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School Nurse and students with disabilities.
Did you know that a public school nurse answers to the Dept. of Public Health? Did you know unless your child is visibly sick, that is, vomiting, has a fever, or more serious injuries such as a broken body part, bleeding profusely from some part of the body, etc., that the school nurse cannot call you to pick up your child because the teacher can’t deal with him/her.
That’s right, the nurse cannot call you to pick up your child under the pretense that it is a medical issue and you should not allow the nurse to tell you to pick up your child without a written medical reason from the nurse as to why your child is being dismissed from school. Furthermore, if this happens bring your child to the doctor, if the doctor medically clears your child to return to school bring them right back with the doctor’s note and hand it to the school nurse. (make a copy of the doctors clearance for your records before you give it to the school nurse.) Keep a written record of the times the school nurse called you to pick up your child. This is evidence and can be used in a hearing to secure the out of district placement or at the very least prove that additional supports and/or services are needed, therefore an amendment to the IEP is needed.
The school district may agree to provide the additional services and/or supports, but not in the IEP. Do not agree to that, it must be written in an Amended IEP. Otherwise you have no proof that it was allegedly being provided, who provided the services, start and end date of the services, frequency and duration of the services and no goals and objectives to meet, to address the reason for additional services or supports and therefore, the benefits of the additional services and/or supports cannot be proven and you may not be able to include it in the next IEP, if it did work and found to be a useful service and/or support for your child. The district could just stop the service or support whenever they want. There will be no record of the service.
Did you know that it is illegal for the school district to discuss medication at a team meeting, yup it is. Did you know that a school district cannot suggest, imply, or directly tell you to put your child on medication for any reason, yup it’s true. They must educate your child with or without medication. There is no prerequisite to educating any child with a disability only if they are medicated. See Prohibition on Mandatory Medication at www.ideasnpo.org links and affiliates page.
If a school nurse calls you to pickup your child for any reason other than your child is truly sick, write the day and time she called, get her full name, and write the reason why she is stating that you need to pick up your child. Tell her to put it all in writing and to have her written statement ready for you when you get there, she won’t of course so you be ready with your written statement of your conversation with her that resulted in you picking up your child at school. Give it to her and have her initial and date that she received it. If she refuses, send it to her and to her supervisor certified returned receipt. Her supervisor is not the Principal. Call the Dept of Public Health 617-624-6060 ask for Anne Sheetz or her email is Anne.Sheetz@state.ma.us. She can tell you about the process or directly help you with your complaint. I’ve worked with her in the past and she is a great resource and easy to work with. Just explain what is happening with the nurse calling you to pickup your child with a disability and why they are telling you to pick up your child that is not medically sick.
After you ask for all of this information they may inform you that your child isn’t medically ill and if you don’t pick him/her up that your child will be in the nurse’s office or with the school psychologist for the remainder of the day, write it down and include this information in your letter to her as to the sequence of events and conversation that led you to pick up your child from school that day.
Don’t be afraid if they say that if you don’t pickup your child they will have to contact the Dept. of Children and Families, formerly known as DSS. Pick up your child, write down what was said including the threat, bring your child to his/her doctor. If the doctor clears your child to go back to school bring them and bring the letter from the doctor. Make a copy of the doctors clearance and report the school nurse if that is the person who made that threat to the Dept. of Public Health. If it was a teacher, principal or paraprofessional that threatens DCF, call PQ&A at the Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education, 781-338-3700, file the complaint. You will receive an envelop with a complaint form. Send the letter from the doctor that nothing was wrong with your child, any information such as the IEP, evaluations, communication book or letters/notes relating to the issue as to why the school district wanted you to pick up your child in the past to the present and tell them that you were threatened, if that is the case.
PQ&A will ask you if its a special education issue, you say yes. Denial of FAPE. That will be all they need to complete intake and send you the complaint form. Always keep a written record of anything going on at school especially the dates as to incidents/events at school reported to you from the principal to the paraprofessionals in the classroom. Especially, any behavioral issues in the communication book or letters that you have received or sent to and from the school, which is usually why they want you to pick up your child from school, or it might be a psychological issue, i.e. social/emotional/behavioral.
Actions such as these by a school district are a denial of FAPE and possibly a violation of not evaluating your child in all areas of suspected disability, a violation of child find and a violation of an IEP that does not address your child’s unique need, therefore is not “reasonably calculated” and could be Amended, modified, changed with additional supports, services, or if needed a placement. To support your case for additional services/supports or a placement you are going to need proof, when a school nurse calls you to pick up your child and the child is not sick, it is a behavior issue or issues directly related to the disability that the school staff cannot handle, that’s serious proof and can be used to help your child get needed services. Document everything the district does relating to your child at school.
