With Prejudice
We were so happy to learn that Travis would be attending middle school in our local district. We had tried for years to no avail to bring him back to his neighborhood school.
Travis finally had an evaluation completed by a well qualified team. They put together a list of recommendations. I think it’s important to list their recommendations for a couple of reasons. Some of my readers may use some of these ideas for their own children or children that they know or teach.
But I also wanted to share with you that even though the district paid for the evaluation, and so this list, they did not put many of these recommendations into place. More on that later.
The recommendations included:
Make sensory related changes regarding lighting and noise level in classroom if possible.
Be aware of sensory situations that may cause too much over-stimulation.
Travis has severe learning disabilities and attention disorder coupled with good intelligence. This is extremely frustrating for him. He cannot do any academic work at grade level. He will not be able to participate in core academic instruction in the regular education setting. He will need all core academics taught through small group or individualized instruction.
Develop Travis’s schedule so that it allows a lot of time in small groups. Individualized instruction will work best.
Allow breaks.
Consequences for behavior should be thought out carefully with input from parents.
Travis will need an aide for at least the first year of middle school. He cannot control his attention and has limited control of his behavior. He will need breaks and will need supervision during breaks out of the classroom. He needs an experienced aide who can be well educated in his needs. Travis will need an aide that is not intimidated by his behavior and can keep calm, matter-of-fact, and firm with him. Travis needs constant modeling of appropriate coping behavior.
In order to best treat his learning disabilities, Travis may need some specific instructional approaches. There are several programs including Lindamood-Bell, Wilson, and Ortan-Gillingham for reading development.
For learning in the sciences, history or social studies Travis may work best with hands-on projects. He is more motivated by such tasks. The active involvement will also help his focus.
Because Travis cannot read nor write at grade level he will need oral testing in order to assess what he knows. He will not be able to take written tests until his reading skills improve. He may never be able to complete essay type tasks or tests. His attention weaknesses and writing weaknesses will prevent him from getting his thoughts on paper.
For math instruction allow Travis to use a calculator. Hands-on manipulatives will be helpful for demonstrating concepts.
Writing will be difficult for many reasons. He may do best with dictating his thoughts to a scribe.
Have Travis type a portion of the scribed work on a computer so that he becomes proficient with keyboarding.
Travis will try to avoid work and gain control in order to not display his academic deficits.
Travis will benefit from a highly structured positive behavior support plan where he is reinforced for positive, appropriate behaviors.
Provide Travis with a visual schedule of the day’s activities. Activities should be broken down in small intervals and build up.
Use a break card system. This will give Travis an appropriate way to signal that he needs a break from an activity. The break area will need to be a special place with quiet and relaxing activities for breaks. This place should not be used as a time-out or negative consequence for inappropriate behaviors.
With academic instruction give Travis choices of order to complete items and alternative ways to produce work. The work needs to be done, but how is a choice.
Consider using word processing and word predictions software versus scribing everything.
Use highly motivating material to read.
Classroom and day need to be highly structured, consistent, and routine oriented.
Develop a sensory diet that can be implemented as a break in Travis’s schedule. These strategies can be developed with his occupational therapist.
Allow sensory strategies during instruction such as kneeling at a table to write, laying on stomach with elbows supporting while reading or working with math manipulatives.
The district held an IEP meeting on August 8th, 2005. It was changed to show that Travis had a medical diagnosis (Autism). The district had all of the recommendations from the evaluators that they hired and paid for.
And yet one of his IEP goals states, “Travis will be able to write a short story with multiple paragraphs on one topic with correct punctuation and grammar”. (Deep sigh.)
If you’ve been keeping current with our story you know that the district asked us to drop our due process complaint, with prejudice. Meaning that we could never file another case based on the same claims.
Their attorney faxed me a settlement agreement on August 31st. Here are some excerpts from their proposed agreement:
On June 14th, 2005 a pre-hearing conference was held with the hearing officer. It was agreed to put a hold on the due process hearing until after August 5th, thereby allowing Travis’s performance in ESY program to be considered by team in determining his placement.
On June 20th the district and the Kastles met informally (with attorneys present) and the district agreed to an independent autism evaluation to be conducted while the ESY program was in session; have Travis evaluated during the course of the ESY program by an autism expert/team from another district; and based on these evaluations decide on an appropriate placement.
On August 8th an IEP meeting convened during which the team reviewed Travis’s performance in the ESY program; reviewed input from the Neuropsychological doctor and the other school district autism expert; and determined Travis’s placement for the 2005-2006 school year.
