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By Mark S. Kamleiter, Esquire Special Education Law and Advocacy E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Website: http://www.flspedlaw.com * Mark was one of many wonderful trainers at the William and Mary Law School Special Education Advocacy Institute.
“I think that my child has ADD or ADHD, but I cannot get the school to do anything to help him.” I hear this sad lament far too often from frustrated parents who sense that their child’s ability to learn is being hampered by an attention deficit disorder which is neither recognized nor accommodated by the school. Unfortunately, by the time I hear the complaint the situation has usually deteriorated to the point where the child is failing his or her classes and has developed severe behavioral problems. At this point the child has been labeled as “bad,” “lazy,” or, as many schools tend to do, “emotionally handicapped.” If the child’s frustration has resulted in physical aggression, then the newest trend of many schools is to have the child arrested.
Once the circumstances have reached such a desperate point it is very difficult, even with skilled legal and/or advocacy help, to reverse the damage and create a healthy, viable public school environment of the child. For this reason, it is vitally important for parents to act decisively and with efficacy when they suspect that their child may have an attention deficit disability. It is the purpose of this article to provide some general principles which parents should follow when seeking to obtain the appropriate education for their child.
1. Principle One: Act Fast: Most parents do not have to be told that time is an essential element in obtaining an appropriate educational placement or the necessary accommodations for their disabled child. Children with attention deficit disorders are particularly susceptible to frustration, low self-esteem and discouragement in their educational efforts. Too often teachers fail to recognize an attention deficit disorder and instead believe that the child’s problems are caused by lack of motivation, carelessness, rudeness or rebelliousness. The child quickly picks up on the teacher’s attitude and soon begins to see himself in the same poor light. In addition, the frustration of being unable to please others or to achieve at the same level as other students will too often result in simmering anger, acting out and aggression. Early diagnosis, treatment and accommodation of ADD or ADHD is essential in order to protect your child’s fragile well-being. 2. Principle Two: Don’t guess, evaluate: Although parents want to assume that educational professionals will automatically identify their child’s disability and act to accommodate it. Don’t bet your child’s education on it. Not only may the school fail entirely to recognize the disability, there is also the danger that the school could arrive at an erroneous diagnosis (e.g. emotional disability). If you have reason to believe that your child may have a learning disability or attention deficit, you must be proactive in obtaining the necessary evaluation of your child. You need an appropriate evaluation both to determine what, if any, disability your child may have and what placement or accommodation is necessary for your child. 3. Principle Three: Request evaluation, be precise and do it in writing: Tell the school that you suspect ADD or ADHD and request that the school conduct an evaluation. It is not sufficient to simply ask the school to test for a learning disability or to “test for special education.” Your child may not need “special education” and may not qualify for a “learning disability” and yet he or she may still have ADD or ADHD and need important accommodations. Schools have a terrible tendency to look only for disabilities which meet the criteria for special education, while ignoring disabilities like ADD and ADHD. So be precise. Ask for your child to be evaluated for learning disabilities and attention deficits. As in all matters relevant to your child’s education, ask for the evaluations in writing. Tell the school exactly why you suspect a disability, state that speed of evaluation is essential and why (note grade and behavior difficulties), request a formal written response to your request. Also request that the district provide you with their “consent” form for the evaluation. They know that the time requirements for completing parent requested evaluations do not start until the parent signs the consent form. For that reason, they may not present the consent to you. Do not allow them to get away with this.
Finally the school district may try to say that they must complete the RtI (Response to Intervention) process, before they can provide an evaluation. This is not accurate. If a parent requests an evaluation stating that there is a suspicion of a disability, the district has an obligation to perform the evaluation. Once the parent has signed a consent for the evaluation the district has sixty (60) days to complete the evaluation. In Florida that is sixty (60) school days, which some district interpret as meaning days when the student is in school. This means that they can take up to three months after the consent is signed to complete the evaluation. The Florida Department of Education says that the whole RtI process cannot take more than that same three months.
4. Principle Four: Have your own evaluation done: If the school denies your request for evaluation or delays too long in conducting the evaluation, the parents should consider obtaining their own evaluation. One might argue that a denial of evaluation could be contested by due process, but you would need an evaluation anyway to prove the request for evaluation was appropriate. In addition, due process is expensive and will take valuable time. More often, rather than outright denying the evaluation, the school will take an incredibly long time to collect data and to arrange for the evaluations. Many children with attention deficits cannot afford to wait until the school gets around to eventual testing. In the event that the school does test your child and the school’s evaluation fails to identify your child’s disorder or you feel that its diagnosis is in error, you may request an independent evaluation at the school’s expense. Choose a psychologist who specializes in or at least has a clinical practice treating students with attention deficits. Your local Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders (CHADD) group should be able to refer you to a list of psychologists who are sufficiently independent and knowledgeable to test your child. If your evaluations demonstrate an attention deficit disorder, you may be able to convince the school to pay for the evaluation or even request reimbursement through due process, but more importantly you will have identified your child’s disability and hopefully the accommodations necessary for his or her successful education. 5. Principle Five: Request an appropriate IEP or accommodation plan: If evaluations reveal either a learning disability or an attention deficit with significant impact on the child’s education, then the parent should, in writing, request a conference to design an appropriate Individual Education Plan (where the disability qualifies as a learning disability) or a “504 accommodation plan.” While a § 504 accommodation plan may work for a child with mild ADHD, I find that most children do better with an IEP.
The parent should be guided by the recommendations of the psychologist as to the appropriate educational placement and/or accommodations to be made in the child’s classroom. Do not assume that “special education,” as in a special class, is the solution for your child. Most often a well constructed IEP with accommodations will allow many students with attention deficits to be successful in regular classes. In particular be wary of an effort by the school to classify your child as emotionally handicapped. Unless this classification is justified by your own psychologist, this classification can sidetrack your child in to special education or discipline classes which may not accommodate your child’s true disability. Most children with ADHD need an education plan to help them with the following areas: Assistive Technology: Because ADHD is neurological issue, many of these children also suffer from problems with fine motor activities, particularly writing. More formally a psychologist might call this Dysgraphia. I frequently request that the child be allowed to use a keyboard, since typing is actually less difficult than the writing process. There is no need to allow the technical aspects of writing get in the way of the child learning written composition. These are only a few of the accommodations and areas of instruction that may be necessary. In a nutshell the key to advocating for a child with attention deficits is to act quickly to obtain an appropriate evaluation of the disability. Once the parent is armed with a convincing diagnosis of disability, the parent can get down to the serious work of obtaining an appropriate accommodation plan or IEP. Teachers and staff can be informed of the disability. Training in working with ADD or ADHD students can be requested for teachers. A positive behavior plan can be instituted which protects your child’s self-esteem. The road to obtaining the best education for your child will still be a long and difficult one, but armed with a good professional evaluation you have your best chance to require the schools to recognize and accommodate your child’s disability.
Published by: Fleur de Lys Publishing 509 First Avenue S. St. Petersburg, FL 33712 Ph. (727) 323-2555 / fax (727) 323-2599 E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Website: http://www.flspedlaw.com
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