The ABC'S of IEP'S

By: Sheila A. Wolfe | IEP Services, LLC | sheilawolfe@sbcglobal.net

Sheila Wolfe

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Special Needs Living and the first installment of “The ABC’s of IEP’s.” My purpose for this column is toinform parents of children with special needs about how to get an appropriate education for their student in the public schools. This content will also benefit all parents and caregivers who seek to educate themselves about the needs of their loved one with special needs and how to best address those needs.

Before we jump into our first “lesson,” let me tell you a bit about myself and my journey through the special education jungle. My son, Cory, was diagnosed with autism at three years of age. He is twenty-four now—it makes me feel so old every time I say it. Our journey through the Carmel, Indiana school system was anything but smooth.

By the time Cory was six and in the first grade, the school filed a due process complaint against me. For those who aren’t aware, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(IDEA), due process is a formal way to resolve disputes about a child's special education and is similar to a hearing in court. A due process complaint can be filed against the school system or a parent in order to enforce the student's right to a Free Appropriate Public Education. The school also filed a lawsuit for attendance violations because I was taking Cory out of school in the afternoons to attend an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program at my own expense. You can imagine my amazement, since I had called the Department of Education to make sure the school’s funding would not be affected in any way before I made the decision to pull him out for half days. In addition, children are not required to attend school until they are seven in Indiana, and as I already stated, Cory was six.

A brief discussion with the judge got the lawsuit taken care of (without me having to hire an attorney). The due process complaint was another matter. I believe to this day that one of the school’s strategies was to try to make it too expensive for me to afford an attorney to defend me in both the lawsuit and the due process hearing while also paying for ABA therapy for my son. If you are not already aware, ABA therapy is expensive. Their strategy would have worked, but I was able to get the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Service (IPAS) to represent me against the due process complaint.

Long story short, the school won the due process hearing. The hearing officer said that Cory should be in school for a full day. However, that changed nothing in my mind, and I continued to pull Cory out for his half days of ABA therapy. My goal was to collect enough data on the effectiveness of ABA so that I could

force the school to use that methodology when instructing Cory. I felt that the school was attempting to prevent me from collecting this data. About seven case conferences later, the tide turned, and I had a one-on-one aide for Cory who would be trained in ABA and work with him all day, every day.

Word spread rather quickly, and my phone started to ring from parents calling for advice and help with their child’s case. The rest, as they say, is history. After a couple years of helping people informally and getting extensive training in special education law, I became a professional Parent Advocate and work all over Indiana helping people get appropriate IEP’s for their children with special needs. I work with every disability category and have particular expertise in autism and behavior intervention.

Each month I will discuss another aspect of developing an appropriate IEP for students with special needs. Topics will include your right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), evaluation and identification, IEP content, progress monitoring, goal writing, services, supports, accommodations and so much more. My goal is to keep content general enough that you will find answers to many of your questions about special education each month. Additionally, I will provide links to more in-depth information for those who want to learn more. Developing, monitoring, and evaluating the effectiveness of your child’s IEP can feel like a fulltime job. Together, I hope we can make that job a little easier!