Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 12/29/2005

Question
My daughter is 14 yrs old.  She is in a ese class.  She is only mainstreamed for gym.  We moved to our area in January and the teacher said something about one of the other students going to lunch alone.  I told her that we did not want this for our daughter because she has been know to run and because she doesnot always deal with noise well.  She was recently rediagnosed with autism and mental retardation, she falls developmentally 3-5 years old.  In Nov. the school called and said she was ill.  I left work and when I got to the school they had sent her back to class (which is upsetting in itself because if she is ill then she is passing germs) but they told me she was in the lunch room.  The school that she attends is in a small town and they allow the parents to come and go as they please with no visitor passes or checking in the office.  When I got to the lunchroom she was with the other student in her class all by themselves.  I thought maybe the teacher or aide had ran to the bathroom or to get something but as I waited there her teacher showed up because the office had called her and she told me that they had been sending her by herself to lunch.  There were 2 adults watching at least 200 kids in this lunch room.  These 2 adults being the pricipal and the vice principal.  I had meet the pricipal 1 time but never the vice.  They never questioned me on why I was there or why I was touching my child.  I could have been anyone.  I was very angry because the teacher, when we discussed this promised me that she would have an aide.  My daughter gets an aide all day but in the most unstructured part of the day when she is most vulnerable to taking off because of the noise or to be agitated by all the activity and noise, then they are going to take the aide away.  We held an IEP meeting but they said they felt like she was getting adequate supervision. They had the aide tell me this was her only 25 minute break.  So it seemed to me that this was really the issue. At this meeting I learned that they had also mainstreamed her into woodshop. I was appalled!  
I have talked to the head of special ed, to the department of special education for the state of virginia (the person there told me to call the news crews) to the superintendant(he said that he would have someone watch her from across the room but he was no slave driver and he wouldn't force anyone to sit next to her)and the the school board.
They say the reason the are not willing to have someone sit with her is the least restrictive enviroment.  Her developmental pediatrician and her regular ped both wrote letters saying this was a bad idea but the school said they took them into consideration and that they still feel that she is getting plenty of supervision.  I have pulled her from school and have her in the homebound program until I can have this fixed but now the school has said by Jan 15th that they are taking this program away from her and that I will have to put her back or they can get me for truency.  I am scared to death because this is a bad situation for her.  She gets upset when we are in the store and a baby starts crying, she puts her hands over her ears and tells me to shut that baby up. Could you imagine how noisey a middle school lunch room is?  They have been so lucky she has freaked out yet, or has she and they hid it from me? I don't know where to turn for help.  I have never been in this kind of situation before.  Though I have had to fight a school before, I have never had one that did not take my thoughts into consideration.  Plus the truth is I have given them proof (ie her folder from last year right before we moved that she took off from her class and that they had to go get her,  the doctors telling them that socially this is not good for her or mentally or emotionally).  Frankly I am scared to death.  Many have told me that if something happens that I can then sue but I could care less, I am way more concerned that nothing happens at all!  The woodshop is a joke.  Sure lets teach her to play with tools!  That is smart so that I have to lock everything in the house up after I have spent her whole life teaching her not to touch those things!  Besides the risk of her getting hurt in the class,  I found out that this is an elective and I then asked why like the other kids she did not get to pick.  Her autistic tendancy is music and she does this well and enjoys it alot and when I placed her at this school I told them that she could be mainstreamed for this.  No one has an answer.  The teacher said that she called me and told me but then why would I then get angry when I did find out?  They sent a paper home saying she would be attending tech class.  They say that it is not computers like most people think but woodshop. I know this class will not benefit her in anyway but they say that it is their choice.  My husband is in the navy overseas in the persian gulf and I have no where else to go or I would just move her to someplace else.  I am so sorry this is so long but I wanted you to have all the facts, thank you so much for reading this and any advice you may have would be greatly received!  

Answer
Hi Gina,

I hear your frustration.

1. You have made many appropriate attempts to get appropriate supervision for your daughter. The school is unresponsive.  This is a federal law, they get funds to obey it and they should be doing so.

2. Aides do need breaks, that's why they should have two aides who cover each other so someone can be with her at all times.

3. Woodshop is NOT appropriate for a child functioning at a 3 year old mental level.  Music is appropriate for all levels of function and safe.

4. I would get a lawyer.  Try calling the state bar association and asking for a referral to someone who specializes in educational law or cases like yours.

5. I don't know how far you are from a larger city, but if this district refuses or cannot provide appropriate education, they are legally required to provide transportation to and from a school that can and will.

6. Do an Internet search for support groups in nearby towns.  At least call someone in one of these organizations, even if you can't go to a meeting, for leads to legal support or better contacts at the state level.

7. If all else fails, unless you are living in subsidized military or base housing and have no family, I would move to be near my family so that I had emotional support as well as better access to educational facilities.  (I realize I'm assuming they are supportive and I do hope so.) If Dad is in Iraq, where you live is not important until he comes back.

I'm betting that a letter from a lawyer will get them moving.  You do NOT have to wait until your daughter wanders away and/or gets hurt before you take legal action.

Let me know how this goes, please.

Best wishes,
Catherine