[blindkid] Now IEPs

Chantel Alberhasky chantel at alberhaskylaw.com
Tue Feb 26 02:13:51 UTC 2013


Carrie, I am glad your son has done so well.  As evidenced by your lengthy email you have strong opinions regarding IEPs and whether blind children should have an IEP or a Section 504 plan.  As you know, every child who has an IEP is covered under Section 504.  I have to say I believe you have been given poor counsel regarding the legal protection a Section 504 plan affords a student.   Again, Section 504 has nothing to do with education but access.
You stated  "the process" has many flaws.  It obviously does.  I spend my days fighting school districts on behalf of disabled children in this flawed system.  It was due to the flawed system that we chose to remove our middle son from public school and place in him a private school that specializes in children with learning disabilities and autism.  We are fortunate we have the financial resources to send him to a private school.  Most parents do not have that luxury.  I tell my parents that the point is not to beat the school district but to get your child the education they need.  
In any event, I think every parent needs to educate themselves regarding their rights and to seek advice from a lawyer who specializes in special education law if they are having difficulty with their school district.  The
 area of special education law is complex and is often misunderstood as evidenced by some of the statements I've read in today's exchange.
Chantel L. Alberhasky, Esq
419 Boonville Avenue
Springfield, MO 65806
417.865.4444

The Missouri Bar Disciplinary Counsel requires all Missouri attorneys 
to notify all recipients of e-mail that (1) e-mail communication is not a
secure method of communication, (2) any e-mail that is sent to you or 
by you may be copied and held by various computers it passes through as it
goes from me to you or vice versa, (3) persons not participating in our
communication may intercept our communications by improperly accessing
your computer or my computer or even some computer unconnected to 
either of us which the e-mail passed through. I am communicating to you via
e-mail because you have consented to receive communications via this
medium. If you change your mind and want future communications to
 be
sent in a different fashion, please let me know AT ONCE.


--- On Mon, 2/25/13, Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Now IEPs
To: "Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Monday, February 25, 2013, 7:23 PM

Well somehow I feel the reaction to this comparison Heather made, and my responses, has gotten quite dramatic and I feel as if we might have said "Everyone! chuck your IEP's and run naked through the woods." Again I cannot speak for or clarify Heather's own words...but mine and my agreement with it as she had Said them herself. it is not the above charge to action.

It could not be helpful to attempt to cover the entire history
 of education for blind children and the movement to the public school system en masse after the 1950's and the new inclusion of children (some of them with "modern" disabilities due to environment or greatly advanced medicine so they survived things like birth or car accident or illness where they did not before)paralleling that timeline who had every conceivable "special need"...and the need for protections in the law and an ordered plan that could meet the vast vast differences in each disability or medical condition that affected learning...but perhaps enough so it is understood that I get it. And make no mistake, I appreciate the laws, legal protections, and serious well intentioned attempts to include each child and prepare them to enter the world ready to function to their full potentials via IEPs.

It remains however a fact, that the process has many flaws. yes the process itself. the law has weak points. the IEP is not the Holy Grail.
 Normalcy, or fulfilling your potential is. is the IEP in most or many cases the best way to get what you need and ensure you keep it in our current system? yes. is it the best possible way? maybe not. does it fail time and time again due to prejudice, ignorance, poor training, incompetence, lack of funding? yes. does it sometimes go very well at school but no one carries it through at home? Yes, many times yes. 

If a child has been blind all along, is totally proficient...reading Braille at the top of their class...and age appropriate IN EVERY WAY....life skill...they take part in every chore and self care at home, have tons of variable independent travel experience...travel as well as their sighted peers, use technology and can problem solve independently...in other words as no need whatsoever of INSTRUCTION...but only accommodation...there are real positive reasons to go to a 504...

If someone was having success there I would not
 automatically counsel them out of it (IEP).but I would encourage any parent of a child who was ONLY blind...that even if the IEP is kept ( meaning you have to have some goals and instruction even if minimal) even if


