Opportunity through adversity

While other parents are celebrating end of year school awards for their children, reminiscing about their children's positive school experiences this year, and looking forward to school placement for next year . . . I am celebrating the arrival of other school news. I am celebrating the arrival of an investigation result. I am celebrating the arrival of equal opportunity and possibility of change for students with disabilities at our local school through the adversity our son has endured.

The adversity was the struggle, for our son and our family, the hardships he endured and the pain we experienced the past year at school, some of which may still remain until change has had time to be realized and implemented on the school level, but the opportunity of equality and the possibility of change is now visible through the investigation results we received today.

Our son had a wonderful experience his first two years at school. He attended a blue ribbon school of excellence school, a school with some really wonderful teachers and students, friends and community members, yet his experience last semester, in second grade, was far from wonderful. Our son has high-functioning autism and had a positive school experience in kindergarten and first grade. He had wonderful teachers who loved him and supported him, and he loved being at school. Second grade was an opposite story for him.

Our son did not have a positive relationship with his general education teacher this year, and after I advocated for a para pro, he was finally given one in October. This person had no training with special needs children when hired. When I questioned the decision, I was told that the system did not have funding to hire someone with special needs qualifications. After receiving the para pro, our son's school schedule and environment immediately changed. 

He was removed from the general education classroom daily and taken to the conference room at the front office where he was isolated from his peers and classroom academic instruction. He was not given access to the sensory room or resource room when needed, which were resource settings listed in his IEP. He was not given access to assistive technology services, which were resources listed in his IEP. Our son was not allowed to go on his class field trip with his peers. 

It was suggested to us that our son begin a half day school schedule in November, which I agreed to, but there was never an IEP meeting held regarding this decision and his IEP was never amended to reflect this change, even though I asked for an amended IEP. While our son was being confined in the conference room, he was restrained by untrained, non-personnel. 

At an IEP meeting in December, I was told that our son could no longer go to school. I was told that he could receive after school instruction or in home care, which I refused.

The lack of resources and the negative, inappropriate school schedule and environment that our son had been placed in daily were the ultimate contributing factors to the downfall of his school experience. 

The law states that every child has a right to a free and appropriate public education, a right to be in the least restrictive environment, and a right to be around peers. Our son was not receiving an appropriate education, he was in the most restrictive environment, and he was rarely around his peers.

The law also states that students should only be restrained if they are a direct threat to themselves or someone else, and in that case the approved county hold should be initiated by school employees. Our son was restrained multiple times while confined in a conference room with someone he didn't know, an untrained, non personnel, when he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave the room.

The law states that a child's IEP should be followed, including resources and resource settings listed in the IEP. Our son was not given access to those resources or resource settings.

The law states that any change in a child's academic schedule must be agreed upon by all parties at an IEP meeting and that the IEP must be amended before any change can go into affect. There were changes made in our son's school setting and schedule that were never decided on at an IEP meeting and were never reflected and updated on his IEP.

The law states that every child should have access to extracurricular activities and field trips and that appropriate aids should be implemented in order to allow all children the right to attend. Our son was denied this right, an opportunity that the entire second grade class received.

Take a moment to imagine that this student was your child, and imagine how you would feel. How would you feel if your child was not given the appropriate resources and settings that he/she needed to be successful? How would you feel if your child was confined in the conference room daily? How would you feel if your child was restrained by untrained non personnel? How would you feel if your child was not allowed the right to attend the class field trip? How would you feel if it was suggested that your child should only go to school for half a day? How would you feel if you were told that your child no longer belonged in school? "No child left behind", right?

Now imagine that your child does have a disability and that your child experienced all of this.
Your child was discriminated against for having a disability. 

I knew that what our son was experiencing at school was illegal. His rights were being violated. 

We withdrew him from school and filed a formal complaint with the Georgia Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division.

Today, I received the results from the Georgia Department of Education.

Through tears I read the results . . . fact upon fact of documented investigation details.

The GaDOE investigated these concerns:
(1) Least restrictive environment (LRE) requirements
(2) Implementation of the individualized education program
(3) Development, review, and revision of the IEP

The findings were that:
(1) The district is not in compliance with regard to LRE requirements
(2) The district is not in compliance with regard to Implementation of the IEP
(3) The district is not in compliance with regard to development, review, and revision of the IEP

The state is requiring that the district shall review and revise its policies, practices, and procedures regarding:
(1) Least restrictive environment requirements, including the continuum of alternative placements, placement decisions, and the provision of nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities
(2) Implementation of IEP
(3) Development, review, and revision of IEP

The district is required to train all administrators, general education personnel, and special education personal at the school on how to implement these procedures through documented practices. 

The civil rights division with the US Dept. of Ed is currently investigating improper use of restraint and unnecessary use of restraint on our son at the school.

Opportunity through adversity . . . the negative experiences that our son endured in school and the heartache and pain that our family experienced this year had a purpose, opportunity and possibility at school for all students. 

I hope that in the future other students with special needs will be protected in our school system because of what our son endured. 

