Special Education Plans

I have an 8 yr old son who has multiple issues and spent last year struggling in school.  He has mild CP due to brain bleeds at birth and was diagnosed with ADHD last year.  He has spent years in OT and PT privately and has never recieved any services thru our school district.  It is a constant struggle with him not completing work, not keeping track of papers or turning things in,  difficulty staying focused or on task.  Last week he brought home his progress report and had 3 failing grades (all in the 50's) out of 6 grades.  The other 3 grades were C's.  Because the school had always used the excuse that his grades were above C's and therefore did not reflect "an educational need", I felt that now was the time to make a formal written request for evaluations to be done.  I sent the request to the principal yesterday and got a reply today stating that she would be referring it over to the campus Response to Intervention Committee.  However my problem comes with what happened afterwards.  Today, my son comes home and informs me that in school before going to lunch he was told by his teacher that he wasn't allowed to go to recess and instead had to go to study hall.  All the students have a regular homework schedule (Ex: Monday, write words 3 times each, Tues: write 8 sentences, Weds: write words in ABC order, etc) and Tristan had done Monday homework and had turned it in to his teacher today.  His teacher told him that he had to go to study hall to do the remaining homework for the rest of the week which isn't even due to be done or turned in yet.  My opinion is that the school is doing this so that they can make sure that all of his work from this point forward is done completely and turned in to improve his grades so that they can later justify not administering any evaluations on him.  They are basically punishing him because I requested that they evauate him and they have taken away his recess which for a child with ADHD is an important energy outlet during the day. 

It was recommended to me that I email the teacher and ask if not allowing students to go to recess and instead being sent to study hall to work on future assignments is a new technique they are using with students and if so, what are the criteria they are using to determine who participates and who doesn't.  I was told I should ask if this will be a daily/weekly thing and, if not, when it will happen. 

Wondering what all of you think?

This really sounds like they are CYA's and the school retaliating. 

Instead of emailing..... Send it in a letter, certified with receipt.  And if they call don't answer the phone, ask for their reason in writing.

If it's not in writing it never happened.

BTW, even if a child is in RTI, they still have to evaluate for Sped if you put it in writing.

I'm sorry and perhaps my brain is just not working because it is so late, but what does CYA's mean? 

When I first sent the letter requesting the district evaluate my son, the principal did try to call my cell phone.  I knew not to answer the phone and force her to put all communication in writing.  I emailed her notifying her that due to my job I had limited access to phone use during the day and that all communication therefore would need to be done via email.  That is when she replied stating that she was referring my son the the Rti committee.    I think the key to her email was the last sentence which was "Do I have your permission to do so?".   

After reading your reply, I think that what I need to do is write to the principal and state that "in addition to the full evaluation that I previously requested, please feel free to also refer him to the Rti committee".  This will make it clear that I still expect the district to evaluate my son and that I am not accepting this referral to the Rti committee to be in place of such an evaluation which is what I think she was trying to get me to agree to. 

I will also follow up by mail with my son's teacher so that her response regarding what she did to my son today is also documented. 

I appreciate your reply,

Hi and welcome to the board.

When I submitted my letter to request an evalution that is what I used:

http://www.aboutautismlaw.com/sample.html

It is an autism website generally but not everything on it is autism. 

Under ASSESSMENTS print #1, Request for Assessment.

Print it, sign it and turn it in to your principal.  I requested a conference with the teacher and principal and then turned it in to them at that time.

This really got things moving for me.  In our school they have one BBSST (Building Based Student Support Team) meeting a month, it is at these meetings that these requests are submitted and then the student is evaluated.  I submitted this in August and he was being evaluated and started receving services by the end of September.  It moved really fast. 

Like the other poster said have everything in writing, I save emails like a crazy person from his school.  If you do not feel like you are getting what you need do not hesitate to go over the principals head and start calling central office.