Balancing Truth With Accountability

The story in the below link is not an isolated incident.

When a child is born with an obvious disability, society seems to adjust and make whatever needed rationalizations to accommodate the individual.

When a child has a not-so-obvious disability, society blames the kid, the parents, and the parenting.


For those of us who have lived with and loved a kid with a disability that is above and beyond the "typical disability" and involves behavioral issues, we know what it's like. School personnel didn't need to tell me how bad my kid can act in the same breath they were telling me that they were the educational experts. I didn't count the times in 1996 (13 years ago) that the Principal's secretary at Mann Middle school called me to come get my kid because he was unruly. Now that I understand the challenges and the system from a better perspective, it was indicative of the systemic issues that it was the secretary calling me. Not the Principal. Not the teacher. Not the ESE specialist. Not the Supervisors of Hearing Impairments, Visual Impairments, Deaf/blind or the Director of Special Education. It was the secretary.

For those who don't get it, there had been six years of extraordinary supports and services that were undone by one or two people at different sites. While many were striving to educate my son and my wife and I, there were a few who insisted on making sure we all knew how bad a kid he was and how bad we were as parents. These events changed the next 10 years of my relationship with the HCPS.

It's a hell of note when you are threatened with trespassing and truancy at the same time.


Educating kids with Asperger syndrome, autism and others on the spectrum - St. Petersburg Times:

"'They have nothing for kids who are in-between,' Sandy said. 'They honestly don't know how to deal with him. That's what the assistant principal told me. Which floored me, because I'm thinking, how can you not know what to do? They have to go to school, right? It's the law.'"

The HCPS defense lawyers will cringe when they see this. Of course, this article is simply heresay. My guess would be that unless this poor, misguided assistant principal had said this in an IEP meeting that was taped, the chances of a parent proving that a statement like that was made is slim and none.

These kinds of things happen when regular ed employees don't know to speak the truth. Special-ed employees are routinely coached in what not to say. Here is a sample:

Motel Special Ed: The Training of Coded Language - Another Brush,Another Incident, but keeping out of legal jeopardy

http://www1.sdhc.k12.fl.us/~ese.dept/communicators/ESEComm1104.pdf

From : THE EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNICATOR November-December, 2004 Vol. 4 No. 4


WHAT NOT TO SAY AT IEP MEETINGS !
When parents make requests at IEP meetings there are some things that you shouldn't say in response; using these phrases could place the district in legal jeopardy if the parent files for due process later on:
 We can’t do… - We don’t believe…
 No student gets more than…  It would cost too much to…
 It would take too much...  We don’t do…
 We never do…  We only do…
Instead, show that you’re listening by asking:
Where did you hear about that ?
 Which IEP goals do you see that addressing ?
 Do you have data on that ? Can you get us information?
 Have we described what we’re doing in the program we’re using ?