wow

Hey guys

Wow! Lots of interesting stuff happening in Special Education these days. As you may have heard, we are going to have MORE forms changes! I think these will be very positive as they will be eliminating a lot of the redundancy on the current forms. Forms being revised at this time are: Evaluation Programming Conference Decision Form, Informed Consent, Existing Data Review and Committee Report for SLD.

Westside will be piloting these forms, so that means we will have the inside scoop on the changes. I will let you guys know as I get new information. I believe training is the first part of December (for me).

Westside's monitoring went well. I have a powerpoint for training. I will forward it to everyone very soon. Basically, be sure to check all your boxes, make your PLOP and Impact statement SPECIFIC to the standard on the goal and never copy/paste from the Student Profile or from one goal to the next.

It was a great monitoring! Way to go Westside.

Today I wanted to bring to your attention one of the other major monitoring ideas: meaningful parent participation.

In Doug C. v. Hawaii Dep't of Educ., No. 12-15079, 2013 WL 2631518 (9th Cir. 6/13/13) the concept of meaningful participation was put to the test. The parent was sick during IEP meeting and asked to reschedule. A meeting by phone or online was offered, however the parent felt they were too sick to participate in either of those capacities. The meeting was convened in the parent's absence and the student's placement was changed. Later, the parent rejected the IEP in its entirety. As you may expect, the parent won this argument.

Parent participation in IEP and the placement process is considered "critical". For this reason, Districts are charged with documenting all efforts to accommodate and include parents in IEP meetings. Deadlines are not an excuse to meet without the parent. If the parent wishes to attend the meeting, the parent's potential ability to participate takes priority. The court determined the District must make "a reasonable determination of the course that promotes IDEA purposes and is least likely to harm the child" when meeting deadlines and lack of parental participation are in conflict.

Remember new rules regarding Notice: 14 day notice for every conference. If you have not heard back from the parent on day 7, send another notice. If the parent does not come on the scheduled day, do another 7 day notice. If the parent does not attend, at least one notice must be sent certified. Please continue during the process to call parents, make arrangements for phone conferences, home visits, whatever is necessary.

Please continue to make every effort to meet with parents regarding placement, programming and all other due process matters. Document all efforts.

Thanks for all your hard work, guys! I hope the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday is wonderful for you all!

CK