It Worked!

The district lady called today and I got the IEE. She is sending all the paperwork to me now. She tried to talk me into agreeing to another team through the district, implying that it was six of one, half dozen of the other, but I didn't buy it. I told her how my husband is a doctor and does QME exams all the time for work comp patients, and how I thought that the IEE was the equivalent of a QME and how I felt it would help to have an independent evaluator. I also specified a couple of areas where the assessment team minimized negative test results. And even though my son might not need services at this time, having a better, more accurate diagnosis could help him in the long run as he goes higher in school and is expected to work more and more independently. She said she would be sending me a bunch of "legal paperwork", but that I would probably not find it difficult to deal with at all since I was familiar with the QME process.

YAY YAY YAY! Doing the Snoopy happy dance here. One more hurdle surmounted. Life happens one step and a time and this is all I can ask for at the moment.

I got their attention

I turned in the letter requesting the Independent Educational Evaluation for my son yesterday, and by the end of the day the school was calling me, which is good. School is almost out and we need to get the ball rolling now. Here is the body of the letter:

I am revoking my signature to the Eligibility Statement for Specific Leaning Disability in which the box was checked "This pupil does not exhibit a learning disability as defined by CR3030J" on 5-1-2008.
I am requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation for my son, ****, because I disagree with the results of the district's evaluation.
Please respond to this letter within 5 days because the evaluator will need access to observe ****'s in-class behavior, in the same manner ****'s in-class behavior was observed during the district's assessment.
If you have a list of local evaluators, please send that to me.

The part that angered me the most about my meeting on May 1st was that they lied to me about the paper that they wanted me to sign. At the end of the 2-hour meeting, they took out a paper and asked me to sign it. When I got a doubtful expression on my face, the school psychologist assured me that I was not agreeing to anything. This paper only stated that I attended the meeting. I signed without looking at the fine print. DUMB! And guess what? The paper actually said that I agreed that my son does not have a learning disability!#*&! I am in my MID FORTIES people! I should know better than that!!!!!! The good news is that I learned at the seminar last week that I had a right to revoke my signature. In fact, I needed to revoke my signature so that I could request the IEE. And I had to wait until they were done with their assessment so that I would have something to disagree with, because you can't have an IEE unless you disagree with the district's evaluation. I also learned at the seminar that I don't have to explain exactly what part of the evaluation that I disagree with. So I didn't specify. I mean, I don't know what my son's true diagnosis *is*, so I don't want to narrow the field before he has been diagnosed by expressing my opinions like that. I also learned that I have the right to have the independent evaluator brought into my son's class to observe him, since that was a portion of the prior assessment. Good!

The school's special ed director called me yesterday and gave me the phone number of the district's special ed director. I don't know if this means that they agree to give me the IEE yet or not. They have the right to refuse, which will force a hearing. I think if we do go to a hearing, however, I will win, because I can show how *they* minimized 20% of *their own* exam findings. They had no explanation why he did poorly on these certain areas, other than he must not have been "paying attention" when he did those portions of the test. {eyeroll} Come on, folks. You can do better than that. {eyeroll}

So I cc'd everybody that was at the meeting, the school principal, the teacher, the school psychologist, the special ed director and the vice principal. AND I had the front desk lady at the school sign and date my copy of the letter to prove that they received it yesterday. There is a timeline that they have to comply with when they receive written requests like these and I wanted them to know that I know what the rules are. Implying that I will report them if they are out of compliance. I am not afraid of them. I am not intimidated. I have my focus set on what is in the best interest of my son. Most of them are focused on what is in the best interest of the school district, and I understand that. Good thing there are laws in place to protect children with special needs. We really need them.