"Making the Classroom Work for Your Student: How to Build a Better IEP or 504 Plan for Your Child" [Video Replay and Podcast #227]

7 Comments: "Making the Classroom Work for Your Student: How to Build a Better IEP or 504 Plan for Your Child" [Video Replay and Podcast #227]

1. My 9-year-old daughter’s pediatrician, neurologist & neuropsychologist all very strongly feel that she would be best served in a special needs school due to her unique neurological issues. This includes an ADHD diagnosis. I have provided her IEP team their recommendations in writing repeatedly, but I get shot down almost immediately. What can I do to get my daughter the help she needs & deserves?

2. My 6 year old daughter has been assessed by a private psychologist using the Wechsler method as having 314.00 Attention Deficit\Hyperactivity Disorder, predominantly inattentive presentation. It was determined that she has an IQ of 137. She gets distracted very easily and has emotional breakdowns when she can’t achieve a task in a given time frame or at specific times. She is currently a public virtual school 1st grade student. We have to work on lessons every free moment and still don’t finish lessons on time. She has breakdowns daily. She doodles and stalls if she has to do any type of writing. She gets bored easily by most of the material because she already knows what the lesson is teaching, but she still takes the full amount of time allotted to complete the lesson. If we are working on lessons that she doesn’t know, then she can take 5 times the allotted time to finish the lesson or more. HOW CAN I GET THE BEST 504 PLAN FOR A VIRTUAL SCHOOL 1ST GRADE STUDENT? Can it include that I get more resources to find ways to approach learning new things or writing things down? Can it include that she can skip over some of the written assignments of stuff that she knows? Please provide me with all ideas. All the resources I have found so far do not have any experience with 504 plans in a virtual setting.

   1. She was just diagnosed at the end of last school year when I noticed her forgetting constantly and being distracted so easily. She attended virtual school for kindergarten also. We were behind all year. It was a constant struggle to get her to complete anything in a timely manner. She is my oldest child, so I don’t have any experience in how the school system works, how to deal with 504 meetings or how I can best advocate for my child. I would consider a Montessori school if our educational quality of life doesn’t improve, but I would need the 504 plan in order to qualify for the McCay scholarship. We live in Florida.

3. I have two sons with ADD, one in middle school and the other is a senior in high school. They both have a 504 plan which includes regular contact with and updates from teachers on how they are doing in class. Even when we initiate contact with the teachers only a couple of them will respond. If we don’t hear from the teachers then what is happening at school is a black hole. How do we get them to cooperate when they feel that “students this age should be able to manage their own assignments/calendars?”

4. My daughter is entering 11th grade and has never had a 504 or IEP because she has always performed really well in school – advanced in Math, Honors classes and recommended for AP. She tried an AP class in 10th grade but dropped it because the work was overwhelming to her. In 10th grade we met with her teachers to try to get accommodations because she was struggling to keep up with her work such as reading (she fudged her way through English class without reading a single book, projects, tests, didn’t turn in research papers because she had to use “Turn-It-In”, etc.). I feel strongly that she needs extra time for her assignments, and possibly some note taking help. She is somewhat organized with her assignments and has a planner, but is a huge procrastinator and is overwhelmed by projects – she can’t break them down into smaller tasks so she can complete them. None of her teachers felt she needed a 504, and said if she needed help to come ask for it. My daughter isn’t one to speak up. With her important 11th grade year ahead and school starting at the end of the month, can you provide any suggestions to get a 504 in place? Also, it would be helpful for her to have extra time on the SATs and I’d like to see if we can apply for accommodations for that too. I look forward to this webinar and hope you will cover 504s for high schoolers too. Thank you.

   1. I didn’t include the important information. She was dx with ADHD in 3rd grade, and added anxiety to the mix a few years later. She is medicated and the school is aware of her dx.

5. My 4th grade son has an IEP but it is for speech with an addendum for his ADHD. I was told at the end of last school year that his speech will go away and I’ll lost my IEP. How do I, as a parent, get another IEP but for the ADHD?