Americans with Disabilities Act, Open Enrollment and Ohio...

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Ohio public schools, that is.

I feel that my daughter is being discriminated against as far as being admitted into the school one district over (I have many reasons for this that I don't want to get into at the moment). I want to know if anyone is familiar with Ohio's open enrollment policies, and where I can find them? I did google, but I must not have looked in the right places, because all I found was general info. This is urgent and directly affects her. I need to find out if legally I am in the right. If I am, I am so pressing charges against this school (Like I said, there is much more going on).

Also, in Ohio, if a child does the Virtual Academy or Home Schooling, they are still allowed to participate in classes like Band. Correct? I am being told that is not true, but I am 99% sure that it is.

My sympathies to you. I went to one of the better Ohio public schools, and it still was not so good. They did violate the ADA, actually- I was not permitted to be in advanced/accelerated classes if I had an IEP, so we had to drop my IEP for me to be allowed to take those classes.


You're talking about a district you don't live in? Each district sets their own policies on that. The district I went to does not allow students from other districts. The listing of which districts do and don't allow that is HERE. If the school you want to send your kid to isn't listed as having state-wide or at least adjacent open enrollment, you're probably out of luck.


I am not certain if they are allowed to participate in any classes, but I do know they are allowed to participate in extra-curriculars in the district in which they would have been enrolled. In some districts, band is treated as an extra-curricular.

We had to fight to get her on an IEP in the first place when she was in the first grade. Thankfully my grandmother is an advocate in these matters (professionally), so she steered me in the right direction. After she got the IEP, she needed to be held back. Everyone said it was in her best interest, except the school super (He was having issues with the lady doing intra-district transfers, and saw that my daughter was going to be retained and she had an IEP). He told us she would go on to the second grade, but we fought it. HE said the IEP would pull her through, but we did not want that, we wanted her to actually learn the material. We finally won, but the higher ups a the board learned to not like me very much.

Now, I just go custody of her back on November. Her dad (using the IEP, the intervention specialist, and the fact that she was not doing her homework (while still managing all As and Bs on tests) decided that she would be put in a lower level math class. It was claimed that since she did not do homework, and since she had a slow processing speed, that she could not handle the CP level class. I fought the best I could to get her at least put in an average class, but since I was not the custodial parent, I had no say. By the time I got custody, it was too late to move her up. She spent the rest of the year in agony in that class. I had to give her new mathematical concepts to think about (like Limits, Derivatives and Integrals) to keep her mind stimulated. This summer, I have been teaching her the second half of the Algebra class. We have only been working on it for three weeks, and she is a little more than 3/4 of the way through it. While working with her and seeing how her mind works, I have realized that she is truly gifted in mathematics. I am good at math, but I could only wish to be as good as she is. I had to convince the school of this, but her goal and mine is to have her finish Calc 1 by the time she finishes her senior year. It could be sooner than that if I have my way. Our school works with the local universities, and I am really thinking of having her take Pre-Calc and above at he college level. She needs that fast pace. She already knows many of the concepts she has not even been taught yet. I do have to fight with the school though. They are afraid that the math will be too much for her (she is taking both Algebra II and Geometry this year), but I am afraid it will not be enough. At the rate I am currently going with her (with me skipping days and slacking on some of her lessons), we should finish the course in 5 weeks. For a full high school level Algebra I class, that would be probably about 10 weeks to finish it. I think the advantage I have with the school is that I am in school for Engineering, and I know what I am talking about when it comes to math. The math teachers themselves see it, and the others at the school hear me talk and treat me as an expert in the subject. What I say about her goes - just in math. Everything else is weighed pros and cons. It is funny. Her guidance counselor is afraid that she is taking too much on in math, but I am worried that she will be overloading herself with the English she signed up for.



