IEP Contingencies for Distance Learning

I want to start by saying I am NOT a lawyer. But I do have two special needs kids and now know my way around an IEP. With that being said I do have a background in special ed and used to sit on the other side of the table before I had my own kids. I have started educating myself like crazy in the last year on the legal standpoints. If you are a parent and worried about this time and unsure how to help your child, I’m going to give you some tools to help you through. 

The first is to make yourself familiar with IDEA: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a four-part (A-D) piece of American legislation that ensures students with a disability are provided with Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs.This is very important especially right now because this is one of the greatest defenses your child has legally. My biggest fear when Corona started happening was that changes were going to be made to this Act and that would have been catastrophic! Luckily for all of us, it hasn’t been changed, it is intact and thats something to help ease a little fear. 

I know a lot of you aren’t from California, but since I am, those are the laws I know. So Everything I’m writing will pertain to those, but I encourage you to look into your states laws. They all should all have a Corona Tab. 

My husband is involved in many online parent support groups (Lord love him, I just don’t have the time) and he told me so many parents were freaking out about what this next chapter looks like for their kids. Honestly, I’m right there with you, but we do have some tools in our arsenal to pull out. Because this is unknown territory it’s not as simple as “This is our right.” I wish it was. 

But what you CAN do is INSTANTLY call an IEP. The district has 30 days to comply with your request, and they are in OVERDRIVE right now. Try and be very understanding and loving toward your team because they are in absolute hell right now. Imagine the fear and worry you are feeling about your child, then multiply it by however many kids they are responsible for. It’s a lot, so even though you are scared and needing more help than they are giving, remember to be respectful when fighting for your child. 

Once you have requested a meeting they do have 30 days to comply. In the mean time while you are waiting, there are several things you can do to prepare. Thats my number one tip to you today GO IN PREPARED! The meetings are going to be fast and furious because they are going to have so many. So going in with clear concerns and clear solutions or at least ideas of solutions will help your cause greatly. I’ve learned through my many meetings that it helps if you can try and leave emotion out of it. (easier said than done I know.) but stick to the facts, it will help. 

If you are the type who want to do the research yourself and find the answers here is a helpful website: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/dl/index.asp Also look up the COPAA parent advocacy group. You can also go to SJCL.com and click on Bren in the left hand corner. 

But those of you who want the cliff notes version, thats what I’m here for. I attended a webinar about distance learning and what that looks like for our kiddos from a legal standpoint, given by Jodie Howard and Nickie Krebsbach and it was amazing. I learned a few tools that I will be using in all of my IEPS for now on. Here was the gist of what I learned: 

Step 1: Instantly call for an IEP, thats your first step. Don’t change their IEP, but instead add a contingency to their current IEP. This is very important, you don’t want to make any changes to their current IEPS. Those should stay the same, because once the craziness dies down and they go back to business as usual you don’t want to have to have another IEP just to go back. So just make a contingency for what you want distance learning to look like for your child. 

Step two: You need to find a new baseline for your child. You can’t work off of the baseline you had because everything looks different. You have worked with your kid for the past 3-4 months, so you are the best person to come up with that data. What does their current baseline look like? Share with team. Then request what you feel they need NOW, through DL. 

Step 2: Now this is the tricky part. If your kids have a 1:1 like mine do it gets a little tricky because by law they are still required to provide FAPE, but thanks to the CDC requirements it’s not so clear cut. You can still ALWAYS ask for what your child needs. According to the CA DEPT of ED your local Education provider is NOT prohibited from providing in home services. READ THAT VERY CAREFULLY! They are not PROHIBITED in providing them, meaning they CAN, but they don’t legally have to. The line above is even more important because it says “To maintain students mental and psychical health and safety for the purpose of supporting the student.” Meaning, if you can prove that your Childs health and safety are at risk without in home support you then have a leg to stand on. (I have plenty of proof of this myself so I will be requesting this at my children’s meetings.) Now a lot of districts will say “because of state law we aren’t allowed to send people into the home.” This is true, but your response can be “theres no reason why they can’t send (and pay for) a 3rd party to come in. In this time right now those services are considered essential, so if they aren’t willing to send their own people they CAN hire out. (This could fall under your preparations ahead of time. Look into a few 3rd parties willing to do in home)  Also, you can keep up with social distancing laws and have learning done in the front yard, at a park ect. While wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart. 

