Tuesday Open Thread
What's on your mind? First day of school? Seattle Times stories? Upcoming Board meeting?
Tell us all about it.
Tell us all about it.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120902/NEWS01/709029979/0/SEARCH
Public School Parent
SavvyVoter
Superintendent Banda will be the SRTA speaker on Oct. 2 at The Canal 5300 34th Avenue N.W. Deadline for reservations for lunch and the program is Sept 24. 206-628-4214
Carol
If she is both, then I intend to get a few of my friends who have supported Stand for Children in the past to...reconsider.
EdVoter
EdVoter
Check out Karen Lewis of the Chicago TEacher's Union giving a speech yesterday. 18,000 showed up to support 26,000 CTU members.
2 summers ago, in the midst of the contentious negotiations with MGJ, a last minute half assed WEA SEA JSCEE demonstration pulled about 200 out for the 4800 of SEA. ummm.
Meanwhile, the WEA word about Chicago from Charlotte or anywhere - ya know, Chicago, the Duncan-Rahm world of charters and privateers??
Meanwhile, the WEA word about Chicago from Charlotte or anywhere ? Cowardice? Crickets?
AdultBulliesNeedToBePoliticallyBeaten
My kid was supposed to be on a gen ed list, have a seat, and all that jargon. It's on his IEP. Didn't happen and the school team is not responding to my emails and phone calls. Not even the principal! What should I do? I don't want to start the year with a reputation of a pushy parent but what can I do? This is a nightmare!
Sped student mom
You need to ask where your child's general ed class is? Tell them he will be sitting there all day. He will need special ed service, when HE needs the service. Tell them the district has funded other students with your child's funding and that you expect your IEP to be met... starting day 1, and that your child's butt will be sitting in his general ed seat. End of discussion.
You're either pushy... or a pushover. And, your child never benefits from a pushover. Honey doesn't work.
-sped Parent
Thanks for the advice but ouch! Which classroom would I take him to? I can't bear the thought of him being the only one with a desk without a name, no cubby, and a teacher who does not expect him. He does need sped services but not all day. Why should I have to fight for what is written in his IEP? This is so wrong. I was lied to, in writing no less.
Sped student mom
Whether you plant your foot and turn grim, angry eyes on these folks in front of your child, or whether you come up with some reason to leave him home or otherwise do this at a time when he is not there, you may have to go this route, or get run over. As I see it, there are two possibilities here:
1. Either they have screwed up, but they DO care -- in which case someone, SOMEone, should be scrambling around finding a desk with a name, a cubby, a teacher, etc. -- so that your child has a place (at this point, you can douse the angry glare, but I would maintain the grimly set jaw for awhile, just in case); or
2. They really don't care (very much). In this case, they will care when you MAKE them care. Only you know what you can bring to bear (lawyers, ombudsmen, the press, local activists whom you know or who have an interest in your child, etc) -- but if they won't pay attention to a child you needs a sense of normalcy and inclusion, has an IEP that they are ignoring, there is no reason to think that they won't ignore a parent armed with nothing more than smiles and polite requests for them to do what they should (legally and decently) already have done.
Oh -- and there is a board meeting coming up -- and public testimony is televised.
Good luck.
Exactly right! Your child should absolutely have a cubby, a desk with his name, and a teacher who expects him and knows what his needs are. Knows what he likes, what motivates him, and how he ticks. That is the very, very minimum bar. Not only that. He is FUNDED for all that. Anything less is theft. It's like somebody walking into your house and stealing the stuff in his room... and then saying. "This kid costs so much, doesn't really belong here in this home, so I think I'll take all this stuff for some other more worthy kid."
If your kid is in a "program" he will not be included unless you fight for it tooth and nail. He will do very little in the way of academics now, or ever. He will not participate in normal school activities like assemblies, plays, after school activities. If you doubt the assesment of academic achievement - go look at a middle school self-contained program and you will see what self-contained students attain by middle school. It will be multi-age, with a whole classroom of kids doing exactly the same very minimal thing.
Jan, are you from around here? There isn't a mistake here as you suggest there might be. This is the normal for special ed students in self-contained settings - and always has been.
-sped Parent
You wrote the following which I find grossly inaccurate:
"This is the normal for special ed students in self-contained settings - and always has been."
There are a number of places where this is NOT the case and certainly NOT normal. ... It is completely unfair for you to make blanket statements that cover every location and situation in "self-contained settings".
You lose credibility when you write such generalities and certainly offend a great many providers of service to which your blanket statement does not apply.
