Some of you may remember that I filed a complaint with my state Department of Education at the beginning of the last school year. In the complaint, I alleged that the school district was not implementing Ashley’s IEP because they did not have an aide who was sufficiently proficient in sign language assigned to Ashley. Ashley’s only means of communication is sign language.
The Department of Education agreed with me and found my school district to be in non-compliance with Ashley’s IEP. The process then started for us all to agree on compensatory services for the time missed, and other measures to ensure Ashley’s IEP would be followed.
The compensatory hours were provided after a false start, and one of the other items I insisted upon, an independent evaluation of both Ashley’s signing skills and the skills of the school-provided assistant (hired after the complaint was filed), was finally scheduled towards the end of the most recent school year.
Not surprisingly, the independent evaluation supported what I had been saying. But has that changed anything at school? Nope, not yet. The same incompetent aide (at least in my opinion and the opinion of the evaluators) was assigned to provide Ashley’s ESY services. So, what did I do? Yep, filed yet another complaint.
The newest complaint, which pretty much is a duplicate of the original one I filed last September, went in the end of last week. I’ve not heard anything yet, and the bureaucratic process moves rather slowly. To top things off, no IEP meeting has been held to determine Ashley’s program for next year, her first year in high school. No school has been selected yet either, and you know how difficult it is to get teachers and other school staff to work during the summer.
Ashley has always been a child that loved going to school, but recently has been signing, “school no go”. Her spirit has been crushed and she is very frustrated. My homeschooling efforts have increased dramatically, and she is doing well with that fortunately. But I will not give up on insisting that the school do their job.
Maybe one of these days they will realize that. I am nothing if not very, very persistent.
Hi Ashley and Mom,
ReplyDeleteYour posts are so entertaining! My name is Erin, and I am a college student with mild cerebral palsy. I’m a special education major and have hopes of becoming a disability services director of a university after graduate school. I have just launched a blog that is still getting started, but with the title “Empowering People and Changing Lives,” I hope that it will provide a wealth of resources for people who care for children, specifically those who are affected by disability. I will also be chronicling some personal experiences and will be sharing some thoughts about those along the way. Your blog has also been included in my blogroll, so I hope that together, we are able to collaborate to provide resources to those who are in similar situations. The blog’s address is http://empowerpeoplechangelives.blogspot.com. From there, you will be able to read the posts I have written, find out all about me, check out my blogroll, look at many resources I have gathered, and contact me.
Look forward to reading many more of your posts! Happy blogging!