Here is the link to the federal regulation regarding medication 34 CFR 300.174
Key Evaluations for Autistic Kids
Many people/parents do not understand the meaning for the evaluations or that you can ask for a certain type of evaluation given your child’s disability.
First, the state and federal regulations clearly state that the district must evaluate in “All areas of suspected disability”. So, if your child is autistic and exhibits, social skills issues/deficits, communication, oral, receptive, written or expressive, daily living skills issues/deficits, then you would need more than a speech and language evaluation and the WISC. You will probably need at the very least what is called the Vineland. This test incorporates all of your concerns in all areas of functioning. This is used in addition to a Functional Behavior Assessment and a Speech and Language evaluation. Each evaluation brings you closer to addressing your child’s unique needs.
If your child is exhibiting communication issues or is nonverbal, then in addition to the assessments listed above, an Augmentative Communication evaluation should be administered. Then you would need to determine they type of program or Assistive Technology that would be beneficial given your child’s unique needs and of course the recommendations made by the evaluator. All of these evaluations give you a bigger picture and a “baseline” or “foundation” to build your child’s IEP.
The ABLLS-R is another evaluation that should be completed. The ABLLS-R is the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills. If you read about all of the links provided in this article you will see that while they appear to be Speech and Language assessments they incorporate many different areas of language as it relates to all areas of functioning, comprehension, expressive, oral communication, daily functioning etc.
The evaluations do not hurt and can only help you in determining the type of services your child may need to make gains in a years time.
The school district can refuse to evaluate in the areas listed above, however, if they refuse or in some way change or modify your request to evaluate, they must provide you with the School District’s Notice of Refusal to Act form, in other words, 34 CFR 300.503. If they don’t give you that form file against them with the Dept. of Education for an investigation. Cite the regulation above and say it is a denial of FAPE and a violation of “Child Find” and a violation of evaluating in all areas of “suspected disability”. If you want or need to file against a school district and need help send us a request and we will walk you through it.
The school district must comply with all state and federal requirements. The district cannot create policies and/or procedures that are more restrictive than federal regulations. That is illegal and if proven will force school staff to IDEA training in procedural safeguards and possibly owe your child compensatory services.
BSEA Hearing Stats for 2011
BSEA in 2011 had 35 decisions of those decisions only 7 were won by the Parents. In 5 of those cases the Parent’s were represented by counsel. The school districts won 22 hearings and all represented by counsel.
Really, I do not believe that the U.S. Attorney General has stats like the Massachusetts Bureau of Special Ed. Appeals, consistently over the last 10-15 years.
“Occupy” Special Education Rights Movement
Here’s the thing with technology at our finger tips we may be able to get the help we need for our children through this movement.
All Parents are asking is that the state and federal regulations be implemented to address the unique needs of the student with a disability. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, because Congress in their infinite wisdom took out all of the “grey” areas.
The Grey areas evolve because of the Dept. of Education thinking that they can selectively implement federal requirements. It’s funny I don’t see them selectively answering the voluntary special education grant application from the federal government.
I don’t see them only answering the questions that they want. You know why, if they don’t answer most of the questions regarding the Assurances they are making to the feds in order to receive the special education federal funding, they won’t get the federal funds and they know it. So, they answer that Yes, we assure that ALL children in the state of Massachusetts, or whereever the child resides, will receive an education, including children with disabilities. And they assure that no matter where the child resides within the state, that the child will receive an education pursuant to state and federal laws and regulations. However, that is not always true. For instance, Massachusetts has this wonderful knack of modifying the meaning of a federal law or regulation. In fact, the BSEA (Bureau of Special Education Appeals) has been in violation of federal regulation 34 CFR 300.511, Hearing Officers cannot be employees of the Dept of Education.
This became a question when the new commissioner took the position and asked for guidance from the Office of Special Education Programs, Wash. D.C. Those are the people who provide the $15 million for special education funds in this state.
The issue was allegedly resolved, however, the same hearing officers that were deciding cases for the last 20 years are still hearing and deciding cases in the same building prior to the allege separation of Hearing Officers from the DESE. All supporting information can be found at www.ideasnpo.org. Go to the Links and Affiliations page and see the letter from our Commissioner to OSEP and the responses. It’s unbelievable. So please take the poll let me know what your thoughts are.
Tid Bits of Info
Memo regarding Procedures Lite
This is an unapproved program that apparently has been going on by school districts. Thankfully it was caught and school district’s implementing this program were told to discontinue.
If you are a victim of this “Procedure” that removed your rights under state and federal regulations, or you suspect this has happened to you, rescind your signature and contact the State Special Dir. listed on the letter. Put it in writing and keep a copy for your records.
The school district cannot ask you to waive your rights while at the same time accepting federal funds for special education and make assurances to the Dept. of Education that IDEA will be enforced for all eligible students.
