How helpful are school principals when Director of Special Ed won’t help ?
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June 27, 2018 at 7:16 pm #87188dmu1970Participant
Just wondering how many people found success in helping their child by reaching out to the school principal? That is something we have not done yet in high school (we asked the principal for help in middle school but that was useless) and my son is now a junior.
We have been “handled” by the Director of Special Education of our school district for the last couple of years as it seems we (I) have been more than the guidance counselor and social worker could deal with. Our son doesn’t even have an IEP- just a useless 504.
I have never seen the point – especially after our middle school experience. But now that he has failed most of junior year and I’m just so depressed I’m kind of willing to try it.
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June 27, 2018 at 7:36 pm #87189BRLKParticipant
In my experience it depends on the principal. We’ve had everything from principals who were the core of the problem, to extremely helpful principals and everything in between. What kind of help are you looking for from them? If the director of SPED isn’t meeting your needs it can’t hurt to go to the principal and plead your case but you may need to go to the superintendent and plead your case – if the school is being negligent in providing the tools he needs it is entitled to then You need to take some action. Can you/have you requested a full IEP eval to see if he can move from a 504 to an IEP? Schools do, even if they shouldn’t, treat the two differently.
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June 29, 2018 at 10:26 am #87311Penny WilliamsKeymaster
It definitely depends on the administration at your school. If you’ve already been dealing with the main Special Ed department, I would continue with that and they should pull in the principal and such.
It sounds like he needs some real help in school. I would make a formal request for a school evaluation, in writing. Use this sample letter:
That should get the process going to evaluate for qualifying for an IEP.
Here are some high school accommodations and such that he may need:
Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Parenting ADHD Trainer & Author, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism
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