Today was the culmination of a few weeks of work getting my daughter a 504-C plan in her new school, and getting her identified as gifted. She was in private school through 6th grade, and in 7th grade entered the public school system, in a magnet program for academically motivated students. Since Augsut when school started I have been learning how the system works, have been having meetings with teachers one-on-one and even the school psychologist, principle and assistant principle to stress the needs I believed my daughter had. Without this direct advocating, my daughter would not have received the accomodations she needed. My fear was that if I did not get on this right away and get these things adjusted early, she might have a bad public school experience and be labeled as a poor student. So I went to bat with each teacher, to give her extra time on tests and homework, and to seat her in the least distracting seating and make sure she can hear well, and make sure she gets the verbal instructions by giving them to her in writing if she indicates she did not understand them. So each teacher, surpirsingly, was more than willing to work with her on this basis, and they all understood that she would eventually have a formal 504-c plan, but for now she needed their support until that could be completed.

Well, last week we finally met, my wife, myself, the school psychologist, the district head of gifted education, the learning disabilities teacher for the school, the assistant principle, the gifted teacher for the school, the child development coordinator for the school, and 3 of her teachers from her advanced placement classes. This was a daunting and seemingly intimidating task for my wife and I to meet with this group, believing we were going to have to battle them to prove our point and get what our daughter needed.

I had all of my daughter's school records, her intelligence testing and learning disability testing done by a respected school psychologist now in private practice, her SAT testing, all her medical records from 2nd grade to date from a developmental pediatrician who is highly respected. They met without us and reviewed all the documents for about what seemed like 45 minutes. Then we came in and sat down and were introduced to each member of the committee. They were extremely friendly and not intimidating. The group had already come to the conclusion that our daughter did meet the criteria for gifted and did meet the criteria to receive accomodations under a 504 - C plan by the time we came in. We had some discussion, and our input was taken, and we were able to ask questions before the decision was determined, but they said the documentation we showed was overwhelmingly in favor of those conclusions.

This was a huge victory. Just 3 weeks earlier she had taken a "K-bit" test to see if she would score high enough to warrent further intelligence testing, which would then be used to determine if she was gifted. She got too low a score on the K-bit and the ball stopped there. The school psychologist told me there was nothing he could do about it because he can't give full intelligence testing unless a student does 135 on the K-bit. I think she was 7 points lower. I thought this was wrong, and I began a protest process, by telling him I was protesting the decision and wanted to know what was going to be my next step in protesting this formally. The director of gifted education called me and I explained to her the problem, and she said the first problem was that my daughter should not have been given a k-bit test, and that a meeting of all her teachers, the school psychologist and the assist principle with the parents should have taken place before that kind of determination was made. She set the ball in motion for that meeting to take place when I said I wanted that process to begin the way it should have.

So today was the 2nd stage, which was the formal creation of the 504-c. She will be given accmodations in xtra homework time - up to double the time, test time - up to double the time, seating to avoid distraction, seating to accomodate any hearing difficulty, written instructions if she asks for them or xtra time to copy the instructions. All of these accomodations depend upon the student taking responsibility to request them as needed. Therefore my daughter must inform the teacher she needs extra time on a test or on an assignment, or needs her seat moved, etc.

Now, the thing is she has had these accomodations since probably the 3rd week of school on an informal basis at the discretion of her teachers. Now these are in the official record and can be enforced if necessary.

On the gifted side of the equation, she is already in the gifted classes, based on her performance, but now it states in her record that she will complete a long-term independent project to enrich her education, that she will get advanced math teaching, and that she will only be placed in advanced placement, IB program, gifted, advanced courses to fulfill her gifted program.

This was great news!

And when she heard she had a long term independent project to complete under the supervision of a teacher, she said she already knew what it would be.... LATIN! She wants to learn Latin as her independent project!

Well, I had to share it with you all. She had ADD and needs a lot of coaching. But she is not ashamed of her ADD or her taking medicaiton. And she just completed her first semester in this school, a 7th grader who is taking Honors 9th grade algebra, and 8th grade spanish, and advanced placement in all her other courses, and she came home with straight A's.

It can be done. She was not doing so well in 2nd or 3rd grade. It can be done! This should provide hope to those parents who are worried about their ADD child. It can be done. They are smart children who just need the right environment in school and at home to allow them to do well. No shame in being ADD. No limits on how well they can do!

Feeling proud of my girl, and relieved!

Jon

Are the 504 plans now divided into catagories?

Jon,

That is so incredibly awesome! Way cool :D

Thank you Big.

Tara - I don't know about catagories. I know we had to define what the problems were, and how they were going to be addressed. We included in there that it was my daughters responsibility to indicate her need when she has a need. This allows teachers to treat her as any other student until she requests an accomodation.

Some other notes:

The teachers mentioned that they were very appreciative that she is respectful in the way she asks for accomodations, and that she is not disruptive or demanding in the way she asks for accomodations. For instance, they say that in 7th grade the big issue with children is "is it fair" and that other students might say something if they knew one student was given extra time, but that my daughter so far has been very polite and descreet about her requests. They said that other students see she has extra time on tests but that so far no other student has said anything. They also perceive her to be a "very responsible" student because she takes it upon herself to ask the teacher for what she needs - extra time on a homework or on a test, and the work she ultimately turns in is excellent. They do not view her as a child trying to have less responsibility. The teachers agreed that her behavior in class has influenced how they feel about recommending these accomodations. It is the teachers who have a major input in the 504-c plan, and in how liberal the accomodations will be. Teachers said if she was a child who was talking throughout class and then requested accomodations they would feel quite differently about granting that. I mentioned to them that children with ADD who have the hyper-active component might run into that exact problem, and they agreed that the hyper-active component makes it tougher to feel it is fair to give accomodations. Thus, getting a fair and appropriate 504-c plan for a child with a hyper-active component may be more difficult if teachers are feeling alienated towards the child. That is one supporting reason why the hyper-activity of a child needs to be controlled, in order to keep him in tune with his class behavior expectations. Appearing irresponsible and disruptive, and thereby alienating teachers, could have a negative impact on the 504-c accomodations teachers recommend.

Fortunately, my daughter is inattentive type ADD. The problem with inattentive, on the other hand, is they have good behavior so they often are not detected and evade treatment.

Well, another day, and on to another challenge. Now I have to get the College Boards who administer the SAT I Exam to grant her extra time on the SAT. She it taking the 11th-12th grade SAT I to see if she scores high enough to attend the Duke University summer program. She has to score 1000 on it, so I have had to gather all the same documents for the College Board to review, and they require 7 weeks to review them! My deadline for sending in all the material is Dec 8th, so I am on time, but only have a couple days left to make sure I have enough documentation and filled out the forms properly.

Bye for now

J

Congratulations healthwiz :D :D :D

TY Wayward!