By the time my son was a sophomore in high school he should have had no need...maybe even years before...NO NEED of specialized instruction...and he was almost there.
He himself found his own schedule and teacher names when the schedules came out as did all his sighted peers. He himself contacted and made appointments with those teachers to introduce himself and make them aware of what he needed and did not. he then met with them alone. he himself contacted teachers to get the ISBN numbers for texts and work packets and ordered all his own materials...ALL. On a weekly basis HE put the next week's assignments from the teachers into the Braillist's mailbox. He needed no further training on any technology, he knew Kurweill, how to
 scan, BrailleNote.uses a CCTV..etc....and also if he did not know he knew where to go to get the information and when something worked or did not and what to do when one thing failed (BrailleNote dies in lecture...take out Braille paper and slate and stylus)... he was traveling all over Minneapolis, had flown independently several times...used cabs independently...he was even ahead of many of his sighted peers in independent travel experience
Capable of every household chore, could cook as well as any of his siblings at same age....etc etc....the only reason we kept an IEP was because they had failed and robbed him of proper education for his first decade of school...all his competent instruction came from outside private (NFB) and home as we battled inside...then all he had left was his reading speed...and finally his junior year a TBS rose up in our district and agreed to "coach" him on speed and college reading /study and test taking skills... and
 to openly cheer BRAILLE and a belief in him. Seriously her attitude was in the IEP. so he saw her for that 2x a week before school for 30 minutes. 
he should have been ready for a 504... His senior year we sort of "made up" a goal after wracking our brain just to keep that extra legal net I was paranoid to let go of because of the very horrible experiences and failures in the system we had been through.  Know others who did not need that extra net feeling who had better early experiences and had been fully supported by local systems. the people I cringe for most are those who believe in the IEP as savior and as possible to meet all the needs of a blind child, even a good one. Again, i said as a SAVIOR. and lastly...I wish I had let it go at least  His last year...because of his swelling pride, sense of I am REALLY just like any other student here except for ACCESS is different than majority.i do not need SPECIAL instruction or a "SPecial"
 teacher...and the truth is, if they had done their jobs in elementary and early middle school, he should not have needed further INSTRUCTION beyond what any other student needed by high school.

He graduates from a Big Ten University this spring. he already knew how to get his textbooks, speak with and arrange with the Disability service office for his test and course material accommodations, how to self advocate to his state office of blindservices vocational counselor and keep communicating need, receipts, bills, grades...speak with professors about his blindness and how to get course syllabi ...or attempt to get it ahead for brailling...what to do when course material is not accessible...all on his own...it was not all new the first day of college he had been doing that for a couple of years already. so now he is in real life...

Carrie
Sent from my iPad

On Feb 25, 2013, at 3:11 PM, Chantel Alberhasky <chantel at alberhaskylaw.com> wrote:

> I don't think IEPs are necessary evils so I don't agree that we need to work toward ensuring kids don't need IEPs.   Children with educational disabilities have unique needs and I would argue it is in everyone's best interest for there to be a written contract so everyone (school and parents) agree as to what specialized instructions and services the child needs to receive educational benefit and so there is no misunderstanding as to how to accommodate the student's unique needs.  No two students are alike just as no two IEPs should be the same.
> As for those who made it through school without an IEP, if they did so and received Braille instruction then it must have been before 1997.  In any event, I would argue every blind child needs an IEP because they need specialized
 instruction.   I cringe when I hear parents of blind children mention their child only has a Section 504 plan.  
> Chantel L. Alberhasky, Esq
> 419 Boonville Avenue
> Springfield, MO 65806
> 417.865.4444
> 
> The Missouri Bar Disciplinary Counsel requires all Missouri attorneys 
> to notify all recipients of e-mail that (1) e-mail communication is not a
> secure method of communication, (2) any e-mail that is sent to you or 
> by you may be copied and held by various computers it passes through as it
> goes from me to you or vice versa, (3) persons not participating in our
> communication may intercept our communications by improperly accessing
> your computer or my computer or even some computer unconnected to 
> either of us which the e-mail passed through. I am communicating to you via
> e-mail because you have consented to receive communications
 via this
> medium. If you change your mind and want future communications to be
> sent in a different fashion, please let me know AT ONCE.
> 
> 
> --- On Mon, 2/25/13, Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> From: Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Now IEPs
> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Monday, February 25, 2013, 1:47 PM
> 
> Dear Trudy,
> Again I can't speak for Heather, or anyone, but I of course understand the current and likely in our lifetimes need for IDEA, and IEP process and
 existence in general. and I think heather does too. That is not to say we do not wish or work for it to be out of date as no longer needed...or to fail to address the many  problems within that process, some of which seem inherent, and also to acknowledge that not a few have indeed had NO IEP whatsoever and that has been appropriate and best because there was no need...and some have chosen the 504 path. in my advocacy I never did find a case personally in practice where I recommended chuck the IEP because terrific advocacy and legal reinforcement was indeed required...but i do know of not a few blind adults who did not have or need such a thing. And wouldn't that be nice...and isn't that our Ultimate goal?
> Crrie
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Feb 25, 2013, at 12:41 PM, Trudy Pickrel <tlpickrel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
 
>> Heather and Carri
>> 
>> I may be coming in at the end of a discussion as usual but I think one thought that is missing is the fact that we as advocates for our children know and hold the counties to the needs of our children. But I know from advocating for many children as the State President of the POBC IN MD. There are so many children that would not get service Braille or even a basic cane training if it were not for a IEP process. 
>> 
>> Trudy L Pickrel
>> President MD Parents Blind Children
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To
 unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/carrie.gilmer%40gmail.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/chantel%40alberhaskylaw.com
>
 _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/carrie.gilmer%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
blindkid mailing list
blindkid at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
To
 unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/chantel%40alberhaskylaw.com



More information about the BlindKid mailing list