It has open enrollment. They are just being political about this. What happened is this: All applications for open enrollment were supposed to be looked at starting after July 4. This did not happen. Just a few weeks after school ended, they gathered up all applications that had IEPs, and made decisions then. They did not decide on any other child until the July date and continue to slowly go through them, and (I don't know how true this is) from what I have heard from other parents, they have denied all kids with IEPs. If that is not true, I do know that there are several children who have done open enrollment for years were denied this year - all with IEPs who had been allowed to do open enrollment for years. If they made the decisions at the same time, I would not think as much of it, but that they singled out all IEP apps, and did it sooo early (their excuse was that the guy in charge of special ed in the district was going to be on vacation in July) that these kids did not have a fair chance. In August, class sizes will look different. It really is political. I have taken this to the state level, and from what I have told them, they are concerned.

This is the other part of the equation (the personal one). I used to live in the district. She has gone to these schools in the district all her life. She has some friends and she is in the band. The band is VERY important to her. I had to move out of my one bedroom apartment once I got full custody of her. My land lord only had one unit open in the city I am in now. I am only 12 minutes from the high school where she was denied. Also, I have to wait for the custody case (for her two sisters) to be resolved in September before I can move into another location. I will be moving back though. It will be around September or October. She will only be going to this new school for 5 weeks (approx). Plus, she needs to go to band camp in order to play in marching band. The director said she will be allowed to play on the sidelines until she learns the marches, but in the mean time, she will be going to a foreign band camp, marching with a foreign band (and her school's rival at that) and only going to a new school for 5ish weeks. New teacher, new school, new everything, then thrown into a new situation yet again. It is too stressful for her. She has Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety. She has meltdown at changes like this. I have had to work with her since May to prepare her for these possibilities so she will not freak out. It's only 5 weeks. I don't see why they just don't let her stay.



I checked on this, and I am correct. I do not know if I can go through a different district for just a band though. I am not certain about this, but from what I have heard from homeschooling groups around here, if there is a subject where no one has any expertise, the child can go to that one class in the public school.

Marching band is almost always an extra-curricular. Getting into that shouldn't be an issue.

Then unless there was some paperwork foul-up, there shouldn't be a problem with her attending.


Was this before the listed application deadline or something? Or did they have your application and then deny it? If they denied it, did they give a reason?


You should try to find out how true it is. If that is what happened, then there are some serious laws being broken.

I live in Ohio and go to my local High School Here (I'm not transferred), Ohio districts have what is called Inter-district transfer, You can find it by looking up the school district you desire her be put in, (ex. google search [insert district name] schools inter-district transfer) Usually you have to apply and be accepted into the district that you want. I believe that you do have the legal right to district transfer (and transport to the district also).

DO NOT DO VIRTUAL SCHOOL

I have also gone to VCS Before (Virtual Community School of Ohio) and Do Not Recommend it unless absolutely necessary, as in your child is about to drop out. If you/your child has any dreams bigger than Community College it's not the right thing. And BTW they do not offer anything extracurricular, not even band. And because it is it's own self-contained school (with no location), there is nothing you can do to arrange anything like that. It is also impossible for your child to participate with her local district band while at VCS, the district will not allow it. Also there is absolutely no way to even talk to the other students who go to VCS except for the fall and spring picnics (basically seeing a teacher and a few kids you never knew existed and will never see again)

I was lucky to find a program for students in my district that I will start in the fall.

Reach out to the district you want and ask about inter-district transfer and maybe any programs they might have (if you wish)

Thank you David. Intra-District transfers are within the same district you are in. So, that does not count. We have to do Open-enrollment since this is in different districts. We did do intra-district with her when she was younger and we lived across the street from the preferred school. We had issues with the super in that one too towards the end (by end, I mean we moved into that elementary school district).

As for the virtual academy, it would only be for a few weeks. if we did it at all. For her, it would be a much easier transition for her to have everything done at home, then go to a classroom with teachers and students. Right now, she will go to a new school wit new teachers, students and classrooms, then between 3 and 5 weeks later, transfer back to her old school, start new classes (which may or may not be where she left off in work), have new teachers, and basically have to start all over in Band (which will be very hard on her, but that part is not stoppable at this point). I .have also considered homeschooling her. We have a huge homeschooling network around here, and I have several professor friends who would be more than willing to help her with some of what would be hard for me t teach her (like history). I just don't have time to home school her full time if I want to go to school too.