Legal terminology on IEP documents can be hard for parents to navigate.
Parents advocating for their children to receive the best education and special services can be become ?difficult? parents for school districts, specially when services involved are costly.
by Keith Reid -
A file folder, bursting at its seams, sits atop a table in Gorge Sanchez?s north Stockton apartment. It?s filled with Individual Education Plans for daughter Valeria, reports, printed emails and evaluations regarding the autistic 7-year-old?s behavioral analysis from the Lincoln Unified School District.
It?s not uncommon for families who have children diagnosed with autism to have so much paperwork and so many meetings with educators. It?s also not uncommon that parents such as Sanchez face a steep learning curve when it comes to understanding what it all means, and whether the result will be the best possible education for their child.
?What I want is for Valeria to receive services she has a right to and be in a class setting where she can learn normal social behaviors from her peers,? Sanchez said.
Sound easy? It?s not, for a combination of reasons.
After a child with autism turns 3, parents have a right to seek services from their local public schools. Every district has a special education department trained to help. The team includes administrators, teachers, speech pathologists and psychologists.
As comforting as it may sound to have so many people tuned in, Sanchez said it?s also as daunting, frustrating and mind-boggling as anything he?s ever encountered.
Every document from Lincoln Unified School District and the Don Riggio Elementary School is like a foreign language to Sanchez. The papers are filled with legal terminology and what the frustrated father calls ?eduspeak? ? fancy words educators use with purpose among themselves but can be confusing to the average Joe.
?I?m not a professional, I?m not a lawyer, and I?m not an educator. I?m just a parent that wants what is best for my child,? said Sanchez, a graduate student who has worked in the restaurant industry.
Every word on Valeria?s individual education plan is placed carefully into specific sections of the legal forms. Some of the words, Sanchez said, have dual meanings or are purposefully ambiguous.
For example, the document might say Valeria will receive ?accommodation? without specifying what the service will actually be, Sanchez said.
?I certainly understand parents? concern about some of the language on (the plans). Many of the terms used reference legal mandates. Most of the terminology is taken directly from the legal reference. Also, services and program descriptions are coded from state lists and cannot be altered,? Lincoln Unified Special Education Director Louise King said. ?The best advice for parents is to ask questions. Educators are also willing to meet with families prior to (plan) meetings to explain terms and answer questions.?
Sanchez theorizes that it?s all by design to protect the Lincoln Unified School District from a civil rights lawsuit and ?not to best educate? his daughter.
He?s not too shy to say it. His relationship with Lincoln Unified has become, in his words, ?toxic.? He fears the district has designated him as a ?difficult parent.?
And Sanchez pulled Valeria out of school for the bulk of her first-grade year in favor of in-home lessons, a $60,000 annual cost, Sanchez said. Lincoln Unified is paying half the cost of the in-home lessons, the Valley Mountain Regional Center ? which also is charged with providing services for developmentally disabled people ? agreed to pay the other half, Sanchez said.
?The cost of these services is why school districts don?t want to provide them,? Sanchez said.
Read more at?Trying to do what?s best.
[Via Record Net]
Source: http://specialedpost.com/2013/06/19/special-education-can-be-daunting-for-parents/
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