I'm glad to hear that you don't think it is the norm. It would be nice if Seattle actually had recent statistics on how it handles Sped students. The report from the Urban Special Ed Leadership Collective from 2007 (http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/special%20education/UrbanCollaborativeReportFinal.pdf) was pretty glum. And as far as I can see, without any real leadership, things have gotten worse. I went into special ed as a parent in 2009, as a nice, normal person, believing that I could get what my child needed and was required by law to receive by filling out forms, making phone calls and generally being nice, and it was a "transformative" process for me, and I don't mean transformative in a good way. I now don't believe anything I'm told, I don't think my son will get what he's supposed to get, I truly believe that any change will only occur if I am a complete "frothing at the mouth" bitch. And I'll tell you something else, I really resent what being a special ed mom has done to me as a person. Special ed parents don't get their reputations as nasty because they were born that way. Special ed parents act the way they do because this dysfunctional system teaches them that is the only effective means of getting what their kids need. It's really pathetic--but in my experience, the above exchange between two parents typifies my personal transformation.
I believe the hardest part of parenting is letting our children fledge and fly.
SolvayGirl
HP fomerly FHP
Happy 1st day everyone!
I was particularly interested to hear that he doesn't like AP. Neither do I. On a spectrum in which one pole is defined by a humanistic approach and the other a technocratic approach, AP is clearly on the technocratic side. I'd argue that IB (the International Baccalaureate) is on the humanistic side, and models more the direction we should be taking as our general approach. The IB is for me a great example of a rigorous program that assesses a broad range of skills, not the ability to take a bubble test.
BTW I have a post on my blog that you can read if this distinction between humanistic and technocratic interests you. I know my approach doesn't sit well with everyone, but I think it should be part of the conversation.
I like how IB makes your grades internationaly accepted. Our summer intern is a graduate of the IB program at Skyline. He is going to school at Cambridge University in the UK. I wish Seattle had more IB programs available and that it was more normal for kids to do that program.
HP
You don't want to sound like a pushy parent????? Well prepare to be run over by the school bus then. If you're a sped parent, you WANT the reputation as the world's most gigantic pain in the ass that will file OSPI complaints and file for due process. Remember, you can also call sport IEPs... just to make them go to a lot of meetings. People with those reputations, get what they need.
You need to ask where your child's general ed class is? Tell them he will be sitting there all day. He will need special ed service, when HE needs the service. Tell them the district has funded other students with your child's funding and that you expect your IEP to be met... starting day 1, and that your child's butt will be sitting in his general ed seat. End of discussion.
You're either pushy... or a pushover. And, your child never benefits from a pushover. Honey doesn't work.
-sped Parent
9/4/12 8:35 PM
I'm a long-time special ed. professional for the district. All I can say is "wow."
"Sport IEPs"? Every IEP for the 50-plus students I see takes me at least two hours for taking goal measurements, at least two hours to write the IEP, and at least an hour for the meeting. Every IEP meeting called means the loss of more and more time that could have gone into therapy for students... including your child.
I don't know what's happened to you and your child, but you appear intent on making other people pay for it... people who have devoted their lives to helping children with special needs who aren't the people who have wronged you.
Unfortunately, we've all had parents like you who have made our lives miserable with their anger and control issues. Some of the finest people I know who have cared the most have been harassed by people like you and have finally given up and quit.
I have personally seen misguided parents file OSPI complaints against the district and its employees when a 2-minute phone call speaking directly with that SpEd professional to clarify an issue would have solved the problem.
Instead, those professionals were required by the district to spend 80-100 hours responding to misguided -- and sometimes completely false -- complaints. Again, more time away from actually providing students with the help they needed.
I think sometimes parents think they are filing complaints against a nameless, faceless, evil bureaucracy. You're not. You're accusing human beings of wrongdoing -- sometimes without any information or knowledge of what's going on.
Ignoring the human cost, you are taking so much time and money away from students who need the help.
Next time, try speaking to the professional first as if they were a human being... because they are.
Many of us would LOVE to talk to the professional who could fix a broken situation. Nobody returns our phone calls or answers email. These same people in positions of power will disregard the opinion of experts and see it as their duty to save dimes and deny services on an IEP. Unfortunately, our district's SpEd admin has been broken for some time, leaving parents and students in unteneble situations no recourse but to write useless emails to the Board, Exec Dir of Schools, the Superintendent and, yes, file OSPI complaints (many which prevail BTW). I would call a child without a seat, a cubby, a teacher an unteneble situation.
Parents do value the educators in the buildings. We are just tired of the vacuum and ignorance in the upper ranks.
I have seen some excellent administrators that are extremely responsive but they tend to be retired staff/principals that have been brought out of retirement to fill a staff void and they aren't beholding to the central office.
So unless the central administration's seeming policy of put parents off at any cost, is changed then antagonism will prevail.
Anybody had any luck with the new Ombudsman?
Still waiting for MSP individual scores (not even the school had them as of September 4), although I doubt they will determine differentiated instruction where we are.
I agree with every single thing you said.
