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Public schools actually do everything within their power NOT to send students to non-public schools, because it's much less expensive for the district to keep a student in a public school. So if LAUSD approved your attendance at a non-public school, there had to be a pretty darned good reason.
It was a good reason, but the reason was based on lie. When I was 12 years old, I was lied about hearing voices in order to get more attention from my parents, and because I was being teased by my peers. I also played the role of mentally disturbed student in order to be placed at an SED school. However a psychologist should have been picked up on my game.
Once I figured out what I was doing to myself (I was 17) I realized I made a mistake.
While I was attending the SED non-public school, I was also a law enforcement explorer. A student with my so-called diagnosis wouldn't have been able to complete a paramilitary style academy, because he or she wouldn't have been disciplined enough. That alone should have been a red flag. I completed the law enforcement explorer academy before I was excepted into the non-public school. I didn't have any difficulties in the law enforcement explorer program until the other explorers teased me for being at that kind of school. It wasn't a secret, because in order to stay in the program, we had to submit our report cards.
While I was in the Law Enforcement explorer program, I participated in training drills every other week which included felony car stop training, searching an airplane for contraband, and searching luggage for contraband. If I really suffered from diagnosis that required me to be placed in a non-public school, I wouldn't have been able to succeed in the program.
The Law enforcement agents and inspectors who ran the program even questioned my parents why I was going to that kind of school.
Bottom line...
I caused my own problem by lying, but professionals with five to eight years of college and 5+ years of experience in their fields should have been able to pick up my lies.
OK, and this is my last response on this subject .....
Your original question was "why do parents unnecessarily place their kids in IEPs?"
If you were "unnecessarily" placed in Special Education, it's because of your own actions -- it had nothing to do with your parents, the school district or anyone other than yourself.
Psychologists are as human as the rest of us, and they sometimes make mistakes. Obviously you were a good enough liar to make him/her believe that you suffered from pretty significant psychiatric/emotional issues. I'm guessing you had your "naive" (your words) parents convinced as well. Again, if they hadn't been convinced that you needed a non-public school, or if they disagreed with the placement, all they had to do was refuse to sign the IEP where it says "I agree with this placement" and then pursue Due Process to challenge it.
I was my worst enemy in that situation. You're 100% about that. I fooled my parents, two school psychologist, and a lord knows how many HMO mental health providers.
OK, and this is my last response on this subject .....
Your original question was "why do parents unnecessarily place their kids in IEPs?"
If you were "unnecessarily" placed in Special Education, it's because of your own actions -- it had nothing to do with your parents, the school district or anyone other than yourself.
Psychologists are as human as the rest of us, and they sometimes make mistakes. Obviously you were a good enough liar to make him/her believe that you suffered from pretty significant psychiatric/emotional issues. I'm guessing you had your "naive" (your words) parents convinced as well. Again, if they hadn't been convinced that you needed a non-public school, or if they disagreed with the placement, all they had to do was refuse to sign the IEP where it says "I agree with this placement" and then pursue Due Process to challenge it.
I completely disagree as my experiences as a teacher were the same as those of the OP. As you very wisely stated in a previous post, it very much depends on the district and the school.
In the [high] school where I was teaching, there were a lot of kids with IEP's; I had at least two in every class. Some of the time, they had a genuine need for an IEP; others were disadvantaged, had a history of failure and were evaluated by a psychologist at the parent's request.
IMHE, their IEP's gave them (well, their parents, mostly) an excuse to blame their failures on the teachers and provided ammunition when the report cards were distributed. A lot of these parents were in denial about the reason why their children were failing or simply knew that they couldn't provide their children with what they needed to succeed (tutoring, help with homework) so they got them on an IEP to excuse any failure. And the school psychologist was as unobjective as they came--he handed out IEP's like candy and had very few ideas about how to actually help those students.
Even when the IEP's were followed (extra time on homework and tests, typed notes from class lectures, posted homework, modified tests), they rarely seemed to help. And the worst was that the teacher could only do what was on the IEP and nothing more, one-on-one tutoring that actually might have improved the situation, even when he/she wanted to. In short, the IEP's at the school where I worked were completely abused by the parents and the school psychologist and din't seem to actually help the students at all.
Even worse, some of the students who had IEP's were performing porrly due to unrecognized physical impediments (i.e. poor vision and no glasses, poor hearing) but were sent to the school psychologist and were never even tested for auditory or visual problems. During a conversation with the school nurse, she told me that the year before, 58 students out of those that were tested for visual problems were found to have inadequate vision (i.e. they couldn't even see the board) and (surprise) they were all failing when they were tested. Even worse, they weren't tested until January b/c that was when the federally-funded vision-and-hearing squad scheduled their evaluations for that particular school, who relied on said squad to perform the evaluations and could not schedule sooner with a different set of specialists due to budgetary constraints. So every year, kids were failing b/c they couldn't see. And many would never say anything; as a teacher, you just had to catch them squinting. Worse yet, when conferences re: failing students were scheduled, a student's vision and hearing weren't even considered as an adequate reason for the student to be failing, and many of those students had IEP's; most of the teachers just dismissed the situation and said that the student "couldn't do the work." The whole situation was truly disheartening.
My experience with 504's (of which I had less students) was that those were the kids that really were disdvantaged due to an obvious learning disability. In fact, they were some of my hardest working and most dedicated students. But even with a 504, it was difficult to help them, especially when they were stuck in a class of 30. Seeing those kids struggle was really difficult.
