That must be very frustrating. It sounds like you take an active role in your son's education and want him to succeed. The ADDitude website has a few articles you may find helpful as you deal with the school.

Accommodation Help for Parents

IEP Follow Up for Parents

Checking Up on ADHD Accommodations

Avocating for Your Child's School Accommodations

Good Luck, Dena

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Hi:

I can totally understand why you may feel your hands are tied - how are you supposed to help your child if the school is keeping information from you? January is the perfect time to request a 'midyear checkup' with the 504 team at your son's school. This is very commonplace and the school should welcome the opportunity to help your son get back on track before the school year ends.

Here is some advice for running a productive 504 meeting. Since the current progress reports aren't working, you might suggest a daily report card, which might seem extreme, but will definitely show they you are committed to being involved.

Here is a new ADDitude Printable about Midyear Checkups that might help. Good luck!

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Thanks for the references. i Read through each and I appreciate the reveiw and what a resource this site is for the newly intiated parent of a child whose learning abilities require the careful attention of adults who are creating the environment appropriate for their achievements. If I only called and attended two meetings per year with teachers this would be my 22nd attempt to engender support for a basicly superior learner. I do have a theme each time I present my "concerns" (the doe jargon, not mine) and I do applaud the public school and the educators who are committing their career time to the futhering of the educations of others. And I have brought the references and invited teachers to bring all their successful tactical approaches to the meeting . To date not since elementary school has a teacher volunteered one thing. 'tWhat the teachers who are not sucessful in the role of teaching a superior learner with specific supports that are given to each in writing, and gone over in meetings, and include referal options: to the 504 specialist at the school site whose job it is is to facilitate this learning process ; and/or e-mailing or calling on the phone for immediate attention of parent these loafs on whole merely do nothing. When it is their opertunity to contribute the inputs are robotic "I have no time, I have to many students to do any of these things, in a word: they whine. I do have the come back for this. Nothing not one thing my son requires detracts in anyway from the successful completions of assigned work for top grades. In a classroom where achieving academic excelence is a goal the 504 accomindations for my learner can be applied to the full classroom. On the rare occation (one time) a high school teacher did nothing included in the 504 and also failed to achieve an effective education preparation and failed numerous students, including my son, without so much as a note as per the 504 I have asserted to the teacher who states " I have to many students. I gave the progress report to your son. I guess he didn't give it to you." I responded " How many students recieved f level grades in your class? ( no answer offered) How many students do you feel need to fail to imply to you or suggest that there is a learning problem in your classroom? did you make a referal to the 504 specialist as per the 504 you recieved in writing and the meetings you attended instructed you to take ? At what point HAVE YOU asked for help to intervene a pattern of productivity in your classroom that shows a failure rate that conserns you as an educator?" These are not people who lack the ability to pro-actively step up to the riguers of teaching. These are loafers who create a social sub-culture of indifferance and are paid a salary and have contracts that are their Holy Grail. The students who are ground through that school are being neglected educationally. The scchool is up for restructoring and these students who are in the failing systems are what? The school bamboozeled me into signing the papers to avoid my accurate letters to the principle in which the lack of compliance to iep were recorded. The only ed attorneys are not available to meet here and the whole junk situation is a quagmire of well educated adults who are utterly ineffective in their chosen proffessions. I was assure that the 504 specialist was going to aid the meager, really, accomidations that simply require consistant and possitive enforsement of good study habits while in the high school each quarter. They do not provide this to the student in class each day; and then they are evasive and non-paticipatory when the parent attempts to facilitate the lazitude.

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If your son is in high school and HAD an IEP. Get him back on one. The school is supposed to by Federal Law (NCLB §§300.000 et al) be helping your son with transition issues. They dropped him to a 504 because it COSTS LESS for the school district, and they do NOT have to follow guidelines. These are just ‘suggestions’ to help your child (and usually are followed, but not always especially with multiple teachers, classes, etc.) through the system. Remember, with an IEP, the school has to abide by what is written there by law. (federal) Get your son into a Learning/Resource Class at least 1x maybe more during the week with a Spec. Ed. teacher to help him complete his assignments; help him where he needs assistance in learning what is being taught, etc. These are things that don’t have to cost extra as they are already there by law, so the cost is nominal to the district and no additional costs here. With the economy being so bad and $$ being fought so hard for a lot of kids are going to get pushed aside. It’s up to us as parents to make sure our child(ren) don’t become one of those pushed aside. An IEP doesn’t have to have expensive costs associated to help your child. Sometimes, just having a learning center (spec. ed. teacher) available to help is enough. Ask to get notification from any/all teachers on the IEP. Whether via e-mail, phone, snail-mail, whatever. If it is there they need to do it. And if they don’t, take it farther up the ladder. Use lots of section references from NCLB. It usually gets them moving.

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I have just read Wrights Law From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd ed. by Pam Wright and Pete Wright. I recommend it to every parent w/special needs children in a public school.

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