The school district and the school are now being held accountable for their illegal actions by the state. 

For now, I am homeschooling our son, and we feel that this is the best decision for now. We do not know what the next steps are educationally for our son. Until we have seen that policies and procedures for children with special needs have been changed and implemented at our local school, we will not be able to return our son to this school, but I know now that there is possibility for positive change through the implementation of these investigation results. 

It takes us as parents and teachers to speak up and voice our concerns. Children with disabilities should not be discriminated against at school. I am thankful that through the pain, we have found purpose in this moment. 

Our son's negative experiences will ultimately create positive experiences for himself and other children like him in the future because we saw the injustices and held the school and the school system accountable. 

My deepest desires are that the school and school system do not try to take away another student's right to go to school and that they do not continue to isolate students with special needs in the front office. 

Individualized education plans which list resources and resource settings were created for a reason, to ensure that no child is discriminated against and that every child has the right to a free and appropriate public education, a right to be in the least restrictive environment, and a right to be around peers. 

We would like to thank our friends and family who have offered us support during this time.

You know who you are. 

Josiah's school memories

I created this video of Josiah's school memories and sent it to his teachers, 

IEP team, and administrators this week.

I hope they remember the positive light and love that Josiah brought to the school.

I hope that they don't ever tell another parent that their child doesn't belong.
We must find a way for every child to belong.

This free slideshow made with Smilebox

How did we get here?

My son has high functioning autism which is a neurological disorder. He is kind and smart, but he can have difficulty in school with sensory issues, overstimulation, transitioning, & processing his emotions. In previous years he had the teachers and tools that he needed to be successful. Unfortunately, his needs were not met at school this year. 

My son enjoyed attending school in Kindergarten and First grade and was successfully mainstreamed in the regular education environment starting at day one with the right teachers and support. Second grade has not been a positive experience for him. It has been the opposite of everything that he has experienced in previous years. He did not have a teacher who understood him or was able to connect with him, and he did not have appropriate resources, if at all any resources implemented in the general ed classroom to support him to succeed. He did not have access to the resource classroom or sensory room when needed, as was listed as resources in his individualized education plan. My son's rights were being denied.

Without the right teacher and resources, my son's behavior began to escalate in the classroom and he would become resistant to completing work. Instead of implementing appropriate resources or settings, my son was taken to the front office and secluded daily. They did not have someone to be with him when he became overstimulated or overwhelmed, so they felt that the principle's office was the only option for him, even though his individualized education plan, or IEP, states that he will have support in the general education setting and access to the resource room and sensory room.

My son did attend a resource segment once a day with a special education teacher who was also his case manager, but he no longer had access to her classroom at other times during the day. Funding had been cut at the end of the previous year, and that teacher was now co-teaching much of her day in a fourth grade classroom. The school would not allow the para pro to be in the resource room with my son unless the other teacher was present. The sensory room was not a viable option for my son either, as most of the day the room serves as a self contained classroom for children with physical disabilities. The school did not offer appropriate resource settings for my son, and yet ultimately, the classroom should have been made an appropriate resource setting through flexibility and the implementation of appropriate resources.

Looking back, I remember the resources and care that his Kindergarten and First grade teachers had in place for him in the general education setting. They would redirect him through kind communication when needed. They would implemented resources such as IPad time, computer time, or bean bag time. They would allow him the opportunity to sit next to them to complete an assignment. They would allow modifications and accommodations in the methods or completion of assignments. They would reward him for positive choices and behavior. They would let him be the line leader to help him succeed during transitions when surrounded by sensory stimuli. They would even hold his hand or hug him at times to show him that they cared for him. He loved and trusted them, and they loved him, and for that, I am forever grateful.

Inclusion was important in previous years, and finding the balance of inclusion for my son should have been important this year.

In October of 2015, I advocated that my son have access to a para pro that could be there for him when needed so that he did not always have to go to the principal's office. This resource should have been beneficial, but in turn, it was detrimental. At the end of October, they hired a kind man who did not have experience with special needs children, but they felt that he was the right one for the job, and I was open to exploring this match. I thought it would be a good learning opportunity for the para pro, and I hoped that he and my son could form a close connection.

Unfortunately, the implementation of the para pro was orchestrated improperly and poorly, and this anticipated connection did not occur. First thing in the morning, the para pro would remove my son from his classroom, take him to a small room down the hall and create a schedule for the day. This schedule would include work time and break time.

I see now that my son should have never been removed from the classroom setting or been given a different schedule. Resources should have been implemented and offered in the classroom setting. When my son needed a break, it should have been as simple as letting him sit at a computer with a pair of headphones on, as he worked on a reading or math computer program. This is what I asked they do at the beginning of the semester. I am not sure why simple resources as this weren't implemented in the classroom setting. Classroom support is a main point on my son's individualized education plan, and yet there was little support offered.

One of the main issues was that my son was placed with a second grade teacher this year who was very structured and did not want to deviate from her plan for her students. Her classroom management skills meant so much to her that she failed at helping manage my son in class. She also failed to communicate in any length or depth to me about my son. It is sad for me to state my realization, that some teachers may not yet have the experience, compassion, care, concern, drive, or intuition to teach students with special needs.

