Mediation request rebuttal

This post is kind of long… my apologies

We go back to Davidh 30, 2011. and here.

April 2011 – IEP Meeting to review “placement options” for student.

April 2011 –starting here and here.
April 2011 – Prior Written Notice

– Parent places student in CAPH day treatment program

Meeting with child psychologist after David was placed in hospital
– Student admitted to hospital because CAPH couldn’t handle him.
– Student Discharged from hospital psychiatric placement
– Hospital child psychiatrist recommends residential placement

Child Psychologist told parents that when David returns to public school he needs his own aide.
– Student admitted to residential facility

Residential Facility Placement begins

July 17, 2011 – IEP at residential facility

August update
November 23, 2011 – IEP revision: placement 1 hour per day at elementary school

Psychiatrist update
Results of Abuse and Neglect Complaint
IEP Meeting
Discharge Date Discussed

December 8, 2011 – Residential Facility monthly staffing – discharge dates discussed

Positive Comments

January 11, 2012 – Annual IEP: Placement options included

– Home district – needed and appropriate services not available.
– neighboring district – declined to accept student
– Day treatment program would accept student and had opening.

IEP Meeting thoughts

January 12, 2012 – Parents toured day treatment program.
– Parents refuse placement at day treatment program.
– Parents state that they will home school student, but don’t file paperwork with school
January 30, 2012 – home district principal requests facilitated IEP
– Facilitated IEP scheduled but parents cancel after agreeing to the date.

January 23, 2012 – Prior Written Notice received via email
January 25, 2012 – Parents receive notice of request for facilitated IEP

Davidh 12, 2012 – Facilitated IEP held at neutral location in home district.  Meeting results in “impasse”.

IEP Meeting held results

Davidh 2012 – Home district requests service plan, none provided to date. Superintendent contacts family to request service plan again.

Can’t argue this, as we had no knowledge of what a service plan is.  Now that we know how state law defines it, we will comply.

Summary of Issues for Mediation

• IEP Placement for student has not been agreed upon by the IEP team.

• Student continues to be placed in Home School by his parents.

• No “Service Plan” has been provided by student’s parents despite requests made by the home district to do so.

• The home School has continually indicated in multiple meetings that they are unable to provide the needed school program and services that the student requires.

• Through the IEP process, the home district has explored placement options that would more appropriately meet the student’s educational needs.

• The home district has recommended placement in a day program at a residential facility in a regional city as an appropriate placement because they have the services required for the student to be successful.  This program has been willing to accept the student.

• The home district has offered to pay costs associated with this placement including educational services and transportation.

• The home district has maintained that the student has had almost no opportunity to demonstrate successful participation in a public school setting.  Further they maintain that residential school at the group home to day programming at the residential facility is not only least restrictive but is a logical transition for the students long term placement in the home district.

• The home district feels that it is necessary to have both parents participate in person if mediation is to be successful.  Previous attempts at meetings in which the student’s mother has participated by phone conference have been unsuccessful.

• The home district is requesting mediation to address the issues outlined above in an attempt to resolve differences with the student’s parents and come to an agreement about appropriate services for the student.

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Mediation may help.  I am undecided.  However, mom has to take time off from her work to attend meetings that have never been productive.  We do the conference call route because it allows her to stay at work.  In most normal situations a conference call would be sufficient if steps were taken to ensure that the proper equipment was either available or working properly.  Most of the time, the equipment that the school uses doesn’t work, or people have to shout to be heard.  Often times the telephone cords is too short to even reach the table where it could be centrally placed.  Not to mention dropped calls.  During the facilitated IEP meeting, no conference equipment was even available, so the facilitator and the residential group home made arrangements to use a cell phone and a third party conference system to conduct the call.  We asked the school for one hour a day.  Music and/or reading.  They declined.  We asked for written assurance that David would be allowed to return to his home district when he successfully completes the program that they want him placed in, and they could not give us that.

It is hard to advocate for your child when the people who are supposed to want to help him have no desire to do so.  They get paid a lot of money to have our child in their district.  Even when he is home schooled.

Now they have offered to pay to transport him to the other school.  it is 58 miles each way roughly.  100 miles each day in a car.

David participated in the facilitated IEP.  He was present.  That meeting went for more than 2 hours, and all of the people who didn’t work for the school commented about how good he behaved.

When confronted by one of David’s care coordinators regarding pushing back David’s discharge date from the residential facility, the principal said that she made the comments, at the staffing in November, about him returning to school, not as a member of the IEP team.

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David’s mom asked one last question at the end of the facilitated IEP.  “Why don’t they want to educate our child in his home school?”