there has been no special training for his primary teacher or aide to assist them with understanding autism;
If the teacher is a certified elementary school teacher, no special training is required by federal law.
his curriculum has not been appropriately modified to offer greatest chances of success;
The state is required to provide an APPROPRIATE education--they must provide the "Ford" not required to provide the "Cadillac" Free and Appropriate
his curriculum has not been appropriately modified to offer greatest chances of success;
It sounds like he has a similiar commute to other children--again, does it meet the measurement of appropriate? not best, appropriate
It was the 2nd move in six months
I sympathize for the family, but the move was their choice, not the schools. We all make sacrifices for our kids--or we should,
“I would have expected with the University here and the reputation for education and community activism that Berkeley has to have found a wonderful school district.”
Berkely may have once had a great school district, but basically, California is a wasteland for education, with a few oasises of sanity.
Not only did the district take a month to put the children back in school, they said they had to commute five miles, or 25 minutes by car each way
Break my heart, kids commute longer and further than that all across the nation.
Gabriel would be put in a Special Day Class with nine other boys – and one teacher...Also, the SDC student/teacher ratio was way off.
Bull, the Ratio is 9-1 or 12-1 with an aide.
there was no room at Thousand Oaks elementary –
So...what did the mom want? to kick another child out? Schools are crowded, it happens.
I’m a marketing executive and have my own business to manage. Making multiple trips to the district offices and ferrying the kids back and forth was taking it’s toll,
Sucks to be the mom sometimes doesn't it?
Gabriel has made some progress this year, mostly re-gaining lost ground from last year when he experienced a regression during May and June.
There is an issue being skirted here--is the child meeting his goals as laid out in the IEP? If he is, then adequate yearly progress is being made. If not, how close was he? Sounds like he was at least close. But, I'm not there, tough to make that call
The primary instructor stated loudly on the first day, “He can’t be in my class, I already have too many students
Nice professional attitude. Makes me proud to be in the same profession
The early days were really rough. Gabriel was not very verbal and he tantrumed a lot
Bet it was rough for all of the kids in that class.
The integrated program of services paid off. With the exception of the two months when Berkeley mis-placed him, Gabriel has been successfully integrated in a regular school setting. His reliance on special services has decreased every year. For instance, he no longer needs O.T. He also requires less and less support from a one-on-one aide. His response to classmates continues to mature, and he now has a small circle of friends who he joins in playing with during recess.
So, what's the problem? Sounds like the little guy is doing great. Oh wait, $$$$$$, yeah, that's the problem I just bet.
Will she get any $$$, maybe. If the county properly notified her of all IEP meetings, then the county has won 1/2 the battle. If he made progress on his goals, then the mom is just blowing smoke and hoping for a quick cash settlement.
I hope you can answer a question for me. My understanding is that IF something can be written into an IEP it becomes as good as law. Perhaps the law does not require special training, but if it was written into the IEP that the teacher get special training, wouldn't failing on that be not following the IEP and thus, against the law?
I can think of at least one situation where a student has his own separate classroom, his own teacher, and three or more paraprofessional staff who work only with him. Counting paraprofessional staff this is at least a four to one teacher-student ratio.
I guess my point is that the product of laws and litigation over the last 30 years has created a situation that is more complicated, expensive and fraught with legal land mines than most people can begin to realize.
Really, I thought that it was 6-1 or 12-1 with an aide. I worked with medically fragile infants/children for 15 + years and under state licensing regs we were required a 6-1 / 12-2 ratio during all hours of instruction. Frankly if the state wanted to HELP some of these children they wouldn't be "mainstreaming" them at all. They'd be using that education money that they are giving for these schools having these kids enrolled for specialized day schools with the proper setups.