For parents of children with special needs, composing and executing a back to school list can be very stressful. We have compiled a checklist of our top four items you will need to address to help give your child their best chance at a free, appropriate, public education!
1) Your child’s last signed IEP. The last IEP that you signed is the one that provides the framework for your child’s education. If it says your child gets an hour weekly of speech therapy, then that is still true for remote learning. If it says that your child is to receive specialized academic instruction 60 minutes daily, then that applies to remote learning. The last signed IEP also states what the child’s goals are for the year.
Even with remote learning, the Department of Education recently stated that children must make meaningful IEP progress.
Note: services like speech, occupational therapy, adaptive physical education do not typically start until a week or two after school starts. Make a note of this on your back to school list!
2) The appropriate equipment for your child to learn remotely. If you do not have internet access or do not have access to a computer your child can use, reach out to your child’s school district. As always: make all requests in writing. Your child is entitled to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). At the present, this includes computer access and internet access.
If there are worksheets or printouts and you do not have access to a printer, ask the teacher to send copies home.
3) Make a note of the supplementary supports and services after looking at your child’s last signed IEP. How many service minutes weekly are supposed to occur? After the first few weeks of school, begin tracking when and how long your child receives those services. It can be just a quick scratch of a start and end time on an electronic note or a sticky note. If your student is receiving the services promised, great! If not, address this issue by sending a note to the case manager and at least one other person at the school. Ask them when the IEP services will be implemented as agreed. This doesn’t have to be contentious; simply check in and make sure your child is on the person’s radar.
4) Over the first few weeks, figure out what is working and what is not. If you cannot get your child to attend to Zoom, fill out worksheets and other school work, or otherwise attend, email your child’s teacher and case manager, and let them know. You can either record these incidents and save the worksheets as part of your documentation, or you can simply save all of your emails. Either way, please document it so that you have something to show the IEP team in order to get help.
Teachers work hard and want to help each and every student as much as possible. They also have a lot of students they are supporting remotely, and may not see all the challenges that you see.
You don’t have to figure this all out yourself and this is why we’ve made this back to school list! Write an email to your child’s case manager asking for their help. Lay out your concerns as specifically as possible. Some minor items can be resolved via email discussions with case managers and teachers, others may require an IEP Team Meeting. Either way, your child’s IEP Team is required to help provide the appropriate supports and services to ensure that your child is accessing their education. Even with remote learning, your child is entitled to a free, appropriate, public education.