5 DQ

Topic5DQ1-1.docx

Topic 5 DQ 1

Under IDEA, parents must be participants in the annual review of an IEP. Schools are required to contact the parents about this meeting three times using different modes of communication (e.g. text, letter sent home, and a phone call). In Hawaii, a school followed this protocol, but after the third attempt and the parent not showing up, a decision was made to go ahead with the meeting without the parent. Analyze the court case Doug C. v. Hawaii (9th Cir. 2013) and assess whether the court was justified in its decision.

1. Agnes

According to IDEA (2004), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states to prepare a student for continuing education, employment, and independent living and ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents are protected. Also, IDEA (2004) states that parental participation in the annual review of Individualized Educational Programs (IEP) is crucial to the optimal achievement of the student's needs. Additionally, Kurth et al. (2020) wrote IDEA requires parents to be involved in the educational placement and other decisions as members of the IEP team, IEP process, and IEP meetings. Under IDEA, parents must be participants in the annual review of an IEP. Schools are required to contact the parents about this meeting three times using different modes of communication (e.g. text, the letter sent home, and a phone call). In the court case of Doug C. v. Hawaii (9th Cir. 2013), the decision was justified. Although there were guidelines laid down by IDEA, If the parent as in this court case, Dough C did not attend and provided an insufficient reason, the late intention of not going to attend the meeting, and aftermath, the parent now wants some changes to his son’s IEP and requested a reschedule. The Hawaii school district proceeded without the presence of Spencer’s parent because the parent did not attend the meeting despite the fact that he was afforded an opportunity to participate.

References

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, 20 U.S.C. 1412a14.

Kurth, J. A., Love, H., & Pirtle, J. (2020). Parent perspectives of their involvement in iep development for children with autism. Focus on Autism & Other Developmental Disabilities, 35(1), 36-46. https://10.1177/1088357619842858

2. Maren

Replies to Agnes Ekunseitan

As a special educator who has struggled getting parents to attend IEP meetings and participate in the development of an IEP, I understand where the school district in Hawaii is coming from. The amount of coordination and work that it takes to complete a successful IEP meeting can be overwhelming. I also believe that there is a time when giving a parent three opportunities to attend an IEP meeting (with all the appropriate communications taking place beforehand) is fitting for the situation.

In this case though, I think that the court’s decision was ultimately the right one. This IEP wasn’t the run-of-the-mill yearly IEP meeting. It sounded like there were decisions that were going to be made that would affect not only the IEP but the placement and services the student would receive. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act states that parents have a central role, and they are the “accountability mechanism” for their child’s education (Goldman et al., 2020). Even though the IEP could have lapsed, and it would have been inconvenient for the other participants, the parent needed to be at this meeting to play their crucial role in the student’s education.

Goldman, S. E., Burke, M. M., Casale, E. G., Frazier, M. A., & Hodapp, R. M. (2020). Families requesting advocates for children with disabilities: The who, what, when, where, why, and how of special education advocacy. Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, 58(2), 158–169. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1352/1934-9556-58.2.158

3. Lynnel C

Replies to Maren Miller

Maren,

I agree that in this case the IEP doesn't seem like just an annual IEP, it is more of a change of placement. I understand all the time that is put into ensuring that the IEP date and time are fitting for everyone and can be very time consuming, this is way I start a month before the IEP is even due and this way I can figure out a few different days that work for everyone on the team. For the most part this always works for me unless the parent has an emergency and then we just reschedule as soon as possible or via teleconference. I have also been that parent that has to reschedule last minute, so I am very patient when it comes to scheduling because I don't always know what that family is going through. I feel like building these partnerships with families help to secure these meeting and they feel welcome to exactly what their child needs and are not afraid to voice their opinion.

I am also very welcome to family advocates as they provide a great resource to parents and ensuring that they understand all of their rights as parents (Burke et al., 2019). That is why I believe that the school district should have provided a change in the IEP when they met again in December, this may have been a chance for them to include the parent and listen to his concerns and needs for his son. There were many chances in which the school could have made things right for this family but they didn't.

Thanks for your insights!

Burke, M. M., Rios, K., & Lee, C. eun. (2019). Exploring the special education advocacy process according to families and advocates. The Journal of Special Education, 53(3), 131–141. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0022466918810204

4. Holly

According to IDEA, the court case Doug C. v. Hawaii was justified in its decision. IDEA requires parents to be involved in the educational placement and other decisions as members of the IEP team, IEP process, and IEP meetings (Kurth et al., 2020). According to Kurth et al. (2020), document research describes the overall lack of school openness to parent input. This lack of input considerations leads schools not to consider parents in the IEP process and, therefore, meetings. In the research conducted by Kurth et al. (2020), the study found that parents were less satisfied with schools and school personnel when they felt that schools failed to include them in the decision-making or did not follow through with decisions. These findings are significant because if families feel dissatisfied with their child's education, there will be tension between the schools and families. The Hawaii department of education failed to include the parents in the decision-making process regardless of the IEP meeting trying to be rescheduled. The Hawaii school district did not develop the IEP and placement as a team; they developed it as a school.

