Friday, April 4, 2008

Important Info: Self-Assessment Monitoring Process

Cherry Hill Public Schools, Special Education Department is undergoing the Self-Assessment phase of the OSEP Monitoring Process. If you missed the public meeting on March 31, 2008, you may still participate by answering the Focus Questions below.

Focus Question #1:
Are parents involved in the education of their child with a disability?

Focus Question #2:
Are there any administrative barriers to providing services to students with disabilities?

Focus Question #3:
Are students, age 14 and older, being prepared to successfully transition to work, independent living, or additional education?

Focus Question #4:
Do students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum in the least restrictive environment? Please include any programs or practices that promote or prevent students with disabilities participation in the general education curriculum.

Focus Question #5:
Open Forum Input (you may list any additional input that was not addressed in the above questions in this section)


Please Note: Your input is critical to the outcome of this Self-Assessment phase.

At the public meeting on March 31, 2008 a general invitation was extended to anyone that would like to be on the Steering Committee. This is contrary to what some parents were initially told by the Special Education Department. Professional Management Systems is the independent consultant that was hired to do the Self-Assessment and they have made it clear that the public is permitted to become part of the Steering Committee. I encourage anyone that is able to participate to do so.

The first meeting of the Steering Committee is set for April 17, 2008 from 4 to 6 PM at the Malberg Administration Building. If that time or date should change, it will be announced on my blog and on the Cherry Hill SEPTA website.

You may answer the Focus Questions above anonymously by either leaving a comment on this blog or by visiting the CHSEPTA website at chsepta.com. When responding as a blog comment please place the Focus Question # just before your answer.

Thank you for participating!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Focus Question #1:
We are invited to the IEP meeting to be involved in the arguement that we are never permitted to win. I had evals and recomendations for therapy and they said NO(period!)

Focus Question #2:
Every administrator is a barrier to obtaining services! The SE director is rude to us and just refers me back to the team that will not comply.

Focus Question #3:
My son is too young so I can't answer this.

Focus Question #4:
If access to the LRE means providing the supports to maintain them in the LRE -- NO! My son needed 1:1 aide (like yours did Kathi) Instead he is in self contained. He could be in mainstream w/ aide but they said no.

Focus Question #5:
Open Forum Input-- I can't afford attorneys to fight w/IEP team. They take advantage of me because of that. Our case manager lies about the law and when I look up laws and recite them to her -she says that doesn't apply.

Anonymous said...

Focus ? #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Ditto

The IEP bigins Special Education, and a lot of parents seemed to have problems at the IEP development level. Therefore, the school district is failing on ALL of the Areas of Special Education. I wonder how many parents are having issues with the step before that Evaluations, Re-Evaluations and Independent Evaluations. For us, that is where the trouble began.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the above comments.

Our requests for evaluations have always been met with a challenge.
We ask for something and are told no he doesn't need it. We ask for evaluations to see if its needed and they say "We don't think he needs the eval."

When we were looking for services like social skills instruction we get this runaround too. Then we are told we don't have a program like you want or he doesn't need that. They say he has to be in LRE which is mainstream.

Why is there even an IEP if there are no services for our kids. They want them classified to get access to funding but don't want to provide any services.

Kathi, can you send these comments in for us? They get very nasty if we complain and take it out on our kids.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what question to put this under but we are having trouble getting things for next year. They have changed the way they assign services/support. It is now based on school policies and not individual needs. That doesn't sound legal to me.

Maybe my response applies to more than 1 question. We were not part of this desicion (FQ1)and if it is a policy that is set by an administrator(FQ2).

We love living in CH but may have to move because the school system is so bad here.

Anonymous said...

Up until the the end of December, my child was classified (all the way from Barclay) into 5th grade. His teacher was not following the IEP and all communication had broken down. I asked for an emergency IEP meeting only to be met with "no longer meets qualifications for services."

Whatever.

Now ten days ago, the Principal calls because she is concerned and wants to take our child under her wing. Will not agree to a 504. I am still waiting for her to get back to me. She will not be removing this child from class without any prior documentation as well as a goal in place!

I will be at the Self Assessment Monitoring Process this week. Special Education in Cherry Hill needs more people to support removing the Special Ed administration, before they add another layer of bureaucracy.