I'm Going To Have To Sue Somebody (Long and Ranty)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Has this child aready got an IEP or 504 plan? The procedure is slightly different depending on your answer.

The school is obliged to arrange for testing once it has been brought to their attention that testing is warranted. Please tell me that’s in writing somewhere. (If not, don’t worry; it’s just ideal to have it in writing). I am in general not wild about testing arranged through the schools, but it sounds like in thihs case starting there would be a good idea.

The end of school year thing is working against you as a practical matter; pay no attention. After all the reason it is working against you is that nobody has gotten off their heiney yet.

I would begin by calling the Office of Civil Rights nearest you. I would also call the nearest location of Legal Aid, even if you make too much money to qualify for Legal Aid.

OCR can get the problem solved in a hip and a hurry.

Legal Aid is a good place to start for special ed issues even if you do not qualify for two reasons: one is that some LA organizations will take the child as client, and nearly every child qualifies for LA services. The other is, even if they do not, LA organizations usually have a great deal of experience in dealing with special needs related issues. So they will know what private lawyer to refer you to, and they will do it. Oh, make that three: LA often has what they call a "Saturday Lawyer"program which is targeted at people who have too much money for LA but not enough to retain private counsel.

Do not just let your fingers do the walking if you can help it – special ed law is a very specialized area of law and you do not want to be anybody’s first client if you can possibly avoid it.

In the meatime look at the web page of Wrightslaw (http://www.wrightslaw.com/), there is some tremendously helpful information there. If you cannot find a personal referral any other way, send them an email and they will try to find somebody in your area for you. They really will, no bullshit.

The arc is a very useful resource whether you are dealing with retardation or not. Part of their self-assumed mission is to serve as a clearinghouse of information for people who are dealing with special needs issues whether it is their special issue or not. I can’t recommend them highly enough. But call them on the phone if you can because indeed most of their published info is abotu their issue of course.

Your chances of seeing a courtroom are very small. But some mules require being struck in the forehead with a very large object before they notice your existence, much less figure out what you are saying. One letter, cc’d (let me see, one, two…) about four times will probably get some response. But the problem is, it has to be on under the right person’s letterhead. Removing the need for which was supposed to be one of the reasons for the IDEA in the forst place.

Shit, who put that soapbox there? >kick< Away from me, wretched thing!

42

As a mom with a kid who has ADHD, (he’s 13, was diagnosed at 10) you have my sympathies. You do need to get all riled up and fight for your child. I had to raise all kinds of ruckus in order to have my son diagnosed, and then to get an IEP implemented with the school. I will say that since the ball got rolling the school has been wonderful, implementing behavior modifications and other types of accommodations. In the last two years he has gone from being frustrated, angry, unsuccessful and with few kids willing to be his friend to getting good grades, his binder is organized (his room slightly less so, but we are working on it) he completes his homework, and he has quite a few friends, The difference is like night and day. He now gets out of bed in the morning happy to be going to school, whereas before I had to literally drag him out of bed and push him out the door in the morning, and he came home angry every day.

I had to work hard to get things going though, not as hard as you are, but I encourage you to make as much noise as you can. Let Them know that you are not going to shut up and go away. When you are stalled with an uncooperative case worker or whoever, go to their supervisor, and then theirs, if you aren’t getting the help you need. A lawyer is a good idea. Letters to every agency you are working with, to the paper, to your local government representatives, etc. Save a copy of all correspondence, send letters with a return receipt and save those too.

I wish you both the best of luck, and I truly hope that your outcome ends up as well as mine and my son’s did.

43

I am so thankful for all your advice and good wishes.

The last two days have been filled with me calling various supervisors. I did find out that, since he already does have an IEP at school due to his other problems, the school is required to test him if I request it. However, the person I phoned at his school to inquire about it before I went to behavioral health said, “Who here would even do that?” So I apparently talked to someone that didn’t know what they were talking about. Too late to go through school now, as Wednesday was the last day. They start in August and end in May here.

I have been informed that my ONLY option now is to get a new Child and Family team member and start over with them. I hate feeling like I got the lady that kept cancelling in trouble, for all I know she has personal problems, family problems… and now she has work problems thanks to me. I really don’t understand why their policy is like this- either the intake worker deems that the child should go ahead and get an evaluation, or she refers you to the Child and Family Team worker, and if through their home visits they determine that an evaluation is needed then you can get one. What qualifies the intake worker to rule out diagnoses? They aren’t doctors! Bah!

I do have a call into Member Services at the behavioral health place, and I was told that they hate to hear from them, so maybe if I ever get a call back that’ll do something. I also have a call into an attorney that specializes in disability law, but I haven’t heard back. I did go through Legal Aid, which I don’t qualify for, but my son does qualify.

If these steps don’t work, then I will contact my representative and/or the news, and other organizations such as ARC. My goal is to have this settled by the start of the new school year- he passed and will be going on to second grade!

Who knew this would be so difficult?

Anyway, it does my heart a world of good to get these responses with encouragement and empathy. Sometimes when I’m feeling unheard and left hanging in the wind by “the authorities”, that’s all I need to feel better. When it’s over and we’ve gotten what we need, I’ll post about it.

44

Bump.
I have succeeded in getting my son what he needs. After a meeting with a Legal Aid attorney on behalf of my son, I got a call right away from a supervisor and got an evaluation scheduled. I’d talked to supervisors before that, but this time she was very eager to work this out. The Child and Family team lady that had canceled with us so many, many times told her supervisor that she canceled once, and that I must be mentally ill. Wow, a bald-faced lie to cover your ass! From her supervisor’s tone, I doubt the woman will ever be called out for that.

Last week, we met with a psychologist, a very friendly young man who did his thing and afterwards diagnosed him with severe ADHD, inattentive type. Next week we go to his pediatrician to talk about having him evaluated for sleep apnea, since he does snore and ADD/ADHD can often be tied in with it. I knew that snoring could be a sign of sleep apnea, but it never really occured to me.

He started medication (Strattera) last weekend, and it takes 4-6 weeks to work. I’m not expecting it to be a cure, but at least I think it will bring us to a level where behavior modification is effective.

Yay!

45

Glad to hear you’re getting somewhere. I’d like to offer a suggestion. Any time you’re involved in a dispute, or other situation such as this, it pays to start a contemporary record of events. If you have times, dates, names and the jist of conversations written down it can be a very powerful and convincing tool, especially when you run into people like this “Child and Family Team lady” who is now disputing your word. In most states you can’t record people w/o their permission, but there’s nothing to prevent you from keeping a journal and putting down events as they occur.
Good luck.

46

This makes ME angry, and I’m half a globe away from you. That woman needs a good shake-up, or she’ll think she can get away with this kind of stuff for the rest of her career.

I don’t know if you you have any energy left to pursue this matter any further. Don’t be put off by the supervisers tone: he probably doesn’t want his workers (and therefore, his judgment in hiring and supervising this woman) shamed; but if you provide him with enough evidence, his attitude will probably change to “My management skills show by firing an incompetent worker”.
If you will have any future dealings with these people, it might be worth the trouble to have assessed who’s the real liar. It might also help prevent you from getting this slacker back on your case. Like A.R. Cane said, it’s a good thing to start a contemporary record of events. As your dealings with this lady are in the past, remember that you have several witnesses to back you up (your family) while she probably has none. You could have them write down and sign a brief history of events. Also, don’t throw away old diaries or calenders or wherever you wrote down appointments; these can be evidence as well.
Even your old own phone-records might back you up: if she called you right before a scheduled meeting, that indicates she cancelled it.

If all of this is too much work, just use it as fodder by saying that if pressed, you can and will look this info up and use it.