The team discussed how a program for Travis at the local middle school could be structured. The team agreed to place Travis at the middle school. And the team agreed that his performance would be closely monitored and reviewed.
On August 10th the attorneys participated in a phone conference and agreed to hold off on the due process hearing until after August 29th, allowing time to implement IEP at the middle school.
Despite the disagreements among the parties, they desire to mutually, amicably and speedily resolve the controversies between them without the necessity of a formal Due Process Hearing. Therefore, Travis, Travis’s parents individually and on behalf of Travis and the District stipulate and agree as follows:
Basically if we agreed to drop the complaint the district agreed:
To meet with us and appropriately consider our input regarding Travis’s Behavior Plan and Crisis Management Plan.
Provide daily written commentary.
Parties shall bear their own attorney’s fees.
Kastle’s agree to withdraw their request for a Due Process Hearing. This agreement will not be in force unless we sign a Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice.
Which means we release and forever discharge the district from all claims or actions.
Agree that this agreement shall be strictly confidential.
I stopped reading right there. At this point Travis is only a couple of weeks into placement at the local middle school. And I do not trust the district. I need more time to consider our options.
We took a few days to respond, and then let the district know that we were not ready to sign this agreement.
The following are the daily scores reported to us for Travis. Do you see what I see?
8/22/05 - 25/25, 100%; 8/23/05 - 25/25, 100%; 8/24/05 - 22/25, 88%; 8/25/05 - 23/25, 92% (Week one)
8/29/05 - 25/25, 100%; 8/30/05 - 23/25, 92%; 8/31/05 - 23/25, 92%, 9/1/05 - 22/25, 88%, 9/2/05 - 21/25; 84% (Week two)
Labor day, and then 9/6/05 - 25/25, 100%
Kastle’s refuse to sign settlement at this time.
On 9/7/05, Travis gets suspended from school for two days for lack of cooperation, disrespectful behavior, verbal harassment.
On 9/13/05, Travis was suspended for two days for continued willful disobedience and placed on step one of the school code of conduct plan. (Keep in mind he was only back one day after the weekend.) Part of the issue was that he was asked to write a statement to explain what happened in his words. He told the vice-principal that he could not do it. The vice-principal called it willful disobedience.
Or maybe he really cannot write a statement. Has staff even read the IEP? Or the Behavior Support Plan?
On 9/16/05 we were presented with a Remedial Discipline Plan. The first section is an Agreement of Ability to comply with the rules. It actually states, “It is the consensus of the undersigned that Travis is able to fully comply with the rules and expectations of the school district code of conduct.
The next section is the Consequences for Another Suspendable Offense.
It actually says when (not if) Travis commits another suspendable offense, the IEP team and other appropriate school personnel will meet as soon as possible to review and/or revise the IEP and Remedial Discipline Plan.
The objectives of this remedial discipline plan include:
To help student make better decisions and develop alternative behavioral strategies.
To make student aware of the consequences of his actions'.
To notify parents that a student is on a given step of the school discipline plan.
It feels like we are back to square one. Travis’s IEP was just changed to include his autism spectrum diagnosis. The evaluation states that he also has severe ADHD. He does not understand cause and effect. He does not understand consequences.
Kiddos like Travis with these diagnoses and learning issues have an impairment in their executive functioning. Executive functioning is responsible for these five things:
Paying attention.
Organizing and planning.
Initiating tasks and staying focused on them.
Regulating emotions.
Self monitoring - keeping track of what you’re doing.
And again, Travis’s behavior is a manifestation of his illness.
We obviously refused to sign the Remedial Discipline Plan. There is not a consensus that he has the ability to comply.
On 9/22/05, you guessed it. Travis was suspended for two days.
Explain to me why Travis was having successful days until we refused to sign the settlement agreement.
And why we are not being contacted for input regarding issues? Well remember the district stated in the agreement that they agree to meet with us regarding Travis’s Behavior Plan and Crisis Management Plan, among other items listed.
But also, the stipulations are not in place unless we sign the agreement. (Another deep sigh.)
I realized that I made a huge mistake trying to bring Travis back to district. It appeared that the special education director was ok with hurting Travis in his attempt to win this war.
I thought that there could be nothing worse than sending my child to school at a day treatment program. Did the director want to prove to me that I was wrong?
And do you want to know what else I think? I think if we signed the settlement agreement with prejudice the same exact thing would have happened. Travis would have been suspended again and again and we would not have any recourse.
Only we do.
“Every time he’s removed from class, sent to the office or suspended, the message to him is YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE” - Author Unknown