[blindkid] IEP and cane help needed

[Doreen Franklin]

Your help is needed again for our 4-1/2 yr old who will be going to the pre-K class in August. 

We are in the process of having 8 individual evals done for the Comprehensive Psych Eval in her IEP. One of the evals is for O&M, but I have not gotten a call for the eval yet. (Our schools are out June 10). We feel strongly that our daughter needs a cane and we have gotten one thru NFB. We also were at the state convention this last weekend and cane and Braille were reinforced many times! (And I have just been sent an email indicating that even with the evals done, the reports will not be done even for our IEP meeting on June 8. We do need to have the meeting to do a few other items, one of which will be a placement at an ESE-inclusive pre-K class).

At our last IEP in April, it was suggested that I get her pediatrician to write a note for the cane, take it to the nurse and then get an Individualized Health Care plan written for the cane; it would then be an addendum to the IEP. Long story short, I am being told the doc cannot do it (it is not a medical issue) - but school board cannot cite a law/statute which prohibits it from happening or not happening. At this point, I am not even sure the cane will be discussed at our next IEP on June 8 without the O&M eval being done.

If you talk to our daughter, she will even tell you she does not trip or hit as many things with her cane in her hand. She FEELS safer with the cane and IS safer with the cane, but the school board is not seeing it. Other parents of blind and VI children can see the need for the cane, but other people are not seeing her need. Even at home, she is like the "pinball wizard" - sometimes hitting one chair, to a 2nd chair on her way to her room. She has not gotten seriously hurt, but she has hit her face about a half dozen times. 

Question is ... can we provide private instructions for her (thru a friend who is blind and uses a cane) so that she can use the cane in school when she goes to school in August without the school board saying she cannot use it without proper instruction by them? Is there a law I can give to them for the cane?  What are our recourses, besides threatening a law suit should something happen to her?

Any and all help will be appreciated .... MANY thanks!!!!
Doreen and David Franklin




Doreen
Please support Braille literacy & programs for our youth by sponsoring me in
the Motor City March for Independence! 
www.marchforindependence.org/goto/doreenf