The Special Education Department has been broken and terribly dysfunctional going back so many years. We have had no one at the helm who had the training, education and character to do a competent job in more than a decade.
In fact, it's only gotten much, much worse in the last couple years. With the onslaught of OSPI complaints, lawsuits, due process hearings, etc. much of the SpEd administration has been focused on assigning blame for every conceived misstep.
As everybody knows... blame always falls on the lowest employee in the pecking order -- whether justified or not.
The response to these complaints has been that we now focus almost exclusively on covering our behinds and responding to administrative attempts to shift the blame down the food chain. We now document every step we take every moment of the working day. Do you have any idea how much time that takes?
I have seen administrators make decisions I thought were so wrong that the parents SHOULD have filed an OSPI complaint. I used to speak up about these decisions and I have had three different supervisors do everything they could to get me fired over the years as retaliation for speaking out. So far, I have beaten them all, but it gets exhausting to be constantly fighting to save yourself.
All I'm saying is: Parents -- at least please first attempt to talk to the line professional before filing any sort of complaint or even calling someone's supervisor. That's just common courtesy and integrity... at least it used to be.
That is as great idea. I have colleagues who are terrified right now... especially after they have seen what I and others have gone through.
It's almost funny, but coincidentally one of my colleagues just emailed me to ask if it is safe for them to post to this blog. As we have been made aware many times, all district email is monitored by the administration.
But, when teachers decide kids don't need any general education (hello, this is really really common!!!!), because they don't believe in it, or their principal doesn't believe in it, or they can't figure out how to arrange staff for it, or decide not to provide services agreed to in the IEP, they just might hear from me. If they don't answer communication, or "protect" general educators from the bother of special education students and communication with sped parents, then we parents don't have a lot of options! One option is calling an IEP meeting to determine the problem, or simply to communicate. They can either do a good job when asked to, or they can go to a lot of meetings with paper work and heavy IEP process to fix a problem. Problems are likely fixable with less work. Sorry to have belittled the process by calling it "sport" (as a joke), but it is indeed the process, and it is painful! Parents have a right to OSPI,OCR complaints, and due process. They are painful, but they are necessary. The system is designed for conflict. Being a wall flower doesn't serve parents! When families ignore the painful parts of the process - they have given up their leverage. That's the only point!
Of course communication with staff is best!!! I assume everyone knows this. To let you know, I have a great relationship with my child's sped teacher. I have never filed a complaint, nor been involved with due process. I HAVE had to resort to written communication from time to time. I HAVE had to consult lawyers for problems but the problems have NEVER been with the sped teacher. I have requested extra IEP meetings - and that request has always resulted in a prompt resolution of the problem without the whole formal process. Good. Because who wants to waste time with that?
-sped Parent
It's very easy to call parents "misguided" and blow off their complaint. The communication goes both ways. If staff notices that someone is headed down that path, they too can try to fix the problem before it goes to OSPI (or elsewhere).
Good luck with your new students! If you're a therapy provider - I hope you are providing services starting the first week of school.
-sped Parent
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If you're a therapy provider - I hope you are providing services starting the first week of school.
Whoa. I'm a related services provider who was with you until that last threat.
Do you actually think you know our jobs as professionals better than we do? Have you ever even spoken to a service provider about her job and tried to understand what we do?
Then please explain to the hundreds of related services providers in the district how to start providing service to kids the first week of school when virtually all of us didn't get our school assignments until last Thursday.
Many of use are still finding an acceptable workspace in schools that are new to us. Then we have to find things as basic as a table or computer to fulfill job requirements. Then we have to move in or procure necessary therapy materials.
After that we have to try and find out what students at the school receive related services. Many more students than you realize move around the first couple weeks of school or don't show up until days into the school year. The system for knowing which students receives SpEd service has huge holes in it.
After that we have to phone or email colleagues to have a student's file sent to us through school mail which usually takes 4-5 business days.
Regular ed. teachers HATE it (and then hate us) for removing a child from their classroom the first week before the they have established a classroom routine. We can meet and observe students, but without the file that has the most recent updated progress information, initial sessions are spent establishing therapy starting points that are already provided in the file. This then becomes token therapy just to placate an angry parent who thinks they know more about our jobs than we do.
Teachers also HATE it (and again hate us) when we pull a kid out of class without first establishing an approved therapy time. Every school takes at least two weeks before they establish their reading and math block times -- which are sacrosanct and cannot be violated for any reason. After that, teachers establish their PCP times when kids go to PE or music. By federal law, we are not allowed to remove a student from PE for any reason.
After that happens, the school's resource room teachers get first crack at scheduling. Sometimes this takes at least two weeks. Any therapy times we may have arranged before this can -- and are -- completely co-opted by the resource room teacher.
