Berkeley Parents Network: Obtaining Special Education

Berkeley Parents Network

Obtaining Special Education

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > School & Preschool > Obtaining about Special Education

School district says daughter doesn't quealify for IEP

April 1999

We just met with the representatives from the Oakland school district to get the results of my 11 year old daughter's IEP testing. We were told that she does not qualify for services, although her test scores range from 3% to 55% with most below 25%. They don't see the "point spread" that would qualify her for services as a learning disabled student. They offered to do assessment to qualify her for services as a Severely Emotionally Disturbed child, which would qualify her for counseling as well as educational support. They said it was an educational diagnosis, not a psychological one. Understandably, we do not want to go this route, because it is not true in her case and we do not want her to be stigmatized this way. She does have social problems with other kids because she does not read social cues, which we feel is part of her nonverbal learning disability, and she does get frustrated and angry when dealing with homework, but she is not severely emotionally disturbed. Her teacher, who also attended the meeting, afterward said to us, "This is bull...." She is in a private school now, which is really hurting us financially, but to receive any services from the district, she would have to transfer to a public middle school. With all the learning and social problems she has, I am very dubious about her ability to adjust and cope in a large, public school. We are in the process of deciding on our response and course of action. We have an appointment with CASE, an advocacy organization for special ed., we are contacting the psychologist who led her social skills group, and the tutor she has been working with for the last two months. Does anyone have any other ideas or successful strategies they have used with the school district?

There is a company called "The Regional Center of the East Bay" located in Oakland on Hegenberger Rd. This center is devoted to helping people who have disabilities ranging from ADHD to extreme behavior disorders or physically challenging disabilities. Call them and tell them of your daughter's diagnosis and see if she qualifies to have a case worker assigned to her from their company. They have a trememdous amount of resources available and are even able to pay for services (if you qualify). They work in tandem with the school district and your case worker should then be able to coordinate services for your child.

As I'm sure you have already noticed, you must do a great deal of advocating for your child. The services are available but you must seek them out even when you are dealing with someone who is supposedly providing the service to you. You can e-mail me personally if you have further questions, I work at a center for people with disabilities and can hopefully help you find some shortcuts in the system. Mike and Linda

In response to the parents who were having difficulty securing services for their child, please contact the Learning Disabilities Association, located in San Leandro, California. They can most likely hook you up with the support you might be seeking. In addition, you might want to ask them about how to join their organization and can visit their website as well at www.lda.org

i have a son in berkeley unified who recieves special ed assistance. he is learning disabled, but has another (very real) diagnosis as well, and we've been able to get him what he needs because of that other diagnosis. it's an absolute disgrace that parents so often have to fight for what is rightfully theirs, but at times we do. CASE is a great resourse. another might be dr. brad berman. he's been very helpful to our son as far as treatment, as he's been a tremendous support to me as i've worked my way through the various challenges that present themselves to me. he's a developmental/behavioral pediatrician, previously associated with children's hospital, currently in private practice in walnut creek - 925-279-3480. he attended our kindergarten iep and was impressive as hell. not a guy most school personnel want to take on. hope he can help.

The Regional Center of the East Bay was recommended for assistance with obtaining special education services, but regional centers only serve people with developmental disabilities, such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and autism. (A system of private nonprofit regional centers serves the whole state of California, in case anyone outsisde the East Bay is interested.) I recommend contacting a special education lawyer. There are several in the area, because they are so badly needed. One of the best is Sarah Clarke, who has an office in San Francisco. Susan

