Today we are discussing Coronavirus and how the pandemic effects your child’s program and what you can do to preserve your rights during this uncertain time. As you all know by now, the school closures are not about preventing Covid-19 but rather slowing down the spread so that our healthcare system can manage it. My understanding is that our local hospital is already at capacity! It is likely this will be the new normal for a while so we will do our best to give you updates and tips for working collaboratively with your school to find solutions while protecting your rights at the same time.

TRANSCRIPTS (not proofread)

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

school district, child, iep, iep meeting, compensatory, attorney, parents, education, waivers, meetings, services, school, settlement agreement, people, agreement, student, implemented, special education, disabilities, obligation

SPEAKERS

Dana Jonson

Dana Jonson 00:03

Hello, and welcome to need to know Dana Jonson. I’m your host, Dana Jonson. And I’m here to give you the information you need to know to best advocate for your child. I’m a special education attorney in private practice, a former special education teacher and administrator, a current mom to four children with IPS. And I myself have ADHD and dyslexia. So I have approached the world of disability and special education from many angles. And I’ll provide straightforward information about your rights and your school’s obligations, as well as tips and tricks for working with your school district. My goal is to empower you through your journey. So if there’s anything you want to hear or comment on, you can find me and this podcast at special ed dot life. You can also find me on Instagram at special ed dot life. Or you can email me, Dana at special ed dot life. Now the first thing you need to know is that sometimes I have a bit of a potty mouth. So if your environment isn’t ready for that, feel free to pop in your earbuds. Okay, let’s get started.

