class and a study skills class - the other teaches math/reading intervention type classes. The only "services" my son gets is 50 minutes daily of SDI in social/emotional/behavioral and therefore they have plugged him into the study skills class (as most of his issues center around organization and exec func deficits). The teacher he has IS the problem. She is also his IEP case manager. I WANT HIM OUT OF HER CLASS. I have made my concerns known over the entire course of the last school year. I am told there are no other options for him.

So the only ways I know of to get him out of her class are:
revoke consent for sped
change to 504 plan and request different case manager

change schools within district
change schools out of district
online/home school

Right now the only options doable are the first two. He is getting NOTHING positive out of being in that class. In fact for as many years as I have fought for him, there really has been no benefit. He is a smart kid - he simply just needs extra time to do his school work because he won't do it at home after having suffered through school for 6.5 hours per day. And he needs someone to help him organize what's what and make sure he has what he needs and is doing what he is supposed to be doing. He needs a secretary. Lol. He also needs help with planning and initiating / getting started on assignments in class, especially if he doesn't want to do it. (Hard to motivate to do boring/uninteresting tasks.) They spent the year doing crosswords and word searches in that class. Waste of time and I fought long and hard and have made previous posts about all the crap they took out of his IEP and changed so they wouldn't have to do anything. It's a joke and I am not going to go back over all of that.

As far as behavior and discipline are concerned, they do not discipline any differently for someone with a disability. We did a mock manifestation determination (it had not yet been 10 days suspended) and they determined many of his behaviors are due to his disability. But that did not make them go easier on him or discipline him differently. We were told many times by the principal her hands are tied and she has to discipline him according to her guidelines and its progressive based on number of incidents.

So here we are - one year left in this school with this teacher ---as well as the knowledge that his IEP has never served him positively in 8 years of school - what do I do? I will not deal with that woman one more second.

In addition, my son hates being in that class and feeling like something is wrong with him.

Now I am leaning towards transitioning to a 504 and getting the proper accommodations in place. I just have a feeling the principal will tell me I am stuck with this woman as his case manager and I will have to fight for the accommodations that I was fighting for before with no success. At least he would be out of her class and next year at the high school I could sit down with that team and revise his accommodations.

504 plans still offer protection with regard to discipline, right?
 

Copabanana

Well-Known Member
Everything I spent a half hour writing just got erased. The gist of it is this: Do not do it.

504 is weak. I was in Education/Mental Health. I know.
You would be playing into their hands.
You would shoot your child in the foot.
Get him out of that class. Away from that teacher.
Insist. Play hardball.
The teacher is toxic to your child.
The cure you are proposing is worse than the disease.
I yanked my child out of school when they abused us. I never, ever thought of opting out of Special Education.
They are bullies, and they try to run the game. Do not let them.
Take control. Ask for non-public school placement, if you have to.

Do not opt out of Special Education.
 

TiredSoul

Warrior Mom since 2007
Copa,
Did you regret yanking your child out of school?

My understand of the basic differences between an IEP and 504 is:
fundung
services / SDI

A 504 does not have services or specially designed instruction - just accommodations.

I don't think we need any services.
 

Copabanana

Well-Known Member
Copa,
Did you regret yanking your child out of school?
No. I did it twice. But I am certain we were in a different situation.

The first time I did it because after 2 years a school district stopped non public school placement. I would not accept that my son return to public school in that district. I kept the special education and we left the Country. My son attended middle school 2 years in foreign schools. Most people would not want to do this.

The second time was towards the end of high school. Again he was in non-public school in another district. Against my will and deliberately without my knowledge they changed his designated disability to mental illness, and made him Emotionally Disabled, ED instead of Other Health Impaired/ADHD.

While they had been right about the designation, I had wanted to shield him from this.

The thing is I hated the way they did it because they did it when we were out of the Country, when they knew I could not attend and did not know of the IEP meeting, when he was not even a student in the district. When I found out about it by accident,when we had returned from the foreign country, I was furious. To their surprise and shock I pulled him out of the non-public school and the district, on principle. I would not allow us to be part of an entity that did this to people. As I write this, I begin to think I am very weird.

At that time he was close to graduating. I found a private high school for independent learners where he could study in a variety of formats and receive academic credit through the private high school. A lot of the credit for the foreign schools counted, and independent and online work. My son by that time was fluent in two foreign languages. He got credit for all that too.

