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want to HS my SP ED 1st grader in Calif next year- need advise


LisaAnne
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I live in the San Bernardino City School District and my son is currently in Mild-Mod Sp Ed classroom. He also receives speech services. I want to bring him home in the fall for 2nd grade. I am looking for other parents who have done this in the state of CA. My understanding is I will have to file as a private school. I was wanting to go through a public online school however I am finding that may not be possible with his IEP stating he needs Spec Academic Instruction.

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Have you contacted the online school you are considering with your questions? I have a special needs DC in California, but I have never pursued special ed. I'm just at the beginning of that process, but I have learned that our homeschool charter school (public charter) does have a special ed coordinator and has some resources. What those are, I don't yet know.

 

If you have a specific school in mind though, a bit of time on the telephone might get you your answers.

 

Re filing, yes, you file as your own private school or under an umbrella school (either public or private ones are around) as the two most common homeschooling options here. There are tutoring options and such too but those are rarer cases.

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Thank you for responding.

 

Yes I have contacted 2 local online public charter schools. I kept hearing "yes, we do work with IEP's and can meet your needs" by them both. However, once I spoke to someone in the actual Spec. Ed department I found the real problem.

 

Basically my son has "Specialized Academic Instruction in a classroom" that is 80% outside general education on his IEP. Meaning he is in a Mild/Moderate classroom separated from the other students.

 

because of this, the public charter schools that offer homeschool options would still have to create a classroom setting for him that is not my home. I don't understand why but what I am being told.

 

My only option for homeschooling at this point is to file a private school affidavit in California and do it on my own- losing his speech service also provided by the IEP.

 

What makes me so frustrated is the public school feels that having my 1st grader who is language delayed/developmental dyspraxia in a classroom where the teacher is teaching 1, 2 & 3rd graders is meeting his needs. He is so confused.

 

Anyways- I am looking for other parents who are doing their own spec ed homeschool. I have so many questions?

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I have one more suggestions re Cali - Inland Empire has a huge homeschooler population (I'm more south, in San Diego). They also have their own yahoo lists. Try searching yahoo if you want a homeschooling list specific to your location that might give you more info on specific schools that may (or may not!) be able to help you. :grouphug:

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Thank you

 

Lauren- River Springs was one of my top choices. Through their program I would be unable to homeschool. According to his IEP needing the mild/mod SAI they would have to basically create a classroom for him in Riverside. Not a homeschool program.

 

I am talking to k12/CAVA and seeing if they will be able work with me. I would be assigned a Special Ed teacher which may meet the requirements.

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Hi,

 

I was born in San Bern County, but I haven't lived there since I was 2. So, I know nothing about homeschooling in CA.

 

However, I was at an IEP meeting last week for one of my kids. And, I was advised on my rights as the parent of a special needs kid I have the right to call a meeting at any time and I had to sign a paper saying I wanted my child to be eligible.

 

It got me thinking about your situation, so here is my out-of-the-box suggestion. Request an IEP meeting and have the Spec Academic Instruction part taken off of his IEP plan. If you are wanting him to stay in public school for the rest of this year, you will need to do this at just the right time obviously.

 

I have a word of caution about using a state virtual school for k12 for a child with an academic IEP. I have a friend who did that with a special needs child, who is seriously behind academically and always will be. Even though this child had a special ed plan and was allowed to work at his level on academics, the "virutal school" required him to do some online testing component at age/grade level. There were consequences to not being able to pass those online tests. There was fear that the child would be kicked out over this issue. In addition, this child had issues with taking tests that were so far removed from his academics. There were other pressures to get the child up to grade level, even though the parents and the child's doctors say that is impossible. So, if you go that route, please get everything that will be required spelled out before you start.

 

good luck.

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LisaAnne-

Here's a link to a very basic article about homeschooling a child with special needs http://www.ldonline.org/article/Homeschooling_Your_Struggling_Learner

 

I haven't personally read the book referenced in this article, "Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner", but considering it is based on interviews with homeschoolers of special ed kids, it might provide some insight for you.

 

This site has a plethora of resources and information on special ed, including a great deal about IEPs: http://www.wrightslaw.com/

 

Best of luck!

-Learning Ally Mom

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Thank you

 

Lauren- River Springs was one of my top choices. Through their program I would be unable to homeschool. According to his IEP needing the mild/mod SAI they would have to basically create a classroom for him in Riverside. Not a homeschool program.