Today we’re going to talk about Coronavirus or COVID-19. As it is sometimes referred to, and how that is impacting and shaping our students education for the rest of the school year. Because who are we kidding, this is not just a two week thing. In fact, I actually several times thought, Oh, I should do a bonus episode and quickly get some facts out there for parents to listen to and hear and figure out what they need to do. And then I realized that the information we as professionals are getting is changing on a daily basis. And I’m sure that the information your school district is getting is changing on a daily basis. This is truly uncharted territory. In fact, I had a number of interviews and discussions set up the last two weeks, all of which had to get cancelled. So while I am adapting, and readjusting for this new virtual video chat world, I thought I would do an episode of just me talking to you guys about the advice I’m giving my clients and any parents who come to me, I am gathering sort of their questions and concerns, and I want to share them with you now. And hopefully, if you’re listening to this, you are right in the middle of this nightmare with me, I have four children with IPS who are currently now home, my husband and I both work full time and we somehow have to figure out how to make this all work. So my first adjustment is to do this podcast solo, while I figure out how to manipulate all the technology to work in my favor so that I can continue to bring you these podcasts on a regular basis. Without having to go to people, I always find that in person interviews or discussions really bring something different to the table than doing it through zoom or whatever technology you use. But this is our world now this is where we live. So what does this mean for you and your student? I know for me, we’re having some challenges in our house because we have two children who are not allowed on the internet for a variety of different reasons. And that’s the only way to learn now. So we’re trying to figure out how to set up Virtual Learning stations in our house that can be supervised by two full time working parents who just happen to be working inside the house right now. So hopefully you are also experiencing that chaos. Ooh, that was horrible. I don’t hope that you’re experiencing that chaos. I just mean that I think we’re all in the same boat. So the information that I’m putting out on my website, and the questions that I’m answering for parents are really hard to answer because none of us have been in this situation before. And while the law may be fairly straightforward and say your school must provide this. There is a reality to the logistics, as I’m sure many of you have sat through IEP meetings where everyone agrees on a service. And then someone says, well, where does that fit in the schedule, and your whole meeting gets derailed because no one can figure out the scheduling, which in case you’re wondering should not be an IEP meeting problem. That is something outside of the PPT. But I think it makes my point that there are logistical issues around providing a child and education that we are having to take into consideration that we have never had to take into consideration before. So the first thing I’m letting all parents know is schools really are doing their best right now. And I think that’s really hard to remember especially if you were in any kind of dispute with your school district. This is only adding to that angst, and chaos. And so I think it’s important for all of us to remember that we are all in this boat together. So that being said, What can you do as a parent? Or what should you be doing as a parent? And not that you need something else to worry about at this point? In fact, some attorneys were talking about how some school districts were banning ppts. And then they were coming back and saying, Oh, no, we’re not banning them. But we’re letting parents come but nobody else. And then it was onoway parents, allegedly near attorneys and advocates. And then it was well, now they’re all being done on telephone or video conference or some other venue. And I find that most of my clients actually don’t want to deal with the PBT process right now, unless it is mandatory, unless there’s something really serious going on, that needs to be addressed. I find that a lot of my clients don’t want to deal with that they’ve got enough on their hands, and just trying to navigate these crazy waters is enough for right now. That being said, I still need to make sure you protect your rights and are doing everything you need to do to put your child in the best position possible moving forward, which is hard to advise you on because I don’t know what’s going to happen moving forward. But there are some things that I can address. So let’s start with pretty sure y’all know this by now. But I feel compelled to mention it. We are not closing schools and businesses and sheltering in place to stop the coronavirus. We cannot stop it, everyone will ultimately be exposed to it. The issue is that if we are all exposed at the same time, and the people who are going to get sick from it do get sick from it all at the same time. our healthcare system can’t handle it. So for example, our local hospital, which is a pretty big hospital was at maximum capacity about a week ago, that’s not getting better. So we’re really sheltering in place and engaging in distance learning to help not spread the virus so that our healthcare system can handle it. And I know that lots of people have lots of ideas on how this could be managed better. And you could all be right, and you could all be wrong, we really don’t know. So I think the best thing to do is to try and be as cooperative as possible. That being said, if you have a child with disabilities, some of these processes either don’t apply to you, or can’t apply to you or shouldn’t apply to you. And I’m going to try and give you some information that might help keep you on track while navigating this uncharted territory. So first thing I’m telling parents is do not sign anything. Please, please, please don’t sign anything. I’ve seen a lot of schools are sending out waivers to parents something to do with the video conferencing or the online distance schooling. And this is to all parents, this is not just to parents of children with disabilities. This is school wide waivers that are being sent out to parents. In fact, I’m positive I signed one without even reading it. If you’d like to know how smart the attorneys are being right now. And I should probably go back and figure out which one that was what exactly I signed. But one thing that we are noticing in our community is that some of these waivers have releases on them. And the release means that by signing the waiver, you’re saying that you will not hold the school district accountable for specific things. And that may be completely appropriate under typical circumstances. But if you have a child with a disability, you have additional protections for that child. And by signing any release of any kind, you could be giving up those protections. I do not believe that school districts are sending those out in a malicious manner. And I do not believe that they’re meant to be implemented in a malicious manner. But it is something important that parents need to know because we don’t know how long this is going to go on for. So we could all find out in May, that schools back in session to the end of June. And if that’s the case, then you’re going to be back at the table trying to renegotiate services you already had in your IP for your child, because the environment has changed again. And so when you’re thinking of those changes and those delivery modes, you need to keep that in mind. So the next question I get is, what do I do when the school tells me I have to sign something? Great question. Well, my recommendation is that you have a special education attorney review it. At least in Connecticut right now. I can tell you that all of the special education attorneys and advocates are working together. We are working with the state. We are working with local organizations. We are working with school districts and board attorneys. And we are all trying to figure this out together. So I’m not familiar with it. Special Ed attorneys who would not pick up the phone and talk to a parent for five minutes to help them through a waiver question. Please feel free to call an attorney and ask them if you have any questions. If you don’t know how to find a special education attorney, please go to coppa.org co pa dot o RG. That is the Council of parents, attorneys and advocates. It’s a national organization. And you can look up your area and see if any attorney advocate members of that organization are in your area and their contact information. So that is really an important component. I also need to tell parents that being a special education attorney is vastly different than many areas of the law. But your family law attorney may not have the right information for you, or your friend who’s an attorney who can look at the statute and then advise you may not have all the information. It’s a very specific area of the law, and it is guided. Much like other areas of the law, it is guided heavily by case law. And to understand all of those nuances, you really need to practice only in this area. So if your school district wants you to sign something, and you’re unsure of whether you should or not, or you have a child with a disability, and you want to ensure that you don’t relinquish any rights, please please please contact a special