IEP accommodations--anyone know? UPDATE

[Hannathy]

if the "schools" computer gets stolen then he'd at least have a backup at home to use like he is now!

Ways for it to get stolen.. she says is big and cant fit into his backpack what about at lunch? where would he put it? on the floor in its bag one look away and swoop its gone, how about on the bus what if someone sits on it and breaks it, or he forgets it? Gym, Art, music, etc I'm sure are all in different rooms, the schools computer would stay in the classroom at all times.

It is high school there is no one classroom. He keeps it in his backpack at all times.They make big backpacks. He can go thru the line with it on his back thousands of kids do. At lunch if the school is so dangerous then he puts it between his legs like you do at Disney. How is someone going to sit on it on the bus with reasonable precautions that a teen can take, he isn't 3. I said how to handle gym he takes it to the office and they keep it for 1 period. Other classes he takes it with him. if he needs to be away from the desk in art he can lock the laptop.

 

[Hannathy]

Techincally, no because special ed has its own funding. Special Ed money can NEVER be used for regular ed. So, if the laptop is purchased with spec ed money then a spec ed child uses it. That does not take away from a regular ed kid. Two very different budgets with very different regulations.

This is why the government is so far in debt.......

It all comes from the same place us!!!! It is the same money for heavens sake.

 

[HelenePA]

A parent who can pay for the accommodation should pay.

pay for what? OT/PT services? extra stuff he needs to learn? aides they might need to get around from day to day? the elevator service they do yearly? what exactly should a parent pay for?

 

[HelenePA]

This is why the government is so far in debt.......

It all comes from the same place us!!!! It is the same money for heavens sake.

us? as in other parents or the parents of the child in question? do they not pay school taxes as well?

 

[hentob]

So what if it is the law? If the school isn't able or willing to provide the child what he needs, how long before the parent needs to take personal responsibility? OP can sue the school, fight it all the way to the top, etc. but, in the meantime, her son is missing assignments and struggling off and on through middle and high school. I get that the school isn't following the IEP or the law. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! I would never let my son struggle because someone else isn't doing what they should be doing.

Torinsmom, I know you are a good person and you love your son very much. I get this from all of your posts But I have to agree with LisaR.

 

[daughtersrus]

With all due respect to you you are also speaking out of emotion not fact. There is only so much money so another child HAS gone without to pay for all the over the top accommodations. When the money goes to pay for one thing it isn't there to pay for other things.

Are the things that are not being paid for necessary for the child's education?

However, because he has good grades, he doesn't qualify for PT help for his poor muscle control resulting in writing that is not readable. No, we did not PUSH for what he is "entitled" to because his teachers made REASONABLE accommodations for him-if they couldn't read something they asked him.

Wouldn't it be OT that would be needed for problems with writing?

What would you do if the teacher did not ask?

As far as the big lap top then have the school supply him with a second set of books to be left at home, then he doesn't have to carry books home and will have room for his lap top. Schools do this all the time and could probably come up with a set in a day.

A second set of books could easily cost as much as a laptop.

Yep, it is federal law and that law was made when the federal government was picking up the tab for all these accommodations, not the individual school districts. Her school district now being forced to buy a computer for a child means another child that doesn't have an IEP has to go with out a classroom aid or additional textbooks or something else. I understand that kids with special needs need some extra help but it has gone WAY overboard.

The school districts get funding for special needs students. There is no way to know if anyone is going without because of them. There are some districts here in Il that spend $4,281/student and the highest that spends $28,285 student.

There is a school district in our state that has to pay $80,000/year for a student to attend a school in a neighboring district because the parents didn't feel the program that the one district had was good enough. Most of those costs are to hire a special teacher in the other district and to TRANSPORT this student to the other district. Fine, send your child to the other district but the school should be in no way responsible to get your child back and forth. It is just ridicules what parents will push for in the name of an IEP.