While I’m on the subject of masks this also came up a lot, and that was “My child won’t wear a mask, what do I do once school resumes and they won’t wear one?” That was actually a huge fear of mine because neither of my kids will wear one and get very violent when trying. This might be a good thing to add to your IEP contingency under self care. Make it one of their goals to try it on, keep it for a few minutes ect. Their life looks different now, so their goals should reflect that. When it is time to go back to school a waiver from your doctor can excuse the mask rule legally. So you can start that processes by asking your Childs dr. For the waiver now. 

Step 3: This to me was the most important thing I learned from the webinar and that is Prior written notice. Anytime you ask your district for ANYTHING during any IEP and they say no, make sure you ask for a prior written notice. This means they have to give you in writing why they turned you down, and a description of procedure and records. Keep a folder with all of your Prior written notice refusals and it could really help you build a case in the future. And might make them think twice before just dismissing you outright. 

Step 4: Make a list of ideas and solutions. This is going to be tailored to what you and your child need. It also goes hand in hand with the contingency. If your child had so many minutes of speech prior to the shut down, and their language has slipped since, it would be appropriate then to request more speech hours for distance learning. Even if that requires bringing in a 3rd party. If they say no, get that in writing. 

A lot of people are talking about how they are going to have to make up for hours and services, but focus on the now. It would be better to fight for remedial intensive services currently, then try to fight for compensative services later. 

As I said above, IDEA is not being waved, so this means they still have the same rights they had before, just how they receive those rights is changing. FAPE, is also staying the same, so anything in their current IEP under FAPE still applies. That will look different for everyone, but find out how they plan to meet FAPE moving forward, because most places did a crap job of that during the onset of everything. Now they have had time to plan, so hopefully it will be better. 

Step 5: Take data, and track data. Data is the common denominator for all services. In school the aids, teacher and therapists keep data to make sure they are getting appropriate services. You are the teacher and aid now, therefor its up to you to keep data, but this will work in your favor. If you are telling them zoom doesn’t work for your child, and you have proof that out of 20 zoom sessions they could only sit through one, or only sit for 10 minutes of each session, that is your data….your proof that they aren’t receiving the full hours given in FAPE. For us, my kids are terrified of Zoom. They have only sat through one session and there was screaming the entire time. My laptop has been thrown more times than I can count…making it not at all applicable. Therefore my kids learning is going to have to look different. 

That was the gist of the webinar. Now for my own personal tips make sure you record everything. On your IEP request form make sure you write down that you are recording. Legally they have to also if you do, but ALWAYS record your meetings. Also, ask to set aside some time at the end to go over the notes. Anything of importance that you say or are requesting make sure they add them to notes. If it’s not typed, it didn’t happen. So later on, if your trying to prove you said it and its not in the notes….you didn’t say it. DON’T SIGN ANYTHING before reading the entire thing and making sure all your concerns were addressed exactly as you asked. Ive asked the notes to be changed so many times. They are paraphrasing for time sake, but many important things get left out this way. The notes are your only proof of what transpired in that meeting. 

I also would advise in taking your last IEP with you to each meeting. I highlight important sections like goals hit, and all things offered in FAPE. That way you know if anything is being changed, keep track of the hours. Especially now, hours are being altered. 

Keep open communication with your teacher and team. Some teams are easier to do this than others. We have two kids in the same district but at different schools…one team is very amazing and always listens and wants whats best for my child. The other team constantly feels like a them against us type of situation. But I still try and always treat them the same way I do the other team. I just make sure I’m more covered. I always record everything and get everything in writing. 

I know this is such a hard and scary time for everyone right now. Especially for our kiddos, so I feel you. Our house has more wall holes and our bodies have more bruises than ever before. It’s such a hard time with all the changes for your kiddos. Trying to stay as consistent as possible should help. Know your child, know their needs and fight for them. If theres any way I can help or you have any questions I might be able to answer please comment. We will be making another blog post with all the resources we will be using and how they help. If any of you have resources that work for you please feel free to share. 

YOU’VE GOT THIS! 

* Jaci Wheeler

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