IEP for High School difficult child anyone have

[DancerMom]

any experience with that? difficult child 1's high school wants her to go through the testing for an IEP for next year. difficult child 1 is concerned that if she gets an IEP that she will be treated differently than other students in school. Is that something that happens? Also, someone told her that with the IEP she would not be accepted into college regardless if her grades are aceptable. Anyone know about that??

Thanks,

Anna

 

[tryingteacher]

An IEP has nothing to do with getting into college. As a matter of fact colleges have special services for people with disabilities and there are even scholarships available. An IEP will give her services and modifications. Many of these modifications she will be able to use in college. I had extended time on exams in college. My cousin had extended time and seperate setting. I think it is cool that she and I are Special Education teachers. Iep's are designed to give students what they need to make sure they have access to the general course of study in a way that will help them be successful. Hope this helps a little. OH yeah I also had limited course load.

 

[Sheila]

This can get a bit complicated.

It's my understanding that as long as the student graduates without alternative assessments and meets the curriculum requirements, an IEP student would graduate with a regular diploma.

This also involves a transition plan. From http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.plan.graham.htm :

Transition Planning Checklist

While IDEA 2004 provides the legal requirements for transition services to support your child’s goal of employment in the community or further education, there are several things that parents and students must do to prepare for life after high school.

Confirm the date of your child’s graduation. Federal law states that your child's eligibility for special education ends when s/he graduates from high school with a regular diploma or until the child reaches the age of eligibility for a free appropriat education under State law.

Clarify whether your child will receive a regular high school diploma or a certificate of attendance....

emplasis added

From https://web.archive.org/web/2008051...0/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/06-6656.pdf :

Comment: A few commenters
recommended requiring parents to be
informed in writing of the consequences
of their child taking an alternate
assessment, including any effect on the
child’s eligibility for graduation with a
regular high school diploma. The
commenters stated that providing this
information to parents is particularly
important in States that require passing
a State exam in order to obtain a regular
high school diploma.

Discussion: Section 612(a)(16) of the
Act requires that the State (or, in the
case of a districtwide assessment, the
LEA) develop and implement guidelines
for the participation of children with
disabilities in alternate assessments,
including alternate assessments aligned
to alternate achievement standards
permitted under 34 CFR 200.1(d).

Section 200.6(a)(2)(iii)(A)(2) of the
ESEA title I regulations requires States
to inform parents that their child’s
achievement will be measured against
alternate achievement standards.

We acknowledge that these
requirements do not specifically require
a public agency to inform parents of any
potential consequences of a child
participating in an alternate assessment.

The commenters’ recommendation will
be considered along with other
comments we have received in response
to the NPRM proposing changes to
§ 300.160, which was published in the
Federal Register on December 15, 2005
(70 FR 74624). As noted elsewhere in
this preamble, the final regulations for
§ 300.160, regarding participation in
assessments, will be published in a
separate final rule.

Changes: None.

There are no IEPs for college students, however, Section 504 does cover students with disabilities. It's quite different from the level of support that can be expected in college vs public schools.

Also, a college student has to qualify for 504 accommodations. You might want to do some research via several different Universities' websites to get an overview of the process.

IEP mean Individual Education Plan, so I'm not sure what you mean by being treated different. By students? By teachers? By administration?

My thoughts are kudos to difficult child's high school. I find it amazingly refreshing that a high school would approach a student with supports that can be afforded via an IEP. I see too many that just want student's to age out or drop out if they are having difficulty.

In that difficult child has been offered this opportunity, there must be a need. I would go forward with-the IEP evaluation.

If they want her evaluated and she refuses, I suspect she'll have a hard time graduating, and may end up frustrated and drop out of school when maybe even a little bit of help and/or support will help her achive her goal -- college.

Be sure and click on the url above and read it (wrightslaw). I'd also call whoever is requesting the evaluation and get additional information. Check your SEA regs regarding regular diploma requirements.

 

[Kathy813]

As a high school teacher, I teach many students with IEP's. They are fully integrated into my regular education classes and the other students have no idea that they have IEP's. I make any necessary modifications without the other students being aware that they are being made.

I can't speak for all states but in Georgia, as long as the special education students meet the same curriculum requirements (albeit with necessary modifications), they receive the same college prep diploma as the regular education students.

Special education students who are unable to do the college preparatory curriculum can receive a technical diploma or in a few cases, a certificate of attendance.

I truly don't see any stigma from having an IEP or being in resource classes. More and more classes are being taught as inclusion classes with a team teaching situation (content teacher and special education teacher) so there is less and less differentiation between Special Education and regular education students.

