The STAR Test

Scooties, I suggest that you type into Google: STAR Assessment system and draw your own conclusions about this assessment system being appropriate for predicting grade level placement. Grade level placement is a misuse of the assessment sytem from its intended use.

Please respond to my earlier response about the upcoming IEP meeting. I suggest from the onset of your particular situation to not provide “consent” to provide the services in the proposed IEP until you are complletely comfortable with its intent to help your child.

Please respond.

DRHD

well I hope I can get the kinks out to bring up at the meeting,so I can approve it…What happens if I don’t approve?

Then don’t sign off on it. Offer suggestions do everything you do in writing keep copies of everything in a big file. If they are not willing to modify things until you are comfortable with it or if they can not due to their structuring and systems, then you will likely have to do what my parents did. They sued the school system. They trucked out great lawyers who proved the school system could not give me proper education as i needed it. And part of that was ttheir own structuring and lack of follow through on the iep etc… So a judge ultimately saw it my parent’s way and the school district had to pay for an alternative private school that could work with me effectively to give me the education i needed. As a result i am quite highly educated. I hope it does not come to that for you. But if it does… It does… Do not put your signature to anything you are not comfortable with completely though. otherwise, later they will just say you signed off on it. They maY even use it to try to take your child away from you. (they did that when my parents sued the school system.) You must be very careful here how you proceed and you must stick to what you believe is best for your child. No matter what they say or threaten or suggest. Tell them you will take their suggestions and seek independent coucil and get back to them after maybe discussing it with an expert in LD someone perhaps who has seen or is seeing your son privately. See what they that person NOT payed for by the school district thinks. Then return to the table and either say ok we can try it for a specific set amount of time or no this is not going to help my kid. I will not sign off on it at all. Before you can take any concrete action to send your child elsewhere for an education at the expense of the school system (which you have not mentioned, *I* did, because it is always a possibility when going through all this) you must first give them a substantial opportunity to meet the needs of your child. But don’t trust them on what those needs are because they are not really interested in helping your child. They are interested more in how to budget their money and keep it balanced. And they are ofcourse willing to do anything that costs them little to nothing or that they can possibly get from outside the system for example the drrug companies. Some school systems these days recommend children go in for evaluation to receive money ffrom the drug companies for every child their expert declares to be LD and is subsequently medicated. You sound rational about the medication issue so keep in mind they may throw that out there. They may throw any number of unexpected things out there because their goals are entirely different than yours. Your idea of success is not likely going to be the same as theirs. So you must tread with great care on these issues. Good luck! And best of luck to your son. it isn’t easy what he is going through. I am so very sorry he is going through it.

Hey Mandi,I really do understand what you are saying ,but I am a low-income single parent.There is no way I can fight the school system,even hire a lawyer.Sadly I have to do this on my own as well as their is no free advocates to fight in my and my sons behalf.

Yeh, that part of the system sux doesn’t it? Maybe you can find a lawyer who will take it pro bono? I dunno… But firs do all you can to work with them to get things done and see what happens then, there is time to discuss the next step with everyone here whatever that step can or can not be.