need emergency IEP info asap

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well after finally getting to a happy place with K's schooling, today his teacher called and told me the school district is pulling his beloved aide and replacing her with someone who has never worked with an autistic child before. apparently, this is purely a human resources issue as the new aide is a regular employee who is no longer needed in the EI classroom she was in.

i am not getting my calls to the SpEd director returned, and this change is suppose to take place on monday. needless to say, i am freaking out.

questions:
if i request an emergency iep, does the law allow me to insist that no changes to his services take place before the meeting?
is replacing his aide considered a change to services?
any other options?

tomorrow i am parking my butt at the district office until i get to see someone in SpEd and HR, along with a letter of my concerns of what this change will do to him and a request for an emergency iep mtg.

It only counts as a change to his service if their qualifications are different. SO..... autism experienced is a biggie for me. That said, how is the service worded in his IEP? If it just says 1:1 paraprofessional, the new person may meet those qualifications.

It is called "Stay Put" option and it is codified in IDEA. What happens is that if there is a change in services that one of the parties to the IEP does not agree to, the current setup stays in force until an IEP meeting is held. I cannot give you verse and detail of the law right now.

In any case, you need to send a letter to the Sp Ed director, HR director, and District Super ASAP stating that you are exercising the rights of your son to keep the same services as they were until the IEP meeting is held. If they do not follow the rules, a Due Process hearing AND a complaint to the State Department of Education will follow.

Also note that a union contract cannot violate Federal Law so don't let them try to make that argument.

thank you both for your input. i am looking into the stay put provision.

his current aide is experienced with special needs, but i am not sure specifically with asd. she is absolutely wonderful with K tho. the new aide is coming out of an emotionally impaired classroom which is vastly different from asd, and i know she has no exp with asd, but not sure on other special needs.

one of the stumbling blocks i think is that his IEP has no provision for an aide. weve been adding services in as needed, not everything is actually in his iep tho. under the stay put provision, perhaps the fact that there is no aide in his iep may actually help us keep the new aide from being put in there until we get a mtg, but it may also not keep the old aide in.

i already have a letter drafted expressing our disagreement with changing the aide, i will also have a letter with me requesting the emergency iep mtg if the first letter doesnt work. i will have enough copies for the SpEd director, HR director (who is actually the Assistant Superintendent), and for the Superintendent if necessary.

earlier this evening i spoke to the asd teacher consultant that works with K's staff, she confirmed that this is a contract issue. according to her, the current aide was hired as a substitute "until the position was posted", and now that it has been posted and there is a full time staff member looking at the position, the sub is to be let go. apparently that comes before best interest of the child in question

from what ive been able to gather, stay put may not apply to changes in personnel or service providers as long as they provide a comparable service. which would be where the new aide's lack of experience with asd students may come into play. hopefully it wont get that far, but i will try it if i have to.

Boy, wouldn't that have been a nice piece of information for you to have had when the aide was first assigned to him? Basically, they knew the whole time that the temp was not going to get that job. It seems to me they had an obligation to share this information with you. That's what would make me really angry, they knew they were going to seriously disrupt your son's life when the temp aide was replaced but they did not care enough to even give you a reasonable warning. I hope however this turns out that your son continues to get the support he needs and that you don't have to pull all your hair out in the process! Good luck!

I am really sorry to hear this but, given the economic realities of a school system, have no idea on what to do. Excuse my bad language but it sucks all around.

Just a thought, but if you haven't had an IEP meeting, I believe you can request that the Aide be trained in ASD. I know Children's Hospital here in Columbus Ohio offers that service. There are all kinds of trainings available whether through support groups, clinicians, or children's.

I hope that helps! I think that was somewhere in my parent's rights book check out "How Well Does your IEP Measure Up?" which teaches on IEP writing for students on the autism spectrum.