 

I am talking to k12/CAVA and seeing if they will be able work with me. I would be assigned a Special Ed teacher which may meet the requirements.

 

Here's some things I recall from my homeschool years, though my ds only had a 504 and not an actual IEP.

 

Your local public school has to offer speech therapy services to your child, even if you are homeschooling independently. It can take some phone calls, but they are required to offer it.

 

If you decide to join the public charter, the special ed department will review the IEP and possibly administer additional diagnostic tests. What ever is now on your child's IEP may not stay, and they may be able to change the wording so you can homeschool and get services from them.

 

That said, special services are expensive for charter schools. Yes they are required to provide them, but the school is not going to go out of its way to recruit your family if it is going to be expensive. It isn't that they are cold bureaucrats who run the schools, it is the cold reality of how mandates are often underfunded leaving schools in a financial bind.

 

You need to understand your child's IEP, what accommodations are listed and why. How they are supposed to help? How did the IEP come about? Who wrote it? That might be a good place to start, talking with the team who first wrote it, and ask them specific questions.

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Thank you both

 

 

I sat down with 2 of my good friends who both HS on Saturday night and I feel much better.

 

*LC- In CA I have to sign/agree to remove him from the SAI to homeschool privately. This is what I am probably going to do. To keep him in a public charter (whatever one) I can have the SAI removed but he will get behind and they will end up requesting an evaluation and he will be deemed in need of SAI again and the circle starts over.

 

In my research over the past week I feel I need to go the private homeschool route (where I do it all myself or join a private school co-op where they do most the paperwork for me to the state and I do my own curriculum)

 

I know my son will be on different level of learning and feel he would be better educated out of the public school now. I had to get over my fear of doing something wrong (still worried but feeling better)

 

He is doing grade level math however will probably need to start back at kinder spelling/reading.

 

Thank you Ally Mom- I have found some informative articles at LDonline.

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I live in the San Bernardino City School District and my son is currently in Mild-Mod Sp Ed classroom. He also receives speech services. I want to bring him home in the fall for 2nd grade. I am looking for other parents who have done this in the state of CA. My understanding is I will have to file as a private school. I was wanting to go through a public online school however I am finding that may not be possible with his IEP stating he needs Spec Academic Instruction.

 

I pulled my DS11 out of public school (he had an IEP) last November. I enrolled him in a PSP and then gave his public school a letter stating my DS was enrolled in a private school and that his new private school would be in touch to get his records. It was easy!

 

If you file your own private school affidavit it should be just as easy.

 

About a month after pulling my DS out of school, I got a call from his principal. He wanted my DS to enroll in school again. He said as part of my DS's IEP, he could be homeschooled four days a week (or whatever I wanted), and DS could still attend school for speech, library day, and parties. The only catch was that I would have to meet with his special ed teacher once a week and go over what DS was learning. I declined.

 

ETA: My son is at grade level in math but behind in everything else due to his severe dyslexia. At first I was a little nervous to homeschool him, but honestly, he's thrived at home. I only wish I had pulled him out of school years ago!

Edited by Shellers
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:grouphug:

 

You can do it!

 

For my remedial students with underlying speech problems, I have found syllables, nonsense words, and marked print especially helpful.

 

For nonsense words, I like my game and the phonics books from "We All Can Read." (I don't like their online things, just the books.)

 

For syllables, I like Webster's Speller, here is my webpage about it, and you can search here for threads tagged Webster's Speller.

 

All my students with speech problems have been helped by marked prints. I have a current student with speech apraxia who is very smart, he is currently using 4 different marked print systems! (CLE, my UPP, the markings in the 1879 McGuffey readers, and the markings from Don Potter's 1908 Webster's Speller.) A student who is of average IQ should be limited to 1 or 2 marked prints to not overwhelm them, but an above average student can manage many with no problems. My current student finds them all helpful, but some of my students who are easily overwhelmed are kept to 1 or 2 marking systems.

 

It will help you to have a good understanding of the relationship of sound/speech symbols and pronunciation, I recommend this website and the DVD series Understanding Linguistics. (It goes on sale often, and also is sometimes on sale as a set with "History of the English Language.")

Edited by ElizabethB
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