There has NEVER been a post/thread here about special ed where the families haven't been advocating talking everything to the extreme and pushing for everything possible they can get. That mindset is just unfathomable because for every "extra" your ONE child is getting means a classroom of other children are going without. Make the school pay for a laptop for your child, fine, but spend 2 seconds thinking about the OTHER kids in the school that will now go without-just because they don't "qualify" for an IEP.

My child is placed out of district and our districts provides the transportation. Why? Because they could not provide a program in our district for her. We tried to be reasonable even after they pulled PT and OT from her saying that they were no longer educationally necessary. This for a child that is wheelchair bound and dependent on adults for everything. They assured us that they would properly train an aid to work with DD. Guess what happened? The aid was never trained and because of that, she caused a spiral break to DD's femur that required surgery to insert two titanium rods.

I agree with you. I think these accommodations have gone to far. to me the accommodation is allowing him to bring his lap top where other kids aren't allowed to do that. I don't think it should mean paying for that accommodation anymore than it should mean paying for special glasses or hearing aids.

IDEA includes things like FM system for hearing impaired, hearing itinerant teachers, vision itinerant teachers...

This is why the government is so far in debt.......

It all comes from the same place us!!!! It is the same money for heavens sake.

Without getting political, I can think of many more things that have caused this country to get in debt besides funding special education.

How much do you think it will cost the government in the future if the special needs students don't get the services that they need early on so that they can become productive members of society?

 

[Hannathy]

us? as in other parents or the parents of the child in question? do they not pay school taxes as well?

please follow the post I was referring to they seemed to believe the money came from some magical place and no the same pool of money.
It is all the same money just divided differently

 

[golfgal]

The school districts get funding for special needs students. There is no way to know if anyone is going without because of them. There are some districts here in Il that spend $4,281/student and the highest that spends $28,285 student.



.
...

You go right on thinking that. That is how the system is SUPPOSED to work but the federal government no longer reimburses schools for special ed expenses--they used to but haven't in over 10 years. Go to your district website, look up the line item for special ed funding on the budget, find the corresponding line in the payment category-it won't be there.

 

[Hannathy]

A second set of books could easily cost as much as a laptop.

Most of the schools have extra books, it is pretty hard to have an exact number of books. so it wouldn't be an added expense.

 

[phorsenuf]

Well, if it were my son and he needed something like this to succeed I would just bite the bullet and buy it for him myself. Yes, perhaps the school has a responsibility to provide one but if they are dragging their feet and making a fuss then to me it isn't worth it. I'm not going to make my sons school work suffer for the sake of principle.

Buy one of those small netbooks. Get a decent case for it and he can easily carry it around in his back-pack. He's 16 and I'm sure very capable of caring for it properly, including keeping it with him to prevent theft.

Sometimes we just need to suck things up and do what we need to do.

 

[Hannathy]

look up

I told how all those examples could be handled. Getting it stolen is not a legitimate excuse for not taking it to school. College kids take them regularly to much less controlled environments than high school.

 

[daughtersrus]

You go right on thinking that. That is how the system is SUPPOSED to work but the federal government no longer reimburses schools for special ed expenses--they used to but haven't in over 10 years. Go to your district website, look up the line item for special ed funding on the budget, find the corresponding line in the payment category-it won't be there.

I just got done looking at our school district budget. In the category titled "Federal-Special Education" the total listed is just under $4 Million. In the category titled "Stimulus Programs" the amount listed under IDEA is just over $3 Million.In the category titled "RESTRICTED GRANTS-IN-AID Special Education" was just over $5 Million. I'm not sure is this amount was federal or state. There is also Medicaid payments for services to students that are on Medicaid.

In total, our district should receive $30+Million from the state, $17+Million Federal and $115+ Million local.

 

[2girlsmom]

You go right on thinking that. That is how the system is SUPPOSED to work but the federal government no longer reimburses schools for special ed expenses--they used to but haven't in over 10 years. Go to your district website, look up the line item for special ed funding on the budget, find the corresponding line in the payment category-it won't be there.