So after 2-3 weeks that leaves us related service providers to come in and schedule.
I am appalled at how you think you know more about what we do than the professionals who are trying to help your child. Parents with a chip on their shoulder like you have made our jobs so much more difficult.
In the ends, it's the kids who really get hurt by these nonsensical policies imposed by people who have no idea what we do.
UW, Western, Whitman, UCLA, NYU, Emerson, RISD, Cal Poly, Occidental, Linfield, Reed...the list goes on.
It's a long and bumpy road in SPS and I know that more than once I questioned our decision to stay "public."
In the end I am happy we stayed. These young men and women, all products of a large urban school district, are prepared to succeed, each in their own way.
So, hang in there, much of the success of our schools depends on parents willing to roll up their sleeves and get dirty! If private school seems like greener grass, remember all that glitters is not gold. There is ALWAYS a trade off.
Good luck for 2012/13!
SPS ALUM
I am not "blaming" providers. Really. When you think about it. Why isn't the space figured out BEFORE students arrive? Why don't teachers have schedules ready to go BEFORE students arrive? Why isn't all service scheduling already figured out BEFORE students arrive? That is all totally avoidable. All the information is already known to the school. And IDEA requires that the school provide it on the agreed schedule, not whenever the school gets around to it. Students getting used to the schedules - well, that is something that is part of the student's learning. To sort of make excuses for the system, and blame evil chip bearing parents... really does not put students first.
But hey, I didn't file the complaint, nor does it particularly bother me in the grand scheme of things! And I do get it! You need to observe and kids need established routines. So great! Observe away.
By the way. You absolutely can provide therapy during PE or recess. You integrate it into the PE or recess setting. That's the way a lot of us like it anyway! LRE. Not in a pullout. If you're worried about me in particular, don't. My kid doesn't get either recess or PE.
-sped Parent
But I also think that SPED folks need to push back on teachers if the delays are unreasonable. This needs to be a negotiated deal, with the best interests of the kids (not just the classroom teachers) in play. And it always seems to me like the SPED folks seem to have a hand of 2s and 3s. Why is that? Why is SPED so seemingly powerless in the school hierarchy?
WAC 392-172A-03105
(1) At the beginning of each school year, each school district must have an IEP in effect for each student eligible for special education that it is serving through enrollment in the district.
(2) For an initial IEP, a school district must ensure that:
(a) A meeting to develop the student's IEP within thirty days of a determination that the student is eligible for special education and related services; and
(b) As soon as possible following development of the IEP, special education and related services are made available to the student in accordance with the student's IEP.
(3) Each school district must ensure that:
(a) The student's IEP is accessible to each general education teacher, special education teacher, related services provider, and any other service provider who is responsible for its implementation; and
(b) Each teacher and provider described in (a) of this subsection is informed of:
(i) His or her specific responsibilities related to implementing the student's IEP; and
(ii) The specific accommodations, modifications, and supports that must be provided for the student in accordance with the IEP
So we're still on the same side.
Apparently, 'sport' meetings mean calling an IEP meeting just for the sport. Another words, just to waste their time and piss them off. Hmmmm...you might want to think that one through. Pretty mean-spirited! And targeting, once again, the lowly staff on the totem pole that are working their butts off to serve your student.
Do you really want the speech therapist to be teaching your child where his/her tongue needs to be for an "s" sound while the kid is getting hit in the head with a red rubber ball?
Why do you keep acting like you know the teachers' jobs better than they do?
28-Sep-11 phone call to Robin Olney Sp Ed Services for SPS students placed in private schools
Oct 2, 2011 phone call to Robin Olney, leave message
Oct 5, 2011 left message with Robin Olney
14-Oct-11 email to Robin Olney, cc to Becky Clifford
14-Oct-11 Robin Oleny responds, states she forwarded my message to district speech and motor coordinators
14-Oct-11 Robin Olney 2nd email, states I need evaluation for speech and motor through Mercer Island Public Schools. Once complete, Seattle will request records, determine eligibility
17-Oct-11 Email to school psychologist at Mercer Island, requesting evaluation
21-Oct-11 Email to school psychologist at Mercer Island, requesting evaluation
22-Oct-11 Phone call to Mercer Island school psych. Left Message
24-Oct-11 Mercer Island school district psych calls. States will mail me a packet.
25-Oct-11 Packet received in mail. Signed permission for evaluation and filled out forms.
26-Oct-11 Packet driven over to Mercer Island District Headquarters and hand-delivered.
Nov 11-2011 Receive notice in mail that eval meeting will occur on 11-21-2012
11/21/2011 Evaluation meeting held with School psych, Speech therapist and sp ed teacher
10-Jan-12 MI School Psych email, notes that eval due Jan 30. Evaluation feedback meeting scheduled for January 27, 2012
27-Jan-12 Evaluation feedback meeting held. Son qualifies for SL services per Mercer Island school district. The eval used is the one from the private speech language pathologist that we paid for over the summer of 2011.
