Does an OLD IEP travel with you ?

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I have complained here many times about my problems with my son's school district. We do not agree that he has ID and we are worried about the district possibly changing his placement from autism specific preschool program to a program for kids with multiple disabilities, including ID.

One option is to just terminate his IEP, put him in a private preschool, and eventually move to a different district (maybe next year). I know that if we change districtd right away, when his IEP is currently in effect, then the IEP will travel with us and will be implemented until the new district has been able to evaluate him. My fear is that the new district MAY be influenced by the current district's claims that he has ID. So, we are seriously considering rejecting his current FAPE, placing him in a private school for about 4 to 5 months, and then getting him evaluated by the new district.

Will the fact that he was previously In a public school program affect my child, even if he was a private school program at the time of moving to a new district ? Can the new district still demand to see his old IEP and can we refuse to present it to them ? Help !

I forgot how old your child is, so forgive me for this.

If your child is not old enough for mandatory school, I cannot imagine that they can force you to get the records forwarded. I don't know what the rules are if your child is of mandatory school age, so I realize I am not answering your question.

The part I do know is that when you start doing all the paperwork, even at the pre-k level (which is when we started dealing with all this) they do ask if your child has attended another school/school district prior. I presume if the answer is "yes," (It was "no" in our case) that they will ask to see the records. They will ask for any record that they know to exist that might be relevant.

I would assume you could answer "yes," and tell them that you disagreed with the findings and don't find them useful, so you are not authorizing them to be sent over. I think they would immediately be suspicious of this, however.

He is 3.



I am sure that they would be suspicious but I don't care. What I am more concerned about is if they can then FORCE the transfer of records with or without my permission, quoting some vague law somewhere that applies to the public school system ??

Have you signed the IEP that you don't agree with? If you haven't yet, don't, or sign it with a qualifying statement that you and your son's pediatrician don't agree with the school psych's assessment.

I think that he will come up in the system in the future if you do as you propose. However, an IEP (I think this is federal not state law) is only good for 1 year so if you re-join the public school system more than one year from the time you signed (if you did) the current IEP then they CANNOT use it. It will be expired and they will ave to come back to the table. I sure think it would be better to start off on the right foot with the new district once you are there. Lying to them right off the bat would probably set the stage for a bad relationship.

BTW, they CAN'T change his placement without your consent. I don't know how hard core these folks are that you are dealing with but remember, you have rights, you are part of the team and they cannot just do as they please with out your input. I know you are worried but keep that in mind!

Have you written the administrators in charge about your concerns with the school psych's assessment?

What is ID?

Given her other posts I think ID is for Intellectual Disabilities.

I think it all depends upon the new district you go to. My new district has never requested any of either of my kids old records and have said that if they decide either needs an evaluation, they would do a new one themselves and not rely on an old one done by someone else. Neither of my kids were currently on an IEP when I transferred, though, and they both came from private school.

First, I'd get a good advocate. Your situation isn't typical and is kind of complex. Also, a good advocate will have a feel for the school districts and schools in your area, and how they operate. Start reading wrightslaw and maybe buy/check out some of their books.

What follows are my thoughts and ideas, and I could be wrong about some of this. Things are different state to state.

I would probably not decline FAPE. It could hurt you later, and you can lose rights. If you disagree with the IEP write on the document that you can not accept it 'for many reasons which include .....' That way they can't pretend that you agreed to it or have your signature appear somewhere it didn't belong. The new school district may have a right to see the old IEP, but even if they don't, starting the whole IEP process over can take a long time. Their clock would reset for developing an IEP, and if you disagree with the new school district, you'll practically be starting all over.

School attendance isn't mandatory until kindergarten (or later), so you are safe to have your child attend a private preschool, and still have an IEP. Preschool is something the public school has to offer, but you can decline it. I think you are in the ideal situation....you can advocate for your child without worrying about how they are treating him. Your child doesn't have to be in their care, and you have plenty of time to get reports and collect data that they are not manipulating. Also, I wouldn't hand over any psychological records (of yours) that you don't want them to have. If it isn't going to help your child, they aren't entitled to it. I'd also map his progress during preschool. Keep all his schoolwork, and have him tested (academic levels...not IQ) at the end of each school year. Then if he doesn't make progress in say K-1st grade, you are in a good position to demand they pay for private placement at public expense. Also, if they don't offer an appropriate placement and the preschool is expensive, it might be possible to make them pay for private school at public expense. Your case for private placement starts looking good when they say he isn't capable of doing x, y & z and then he does them in a private placement.

If they haven't done them, I'd request in writing that they do PT, OT, speech, and psychological/educational evaluations with explanations for why they are needed. Then if you don't agree with the results of their in house evaluations, request in writing IEEs (independent educational evaluations) for those you don't agree with. An IEE lets you choose someone privately to evaluate your child, and they have to pay for it. They can fight the IEE, but I think they have to file a due process appeal to do so, and when they file, the burden of proof is on them. Also, a due process appeal (including mediation) should take about 2 months). The IEE stuff is generally going to extend out how long it takes for the IEP to get finished (at least that's how I see it), since private evaluations themselves typically take 3 months.

The new school district will review the IEP and probably work with you to improve up on it, but you want it as close to correct when you come in. Also, this insures that if your new school district is just as bad, it will be easier to get him what he needs.