Okay, I did what you said, went to my district website and looked it up. Guess what, you are WRONG, my district shows payment from the federal government.

 

[daughtersrus]

Most of the schools have extra books, it is pretty hard to have an exact number of books. so it wouldn't be an added expense.

Not always. There are many schools where students are sharing in the beginning because they don't have enough to go around

 

[daughtersrus]

It still all comes from the same place, taxes, and that is a finite number. If a district has a 10,000,000 budget, 7,000,000 going to special ed funding and 3,000,000 going to the rest of the operating budget-when budget cuts come around the money comes from the 3,000,000, NOT the 7,000,000 because once you put a special ed program in place, you can't take it away. This is how it is taken from all the other kids.

Can you please explain? Special Ed is not a place, it's a program. If the needs of the child/ren change, special ed must change with them.

 

[Hannathy]

Not always. There are many schools where students are sharing in the beginning because they don't have enough to go around

Ok so if they don't have a second set then guess what BUY a BIGGER BACKPACK!!!!!!! Is that so hard. No it is easier to make the district pay for a special laptop so they don't have to buy a back pack.

 

[2girlsmom]

I recognize that for some of you this is a financial issue, and you want to keep those funds for the general population. The fact is that at least in MY district, they are specifically provided funding FOR spec ed, funding they would not get for GP. But more than that, what I think some folks don't understand is that for the SCHOOLS it is not entirely a matter of not wanting to spend money. My daughter is required to have accomodations for extra time for testing, questions read to her, and her assignment agenda filled out by each teacher. We have been talking to the school WEEKLY since the beginning of the school year because they WON'T meet her accomodations, even though they don't require any money being spent. There is an attitude in at least some educators that LD students should by JR high/High school figure out how to do for themselves WHETHER OR NOT THAT IS POSSIBLE. I have literally had teachers TELL me that she is "just spoiled" and that they would not meet her accommodations. That particular teacher is no longer teaching my child, as her entire attitude is against the law. Please understand, I am QUITE sure that the school system isn't dragging their heels for the OP because they don't have the equipment or the funds, they DO, probably already own the equipment in question, I would almost guarantee that this is a matter of school officials getting by with doing the least they can get away with.

 

[daughtersrus]

Ok so if they don't have a second set then guess what BUY a BIGGER BACKPACK!!!!!!! Is that so hard. No it is easier to make the district pay for a special laptop so they don't have to buy a back pack.

By this logic, why not have all students buy their own books. That would save the district a lot of money.

It is high school there is no one classroom. He keeps it in his backpack at all times.They make big backpacks. He can go thru the line with it on his back thousands of kids do. At lunch if the school is so dangerous then he puts it between his legs like you do at Disney. How is someone going to sit on it on the bus with reasonable precautions that a teen can take, he isn't 3. I said how to handle gym he takes it to the office and they keep it for 1 period. Other classes he takes it with him. if he needs to be away from the desk in art he can lock the laptop.

Students at our schools are not allowed to carry backpacks during the day. They must be in their lockers.

 

[golfgal]

I just got done looking at our school district budget. In the category titled "Federal-Special Education" the total listed is just under $4 Million. In the category titled "Stimulus Programs" the amount listed under IDEA is just over $3 Million.In the category titled "RESTRICTED GRANTS-IN-AID Special Education" was just over $5 Million. I'm not sure is this amount was federal or state. There is also Medicaid payments for services to students that are on Medicaid.

In total, our district should receive $30+Million from the state, $17+Million Federal and $115+ Million local.

Okay, I did what you said, went to my district website and looked it up. Guess what, you are WRONG, my district shows payment from the federal government.

And what percentage of the overall special ed budget do those dollars cover??

 

[Holly]

Can you please explain? Special Ed is not a place, it's a program. If the needs of the child/ren change, special ed must change with them.

Golfgal is wrong.

There are many kids who need special ed accomodations on a temporary basis, or whose level of accomodation changes.