I'm sorry that this has been your experience with IEPs. I know the system isn't perfect, nor are the people who participate in it. However, the OP attended a non-public school, and I still maintain that the decision for that kind of placement simply isn't made "unnecessarily" and without a LOT of deliberation. Placing a student in a non-public school comes with an exhorbitant price tag, which then takes money away from programs at the public schools. It's been my experience that districts will fight tooth and nail to keep kids IN public schools -- to the point where parents have had to (successfully) sue districts for reimbursement of tuition costs.
I completely disagree as my experiences as a teacher were the same as those of the OP. As you very wisely stated in a previous post, it very much depends on the district and the school.
In the [high] school where I was teaching, there were a lot of kids with IEP's; I had at least two in every class. Some of the time, they had a genuine need for an IEP; others were disadvantaged, had a history of failure and were evaluated by a psychologist at the parent's request.
IMHE, their IEP's gave them (well, their parents, mostly) an excuse to blame their failures on the teachers and provided ammunition when the report cards were distributed. A lot of these parents were in denial about the reason why their children were failing or simply knew that they couldn't provide their children with what they needed to succeed (tutoring, help with homework) so they got them on an IEP to excuse any failure. And the school psychologist was as unobjective as they came--he handed out IEP's like candy and had very few ideas about how to actually help those students.
Even when the IEP's were followed (extra time on homework and tests, typed notes from class lectures, posted homework, modified tests), they rarely seemed to help. And the worst was that the teacher could only do what was on the IEP and nothing more, one-on-one tutoring that actually might have improved the situation, even when he/she wanted to. In short, the IEP's at the school where I worked were completely abused by the parents and the school psychologist and din't seem to actually help the students at all.
Even worse, some of the students who had IEP's were performing porrly due to unrecognized physical impediments (i.e. poor vision and no glasses, poor hearing) but were sent to the school psychologist and were never even tested for auditory or visual problems. During a conversation with the school nurse, she told me that the year before, 58 students out of those that were tested for visual problems were found to have inadequate vision (i.e. they couldn't even see the board) and (surprise) they were all failing when they were tested. Even worse, they weren't tested until January b/c that was when the federally-funded vision-and-hearing squad scheduled their evaluations for that particular school, who relied on said squad to perform the evaluations and could not schedule sooner with a different set of specialists due to budgetary constraints. So every year, kids were failing b/c they couldn't see. And many would never say anything; as a teacher, you just had to catch them squinting. Worse yet, when conferences re: failing students were scheduled, a student's vision and hearing weren't even considered as an adequate reason for the student to be failing, and many of those students had IEP's; most of the teachers just dismissed the situation and said that the student "couldn't do the work." The whole situation was truly disheartening.
My experience with 504's (of which I had less students) was that those were the kids that really were disdvantaged due to an obvious learning disability. In fact, they were some of my hardest working and most dedicated students. But even with a 504, it was difficult to help them, especially when they were stuck in a class of 30. Seeing those kids struggle was really difficult.
I had two problems. I was a chronic asthmatic and it cause me to have a raspy voice. Kids made fun of me for that reason, and I become oversensitive about it. I stood up to a bully at school and fought him for making fun of me. The teacher sent a note home to mother, and my mother spanked me and grounded me for two weeks for standing up for myself. She knew I was being teased everyday, but she told me turn the other cheek and deal with it. My father was the one who wanted me to fight back. I was confused as hell when I was a kid. I didn't know what to do.
My beef with IEPs and non-public schools is that the psychologist who do the screening do not fully investigate to see what's going on. If my the psychologist would have further investigated my situation, she would have discovered that my parents and I needed to be in group counseling.
I think the system is too screwed up. Special education helps students who need it. Non-public schools are good where the teachers and administrators are qualified.
That's why I said that the system needs to audited and monitored better. If funding has to be cut in order for psychologist not to be able to hand out IEPs like it's candy then so be it.
I'm sorry that this has been your experience with IEPs. I know the system isn't perfect, nor are the people who participate in it. However, the OP attended a non-public school, and I still maintain that the decision for that kind of placement simply isn't made "unnecessarily" and without a LOT of deliberation. Placing a student in a non-public school comes with an exhorbitant price tag, which then takes money away from programs at the public schools. It's been my experience that districts will fight tooth and nail to keep kids IN public schools -- to the point where parents have had to (successfully) sue districts for reimbursement of tuition costs.
I do agree with that statement, and thank you for pointing out that the issue varies according to public/private schools. I have taught at both and in the private school, IEP's did actually seem necessary and faithfully/objectively applied to students, for all of the reasons that you have stated.
Public school, however, is another matter entirely.
Yet that still does not invalidate the OP's experiences. I still like the perspective and opinion that one really can't generalize; it varies from school to school, public or private, although there does appear to be less incentive for parents, etc. to apply IEP's at private schools. Do students at private schools even need IEP's? IMHE, the answer is usually no b/c the classes and enrollment are so much smaller that teachers can tailor material to each student. Not to mention that private schools are not bound by the same laws and rules and, therefore, bureaucracy that public schools are bound by.
Which makes me wonder why a private school is using IEP's in the first place...?
We're not quite talking about the same thing, I think. The OP was placed in a non-public Special Ed school, and that's what I'm referring to. My (limited) regular private school experience was that the teachers looked at the IEPs, but weren't bound by them.
Non-public schools such as the OP attended admit students who often have such severe emotional and/or behavioral difficulties that they're unable to access the curriculum in a public school. They can be either long- or short-term placements, depending on the needs of the particular child. They DO follow IEPs (in theory, at least), and case management remains with the student's public school district. Tuition costs are also paid for by that school district.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 01-24-2010 at 08:49 PM..
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