31-Jan-12 Email to Robin Olney that eval is complete. What are next steps.
2-Feb-12 email to Robin Olney, cc to Becky Clifford
3-Feb-12 Robin Olney responds via email. Tells me to contact Pat Whitmore.
3-Feb-12 Left phone message for Pat Whitmore
10-Feb-12 Left phone message for Pat Whitmore's assistant
14-Feb-12 Left phone message for Pat Whitmore
Feb 22-12 Email to Pat Whitmore. CC to Becky Clifford. Losing my patience (unbeknownst to me this is mid-winter break)
Feb 23-12 Email to Pat Whitmore. CC to Becky Clifford and Susan Enfield. Tell them I have faxed a complaint to the education ombudsman.
Feb 27-12 Letter by certified mail as well as email attachment to legal department at SPS. Requesting immediate response regarding provision of SL services. Tell them that under WAC 392-172A-03105 (2)(a), Seattle Public Schools had 30 calendar days from the determination that our son was eligible for special education and related services to hold a meeting to develop his IEP and is, of this date, now out of compliance. If no action taken by Seattle Public Schools by March 5, will file citizen's complaint on March 6.
Feb 27-2012 Receive phone call from Pat Whitmore. She explains that I need to enroll our son in SPS to for the process to continue.
Feb 27-2012 Pat Whitmore sends me enrollment form via email attachment. I fill it out and return it to SPS same day via the enrollment email services at SPS.
Feb 29-2012 I do not hear from SPS enrollment services. I call & they say that my enrollment is mixed in with all the enrollments for Fall of 2012. I will have to wait several weeks for them to find it, that I should have hand-walked it in and gotten a stamped number on it. I am in tears. I call Ron McGlone at the suggestion of someone in enrollment services.
Feb-29-2012 Ron McGlone calls me back and finds the form, enrolls Skyler and Hurray! emails the enrollment confirmation to both me and Patricia Whitmore.
Mar 14-2012 I receive a packet of forms in the mail from SPS which says it has been 3 years since our son has been evaluated for special ed and that I will need to fill out forms and submit them before he can receive any services. I am hysterical. I email Patricia Whitmore. She responds by saying it was probably a mistake that was automatically generated by his enrollment and that I should discard the packet.
Mar 16-2012 Pat Whitmore calls and schedules an IEP meeting at Mercer Middle School with the SLP and me for Mar 21, 2012
21-Mar-12 IEP meeting held. First SLP services scheduled for Apr 11, 2012
11-Apr-12 First SLP services received
As an SLP in the Seattle School District all I can say about the experience outlined above is: 1. You were incredibly patient and the district is lucky you didn't file a citizens complaint and 2. Your experience was very unusual (at least I hope so). Enrolling a CD only student usually takes less that 45 days from receipt of "consent to assess" to initiation of IEP services, regardless of the enrollment status. I guess your problem was that you had to deal with JSCEE staff.
SLP
Observer
Our difficulties were mostly due to unreturned emails and phone calls on the part of central staff, Mercer Island Public schools dragging its feet on the eval and poor timing. I don't have any more patience than anyone else, I just didn't have any choice but to slog on through. I never did get a good feel for why it always took ccing Becky Clifford or threatening legal action to get any response. Is it because they have too much work down at SPS central? Is it because my emails were going into their spam folders? Who knows, but lacking any better explanation, I do feel, based on this experience and several others, that it is sort of the modus operandi of central administration. It's very frustrating, and I speak and write English fairly well, and I have a computer in my house connected to the internet as well as a cell phone and a land line. Just think how successful I would be if I didn't have those advantages.
Frankly, I appreciate the related service provider who, by posting, supported the basis for my complaint. Thanks for letting us know the conditions you are placed in by your bosses, and for what you do to help our kids.
While I'm not a SPED teacher, from 5000 feet your problems are very similar to the problems of us high school teachers - endlessly conflicting regulations + stupidly implemented laws + magic solution laws from the incompetent = public education!
Maybe someday people who concoct all this policy and all this crap will not be allowed to concoct anything they haven't paid for.
When I hear people praising Ted Kennedy to the heavens, I think of that complete piece of unfunded garbage NCLB, and I regret voting for him. At least Bush honestly lied to make us all serfs by pushing NCLB.
Best of luck with all those who
KnowWhatYourJobIs!
I am at a loss as to why Mr. Banda our new Superintendent hired somebody with no professional SPED expertise to oversee SPED. We need more than somebody signing for a taxi here and a taxi there.
Parent
Bingo!