Needless to say, the implementation of the para pro did not help matters at school. My son began to spend even less time in the classroom setting. The para pro did not take my son to the resource room or sensory room, which was a listed resource setting on his IEP,  when he needed a break or needed extra support. My son's school schedule became completely off-balance. In a matter of weeks after having the para pro, my son began starting his day in the conference room at the front office, and he would rarely leave there. The little training the para pro received was training to teach him the methods of deescalation and restraint and a training called "How to work with difficult children."

The difficult behavior my son exhibited this year at school was a direct reflection of the lack of resources in the general ed setting, implementation of resources and tools, and access to positive resource settings, all things that were listed in his IEP. My son experienced multiple restraints this year, something that he had never had to experience before. There were times he wanted to escape the conference room, only to have the doors blocked by employees who eventually restrained him.

What my son experienced at school this year was a nightmare, a situation caused by incorrect teacher placement, no classroom management, a lack of implementation of resources or settings, and inappropriate decisions and reactions by staff.

In November of 2015, we were told that we should either change our son's school setting or his school schedule. He could transfer schools and attend a school 30 minutes away from our home, a school in which he knew no one and be in a self contained class all day, or we could try a half day school day in which I would pick him up at 12:10 each day. I agreed to the half day school day because I wanted my son to still have interaction with his peers and the community that he has grown up with. Making new friends and becoming comfortable in new settings is not easy for any child, much less one with autism.

I accepted the offer of a half day school day, but what I soon realized was that my son would have even less interaction with peers, and some days, no interaction with peers. In retrospect, I find myself thinking that maybe this was their means to an end.

And so the downward spiral fell, a downward spiral that led to the most climatic moment for me in my son's school career.

On Friday, December 11th, I was under the assumption that I was attending an IEP meeting to discuss ideas and tools that we could implement at his school to help him be happy and successful. The intentions of this meeting were the exact opposite. I was told that they no longer felt that my son could attend school, and that he could receive after school instruction or in home care.

I was angry. I felt it was a horrible proposal. My son was only attending school for a half day as it was, and he would receive absolutely no social interaction or ability to have relationships with peers with this proposal. I felt that I had been deceived into attending this meeting, as every person at the table, except the parent advocate, had been debriefed on the underlying agenda of this meeting except me. I should have known when walking into this meeting that something strange was going on,  when there were twice the number of people sitting at the table than were on the meeting notice, another legal faux pas.

I adamantly stated "No," multiple times and explained that this proposal was not an option.
The response I received being, "If we cannot come up with another option, then you will need to accept what we can offer."

This proposal was a violation of my son's rights to be given a free and appropriate public education and an opportunity to be around peers. I refused this discriminatory request.

I expressed my many concerns to the superintendent and the board of education, but they seemed more interested in trying to get me to agree to having a full psychological evaluation done on my son. The behavior of our son at home and in the community has not changed, so we did not see a psychological evaluation at this time as necessary. I want them to investigate what has occurred to our son at school. I want them to communicate about out concerns or at least validate our concerns. I have sensed no remorse from any party involved about what has occurred to our son at school or in the meeting that took place on December 11th. There was no apology, formal or informal.

So this is where we are at now . . . with a complete lack of trust in the school system and a sense that children with autism are being discriminated against at one of our county's schools.

Injustice has been done by the school and the school system and trust has been lost; and as for now, our son is no longer at school. We have decided to homeschool him for now and keep him involved in extracurricular activities until a better opportunity presents itself. His happiness and safety are of the utmost concerns to us. He was not happy at school and the experiences he had this year were not safe for him emotionally, mentally, or physically.

There is more to his story . . . and I hope that through all of this, our voice will be heard and change will occur.

The climax of the semester

This is where I was at on December 13th, 2015

There was a negative, climactic moment in our son's experience at his school,

a moment that eventually led us to the decision to homeschool our son for now.

This is one of my many written reactions to what occurred on the day of December 11th, 2015.

"I am very upset right now at my son's school. My son is in second grade at an elementary school in White County, GA. He has high functioning autism and has always been in a regular ed environment with resource segments throughout the day. He was successful in Kindergarten and 1st grade, but this year has been tough for him. He has had a very negative experience at school this year, and on Friday in an IEP meeting I was told by the special ed director at the county that at this point and time, the only suggestion they have to offer my son is after school instruction or in home care. They do not feel that they can meet his needs at school. He would be allowed to show up after school and receive private instruction by the special ed teacher alone. He would not have an opportunity to be around his peers. I said absolutely not, that the entire reason I have him in school is to develop relationships and receive social interaction. I advocated that he have a para pro, and he received one about a month ago. They encouraged a half day schedule, so we went to that two weeks ago, and now they are telling me that they don't want him there at all during the day now. They are violating my son's rights with this proposal. He has the right to a free appropriate public education, he has the right to be in the least restrictive environment, and he has the right to interact with his peers."