Just Need to Think Out Loud

Tomorrow is the meeting to review Jonathan's re-evaluations to determine if he re-qualifies for an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP)based upon the criteria outlined in the federal law Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA). Since I have many blogging friends with children at a much different level of functioning, I want to apologize ahead of time for what may seem like complaining. I am more than aware that Jonathan is incredibly blessed, as are we. I think better when I'm typing and reading what I write. This is my way of preparing for tomorrow's meeting.

For those who are not familiar with the alphabet soup of special needs and special education, let me quickly educate you. The federal law mentioned above (IDEA) specifically defines what is "disability" covered by the provisions of this law. It also states two main criteria which must be met in order for a child to receive individualized instruction to re-mediate the disability. Jonathan's Asperger's Syndrome, is a form of autism, which is listed in IDEA as a qualifying disability.

However, in the opinion of the school, Jonathan's disability doesn't always prevent him from "accessing his free appropriate public education" (FAPE). This is a difficult concept for people to understand, especially parents new to special education. I think our attorney did the best job of explaining this to us. He said, "There are two laws which apply to Jonathan's situation. The Civil Rights law makes sure that a person in the wheelchair is not prevented from getting in the building. So the school builds a ramp for the child to get inside the building. IDEA makes sure a child with a disability not only has access to an education but that the child also benefit from that education. A blind or deaf person can access the school building everyday, but not benefiting from the education because they can't see or hear the instruction."

In Jonathan's case, in the opinion of the school (and probably many others), he is obviously benefiting from his education because he is in honors academic courses and making  top grades. All of the testing shows that he's average to very superior in both his intelligence and his ability to perform. He has some kind of charisma so that both peers and adults are drawn to him. He's easy-going, funny, quiet and a people pleaser. In other words, in the school environment he is performing like an average student, he has social skills and he's not a behavior problem. Therefore, it does not appear that his disability is preventing him from benefiting from his free appropriate public education.

Based upon the written reports I'm receiving (current re-evaluations and classroom observations), I'm resigned to the fact that Jonathan probably will not re-qualify for an Individualized Educational Plan. This scares me.

The last time he did not re-qualify for his IEP was between preschool and Kindergarten, a transition year. He changed schools and went from half-day to all day classes. He did not fair the transition well. He hated school. He threw major tantrums all the way to school. He had 38 days of wetting accidents in the school. I was called three times by the vice principal for behavior problems.

Jonathan is a year and a half out from middle school. Another transition year. He'll change schools. He'll change classrooms and teachers every 47 minutes. He'll be around another set of kids because his elementary school is split between two middle schools. He'll take more notes (which we've already seen is a problem). The teachers will expect him to know which books to bring to each class. The teachers will expect him to write down his homework in an assignment book and for him to turn in papers with correctly spelled words and punctuation. He'll have to remember to bring homework to and from school.

As Scott and I talked about it last night, I tried to reason out what would he get in an IEP which will make this transition easier. The truth is I don't know how an IEP might help him out. I think everything that the school will try to do to help him can be accomplished in a "Section 504 Plan" (which is part of the Civil Rights Law).

Under an IEP, he would receive specialized individualized instruction in areas which need remediation. I agree he doesn't need Occupational Therapy for fine motor skills. I agree he doesn't need Speech and Language services at this time for help in pragmatic language or figurative language (for making friends or understanding idioms). I do think he needs help with Executive Function (being able to manage time, follow through on tasks, organize his thoughts) but I'm not sure that individualized instruction is how the school will want to deal with this. I think school generally tries to deal with these issues through accommodations, which a 504 plan will cover.

I guess my heart is heavy and I'm scared because Jonathan is finally having a good year. I think we finally have all the pieces in place this year. I'm afraid that losing a piece just when he's stable will have the same effect as pulling that annoying string which causes the whole outfit to unravel.

But, as I said out loud to my husband and myself, "I may not know what the future holds, but I know the One who holds the future. And He designed Jonathan for a certain purpose and He will make sure that Jonathan has everything he needs to accomplish that purpose."

Thanks for letting me think out loud. Don't know that this helped, but I have one more day to work though this before the meeting.

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I just have to share a couple of ironic and conflicting pieces of information which came out in the testing. First according the the Test of Written Language-4 (TOWL-4), Jonathan is "very superior" to his fourth grade peers. Yet, if you looked at his actual writing, with all the spelling and punctuation errors, I bet "very superior" wouldn't come to mind. Second, the average of Jonathan's subtests on this test show he's "very superior" however the scores on his individual subtests range from 8 "average" to 20 "very superior." He scored the weakest in vocabulary. However, on the Speech and Language evaluations Jonathan also scored from a typical nine year old up to a 16 year old. She has one of his strengths as vocabulary. She says his weakness is in articulating how he knows the answer to the questions he's asked. Apparently, "I just know" or "I told myself" are not acceptable responses.