Timeframe for request to see school records?

[Farmwife]

Sent a certified letter for evaluation request and record request.

School seems a bit nervous about my checking records per phone call with school psychiatric. Seemed to want to know what I needed so they could give it to me vs. letting me see the actual file and deciding for myself. hmmmm.....

What time frame do they have to produce difficult child's entire permanent record for me to see and make copies?

I'm concerned that without legal timelines they may "temporarily misplace" the file.

Oh yeah, people I need to ask about it to are "unavailable" and "in meetings". Shouldn't I just be able to go on down and request it from whomever is left in charge? It really isn't complicated except for the part where a warrior Mom has the bully school feeling intimidated.

 

[slsh]

Per IL statute:

c) A parent's or student's request to inspect and copy records, or to allow a specifically designated representative to inspect and copy records, must be granted within a reasonable time, and in no case later than 15 school days after the date of receipt of such request by the official records custodian.

You may want to check out this link - and when you ask to see records, you want to see both "permanent" and "temporary" records.

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1006&ChapAct=105 ILCS 10/&

I'd send a letter to the custodian of records - you may have to call to find out who it is specifically. Certified letter as always.

 

[Farmwife]

Thank you for the awesome link.

Looked up so many laws this past week that my brain is Swiss cheese. 15 days is nice. I thought I read somewhere that it was 45 days. 15 is way better than that.

The temporary vs. permanent records thingy is major. I owe you huge for that alone...

 

[DammitJanet]

My sons high school made a huge mistake with his Special Education and regular files. They got busy and asked me to hand deliver it to the school he was transferring to! OK...yeah...Sure...I will be right on that one.

I grabbed that file and went and had lunch and read the entire file. What I didnt like in there I conveniently removed. Now there is nothing in that record from before I got ahold of it that I didnt want in there. Its history. Removed, shredded. Stupid stuff from principals that didnt like him.

 

[Farmwife]

The principal called me yesterday and said I could come on down anytime. First 50 copies are free and 15 cents after that. She was super nice.

ha ha ha ha

Certified letters rock!!

(I wish you could hear the sing songy way I would have said r-o-c-k, picture Jack Black in the movie "school of rock" and you'd feel my enthusiasm)

 

[slsh]

Janet - bad girl!!!!

FW - If you do find anything in the record that you disagree with, it's time for another certified letter. You're going to be a whiz at these in no time. Just state what you disagree with and why, and then request that your letter be placed in his permanent file. I'm pretty sure that's also covered in the link above. If not, then check out sped statues. ISBE's web site is actually really pretty good.

 

[DammitJanet]

Yeah I was bad but I also knew it was his final time for heading into a school. This was it. Now or never. I didnt have to worry about the future anymore. What did I need something in there from when he was 5?

 

[Sheila]

Certified letters rock!!

Yep!

This is one of those things that vary by State. In Texas, they do have 45 days. Would be great if it were 15 or less.....

 

[Farmwife]

Got all the records I wanted. Clerk was nice. Nothing bad was in the file, actually quite the opposite. There was like a strange lack of information. difficult child has some discipline issues so I asked the clerk "I have a feeling there is more information somewhere."

I already had the temp and permanent files. Lo and behold out comes a third file, the discipline file. Guess what was in it? No guess, it's almost funny.

difficult child's 5 month old scrip for a 504 and notes from a meeting back then. No follow up on their part, no teacher reports or anything. Zippo.

I wonder if the discipline file contained that info because the state board of ed, spec. ed. dept. was down for 3 days for focused monitoring. Big trouble on the horizon, lol.

I also found the certified reciept I never got back still attached to the envelope. Got copies of that too. grrrrrr. It was never actually signed for so no point in taking it, I guess.

Still getting oodles of courtesy, it still creeps me out.

The gave instant approval of evaluation. I waived 10 days and have INA meeting next week. They were uber curious about who my "guest" is. Asked if it was an advocate or lawyer or...or. Oh boy is this fun except it's just a sort of case worker of my difficult child's. Bummer it aint a lawyer.

They sent me the booklet with my rights, funny I never got that before.

Oh yeah, I used post it page marker flags for the copies so it was easier for the clerk. She left the flags on when I left. Not sure if maybe someone was happy to be able to see what copies I got?!?!

Either way they are playing by my rules now. I'm going to tone it down though for the time being. No need to keep them tense. Now I need them on the same team.