The dealbreaker with the 'stop now and start the process over for kindergarten' plan is that if the new school district also stinks, then you could end up having to keep him in public school in a crap environment while you have an ugly IEP fight for an appropriate placement. With my son, I didn't have the stomach to watch him get neglected (IMHO) while I continued fighting a long IEP battle, so I chose to homeschool him for a while, but in doing so, he lost his rights. Also, when you have ugly IEP fight, your relationships with teachers and staff goes to hell. Better to not have your child in the school when that happens.

Hi Scott,

Thank you for such a detailed post and advise for me, I am a little worried, though, about the possibility of giving up my son's rights when I reject their FAPE.

What is the worst that could happen ? Since I am in such vehement disagreement with them, anyway, does it really matter that I do not want his current IEP implemented ? Secondly, wouldn't my son always be eligible for a FAPE in the future, even if I reject it now ?

I am totally in agreement with you that there is zero guarantee that my son's new school district will be very different from his current one. HOWEVER, I am looking to go back to the public school system only after he turns 6 or reaches the mandatory age for a school education - and that only if, at that point of time, I decide that his needs are severe enough that I won't be able to meet them at home via homeschool.

I am confused and exhausted. These female dogs are hardcore and they have such a negative prognosis for my son that I don't want him to pick up on those dismissal feelings. In fact, I am very concerned that they may not even be working on his goals because they feel that he isn't getting ahead, so why waste time, so to speak ?

My son does have delays but his cognition is intact and he can problem solve. I just do not want them to have the ability to manipulate his data and then convince themselves - and me - that he won't get better.

But, the warning in your post about giving up his rights worry me. Could you please explain further on how he may become ineligible for FAPE at a later date, just because I rejected his current one ? That worries / concerns me

Thanks in advance for clarifying / advising me in this regard.

I"m probably getting my terminology wrong, but you can decline/dispute the IEP and fight to fix it, or you can decline ESE services for your child (walk away from it all). Hard call to make if you are considering homeschooling. If you can afford evaluations and therapy out of pocket and intend to homeschool, then dealing with IEPs is probably a waste of time.

If you walk away, you can always go back into the system, but the deadlines start all over again. My point about rights, is that if you completely walk away from the IEP system, then to get most services and support you need to get back in the system and start over. For example, I chose to pull my son to homeschool him at age 6, and in doing so I gave up my ability to file a due process appeal for services and support, and also I lost my ability to fight for private school at public expense. I couldn't fight for them to pay for private school at public expense while I was homeschooling at school aged child. I would have to reenroll him in the public school first. Your situation is different because your child is not of school age, but there are rights with IEPs under IDEA.

find a good LOCAL advocate in your area even if it is just to pay for an hour of their services and talk to them about specifics. You stated that your intent was to switch counties in 4-5 months, but if you decide to stay in the same county for a couple of years, maybe dropping the IEP fight completely is a good route. Also do you need the school to provide any therapy?

The reasons for not walking away completely right now are...
1. You can get some therapeutic services (speech, OT, PT) if needed and have them pay for private evaluations.
2. IEPs often take a lot of time. When you transfer in with an IEP, they have a month. When you initiate an IEP, they often have a LOT of time to get it completed.
3. If you return to public school, you want a good IEP established because you don't want to have the IEP fight while your child is in school. They'll immediately go into the right placement instead of being evaluated and them moved. Finally (as with your current school system), by going through the IEP process, you may very well determine that the new school system isn't willing or able to provide the support your child needs. By going through the IEP process ahead of time, you avoid placing them in public school and then having to either remove them or keep them in a bad placement.
4. Training/practice...you are learning the IEP system when you really don't have anything on the line, so that when it actually counts, you will know how to play the game.
5. Because your child isn't in public school right now, they can't manipulate the data. Private preschool teachers will be up front with his issues and wont be influenced by public school administrators trying to cut the budget. If down the road you have to put your child in public school and no IEP is in place, the teachers and staff you are disagreeing with will be the very ones observing his behavior and writing reports about how her is doing in school.

And yes if your intent is to homeschool and you can get support elsewhere, then there probably isn't much point to these time consuming battles with public schools.

Yes. I just want to say that this happened to me, too. My daughter was in private school (never was in public school as I sent her to the private one for pre-school and kindergarten) and I was told that in order to start services for her, she would have to be enrolled in the public school. They evaluated her in the private school setting, but basically told me that without her being enrolled in the public school, they did not have services available for her. I did not realize this would happen when I initially enrolled her in the private school. I assumed they'd just let her stay there and have her services provided in an outpatient setting outside of school. That assumption was wrong, and I have always found it very shady that when she was aging out of the 3-5 program, no one explained that to me. I would have never put her in the crappy district in our area anyway, but it would have been nice to know.

One more thought, regardless of what happens with the school, get some good private evaluations for him. Go to a center that specializes in these kids and do a full evaluation. If you don't think it fits, then get another.

My son's IEP had him listed as ADD. A diagnosis I never agreed with and I was correct he is AS. The plus side was that an IEP in many states qualifies them for private school scholarships/vouchers etc. Florida it is called McKay. I did a few random googles and the states I chose did have similar but I didn't read all the details of them just wanted to make sure I was giving you good advice. I took the scholarship and put him in a school that is equiped to deal with his particular issues. They even had an additional need based scholarship that I qualifed for. The school, because they are equiped to deal with his issues did their own evaluation and his IEP is now basically non existant since they teach the way the child learns not in just one standard fashion. He has gone from D's and F's to A's and B's and from not grasping the material to excelling at it. I know this doesn't answer your original question but I hope it helps you some