This is part three of a multi-part series about one father’s account of working with the dysfunctional special education system. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
My wife and I decided to hire a partnership of two advocates after it became apparent the IEP team was not serving our daughter’s best interests, despite their contentions. The advocates were former special education administrators who knew the laws and rights of parents. They were not cheap, but opened new opportunities.
By this time our daughter was in fourth grade and was not meeting her IEP goals. We had been pressured into moving schools, but we resisted. After one IEP meeting, the school psychologist said to me so only I could hear that it’s unfortunate when a school declares they can no longer provide for a student’s needs and transfers him or her against a parent’s wishes to another school. I don’t even know if this is legal, but I took it as a threat. We needed professional help.
Once our advocates started showing up to IEP meetings, it was amazing how many more services magically appeared. Services we didn’t even know existed, like vision therapy that helps students with vision tracking problems strengthen their reading. It became apparent the IEP team had been holding out on us. At the head of the team was the principal.
Our principal had for years tried to bond with my wife, woman to woman, and I thought tried to manipulate her feelings, once even claiming she herself was a former special education student. I was always the only male in the room at IEP meetings until we reached seventh grade. I was the bad cop, the one who would call the team out on failures. Occasionally someone would break ranks and speak to us privately about their optimism for our daughter and how with the right tools she could thrive. Unfortunately, the principal had decided after the initial assessment in second grade that our daughter wasn’t going to graduate from high school so why waste paying for services. We were told this in confidence from one of the IEP team members. The principal basically tried to get rid of us behind our back while kissing up to us in person.
The IEP team lived in fear of the principal. She made them toe the party line, the line that denied us the full support of services. Occasionally we would hear about her ambition to become a superintendent. Superintendents are guardians of finances. She wanted to impress her superiors that she could control insubordinate parents like us who demanded expensive services, services they were required to provide but only if you knew how to ask for them.
Was our principal a cold and heartless soul? Were the IEP team members accomplices in an evil scheme to keep our daughter down? I don’t believe that. I believe they are part of a dysfunctional system that pits the ambitions of administrators against the needs of students.
If I haven’t made my point about schools holding back services from special needs kids, let me recap my experience. My daughter was struggling from preschool through early second grade. I asked her teachers if something was wrong but I was told she would eventually catch up. When things finally came to a head I was told teachers can’t recommend assessments, that parents must (I believe the principal misled the teachers into believing that to save money). After transferring to another district, I again ran into roadblocks. I was lied to and threatened. I didn’t get the full range of services until I hired an advocate.
I don’t think my experience is an aberration. I experienced stonewalling at two different schools in two different districts. Both schools have API scores in the top 10% in the nation. One of the school districts is one of the most affluent in San Diego County.
I believe the root of the problem is systematic and incentivizes administrators to withhold services to reduce district costs (like healthcare). They emphatically deny it, but years of experience and insider comments has convinced me otherwise.
Signed,
Parent of San Diego County teenagers
Stay tuned for the conclusion…