I can't speak to the college level question but I know that I have read that more and more colleges are reaching out to special education students and meeting their needs at the collegiate level.

~Kathy

 

[Martie]

I believe Kathy is correct.

Only 1% of any school district's population can have alternative assessments (and thus are not included in NCLB) These students OBVIOUSLY, without testing or identification, are not going to be attending college.

Many parents SEEK an IEP under Learning Disability (LD) so that the student can get extended time of the SAT and/or ACT. In order to get this time, one needs an IEP. If having an IEP prevented college admission, the the above would not be sought by well educated (and wealthy) parents.

I have had graduate students with accommodations under Section 504 or the ADA. No other students know unless the accommodation is to leave the room for testing.

I would encourage you to have the full evaluation that the SD is offering. Under 2004 law, you do NOT have to accept services you do not want so you have little to lose, and potentially much to gain, by getting your difficult child needed supports.

Martie

 

[wakeupcall]

This thread makes me wonder about my difficult child. He'll start middle school next year, so it isn't an issue quite yet. I don't see him EVER being able to go to regular classes and having a regular curriculum. And this means he probably won't graduate? If not, I suppose that means no "technical" school would accept him? Am I understanding this correctly? Arrrgggg.......

 

[Kathy813]

No, Pamela, I don't think you understood. Of course, I can only speak about Georgia but here even students who are not able to do the college prep coursework and graduate with a "technical" diploma instead can still go to technical colleges. In my state, they just can't go straight to a 4 year college.

Many of our students who graduate with a technical diploma start out at 2 year community colleges and then transfer to 4 year schools. Others go to technical colleges and get associate degrees or technical diplomas and go right into the work place.

There are a lot of options for students that cannot go straight to a 4 year college.

Of course, some go straight into the work place out of high school. Others join the military.

I wouldn't worry about things so far into the future. Concentrate on getting the most services for your child now and getting him stable.

~Kathy

 

[Sheila]

Attending mainstream classes is not the problem. A student must meet the minimum State requirements for graduation whether the education is provided in a small classroom setting, a special day school, Learning Disability (LD) public school, etc.

Part of graduating with a regular diploma includes taking and passing TAKS assessments and passing the Exit exam.

I brought up the "complication" because I have been in attendance at IEP meetings wherein the sd recommended the students be allowed to take alternative accountability testing vs the regular TAKS. This was done so that additional porfessional evaluation for LDs would not have to be performed and necessary services would not have to be provided; and so that the students lack of progress wouldn't be counted toward the district. The fact that the course of action recommended by the sd for these 3rd and 5th graders (no Learning Disability (LD) testing, no therapy, no regular assessments) would not allow for graduating with a regular diploma was not addressed until I brought it up.

There are some children that just can't learn at the same rate as their peers no matter how hard educators and parents try to help them. In these instances, students receive Certificates of Attendance or some other type diploma but it is not a regular diploma.

It's fairly rare, but circumstances can change and it can happen that a student takes alternative testing for a few years, then remediation, tutoring or therapy kicks in, and the IEP changes to allow for regular accountability testing. Or the student gains grade/age equivalent academic performance. Another example would be that a child with-an ED eligibility becomes stable allowing for academic achievement and/or annual accountability testing.

Realistically, however, the further a student gets behind in school academically, the harder it is for them to graduate with a regular diploma.

Until a student graduates with a regular diploma or ages out of public education, the school district remains responsible for providing FAPE.

There are a lot of potential options. It's something to discuss with the sd officials and prepare for when it comes time for Transitioning.

 

[Sheila]

Good points, Kathy.

A lot of GED and regular diploma kids begin with-a 2-year community college and go forth from there.

 

[Liahona]

What I'm about to say is going to make everyone mad. Sorry. Made me mad when I heard it too. I do know of a private school that doesn't accept students with IEPs. Don't ask me how. They must have alot of lawyers. I learned about this because a cousin of mine was diagnosis in college with a learning disorder she got into this college with a swimming scholarship. She was told that if she had been diagnosis before applying they wouldn't have accepted her. (Her coach told her this.) After the diagnosis they provided accomedations.

 

[Martie]

This must have been a very small college. A private K-12 school does not have to accept anyone--and many do not accept students with IEPs including the h.s. my son graduated from.

If a COLLEGE accepts Federal funds, Section 504 and the ADA apply. As I said, very few post-secondary instituions do not accept Federal monies, so in most cases, protections are in place.

Martie

 

[DammitJanet]

Martie is so right. Any entity that gets any federal funding at all has to abide by ADA. So if they get even $1 of any money from federal monies they are open to a huge lawsuit. I cannot imagine a college in this country not getting any federal money.