For your next video…(help with educators)

[Anonymous]

Please put together a “how to work with educators” video with specific information regarding what is required by law, how to get it, and how to make sure it is enforced (for USA and Canada).

Here in the USA either an IEP or a 504 is used depending upon the severity of a student’s disability. It took me years to sort through state and federal laws to figure out what my kids had a right to have. Then it took me turning into a total bitch to force the school districe to do the testing, followed by fighting over IEP versus 504’s. THEN–forcing individual teachers to follow the acommodations was another war. The educators here make it as hard as they can to weed out the parents who aren’t tough enough to stick with it.

We are so ignorant of our rights, and parents frequently feel like they are asking for “special” treatment by requesting the very things they are paying for with their tax dollars. I recently went to a meeting for parents of ADD/ADHD children. I was appalled to hear all of the stories of how parents were punishing their kids for incomplete homework, or for being “lazy”, or forcing kids to stay up late to finish something or other. Clearly, parents still do not understand that their child is the victim–and then they victimize them some more!!

I blame the school systems for refusing to step up and do their job supporting the ADD/ADHD student. Then they have the nerve to tear a student down to the parent, who then takes it out on the student, too. PLEASE “TOTALLY ADD”—put together a “how to” explaining our legal rights for working with educators that will help parents and students alike! That would be the biggest step forward you could take for us!!! Thank you!

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[ellamama]

This is an INCREDIBLY important issue. Nevertheless, I think it’d be really hard for Totally ADD to pull this off. As *fabulous* as their resources are, this issue comes down not only to national education system issues, but state/provincial and local issues. If Totally ADD wants to add to its resource links, I’d suggest these:

If your want to see the actual US legislation related to IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004): http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ446.108

If you want to geek-out on this stuff even more, here’s a link to FAQ related to IEPs (Individual Education Plans): http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ446.108

A nice overview of issues from Health Central: http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/education.html

Another nice, less detailed overview can be viewed here: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/711.html

That said–at least within the US–public schools are obligated by federal law to accommodate kids with “special needs” (of course, I think all kids have special needs–it’s just that they’re not all the same:-)). As I like to say ADHD is not an excuse, it’s an explaination.

On the other hand, listening to friends and relatives of mine who’re teachers, I’m sympathetic to their issues, too. Classrooms are often overcrowded. Lots of classes have lots of kids with potentially competing IEP’s. E.g., My aunt complained that one year her room had more kids who were supposed to receive “preferential seating” than the classroom could accommodate. I.e., there’s only one front row; the whole class won’t fit there.

I don’t know if I helped anybody or rambled too much (as I am wont to do…) but suffice it to say that this is a REALLY complex issue with no easy answers.

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