5. Lynnel

In the court case Doug C. v. Hawaii (9th Cir. 2013), the court of appeals reversing the decision of the due process hearing and District court in favor of Doug C. is imperative to future individuals with exceptionalities and educators. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states to prepare a student for continuing education, employment and independent living and ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents are protected (IDEA, 2004). It is important to realize that Doug did want to attend the meeting and had shown interest, therefore it is the job of the educator to rearrange the meeting so that all can attend when the parent could be there. Extending the timeline for the IEP that was currently in place would be a vital step as well, then getting a meeting arranged with the parents’ signature would be important as well.

I have had to extend IEPs for parents that originally wanted to attend but things happened, especially when making a placement change for students. Since this student has been placed in a private school for the last six years, it is crucial for parents to help make this decision for change of placement. Parents are advocating for their own children so when they are communicating to the school and returning phone calls, we must ensure we are keeping that open communication with them. Having the meeting in December where Doug did not agree with the IEP, the school should have made changes without delay. We must respect that parents are working hours in which school is in session so we must be flexible.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (2004)

6. Afreeka

the court case Doug C. v. Hawaii (9th Cir. 2013) there were two purposes of the Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA) that I recognized, (1) the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) to prepare the child for future education, employment, and independent living, and (2) to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents are protected. With these two purposes in mind the Court ruled that an after-the fact parental involvement is not enough because IDEA requires parental involvement in the creation process of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Furthermore, the Courts determine that the after-the-fact meeting was not enough to rectify the Department’s decision to hold the initial IEP meeting where in the creating of the IEP the decision was made to changed Spencer’s placement in, in the absence of the parent.

Parents are an important part of the IEP meeting because they have vital information about the student that can be shared within the collaboration process. Not only is there presence important but also legally mandated by IDEA. Jones and Peterson-Ahmad (2017) suggest that some parents feel out of place in the IEP meetings because they do not understand the terminology and feel that they can not be contributors to the creation of the IEP. Goldman and Burke (2017) agrees and suggest that these very sentiments expressed to the special education teacher leads them at times to not provide due diligence in inviting the parents to the meetings. Jones and Peterson-Ahmad (2017) allege that holding mini conferences to educate the parent about the IEP meeting, and share knowledge of the child’s interest, strengths, and weaknesses. These conferences would provide the parents with information to help them be equal contributors thereby providing valid input regarding placement, discipline and instruction.

References

Goldman, S.E. & Burke, M.M. (2017) The Effectiveness of interventions to increase parent involvement in special education: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Exceptionality, 25(2), 97-115. DOI: 10.1080/09362835.2016.1196444

Jones, B. A. & Peterson-Ahmad, M. B. (2017). Preparing new special education teachers to facilitate collaboration in the individualized education program process through mini-conferencing. International Journal of Special Education, 32(4), 697-707. ERIC Number: EJ1184062.

Topic 5 DQ 2

Jul 14-18, 2022

In many school administration training programs, participants feel they are not adequately trained for planning and running IEP meetings, understanding parent/child relationship of children with exceptionalities, and meeting the needs of and finding ways to nurture and support the SPED staff’s personal and professional growth. Investigate ways that a school administrator can overcoming this deficit and provide support and supervision to the staff and students.

7. Lynnel

Administrators struggle to support educators and students with exceptionalities since training programs don’t have a focus on students with disabilities. In order to help foster inclusion, IEP meeting, understand families of children with disabilities and support special educators, it is important that administrators foster collaboration (Sider et al., 2021). Being part of professional developments for special education teachers would be a great way to gain knowledge of special education laws and most importantly hear how special educators need support. Being able to bring these professional developments offered by the school district back to the school community of teachers will help other staff to understand how to support students too. There are numerous ways that administrators can increase their knowledge and support of students with exceptionalities, but it will be the collaboration that they bring back to educators that will be the most important.

I am thinking about my own school where there is little to no professional development for just students with disabilities and how I could help to incorporate some of these training. Since I have moved my strategies program to a new school, I would love to do professional development on students with autism because this school has never had a self-contained program. I also keep hearing rumors of teachers being afraid of my students and the year hasn’t even started; I want to provide them with the correct information and let them know that I am open to speaking with them individually. I have already sat with the principal to ensure that she knows the needs of my students and assure her that I can help with any necessary questions.

Sider, S., Maich, K., Morvan, J., Villella, M., Ling, P., & Repp, C. (2021). Inclusive school leadership: Examining the experiences of Canadian school principals in supporting students with special education needs. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 21(3), 233–241.

8. Maren

the answer lies in the very action that happens daily in our classrooms. Like we do with our students, school administrators need the opportunities to learn content with thorough training and incorporate their learning into their actions. Ultimately, having a Special Education Leadership course would take time to be accepted and implemented (Roberts & Guerra, 2017). There are already so many other responsibilities and expectations that lay on an administrator’s shoulders that giving an intensive class the time and dedication it would need would be difficult. Because of this, it is important that an administrator get the most out of their time and efforts. Having in-depth studies about the provisions of IDEA, Section 504, RTI, Special Education, and Universal Design for Learning would help address the needs of students with disabilities (2017). They may not be able to know everything about Special Education, but it would be a good idea to give them the most important and relevant knowledge that would help them build an environment and culture that supports students with disabilities.

Roberts, M. B., & Guerra, F. (2017). Principals’ perceptions of their knowledge in special education. Current Issues in Education.