I’m so over this. People just amaze me and not in the good sense.
Yesterday we had another IEP meeting and after 7 months of battling the school
district on my own, this time I brought an IEP Advocate. We addressed every
issue, from the lack of timely response from the district, to the lack of
follow through on everything previously discussed in the last IEP meeting back
in October, to the ongoing district’s denial of the ASL issue. What it boils
down to is this. Wyatt has yet to start pre-K and the school could not explain
their lack of implementation. The school also could not explain why the district’s
Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy evaluations have not been performed
yet. And when it comes to the ASL issue, the school is simply ignoring it
altogether. They are continuously trying to bypass the issue and don’t want to
make a decision on an appropriate educational placement. At the same time however,
they also are not willing to write a letter of refusal which is what they
legally have to do if they disagree with my placement request for Wyatt to
attend a Total Communication Program (ASL and English are used simultaneously).
The thing that neither I nor my IEP Advocate understand is why they are
ignoring all the medical documentation in Wyatt’s file that supports such
placement. They are scared of liability because of his cyanotic breath holding
episodes yet they are refusing to accept that ASL has been the only effective
communication mode that has reduced the number of daily episodes. He has
medical clearance to attend school. It is also documented in writing that he
used to have 15-20 episodes before using ASL which has been reduced to 1-5
daily episodes with the use of ASL. I even showed them a video to show them
what exactly a cyanotic breath holding episode looks like when the
communication barrier becomes a problem. Every medical documentation on file,
including a private physical therapy evaluation, clearly state that ASL is his
primary mode of communication and it needs to be supported to prevent these
episodes as much as possible. It is also documented in the school district’s
speech and language evaluation back from September that Wyatt is non-verbal and
uses ASL. The same is documented on his private speech evaluation with detailed
ASL therapy goals yet the school is not willing to even write down any ASL
goals because they say they don’t know how many words he understands and can
signs. That is a straight out lie as the district has had that detailed list of
vocabulary words in their records since their original evaluation back in
September. Additionally, they have a list provided by me detailing 4 pages
worth of vocabulary in the form of the curriculum we use at home proving that
he is far past basic vocabulary, plus I showed them videos of him signing. Educational
goals in IEPs, such a recognizing 5 out 10 letters, are established without
ever first testing what the child knows. Therefore their argument about needing
a different approach to set ASL goals is false. This is not a personal
preference, this is a medical necessity to prevent these life-threatening
episodes and the school is not even willing to acknowledge that fact. After
3.5hours of this dance we made it very clear to them that a decision had to be
made that day. The school only had two options. They could either write a
letter of refusal and then we will file due process, which is a fancy term for
taking the matter above their heads, or they can get that illusive district person
who according to them has authority to decide this matter on the phone and
settle this. Side note, legally the IEP team has the authority to make
placement decisions even when it means the most appropriate setting for a child
is in a different school. Worried we will file due process, the school asked
for another meeting scheduled for next week that will include that illusive
district person who according to them has authority to decide this matter, plus
members of the staff from the Total Communication school to better assess the
ASL issue. Our objections were clearly noted that bringing someone new to the
table who has no knowledge of what has been going on for the past 7 months is
inappropriate as it will start this process all over again. Given the currents
team indecisiveness however, we agreed to play along knowing that the next
meeting will most likely also be inconclusive and we will file a complaint with
the state regardless of that outcome. The only two positive things that came
out of that (in the end 4 hour long) meeting was that the district has nursing
all lined up and is ready to go on that front, and we have a new district speech
therapist involved now that has worked in the Total Communication Program
before, is fluent in ASL and is supportive of any and all methods of
communication. Therefore, we have asked for another district language
evaluation, different from the previous one, that will specifically evaluate Wyatt’s
comprehension and use of ASL.
All this just makes me angry. Why would a school district
even hire someone to be an IEP compliance person when on a personality level
they are indecisive? That in itself is contradictive to their job duties. But
what really fuels the fire for me is that this ASL issue has been on table
since the beginning. We didn’t suddenly overrun them with the placement request
yesterday. ASL being my son’s primary mode of communication is in all of his
records even as far back as when he was in the Early Steps program before age 3.
The school has all the documentation in front of them and the Total
Communication placement request has been provided to them well ahead of time in
writing. At the bare minimum, they should have acknowledged that request and
already had the appropriate decision making people attend yesterday’s meeting.
Instead, it was very apparent that this topic was not supposed to be discusses,
much less supported. It was very apparent that this continues to be a pass the
bucket game in the hopes that the longer this gets pushed out the more likely I
will eventually either walk away completely or give up and go along with
whatever the school is comfortable with. It didn’t seem to matter to them that
even the IEP Advocate made it clear that the handling of my son’s case has been
inappropriate since the very beginning and that we have every reason to turn
this into a legal matter. It makes me angry when I get the condescending “but
you don’t really want him placed with the deaf and hard of hearing kids, do
you?” AS if that is a jail sentence or something. Yes, I do want him placed
there! His hearing might be fine but he is non-verbal, uses ASL as his primary
mode of communication and therefore the appropriate and least inhibiting
placement for him is that of the deaf and hard of hearing program. In his case,
it is not a decision based on personal preference, it is medical necessity. Any
attempt to place my son in a setting where his mode of communication is not
supported is considered negligence as it is clearly documented that such
placement would cause severe increased medical risk.