So that is how he graduated from High School. The bad part: I had to push him a lot. And I helped him a lot. Too much. It set a bad precedent.

Any regrets? Not really.

Would I ever, ever take him out of Spec. Ed? Never.

I would do anything but that.

In public schools there are always do overs possible. You can leave and come back. You can move and change districts. The new districts must follow the agreed upon interventions. Even non public school.

I have switched schools for my son within the district several times, when I felt that teachers' or administrators' attitudes were inadequate.

Maybe I did this too much. But I cannot abide bullies. While we have some wonderful educators on this forum, I find that public schools can be about power over and abuse. Things I have a hard time with.

But I always tried with my son to use public schools for what they could do for us. And left the game when they tried to dominate and coerce. But I never, ever considered taking away the protections from Special Education.
 
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InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
I'm not in the US, but my understanding is that a 504 has no protections, not just no services. It's essentially a "please" request, where an IEP is legally enforceable (at least in theory).

Switch schools. Somehow.
 

jal

Member
Jules you have no leg to stand on with a 504. The IEP is a legal contract. You can call them to task with it and it will stand up in court if it gets that far. Choosing a 504 means they do not legally have to follow what get written into the 504 they just have to offer accommodations.
 

HMBgal

Well-Known Member
Yep. What jal said. My grandson is on a 504 and it has been useless. Worse than useless because they meet once a year with us (when they can remember) and they think they are doing something, but they really aren't. Difficult Child was evaluated for an IEP in kindergarten, but didn't qualify. Of course he did (not academically, but behaviors limited his access to the curriculum) but we were nice and let it slide. After 10 suspensions this year, six coming at the very end of the year, they are beginning to change their tune because, well, they have to.
 

HMBgal

Well-Known Member
Of course you're right, jal, but when he's reading at a high school level and is smart as a whip, it's a hard case to make. I do feel that his and the other children in his class are having their least restrictive rights violated by his behavior. Small school districts like this one are so hard to deal with. And when a district, any district, is dug in, refuses to comply, and are generally incompetent, it's such a hard, long, expensive uphill battle (not just money, but our kids don't have the time to go year after year without the right kind of services/help) that it's a hard thing to face when the kid is exhausting all our energy and emotional resources.
 

jal

Member
I do understand as I have a close friend who has had to fight for his children. My child doesn't have academic issues its behavioral. A manifestation of his diagnosis. I have been fortunate that my district has worked with us. I have not had to fight to get what my child needed. We too are in a small district but have been treated so differently. Him having to fight and us not having to.
 

pasajes4

Well-Known Member
I spent years trying to get our school district to honor their IEP. WE went to court they lost, they targeted my son, I fought back, my son was the ultimate loser in all of this.
 

HMBgal

Well-Known Member
You're like me, pasajes4. We see it from both sides because we have a foot in both camps. It's so hard.
 

TiredSoul

Warrior Mom since 2007
I spent years trying to get our school district to honor their IEP. WE went to court they lost, they targeted my son, I fought back, my son was the ultimate loser in all of this.
This is where we are. Losing battle and my son is who suffers the most because of poor treatment.

I sent one last letter insisting on a new case manager and for him not to be in her class. I'm wondering if I will even get a response.

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TiredSoul

Warrior Mom since 2007
How does Section 504 apply to the disciplinary removal of a disabled student from school?

Section 504 protects disabled students from being improperly removed from school for misconduct that is related to their disability. As a general rule, Section 504 and IDEA apply to the disciplinary removal of disabled students in a similar manner. Before a district can implement a disciplinary action that constitutes a “significant change in placement” (Refer to “What is a ‘significant change in placement’ under Section 504?”), it must evaluate the student to determine whether the student’s misconduct is either related to his or her disability or due to an inappropriate placement. This type of evaluation is commonly called a “manifestation determination” (Refer to “What is a ‘manifestation determination’ under Section 504?”). If a disabled student’s misconduct is a manifestation of his or her disability, a district cannot implement a disciplinary action that constitutes a significant change in the student’s placement. If a disabled student’s misconduct is not a manifestation of his or her disability, a district can discipline the student in the same manner that it disciplines non-disabled students for the same misconduct. Under Section 504, unlike IDEA, a district does not have to provide a disabled student educational services during the period of time the student is properly removed from school for disciplinary reasons.




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