Texas ARD question

Post Reply New Topic

We are getting ready to have an ARD meeting with our son's school to get him the help he needs from the district. My question is there a time limit by which they have to have the ARD after we requested it? I have signed the forms saying we want to have an ARD but that was back in April. Now the principal is saying mid-fall. Also is there a time limit for getting him the services he needs after he is evaluated by the school district? Any help would be appreciated.

An ARD is just what Texas calls the IEP, but it is my understanding that it must follow the same guidelines. Has your son already ben evaluated or have you just had the inital meeting? I think ours handled it by the book as they were very meticulous in their procedures. Our district required their own testing. They will allow you to submit copies of all the testing you have had done and they may or may not repeat those testing and they might to additional testing of their own. Since I hear so many bad things about IEPs, I figured this was case to try to wiggle out of a disgnosis and I was prepared to go get our own evaluation done if we weren't happy with how they handled things, but I was wrong. I think we asked for an evaluation either the end of March or the beginning of Aptil. I know they had to have an initial meeting within a certain time period to determine if it was agreed he should be tested. I want to say it was 15 days, but I really don't remember. We had that meeting fairly quickly. Once we had the meeting and we all agreed to testing and signed our permissions, they had so many days to get all their testing done. Again, I can't recall the exact number. I want to say it might have been 60. I know that we were so close to the end of the year, that they let us know we would probably be going into the next year since it would be difficult to find the time since the diagnostician and autism, speech specialists are so busy with end of the year ARD meetings for kids already under an ARD. I am fairly sure those 60 days are school calendar days and not calendar year days. However, we were pleased that they chose to push it through because they wanted to evaluate him with a teacher he had been with all year instead of at the beginning of the school year and a new teacher. We got the report on his evaluations the last week of school. Normally, we would meet after that, but we were going into summer, so it wasn't possible. They told us they would be there one more week after school let out and to call if we had any questions. While we had to let it all sink in and had many emotions, we were pleased with their conclusions. We had his ARD for the school year the week before students returned to class. Usually this ARD would be done at the end of the year; however, due to the timetable of him entering into special ed, we had to do it then. This year, we did it in May as we will always do unless someone calls a meeting at another time during the year.

I just found this timeline online. Maybe it will help.


http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/special.e ... meline.pdf
http://www.texasprojectfirst.org/SEProcessStep.html

I have met with the principal and we agreed we need to have the ARD to get him evaluated to get him the special education services. She had me sign the papers to give permission for her to call an ARD. That was in April/May.

Then it sounds like they aren't evaluating him until the first of the new school year. I am guessing this was almost at the end of your school year that you signed the paperwork. I am not 100% and this timeline doesn't specify, but I think those 60 days go off the school calendar since most of the diagnosticians don't work during the summer months. At least that is what out district said, but we didn't have to challenge them on it. You might do a search to further define how those 60 days are determined. If they are doing it correctly and depending on when your first day back is, , then that would probably put you in late Sept., early Oct. for them to get it all teh evaluations done and it written up. I think the timeline shows they have 30 days after that to have his first ARD meeting.