Mr White
I'll amend my comment. In my experience this wasn't true 100 % of the time but the hell one parent talks about, from August until April, is avoidable only IF you sue. That was true 10 years ago. Mirmac1, have you looked at how often SPS settles in these cases?
Mr White
stupidly implemented laws + magic solution laws from the incompetent = .......
Try the following for another example of the ed business......
J.R. Wilson at Ed News offers a comparison between buying a car, and the Common Core standards. Bottom line: You have more protections when you purchase a car.
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/j-r-wilson-common-core-and-the-vehicle-of-our-future/
I have received data on $$ spent on litigating SpEd disputes, but am doubtful I would get any info on cases settled.
I heard anecdotally that settlements bar disclosure details, like a since disgraced practice in Santa Monica:
"Including confidentiality clauses in agreements on a student's Individual Education Plan (IEP) had been roundly criticized since last May, when parents told the Santa Monica City Council they lived in fear of losing extra services for their children through an inadvertent slip of the tongue.
Entered into after there is a breakdown in negotiations for an IEP, settlement agreements are seen as one way to avoid a costly legal battle. Confidentiality clauses bar parents from speaking to a third party about services their child receives."
School board scraps special ed gag orders
It's great to learn that so many of our SLPs and/or other district staff have plenty of time to blog during the school day about the high quality service they provide, and about how ignorant parents are about that service provision. And all this blogging on the first day no less.
Like many related services providers, I work part time to care for my children.
Smells like a comment from admin. rather than a sped parent. I know where the problem is and it's NOT the parents (although some do make me want to run and hide when I see them in the building... But I would be doing the same advocacy for my own child if the shoe was on the other foot).
SLP
-You will be amazed.
Along the same lines, I saw with the incident with the teacher in Gig Harbor that the TV station had obtained information about a teacher's previous disciplinary actions. How did they obtain this information? I want to obtain information about two teachers and prior use of inappropriate (prone) restraint. Does anyone know if this is classified as public information? I have made the broad request about use of prone restraint and other restraint usage for the district and was told that the district does not compile that information. In fact, the district does not even have a system in place for even collecting that information, as is required by the state and the DOE department of civil rights. Can anyone help me with this information?
I learn something about the PRA everyday. I'll let someone else bird dog this one though. Colleen has been a very conscientious public records officer, in my book.
The requests I described are very specific actually. The General Counsel's Office already has copies of all formal settlement agreements. The Sp Ed department has all of their agreements because they have to track and report to OSPI and have available in an audit. Other requesters before me have asked for some of what I wanted, so the records officer (Joy then) already had it easily available to her. They can't just arbitrarily say ten weeks, if they have the materials already available they have to provide withing 5 days. SPS has lost PRA cases in the past for delays an withholding by exempt material, had to pay the requestor's attorney's fees and a per day per records fine. If you know this and push back when you get the polite it will be six months response, they tend to speed up. To be fair, I know that Colleen was swamped with reuqests for very broad things that required a lot of redactions (ie every email Becky Clifford sent or recieved) and every document related to TFA (including emails) not matter the sender. Those are the broad, time consuming requests because they have to do email archieves search.
As to getting employee files, what you will get will depend on if there was an investigation of the incident that determined there was wrongdoing. If there was no investigaion, there will be no records. If the investigaion found the allegations to be unsubstabtied, the PRA requires the District to black out names and other information. If the allegations were found to be true, they have to turn the records over.
-You would be amazed
So if I made the request for allegations that would result in disciplinary actions for two individuals, I would net what I am looking for?
As to what you want to get information on, be more specific in your request. Ask for the personnel files for the teachers by name. Ask for any materials related to any inestigation of the use of retraint by the teachers or if you know the date and location of time the prone restraint was used ask for any documentation regarding any use of restraint, force, or psychical contact on that date at that location, no matter where it is kept. More in a moment, need to get the kid out the door!
I have already asked for all documentation of restraint used on my child by the two individuals. The only documentation of restraint were in emails to me that did not document type of restraint, length of restraint, who restrainers were, what was done to prevent restraint usage or whether restraint usage was effective. There was one email from the teacher to his supervisors where he stated he was using basket restraint and/or "using (his or his assistant's) whole body" on top of son for up to thirty minutes at a time, sometimes up to three times per day and on an every other day basis.
Well, that reflects badly on SPS. I would still ask for e employee's personnel files as well as the personnel files of whoever is supervising them, along with compiles or any and all complaints made against the three regarding (not just specific to your child.). If you ask for the personnel files and they don't turnover any records related to discipline, follow up to ask if this means that that there are no records or if there was not a determination that the allegations were substantiated. If they say the latter, you are still entitle to get them but with the names redacted.
Not sure how long ago your issue was, but you can always make a for al complaint against the employees aski g that SPS investigate if they didn't a the time. You can also report it to law enforcement as suspected child abuse/neglect (that is what the Gig Harvor parents did).
