Canasia Sports

The label drives the services much more than the need (which is often adjusted more for costs, etc).  That is why the Special Ed services suck so bad in our schools. I don't think that special ed services suck so bad in our schools in the majority of cases.  There are large pockets of isolated instances.  For them to suck so bad , that means that teachers like myself and others who work their butts off to provide your child with services suck too.  And I know I don't. Magi Remove all space cats to email.

far too much, but unfortunately it does drive services. <nodding  In my district in Florida, it has not proven as problematic.  My son's official diagnosis on his OHI form is ADHD/PDD-NOS (but the doc said to approach it as aspergers, since that is the closest thing in the DSM. Doc also said it is likely that AS is the correct diagnosis, but he does not feel that he can give it at this time, since he does not have the stereotypical repetitious behavior needed for column B

My son's CER is AU.  He gets all the services, never a question and he of course has year round placement.  But if he didn't he would automatically qualify for Social Skills ESY under Level 2.  If he were OHI, he would not automatically be reviewed for Level 2 unless we would fight for it. Show me where it says that that in the regulations. Magi Remove all space cats to email.

Magi, Then explain to me how this same Dept. of Education can be in the same city I used to work in, and not know what was going on in the school district? They said that they couldn't apply any sanctions to my former district, because they HAD NOT MONITORED IN MORE THAN TEN YEARS!  That is far from what I would consider efficency! I can't speak for your experience, but it is unfair to categorize a whole group of people _base_d on one's experience.  I know as a teacher that you would not like to be categorized as such.  In our case the ASD Coordinator was top notch, irregardless of what the PDE's reputation was.  I certainly have other issues with the PDE in other areas.  value, and I can't find ANYTHING in IDEA that suggests that ESY is any different for students with autism than it is for students with any other disability. Of course a student could qualify for ESY without recoupment and regression (and I did say that... I've had students who need ESY to maintain the ability to handle I'm not sure how they arrive at services, etc., but we were shown a form. On the form, it went through a checklist of requirements, one listing the category of disability.  When AU was checked, then a number of other questions were addressed specific to my son's needs.  The category under regression was marked not needed , but social skills was marked as required.  The question then became where and how to do the needed ESY. They asked me to research and I found specialized camps for his AS, one just 60 miles away, but they insisted it was too expensive (our lawyer later told us that that statement was illegal).  Instead they brought in a clueless teacher for 3 hours per week and then put him in a district summer camp for regugular ed kids, most of which were the same ones that harassed him throughout the year.  It would be too long to explain how bad and inapproriate the program was.  After 2 weeks the lawyer told us to pull him out and we added it to our complaint.    That isn't what you said: You said that it is REQUIRED to be provided as ESY for students with autism.  That is the part I'm disagreeing with.  There is no requirement for ESY; and I also said that social skills training is NOT a related service.  Related services are speech, OT, PT, Adaptive PE, assistive technology, counseling.  Social skills can fall into ANY of those, but it is not, on its own, a related service. I'm not sure how one would say it.  But if FAPE for one child has SLP, OT, social skills, etc.  Why would it not be the same with any other child who has the identical disability?  In fact that is exactly where the lady from the PDE began.  She asked us our name and SD and looked for our son on the register (it wasn't there), she then asked us exactly how the school approached the CER and later IEP.  She then became concerned and I'm sure the IU Autism Coordinator was in trouble with her.  Another thing the lady from state did was send me a videotape of Dr. Ami Kiln's presentation in 1998 to the PA IU Autism Coordinators (and other Special Ed personnel) where he explained the need for the related services, etc.  It was very informative and it showed me how inept my SD and the IU lady was. At some point, the parents have to take responsibility for their child's education.  It is not always the school's fault or the teacher's fault.  I'm tired of being made to feel that the teachers are always to blame when the child fails. True, but unethical or illegal actions by SD and personnel who display themselves as professionals is extremely disheartning.  How would you like it if your mechanic does that to your car.  I always remember one of our IEP meetings when we asked what the STAR program was (listed in the original IEP) and how our son was doing.  None of the participants, even the author knew what it was!  Seems as she had copied it from another IEP, so she told us later.  And how about teachers who tell us our son was slugged by another student, but later tell us they heard that our son was slugged.  Believe me they run scared from the administrators.  That's the other thing I hate, but it is a societywide problem: people run to lawyers FIRST, and use common sense second.  As a special education teacher, I have to have malpractice and liability insurance on the same level as a doctor! That's just flat out ridiculous. I went to the lawyer when it became obvious to me that the SD had no clue, especially since I had been employed by them for 12 years.  Then the lawyer did nothing for the first 6 months as she told us we had to give the SD a chance first. Don