Update on Neuro-psychiatric & School Lawsuit & Oregon

[Hanging-On]

Hi everyone, it's been months since I last wrote. ALOT has happened. If you remember difficult child was not allowed to go back to school by his school, and then the whole district (once he got out of the hospital in Jan 6,07, after three months in there). My lawyer and I went to IEP meetings in Feb,Mar,Apr,May and sued in May07. difficult child recieved only 3hrs of acedemics/wk, and 1hr/wk of Occupational Therapist (OT),SPL,SW. This continue up into last week, after I settled with the SD the week before and I WON EVERYTHING I ASKED FOR, AND REIMBURSED FOR THE COSTS ALL YEAR, AND COMP. ED FOR THREE YRS AT MY CHOICE WITH THE NEURO-PYSCH/Ed.Diagnostican TO CONFIR. So difficult child started school last Thursday half day, sp.ed. self contained, personal one-on-one,busing to his tutors and his wrap around sevices of behavior mgmt, etc. I also have the Neuro-psychiatric/Ed.Diagnostican named as the professional who will personally monitor his program to make sure the school is doing what she said they must do, and she has ultimate say in his IEP changes per my acceptance. So, the lawsuit is over, and after 1 year out of school he's finally back in. :smile: :smile:

Now the bad news. Home sales have plumetted, and my home builder employer is laying off everyone except his rental property department. In addition, a big Oil Co. has leased 80,000 acres of mineral rights in the mountain where my new home and ranch now sits. That means that they are going to start dirlling for oil and gas on every 40 acres. This mean a pumping station on every 40 acres.

Just when the boys, especially difficult child, has started to show big improvements in their health and behavior, which everyone has told me has been due to a large part due to bringing them 30 miles out into the country with healthy air, peaceful queit nature sounds. So almost no visual and audible sensory pollution, and clean air, fresh water from our well, etc. ALL of this is going to be destroyed because of the corporation. Through out the US owners of mineral rights have more rights than surface owners. So that means that can mow over my fence, plow through my horse pastures and barn OR house and drill where ever they think oil is. If I'm lucky and I'm not part of a 40 acres drilling site, there is still all the poisons flooding the enviroment. They could be up stream of me, and poisoning my well. The air will be poisoned no matter where we are. Everything I fought for, and all the improvements in the boys will be totally destroyed. So now I not only have the stress & worry about losing my job, which could be fixed by just getting another job. But I now have the oil company coming next year, and THIS is something I can't fix or stop.

So, I'm thinking of selling and moving......again. I've been thinking of Oregon. Willamette Valley and Yamhill County. Does anyone know anything about this area. Schools, lifestyle, quality of life, jobs, etc. And the Special Education in schools, IEP's being adhered to, etc.

Thanks.

 

[witzend]

Oregon is beautiful. You would get a beautiful home in Yamhill or Marion County. You should be aware that we are in the midsts of a land use battle and you could not at this time guarantee that your neighboring landowners wouldn't put four hundred homes or a methane farm on the 40 acre lot next to you. This will probably change after our November elections, as there is a measure (49) that will rectify this issue and it looks like it will pass. Our land prices have not fallen the way they have in the rest of the country, so you will get less for your dollar here.

You would not get the kind of Special Education help that you are looking for. In fact, Oregon is recognized as one of the most under-served states for Special Education students. We currently fund our schools strictly through property taxes, but our new home construction is booming. In our district, a 2,000 student high school opened 5 years ago. It is already so overburdened that there are 19 temporary outbuildings to handle all of the new students. There is another ballot measure that will allow us to put a new schools fee on each builder's permit. But it's too late for all of those kids in all of those tens of thousands of new homes that have come in the last 10 years. We don't live in Yamhill County, and Yamhill does not have any special school funding that I know of. In past situations, the state has decided that Special Education counselors can meet and make decisions with sd attorneys during school breaks, that admin and s/e teachers etc can meet without parent's knowledge or consent so long as "no decisions are made", generally not a lot of sympathy or experience working with special needs students.

I have a friend in Minnesota who has three AS boys. She has been treated very well there. The districts do a lot of hands on learning (their learning, not the child's learning) about new procedures and ideas. She has gone to conferences all over the country that they have recommended and participated in.

Not to badmouth Oregon. I love it here. But if you don't know what your rights are, and you don't fight for them, they aren't going to offer them. And even if you can get access to them, you'll be one of the few getting them so they will be way behind the times in so far as experience.


I found this information on a conference that examined all of the states and their Special Education programs.

Special Education by state

 

[Hanging-On]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping Oregon was special needs friendly, but there was a change it isn't. I don't know if I want to go into another town and have to fight for his basic rights, again. Especially since I just won a really good contract and IEP with the Sd here. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong priorities, when looking at areas to move. I was looking at quality of life, clean envirnoment, and jobs for me. Then difficult child friendly sd's. I should reverse these priorities, and see which places are good for difficult child's, and then the other issues.

I'm going to go to the link you gave, and see what I find. But do you or anyone else out there have any suggestions where I should look.

Thanks

 

[Wiped Out]

Congrats on winning the lawsuit!!! I'm sorry you will have to move. Can't help you out in that area as I don't know anything about the area.

 

[envisablepuppet]

Humm I thought I was the only Oregonian here glad to see I'm not :laugh:

I can't really comment on the area you mention because I am closer to the coast and unfamiliar with the Willamette Valley and Yamhill County areas. But if you do decide to move here, WELCOME TO OREGON :smile:

 

[crazymama30]

I live in Oregon, not Willamette or Yamhill County, and my school district has been good to work with, but my difficult child does not have as many needs as some. difficult child does have an IEP, but is in a regular classroom setting. In my area it is hard to access a neuropsychologist, but I do believe we have gotten a few more child psychiatrists. If you decide to move here, welcome. I would wonder how the services would be though

 

[--Eleanor--]

I live in the Willamette Valley. The [edited by admin] school district gave us sheer h*ll during my son's kindergarten and first grade years. We filed due process and ultimately got a good settlement for him that included a significant amount of compensatory education, as well as compensation for lots of private speech and Occupational Therapist (OT) that we got for him. He seems to be doing better (and getting better services) in second grade. My impression is that Salem-Keizer is more backwards that much of the rest of the state, particularly about inclusion.

I have heard that both Tigard and Beaverton school districts (near Portland) are much better with Special Education services.

Last year, the state of Oregon published a document called the "Special Education Report Card" that showed a comparison of all of the districts. You may want to find it (it is online somewhere but I don't remember where) and compare before you make the move.

Best of luck!

 

[Hanging-On]

Thanks everyone. There's so much to consider.