Child Care requires my son's IEP

[Dsmith05]

The Community Education program in my area provides after school and all day child care programs in my area. My son enjoys being there but they require I give them his IEP every year. I have not done so this year and they keep asking for it claiming it is a state regulation. I have asked them to provide me with the regulation. I do not believe it is because I believe it would be in violation of the American with Disability Act.

The thing is they want it to provide him with a 1 on 1 aide while he is there. Which was great until I realized they were using this support to isolate him in another room away from his peers. Of course my son likes this because he gets to play video games all day. Last summer it was okay because I spoke with his aide and made it clear he needed be a part of the group and participate in the activities. But she is not there and I do not know if she will be back in the summer.

I am okay with a 1 on 1 aide but I need him to participate with the group activities in order to continue to develop his lagging skills. I do not want to provide his IEP because of privacy concerns and well I just do not think they have a right to require it. If they asked and made it optional and provided me with a their privacy policy (which they have not and it is not on the website) I may feel different.

Sorry, I think I am ranting a bit but I am not sure about the legality of this practice and how far I should push my point. I feel that as an advocate I need to fight for my child right to attend a child care program the same way a neuro-norm kid does but somehow also insure that he has any reasonable accommodations that he may need.

Any thoughts or insights would be helpful!

[Onthemove1971]

We are here to listen for you any time...

A few thoughts, you said he is at a community education program it sounds like it is not privately funded?

Can you explain a little more about what type of program this is?

As far an an IEP is concerns in the district I work for we can give a teacher a copy if an "at the glance" IEP, so that privacy can remain. Is this something you can get?

Another thing to consider is that, depending on your child's needs you are right you son should not just be with the 1 on 1 with the assistant. Overall ( of course depending on his need) it is not a good idea for one for many reasons, one of the reasons is peer interaction. He needs to be able to establish his own relationships and just having a person there with him changes this. The other major reason is that children get dependent on 1 on 1's. Etc...

As far as the ADA, it's a civil right act and in general not connected to an educational setting. It might be an issues with IDEA or LRE ( least restrictive environment).

How much longer will he be there? It sounds like training of the staff might help a lot.

If I were to guess why they need the IEP, it might be for funding purposes. The have an adequate staff number.

Hope this helps to talk about it.

[Dsmith05 in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thanks for your response!

Yes, it receives federal funding. It is child care that is at the school but not a part of the school. The ADA has an entire section dedicated to childcare providers, provided that they receive federal funding.

My district does not have an "at a glance" IEP. They don't have any privacy or confidentiality statement. I do not think they understand how sensitive of a document this is. During school I know he is protected by FERPA but I don't think that applies to childcare. So there is no clear means of filing a compliant if privacy is violated.

I agree with the 1 on 1. I think sure it can be helpful for some kids if they need it to participate in LRE but should be fazed out as quickly as possible. Unfortunantly they have used it to isolate him. Most of them are young college students so they end up just following him around and letting him decide what to do instead of having him participate with his peer group on the adult led activities. It actually took me a few years to realize that this was what was going on. I really believe this hindered his early social development and made transitioning back into the school year more difficult.

I think that, in addition to the 1 on 1 situation, what really upsets me is the implication that I have to hand over his IEP in order to attend. It just feels very discriminatory.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Dsmith05]

Thanks for the info. On the ADA, there has never been Nythimg said about the ADA at the preschools I work at.

How much longer is he there? If.it is a while then meetings and trainings might be an option. If not maybe it would be better to find something else. I know when our son was that age we paid privately and they would drive him and pick him up.

They were excited to have families of children with disabilities attend there.

Best of luck in getting him what he needs.