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Last night Ben went to sleep in his own bed in his own room, and stayed there all night. Yay! This is a battle I have been fighting for ages now. The last couple nights at Sara's place he has also been sleeping in his own room. Everybody involved gets much better sleep that way, so I am just a wee bit happy about this.
His first two weeks of school have been kind of a mixed bag. He is overjoyed to be back in school, but we are having some real communication problems with Transportation. The very first day he rode the bus there was a bus monitor on board to help get him buckled in and be sure he stayed in his seat. Nobody from the school said anything about it, so Sara just assumed that was standard for the exceptional students in this district. Four days later on Friday afternoon as Ben was getting off the bus, Sara was told that the monitor had been there specifically for Ben but was only temporary and that was her last day. Ben would not be able to ride the bus again until his IEP was modified to include requiring a bus monitor. It was extremely frustrating to be notified about this on Friday afternoon when it was too late to do anything about it, given that they must have known much earlier that this was going to be a problem. Even a phone call a few hours earlier would have allowed Sara enough time to speak to someone and get it straightened out.
This past week I have been taking Ben to school in the morning and Sara has been picking him up in the afternoon. I signed the paperwork on Tuesday so that Transportation could find a permanent person to place on the bus, and we expected to hear back any day that he could start riding the bus again. We found out, once again on Friday afternoon too late in the day to do anything about it, that the wording on the new IEP was not what transportation needed (the needed the word "required" in the document, instead of just "Benjamin needs"). The relevant person at Transportation was aware of this problem on Tuesday afternoon. The relevant person at Ben's school knew this no later than Wednesday morning. We were never notified directly. Nobody picked up the phone and called us, despite the fact that Sara had left multiple messages throughout the week asking for an update. Sara finally spoke the person in Transportation yesterday afternoon when Ben came home with a new piece of IEP paperwork related to the bus monitor. Nothing can be done until that paper is signed. Once again, that could have been taken care of *days* ago, had anyone bothered to talk to us.
So next week I get to continue to take Ben to school in the mornings while this all gets straightened out. I intend to go in and talk to the school principal on Monday morning, because this is completely unacceptable. Ben needs the routine of riding the bus to and from school to help him settle in. Sara can't even start substitue teaching, let alone taking a full-time teaching job, until this is straightened out. It is damned inconvenient for me to be driving nearly 60 miles every morning just to take Ben to school. Most of all, it's just stupid.
His first two weeks of school have been kind of a mixed bag. He is overjoyed to be back in school, but we are having some real communication problems with Transportation. The very first day he rode the bus there was a bus monitor on board to help get him buckled in and be sure he stayed in his seat. Nobody from the school said anything about it, so Sara just assumed that was standard for the exceptional students in this district. Four days later on Friday afternoon as Ben was getting off the bus, Sara was told that the monitor had been there specifically for Ben but was only temporary and that was her last day. Ben would not be able to ride the bus again until his IEP was modified to include requiring a bus monitor. It was extremely frustrating to be notified about this on Friday afternoon when it was too late to do anything about it, given that they must have known much earlier that this was going to be a problem. Even a phone call a few hours earlier would have allowed Sara enough time to speak to someone and get it straightened out.
This past week I have been taking Ben to school in the morning and Sara has been picking him up in the afternoon. I signed the paperwork on Tuesday so that Transportation could find a permanent person to place on the bus, and we expected to hear back any day that he could start riding the bus again. We found out, once again on Friday afternoon too late in the day to do anything about it, that the wording on the new IEP was not what transportation needed (the needed the word "required" in the document, instead of just "Benjamin needs"). The relevant person at Transportation was aware of this problem on Tuesday afternoon. The relevant person at Ben's school knew this no later than Wednesday morning. We were never notified directly. Nobody picked up the phone and called us, despite the fact that Sara had left multiple messages throughout the week asking for an update. Sara finally spoke the person in Transportation yesterday afternoon when Ben came home with a new piece of IEP paperwork related to the bus monitor. Nothing can be done until that paper is signed. Once again, that could have been taken care of *days* ago, had anyone bothered to talk to us.
So next week I get to continue to take Ben to school in the mornings while this all gets straightened out. I intend to go in and talk to the school principal on Monday morning, because this is completely unacceptable. Ben needs the routine of riding the bus to and from school to help him settle in. Sara can't even start substitue teaching, let alone taking a full-time teaching job, until this is straightened out. It is damned inconvenient for me to be driving nearly 60 miles every morning just to take Ben to school. Most of all, it's just stupid.
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From:
Sorry for sticking my nose in but I hope that this helps
I am a special educator in Arizona. I know that not all of the laws are exactly the same from state to state but most of them are governed by the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) which is Federal and all schools have to abide by these guidelines. If your son's IEP states in any wording that he is to have an aid or monitor at any time, then the school must provide one. It sounds to me like this is a money issue not an IEP issue. Schools don't like to hire new staff because an IEP says so, but they are required to do so by law.
On the next day of school I would suggest getting in touch with the principal of the school as well as the director of special education for that school, The special ed. director should be the one making sure that the IEP is followed to the letter. If after that meeting you still are not satisfied then I would suggest contacting the Florida Department of Education ESE Program Administration and Quality Assurance – ESE Conflict Resolution
(http://www.firn.edu/doe/commhome/dir-staf.htm) and telling them exactly what has been going on, that you would like to request an IEP meeting, and that you would like an advocate to accompany you to that meeting. The advocate will be there to make sure that the needs of your child are met and that he has the access to the education that he deserves. A lot of times if a school gets a phone call from the state department they know that you mean business and take care of the problem right away. The special education director may not even be aware that there is a transportation issue. Again, I hope that this helps.
From:
Re: Sorry for sticking my nose in but I hope that this helps
In this case, my gut feeling is that we are dealing with some garden variety communition breakdowns between the school and the transportation department. We are going to be speaking to the school principal tomorrow morning to get him involved. I have met him in passing before, and he seems like one of the good guys. Long before we moved I spoke directly with the woman who is in charge of the exceptional student program for the Orange County School District and was also very impressed with her; if necessary I will give her a call later in the week to bring her into the loop. One way or another, I expect we will have this resolved by the end of the week. I have no qualms about resorting to legal action if that's what it takes, but I sincerely hope it won't come to that. I'll let you know how it all turns out.
From:
Re: Sorry for sticking my nose in but I hope that this helps
From:
Re: Sorry for sticking my nose in but I hope that this helps