Need advice quick

[JoyBop]

Ive never posted in this area but thought it would be the best place for fast advice regarding IEP.

 

DS8 has PANDAS and is in public school. We have made the very difficult decision to pull him out and put him in a small, private school where he needs will be met. The dilemma is this: DS is not currently on an IEP. I requested a full eval and the eligibility meeting is Feb. 5. Thats two weeks away. Given that we have made our decision, I dont want to put off starting the new school off any longer.

 

Here's my question: Does the school still have to meet with us on Feb 5 for his eligibility meeting if we have already withdrawn him from public school? The only reason it matters is that it would be very nice to have the IEP status for when he enters middle school in grade 6. Otherwise, he may tank in middle school and we wouldnt be able to get him on the radar until January or so of that year.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks so much.

[MomWithOCDSon]

I don't know definitively, but here's a thought.

 

If you pulled him out of public school because they couldn't meet his needs, and you asked for an eval and an IEP meeting, then I would assume it is still on the calendar, and you are still entitled to the meeting. In the end, if the school ultimately draws the same conclusion that you did . . . that they cannot meet his needs within that school facility, with or without an IEP . . . the district is obligated to provide an alternative to you. That doesn't mean you have to accept it, but depending upon the options available within your particular district, is it possible that one of the alternatives could, in fact, be the private school you've already selected? If so, the district would be required to fund in part, if not in whole, your son's education in this alternative setting.

 

I would go about trying to keep the meeting. You are still a resident of the district, you still pay taxes that support the school in your district, and you withdrew your child not because you're surrendering your (or his) rights to an equal education under the law . . . you only withdrew him because his needs were not being met in that setting under existing circumstances.

 

In the end, if he's not going to be enrolled in a public school in the district, or sent to attend an alternative educational offering in keeping with the district's recommendations, I'm not sure they will have any obligation to follow through with the process of drafting or administering an IEP. But until you have a full grasp of what their findings will be, what they can offer you as a district, etc., I wouldn't voluntarily step out of expecting them to fulfill this obligation.

 

Good luck!

[JoyBop]

Wow. That is a lot to take in. For starters we did call the eval but he wasn't currently on an IEP. This is the initial determination meeting. I did ask for help months ago bc things were going awry but there was no response. So I don't believe I could say they weren't meeting his needs because I'm not going to wait for the IEP to fail. Our doctor said that they would not be able to fix the problems she saw and said that if we were I a position to put him in this private school we should. Her opinion means a lot to me since she has known us for a long time now. He has been ignored too long, there are too many problematic behaviors in the class. 24 students and 1 teacher. Not a good recipe.

 

So if we are pulling out to a private school and we have no intentions of asking for reimbursement or out of district placement from the school, we should keep quite til the meeting. All I want is for him to qualify for the IEP so he has something to fall back on come middle school. I totally trust and love the middle school he is going to and know I won't have any trouble there getting what he needs.

 

2 weeks to go. I figure I'll get trough the meeting and bring a signed document with his withdrawal that I will announce at the end if the meeting. At least that way I'll get the most accurate info.