Question regarding requesting school evaluation.

[HayHay4321]

Question regarding school evaluation for 504 plan or IEP. My son is 5 and was diagnosed through his pediatrician. Still on the waiting list for a second opinion & to get him into behavioral therapy because that is where most of his problems are. I typed up a request for a school evaluation but found on the schools website their 504 coordinator so should I drop off or email the letter to them or should I drop off a letter to the principal? Thanks I just don’t want to do this wrong and end up biting me in the behind later. I’ve heard if I chat with the 504 coordinator BEFORE giving a letter requesting a eval, that it can mess everything up. Maybe I heard wrong? Thank you all so much! I appreciate each of you!

[Onthemove1971]

Great Question.. since you are not asking for an IEP ( this process requires certain staff)

It should not matter, I would go to the school with the letter and aak them at the front desk which is better and that you would like to speak to the 504 plan coordinator. There is a timeline once the letter is turned in by.

Once you do that can you also get a letter from your Pediatrician ( our child Psychiatric wrote us the letter) to support the plan as documentation? It might be much harder to get if you don't have the letter.

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck,

[Faithinlove423]

When I first found out that my daughter could have ADHD, I contacted our school and asked for accommodations. You would have thought I was asking for the world. They recommended that I start with a 504, but only proceed if I was “really sure.” I went to an IEP meeting hosted by our local CHADD and learned that I couldn’t back down. I insisted to the school that I needed the IEP. They were evasive and pushy. I finally connected with a local mediation group and they helped walk me through the process and took the guess work out for me. If you can find local resources (even those who diagnosed should have some idea of the proper process), you should. The support I found was what got me through. Good luck!

[Hidden in reply to Faithinlove423]

I don’t understand why schools are so reluctant in giving kids an IEP if all the evidence shows that it is needed and the child would benefit from it. I also started with a 504 and fought each year for an IEP and this year my son finally got it which I feel is only because I called the Director of Special Services at our Board Of Ed and had her attend the meeting with me. Good luck on your journey, it’s never easy working with the school.

[Pennywink in reply to Hidden]

Everyone has different experiences with their schools. So far ours has been quite fabulous.

Our school discourage accommodations for my son at this time for the following reasons, which I completely agreed with: The schools goal is for my son to be successful and pave the way for independence. So we don’t want to over-accommodate him (meaning accommodations when, despite his diagnosis, he hasn’t demonstrated a strong need for), or we could be costing him his ability to develope independence. He would grow up becoming reliant on the accommodations.

When / if he starts demonstrating a need - that the lack of accommodations is affecting his level of success, then we will revisit adding more accommodations.

So, just another perspective.

[ADHD_DAD in reply to Faithinlove423]

If you are interested in my 2 cents on this issue, see my response yesterday to ChristinaR1967 in the "How would you respond to this teacher?" string.

[ADHD_DAD]

Hi. You can mail it and may also want to attach the letter to an email. Scan and save letter and save the email. Talking to the "coordinator" before or after won't affect anything. Good luck.

[Cjkchamp]

I would go to the school office and fill out all of the necessary paperwork. I think the evaluation will determine whether a 504 or an IEP is necessary. In my experience the school evaluators each met with my son to test him in each of their areas of expertise and I had to fill out quite a few surveys. We obtained an individual evaluation on our own first, as the school district said he didn’t qualify to assistance because of behavior problems. They didn’t take things seriously until I had the evaluation in hand.

On a side note...I would recommend you investigate broad spectrum micronutrients which may help with behavior issues. Good luck!

[dubstepMaul]

504 plan falls under Education law, while IEP falls under Disability law. IEP is enforceable where 504 isn't. You can request an IEP evaluation for your child in writing to your Special Services team and they must respond.

[anirush]

When I first requested an IEP the school was giving me a hard time so I sent a request certified, return request because I did not want them to say they never received the request.

Right now I am applying for a 504 first time for my high school grandson and have had no problems.

[Bambamxyz]

Like pennywink said every school is different and it would be great if this guesswork and uncertainty of how to proceed could be eliminated. Sometimes it comes down to talking with the right person (how many times have you called a company and gotten three different answers to your problem?)

I don't know if it is standard for all schools in California or just our county, but we have a process that starts with a SST - Student Study Team. It usually starts with teacher calling it, but I believe the parent can request if they are seeing a problem. Long story short, this is how our road began - it can be problematic because it takes FOREVER part of the reasoning behind it. The schools want to make sure the teacher, parent, and whomever else is involved in kids schooling are trying everything they can. It takes a long time because they give time for whatever recommendations were made to work. Our first SST meeting took place in February, and finally after lots of try this in class and home we did a school psychologist assessments and ADHD diagnosis (requested by our developmental pediatrician, but I also emailed the school's mental health specialist to ask what to request -a little back and forth there) we had an initial IEP meeting early May! With like three weeks left of school! Good luck with all this, it can be quite a road!