[blindkid] Putting pressure on the school district

[Debby B]

Holly, and others,
One of the things we have been told is to do as much via email as possible for the written record.
Another big one we were told by attorneys was to keep notes in a SPIRAL bound notebook. Not as neat and organized, but proof of the order things happened. I bought a huge spiral for middle school. Over half full this school year alone.

 Debby 
bwbddl at yahoo.com
www.nfbflorida.org/parents

Please support Braille literacy and programs for our youth by sponsoring me in
the Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, join the team of the FL Parents of Blind Children!
http://www.marchforindependence.org/goto/debbyb




________________________________
From: holly miller <hollym12 at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 12:53:20 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Putting pressure on the school district

Carrie,
I am a full believer that there is nothing more powerful than mobilizing the
Moms (dads too! I just usually see more moms::smile:::)  Even though being
"just" a mom is powerful on it's own, I've found a lot of moms who also have
some pretty impressive backgrounds and are very generous about sharing their
expertise.
The internet is a wonderful thing.  Aside from being able to collect
information, it allows us to network with and support other parents we never
would have met otherwise.  I hope after I have Hank's situation straightened
out, I'll be able to return the favor and be a suporter rather than a
suportee.

As I"m gathering doccuments together and reading more indepth about proper
procedures, I'm seeing more and more technical mistakes made by the
district.
I hope this will not have to go to due process but I becoming more and more
confident they won't have a leg to stand on if it does.  Hopefully they will
realize that as well!!!

To anyone reading this, I can not stress enough how important doccumenting
every minute detail is.  And keeping that doccumentation organized!!!  I am
not a "born organized" person so this is a stretch for me. I've spent the
last few days trying to pull together papers scattered all over my office &
hard drive.  I'm putting it all together in a big binder. A section for
reports/evaluations, one for emails/letters (printed out & put in
chronological order), one for studies & research supporting my position and
another for sample doccuments like well written IEPs, what a comprehensive
LMA should look like etc.
I know I'm missing things but what I have pulled together is pretty
formidible.  While I was drawn to the hot pink swirly binder, I opted for
the more stark, professional grey/black one.

One thing I found just this morning that I had completely forgotten
happened (and am quite giddy about discovering) is an email from August to
the special services director specifically saying I wanted to pursue Braille
instruction for Hank and to please start whatever process and/or evalutions
were needed to make that happen.  I knew there had been many verbal
discussions about it.  I knew I *should* have put it in writing a long time
ago but I had completely forgotten that I did.  Frankly, in my own mind I
thought the first time I specifically said "time to do this" was at an IEP
meeting in October.   The director did respond to the email so it can't be
denied that she got it (her reply was along the lines of she'd look into
it)  Aside from the fact they are out of compliance for not automatically
considering Braille, I now have proof the clock started ticking 7 months
ago.

Below is the follow up letter I sent yesterday.  It was just to doccument
what transpired, I am not introducing any new informaton with it.

Holly