On another note, saw your post about the efforts to get SLP services. If I were you, would consider fling a citizen's complaint against oth Mercer Island and SPS with OSPI. Costs nothing to you and all you would have to do is cut and paste what you wrote above. Identify the complaints as failure to timely evaluate by Mercer Island and failure to provide t sly service by SPS. You will likely get some compensatory services for your child, and hopefully things will go easier for the next person in your shoes. If no one complains, they never change.
-You would be amazed
Why do you keep acting like you know the teachers' jobs better than they do?
I have personally seen misguided parents file OSPI complaints against the district ...
It's sad to hear SPS staffers who complain about sp.ed. parent involvement. Or complain that a parent "is telling us how to do our job". It just shows what a long way we still have to go. Students with disabilities are all incredibly unique and the parental perspective is paramount to their educational success.
But really, the posts have been about:
1. Information on how to use the special ed process, albeit in a way that could be obnoxious. Parents aren't born knowing this.
2. Information on how schools are funded, and student's rights to seats in general education.
3. Information on when vaious special education services should begin and have begun (or not) in the past.
4. Status of complaints around service start dates.
5. Various parental experiences with problems accessing the system.
6. Information on SPS's inappropriate use of discipline and force against students with disabilities.
7. Information about where teachers could provide service.
I'm wondering how any of that constitutes telling staff what to do? Or represents a "threat" to anyone. If you resent parent involvement, you lessen your own effectiveness as a professional.
Another Observer
Helen Schinske
Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School is a Catholic, college preparatory school that welcomes students of all faiths. True to the spirit of the Gospel, Archbishop Murphy High School nurtures the full development of the gifts that God has given to each student, fosters service as an outgrowth of faith, and values diversity. Working with parents as partners in this educational ministry, we strive for academic excellence, spiritual enrichment, and Christlike leadership for the transformation of the world.
Ironic since, as Savage points out, some Catholic schools have thrown out children of gay parents.
Needless to say, it did not make a positive impression on me.
I was off a little: 39 in LA and 44 in history. 44 still seems like a lot. Though at least they are 9th graders.
Helen Schinske
Nice job deliberately missing the point and slanting everything teachers here have said into reverse double speak.
Why are there so many people who think they know teachers' jobs better than teachers do... like the Seattle Times, the LEV, Bill Gates, etc. AND sometimes misguided parents?
Not sure if you work, but do you really think I should be coming down to your job to tell you how to do it?
Every parent obviously knows their own child better than anybody else. But you perhaps haven't had the education and training to determine exactly what is causing your own child difficulty in school or to determine the best way to fix the problem. How could you? You haven't had the training we have.
You wouldn't even go down to a bakery to tell the baker when the cake is done. Why do you think you can do it with every teacher or professional? When you come in with a chip on your shoulder already hating us you have a closed mind.
Misguided parents filing OSPI complaints? Yes, I believe that parents who file an OSPI complaint for "sport" are misguided at best and just plain crazy mean at worst.
I thought the complaints about LEV and co, was basically, that they weren't stakeholders. Now you're saying parents aren't stakeholders either? That's a hard sell.
Clearly you lack understanding of the nature of disabilities, and lack appreciation for what parents have to do all the time. That's why parents are PART OF THEY IEP TEAM BY LAW. They aren't there to scribble out a signature. They DO GET TO DECIDE, as part of a team, how your job is done. That is the process, like it or not. When agreement can't be reached, there is legislated procedural safeguards to resolve it, like it or not.
Why? Because "the expert teachers" do not know everything, and quite possibly know nothing at all, about the individual disability and how it uniquely works in any given student. If a kid has a traumatic brain injury, would a teacher who may work with him for a semester, know anything at all about him/her and how s/he was effected by the injury? Good thing most teachers know this very well.
If OSPI complaints, due process, mediation weren't necessary, they wouldn't have been legislated. Congress recognized this and it is part of the law as well.
In any case, nobody here has said thing 1 about how you should do your job, have they? If so, what?
AO
I'm not just a special ed. teacher with decades of experience and training.
I'm also the parent of a child with very significant special needs. I have battled my child's district in years' past and won. I know what it's like to be on both sides of the process. As a parent, I believe the rights of students ALWAYS comes first.
So don't try to tell me what I do and don't know about the process. Once again, you are telling us how to do our jobs.
You are deliberately misinterpreting what is being said here by teachers. You've got to be... nobody could get it so wrong without trying.
You are advocating "monkey wrenching" the special education system and it's professionals out of some sort of misguided sense of outrage and revenge... or is it just "sport" as you have called it?
Don't turn the use of one word, "sport" into a negation of the efforts of parents to call BS when we see it. Often it is on behalf of building staff.
