Big Fat Money

A little Van Halen to jump start the day:

"Some say money is bad for the soul
Bad for the rock, bad for the roll
Bad for the heart , bad for the brain
Bad for the damn near everything oh yeah
It must be good for something"

I have reason to remind the readers of this event from the recent past:

Old news is still bad news

Go to the link and read finding of fact by the State. Not just a complaining parent.

IEP's are contracts for service. A Matrix of Service is filled out based on what was written in the IEP, submitted to the State, and the State sends money to the District based on the funding number.

If the services that are written in the IEP are not provided to the student, there is a multitude of problems. Ethics would be one of them. Destruction of trust from the parents may be one of them. Fraud may be one of them. An appropriate education for the student is so far down the list, it is lost in the fog of war when the parent finally demands some accountability.

Recent dialog on this blog and posts by this blogger on other blogs has dealt with parents and teachers needing to work together.

Some parents want to audiotape their IEP meetings. How many of you get to a point in your life where you want to go the hassle of taping a meeting? One would reasonably assume that the need to tape something is because one has become wary of false assurances, parsing of words, repeated delays, repeated "misunderstandings" and "clarifications" that are far from what was previously stated or written.

Under the current culture, the burden of proof of compliance is left to the parent to somehow prove that not only did a host of people who say they are educators hear what was said and see what is written, but they are not honoring what they said and wrote.

I have been in many, many IEP meetings. I know the game. If an elephant came into the IEP meeting, dropped a load right in the middle of the table, no one could ever prove it if it wasn't written in the IEP form or the conference notes. Even when there are teachers, ESE specialists, related service personnel, principals, directors and parents that see the elephant, moved their papers out of the way of the big dump, and smelled the aroma that stunk up the whole room. If it wasn't written, it didn't happen.

If the system continues to leave it to the parents to enforce compliance, I will continue to mock those who hide behind this strategy. And I am counting the days. To steal a concept from Goader - tick, tick, tick.

They Just Didn't Get It

My previous post was an attempt to provide some insight in to why some educational settings do not succeed, despite how much the educators involved want to believe that they know what they are doing. Money is not the answer. Changing a mind-set is.

As a parent of a disabled child, I have years of experience and hundreds of anecdotal incidents (far exceeding what was often referred to as "isolated" by District personnel) that I could share. Despite my incessant efforts to bring in outside educated supports from places such as FSU, Fla. School For Deaf Blind, UofF, Texas, New York, Gallaudet, Boston College Deaf/Blind and even Australia, some people just didn't get it that their way was not good. Despite numerous evaluations, observations,reports and money spent on bringing in real experts, some people just didn't get it that their way was not good.

Dealing with behaviors was one of the most exasperating issues. I can not tell anyone how many times I was told my son did something "for no apparent reason". Like the time he broke his pencil, crumpled his paper and threw it on the floor "for no good reason". He was sent to the office. The principal informed us that he would not be allowed to act like that.

As the uninformed, emotionally attached, overwhelmed father, I only had excuses for his behavior. The fact that he had an uncorrectable vision problem did not matter. The fact that he was deaf did not matter. The fact that there was no one at that school to sign to him did not matter. The fact he was extremely successful in the prior setting because the previous teacher had all of the supports needed for him to succeed but they were not with him didn't matter. The fact that he had been given the same ditto several days in a row did not matter. The fact that the ditto was too small of print for him to see didn't matter. The fact that the lesson plan called for recognition of presidents didn't matter. The fact that no one knew how to present an abstract concept such as President Lincoln and President Washington to a kid who will never be able to grasp the concept didn't matter. The fact that he could not see pencil markings very well didn't matter. The fact that he was used to a black marker to accommodate his vision didn't matter.

No, I simply had to trust those who had the authority of the school system vested in them.

In my continued efforts to be a helpful father, despite my shortcomings, I talked with the teacher about my concerns. She told me she did not have ink to make separate dittos for my son. I asked what kind of ink cartridges she needed, and went directly to what-ever store it was and bought two cartridges and a ream of paper and gave it to her.

Needless to say, my purchase of the ink cartridges was not the answer. That was in 1990. By December 16th, 1996, despite various settings, it was the mind-set of several people that was never overcome and it led to me learning the rules.

Most of them had authority that could have righted the issue. Fortunately, there were a few who not only got it, but even without power and authority, they overcame the misguided. But not without a lot of effort to make things work.

The previous article speaks to how behaviors can be made worse by ignorance combined with power and authority.

"We are the Experts" equals "We are the ones in Control"

There is a cost to arrogance that is boistered by ignorance.