Do not allow your daughter to be put in the SED program (severely emotionally disturbed). I had a grandson who we put into that program simply because we thought it would give him better assistance as the classes are very small and since he had come from a group home prior to living with us they could use that to get him to qualify even though they said he was not SED. Once labeled SED it is on their record for all the rest of school. They are sent to special schools which cost the district $120.00 per day and they do nothing but simply baby sit these students who are SED and can't make it in regular classes. We did home schooling with him in which they reviewed the work and gave him his grades. They did nothing. Our grandson also does not get social cues - his problem is from auto-ped brain injury accident. Did your therapist/counselor seem to have any success in the area of teaching them any social cues. If so would you please let me know specifically who it is so I might contact them. I realize that a private school is very expensive in some cases. We subsequently put our grandson in a private school which has full day classes as well as a home school program which they supervise etc. The full day school runs around $350.00 per month I believe, and the home school (where they go two days a week) is about half of that. They each work at their own speed and the classroom setting is very quiet which really seemed to help. The teachers are very caring to children with special problems.

Thank you to all who responded to my request for advice on Special Ed and the SED label. We have been following up on all the leads, but are still stymied. CASE has told us we do not have a case with the school district based on learning disabilities, Although her deficits are significant, they do not meet the state standard for services. According to CASE, our only avenue for services would be a 504 plan, which I am sure would not provide her enough assistance to cope in a public middle school. We meet next week with the district about the SED qualification, which we still do not want, nor does it seem to come with appropriate services. Most schools now have the learning specialists go into the class rooms, but because of her ADHD she is very distractible and needs to be in a quieter setting, especially when acquiring new information. Only one middle school in our area of Oakland has the pull out classes she needs, and that is Edna Brewer. We are very leery of sending her there, but wanted to know if anyone has any information about the school. We will probably have to keep her in the private school she currently attends and borrow against our retirement to get her the counseling and supplemental tutoring she requires. One person mentioned sending a grandchild to a private day school that also has a home school component. I would be very interested in knowing which school that is and where it is.

This is for the person who said CASE advised her that her daughter would not qualify for special ed. Although CASE does great things for many parents with special ed issues with school districts, in my personal experience I have found them to be quite conservative and unnecessarily pesimistic. They told me I did not have a chance of winning a dispute with my school district, but I went ahead with a due process hearing and won everything I asked for. I think that two organizations that take a more assertive approach are Parents Helping Parents (the San Jose office) and Protection and Advocacy, Inc. in Oakland (PAI generally only helps developmentally delayed clients, but they have *great* literature that anyone can buy about special ed rights). So don't give up yet- contact these two organizations. You also might try Family Resource Network at Bananas in Oakland. Finally, you can get *a lot* under section 504. I recently attended a seminar put on by the San Jose Parents Helping Parents on section 504 (I forget the speaker's name), but he told us all kinds of things you can get under that statute. He has a website and answers questions from parents. Call them to get his name. Good luck.

The private school which also has a home schooling program is Calvary Christian Center, 4892 San Pablo Dam Road, El Sobrante, Calif., 510-222-1700. Each child works at their own speed. Each subject has workbooks which are at the appropriate level for the student (which has been determined by testing). If the child is behind their grade level in any subject they are given the workbooks which go back and fill in any gaps they might have and bring them up to appropriate grade level. The classes are small and QUIET which many students need in order to concentrate and do their best. My other grandson is attending this year as a full time student (he was a home schooling student at first) and he lives in Vallejo and commutes as do many of the other students. He was near failing at the middle school in Vallejo but since he has transferred to this school is making A's and B's and just loves the school. His sister is insisting that she be allowed to go there next year as she does not want to go to the middle school in Vallejo. We have seen this grandchild's self-esteem boosted back up since he is so happy in school.

For the person requesting special education. This is a very difficult thing to get. Our youngest son is autistic and we had to have a hearing to get him special education. We used a lawyer named Katherine Doble (sp?) who is famous for working with special education cases and we got what we wanted, but it was very difficult and when our other son was diagnosed with a learning disability we just created a program ourselves and paid for it ourselves. It is tax deductible. It sounds like the advice you got is probably right, but you might want to check with Katherine because she has a very good sense of what it is possible to get from the district so that you don't waste your time. I am sorry that I can't be more optimistic.

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