Why just this afternoon I had to 'splain WHY I wanted my child in Spanish. Seems the counselor had to get the okie-dokie from my child's SpEd case mgr to correct her schedule, who forgot whether she needed writing help or not. I asked "why do I, as the parent, have to justify my request?! Qhy so I have to 'splain that she is half-latina?!" This isn't the first time I've been told to pass it through the SpEd teacher. Why am I treated differently than any other parent?
Parents are not viewed as full partners. We are viewed as problems that need management. Well, I can get that way - but I don't want to. Hey, whatever it takes to fix systemic issues in our district. I believe both you and I are on the same side.
(Definitely I get it! Don't call the circus of special ed "sport", because we wouldn't want any levity anywhere. Putting that in my notebook.)
Nobody told you what to do. There are other readers who actually ask for information. Maybe they don't know everything like you do.
AO
Whoa! Go have a lie down.
Didn't I see you swimming around in Green Lake yesterday?
LOL
José Banda Follows Maria Goodloe-Johnson Down the 'Data' Rabbit Hole
This is all about funding. There is so much time and money to go around. I wish, Seattle Sped, you would spend as much time advocating for a state income tax as you do for your child. Most agree administrators are at fault. But every complaint an administrator gets eventually falls on the teachers: gen ed, sped, and psychs. We had the best psych in the District and she left to get a school with fewer problems. She was spending hours and hours and hours and, yes, summer hours as well, catching up. It takes time to do good workups. Administration is asking them to put everything on the fast track. Fast does not guarantee accurate results.
Regular teachers are trying to do more than ever before with more and more disadvantaged kids. How much can you really ask of a system that is underfunded?
I'm kind of old. I'm wondering just how much parents think schools can actually do for all kids. If Mercer Island with all their money and high academic scores (the highest in Washington State at one time)can't provide timely services, doesn't that tell you something? Everybody is purposely trying to do a crummy job?
Making more and more demands whether on teachers, administrators, OSPI and even through litigation achieves nothing in the long run if the funding isn't there to get it done.
I hope none of you are Republicans and I sure hope none of you voted against the income tax. And if anyone thinks charters are going to provide more services for sped kids, think again.
Good luck.
n...
I'm a democrat and pro-income tax. And I'm not asking for anything specific for my child - rather I want illegal/poor practices that harm many sped kids ended.
"I'm wondering just how much parents think schools can actually do for all kids." n. I'm sure you don't consider our subset of kids as expendable. There are those in our district who would have you think that there is insufficient funding for special education, using that as an excuse for not providing them an excellent education.
In fact, as the courts have ruled, counting a sped student's BEA (basic education allocation - remember SpEd students are GenEd students first!), he/she brings in a surplus of funding when compared to actual expenditures. Meanwhile general ed students have a deficit of funding and end up relying on levy proceeds.
With the district's accounting system, there is no way to tell whether our students' BEA funding follows them throughout their school day. In fact, what is going on everyday in this district is the diversion of our students' BEA funding to other purposes - e.g. at Ballard it's probably Agricultural Ed, BioTech Academy, Marketing, Business Ed, Art, Music - all those things our students are not participating in because they are in resource room or related-services.
So n., although I typically agree with you, and am in fact a VERY strong supporter of teachers, on this point we will agree to disagree. I will not lower my expectations of teachers' and administrators' efforts for our SpEd students, even if some will have no compunction to assign blame for SpEd woes elsewhere.
Glad to hear you and I are on the same team. And forgive my cynicism please. It comes with the territory these days.
n...
We all need to have high expectations for teachers and administrators of all kids. That notion is what motivated my angst. High expectations can't be impossible expectations. When expectations become impossible for teachers to meet, we must work together to solve a much bigger problem so that expectations can be met. In my opinion, it gets back to time and funding: pay to start the process earlier; hire more people to meet the demands of the process.
Are there other ideas you can think of to help correct the situation?
n...
Some that come to mind:
a) next time DeBell, Banda and those that wish to deny our kids their BEA funding start whining, call BS;
b) insist that the SEA enforce those provisions that ensure SpEd educators have the time to do right by their caseloads, and represent those who are being asked to shortchange our kids' ed; and
c) require top administrators to comply with the (many) OSPI directives that direct the district to make provisions so teachers and related service providers DO have the time to 1) get information; and 2) get time and resources to be prepared at Day One to support their GenEd kids in SpEd.
thx
As a teacher who has finally seen teacher pay improved the last ten years, I think teacher unions could be persuaded to go along with that. Especially younger teachers who start at better pay than we did. There will be naysayers. But, it is a possibility. Charter schools often have longer hours. I think WEA could sell it.
My contribution on whatever blog I post is that teachers are doing 3x as much as they did twenty years ago everyday.
That is real change.
n...