My son's first three years in the HCDS were great. The problems started when we switched schools in 1990. As the year progressed, I experienced a few of the below, I just didn't know it. As the months went by, and meeting after meeting (increasing in both number of attendees and distance from my house) brought no results, we brought in a real expert on my kid's disability from Florida State University. This real expert spent two days observing my kid at school. This real expert then wrote a very comprehensive report. She included many anecdotal incidents to explain what should be changed. We were so excited because here was a professional saying what we had been trying to say, but we were never "understood".

As the people at FSU were not used to the culture of HCDS, they sent us a copy of the report also. (It is a common practice for schools to influence independent evaluations and control what information parents receive.) I did not know then what I know now, but the HCDS people were quite surprised when they gave us their copy of the report and we told them we already had a copy. Had I known then what I know now, I would have compared the two reports to see if anything had been changed. As the IEP team go through the report, I kept seeing that the "team" is not incorporating the recommendations of the report into the IEP. At some point I finally confront this. The answer was "well these are just recommendations, we don't have to do them.".

The last time I looked, the same person who said that is still in the same position now as she was then.

How many times do we hear in an IEP meeting :"well, that is the recommendation of the District's evaluation and it is a consensus of the IEP team that we......." while the parent is still trying to argue the information. It is interesting how the phrase "consensus of the IEP team" has so much more power than "The IEP Team, of which the parent is an integral member, is responsible for determining the services that are necessary for the child to receive FAPE." Spare me the interpretation that the District is ultimately responsible for the decision of FAPE. While I understand that premise under the law, if that is the mindset of the "district IEP Team", then why not say it out loud in the meeting and say "we (the District) recognize that you (the parent) are an integral member of the IEP team, but we are exercising our right to enforce FAPE, so it really doesn't matter what you or your independent evaluations say."


Mistakes People Make - School Districts by Robert K. Crabtree, Esq. Print this page Anything a school system does that undermines parents' trust creates a climate that is costly in dollars, time, peace of mind, and the quality and success of services given to the child. Here are the most significant school system mistakes, according to persons at every level of the system: 1. Refusing to let parents or parents' experts see programs, either within or outside of the school system. When school systems tightly restrict the parents' access to their own programs, the parents wonder what they are hiding and assume the worst; when they refuse to clear the way for parents to see an outside program, the parents will assume that the grass is greener over there; 2. Failing or refusing to communicate and actively coordinate with outside experts working with the child, such as the child's therapist or a tutor; 3. Ignoring reports from independent evaluators; failing to speak to those evaluators to clarify ambiguous information or recommendations; failing to add the evaluator's recommendations to the IEP when reasonable; 4. Failing to respond to parents in writing or at a meeting when a problem arises; 5. Taking a patronizing and/or antagonistic and/or insulting attitude toward parents; personalizing issues between school and parents; attempting to blame parents for their children's educational failures rather than looking for solutions (school system professionals need to treat parents with respect even if those parents are insulting and belligerent themselves); 6. Sweating the small stuff (e.g., spending twenty minutes at a team meeting arguing about whether the meeting can be tape-recorded); 7. Failing to observe procedural timelines and notice requirements (e.g., scheduling timely meetings, getting evaluations to the parents before the team meeting, notifying the parents who will attend the meeting, providing clear written explanations of parent rights); 8. Writing careless and sloppy IEPs. Parents, evaluators, and hearing officers all look first at the extent to which the written IEP reflects a thorough and logically coherent view of the child, the goals and objectives for that child's program, and a clear and understandable description of what will be provided, how, by whom, and when; and how the child's program will be evaluated; 9. Failing to implement an IEP and, worse, trying to cover up that failure; 10. Failing to modify an IEP that is not working and waiting, instead, for the program - and the child - to collapse; 11. Failing to provide additional or different services as a way to avoid having to make more restrictive (and expensive) outside placements; 12. Failing to call in expert consultants from outside the school system with good reputations among both school and parent communities who can help develop or monitor a program for a child with unusual needs; 13. Losing contact with families who have placed their child unilaterally. Some school systems forget or ignore their continuing responsibility to evaluate, review, and propose IEPs for children when they are attending outside placements at their parents' expense; 14. Botching the required procedures around suspension or expulsion of students with identified or suspected special education needs (e.g., failing to convene the team, failing to make a manifestation determination, failing to re-examine the IEP to see if services are appropriate and have actually been provided, failure to provide FAPE to suspended or expelled students with special education needs; 15. Failing to ensure that non-special education administrators - particularly building principals - are fully informed about and are following the required special education policies and procedures. http://www.fetaweb.com/02/mistakes.school.crabtree.htm