education attorney and run it by them. So the mass waivers they’re going out to families regarding this distance learning is one place in which you may be asked to sign something. Another way in which school districts may approach you to change your child’s IP would be through an IEP meeting. As I mentioned before, lots of parents are not interested in holding IEP meetings unless they absolutely have to they’ve got enough on their plates. While the school districts feel the same way. And personally and professionally. I’m not sure that there is a utility to IEP meetings at this point, unless something specific needs to be addressed. If you were in a place where something really needs to be addressed at this exact moment, then that is critical. But I think for most people, their IPS may not need to change. Some schools, however, will want to document the change in services that child is receiving. And most schools will likely do that through what’s called an amendment. an amendment is a written document that states that both parties are in agreement to change some component of the IEP without holding an IEP meeting. This is perfectly legal and doable. However, I’m going to go back to my previous point, which is we don’t necessarily want your IP changed. Because if we end up back at the table in a month or two, we don’t want to have to then hold 8 billion other IP meetings just to change back all the IPS. So a lot of these changes will happen through amendments. Again, I strongly recommend that you talk to a special education attorney before signing anything as it pertains to your child’s IEP. Now some parents are going to find themselves in a place where they don’t agree with how the new services are being implemented, or they don’t agree with changes that are being made to the IEP, you can still disagree with the IEP offered and allow the school district to implement it. So what that means is if you don’t believe that the school districts distance learning as appropriate for your child with disabilities, but it’s the best you’ve got right now, you can voice your concern and your objection to it. But also allow them to implement it so that your child is getting something in the interim. Again, if you find yourself in that position, please don’t hesitate to call special ed attorney. We are fielding calls like this all day long. So what else can you do during this time? Well, another recommendation I making the families is that they document document document document. document what? Great question, gosh, you’re full of them today. Um, document where your child is document are their goals and objectives that the school district said were mastered. But you’re not seeing evidence of that. Or the reverse? Are they saying your child desperately needs to work on a skill that you are observing regularly in your home? While you’re helping your children through this world of virtual classrooms. keep a journal keep a notebook on each of your kids and write down when you’re seeing things that are working when you’re not seeing things that are working. If there are areas of their IP you don’t think are being addressed, or areas of their IP that they don’t need to address. Whatever the issues are, this is a great time for you to Take that time with your child, document all of the observations that you are making, and be able to present them then later to the school district with all of your concerns. For some people already I am hearing that this virtual learning is actually going way better than they anticipated. And that’s important information as well. Because if that is working for your child, it doesn’t mean we want to repeat this environment for the rest of their education. But it certainly does mean that there is good information there, we need to take and consider when we are back in the classroom, and determine how to best program for your child, the individual supports that are being provided to children with disabilities must be on an individual basis. So while your school has a mass plan for virtual learning, what they device for your child needs to be as individualized as their IEP was, it may not be implemented the same way or even by the same people. But it does need to be individualized. So again, keeping track of all of these components. In addition, keep track of related services your child is not receiving, are they missing counseling? are they missing oT? are they missing one to one tutoring? Do they no longer have homework club? What are the components of their education that was working for them that are missing? And that will also be important to keep track of. Again, we talked about compensatory education a little later on, you’ll understand why. But particularly if you have a student who’s going to require compensatory education, and most students with IEP s are going to because it’s just not practical on how to implement them fully in this virtual world. But you need to have documented that you need to be on top of that in determining what’s being missed, what’s not being missed? How are you filling in the gaps at home? Do you have ideas? are you providing additional services privately, if you are anticipating reimbursement of any kind from your school district, you’re going to have to talk to an attorney first Do not assume that just because your child’s IP is not fully being implemented during virtual learning that you can then provide services outside of that, and expect the school district to pay for them. There is a process, there is a way to preserve your rights for that. And you may be very well entitled to that. But if you don’t go through the proper process, you will lose that opportunity. So if you believe that you are entitled to any kind of compensatory education, you’re going to have to talk to an attorney. Nothing’s set in stone, there’s still a ton of uncertainty about all of these things, and everything’s changing fast. In fact, I am recording this several days before a publish. And I’m quite worried that I’m going to give you information that may not still be accurate. One of the areas that is changing rather quickly, that I would like all parents to be aware of is that there are new waivers for a free appropriate public education or FAPE. As you’ve probably heard that. And faith is what children with disabilities are entitled to either through an IEP or through their section 504 plan, there are no waivers of that requirement and school districts are still obligated to provide a fate, what that faith looks like, though we don’t know yet. There are however, some people in Congress, some members of Congress who are trying actively to remove that requirement from school districts for the next year or so. So what that means is if schools are provided from the federal government, a fake waiver or an ID a waiver, that in one of these stimulus packages, it could say that in return for all of these school districts also do not have to follow their Ida obligations for at least a year. That would be disastrous for everybody. Because if every child with special education needs goes without services for a year, the impact that will have on our education system, and every other system that we have in place would be disastrous. We cannot allow that to happen. And as I have on my website, and in the show notes below, or for this podcast, you can go to in Connecticut we have an organization named seek seek of Connecticut and they are posting regularly on their website, any changes that comes up. And coppa.org which I’ve already mentioned also is putting out alerts and keeping people aware of any of these potential changes. So that we can act quickly. So school districts do have an obligation to provide faith even when school is not in session. And that is a really important thing to remember. Now on snow days or scheduled during the school year vacations, school districts are not obligated to provide fabe on those specific days. However, during the summer, for example, during the extended school year, they are obligated to provide a favor, including holding IEP meetings, if necessary. And that all still applies even during extended school closures. Just because the building is closed does not mean that school is closed. If any services are being provided to regular education students, then children with disabilities are also entitled to the same access to education. So is this distance learning a change in placement for your child? As you may know, if a child’s placement changes their IP needs to change? So is this a change of placement? Well, yeah, it is. It’s more than 10 days, it is changing their education from it’s a huge departure from direct services in a classroom to virtual learning. And most of those changes, as I discussed before can be handled through an amendment, not necessarily an IEP meeting, but you want to be really cautious about how those amendments are written IP plans can have contingency plans. And IEP document can state that in the event of massive school closure, or distance learning is implemented, this is what the program will be for this child. And in fact, if you as a parent come to an agreement with your school district about what kind of compensatory education services your child may need, that can also go into that alternate plan, that contingency plan. So your IP can read that these pieces are appropriate under the circumstance of virtual learning, but not necessarily when we are back in school. So I would strongly recommend that if you are creating a contingency plan based solely on this outbreak, or this pandemic, that that is outlined clearly in the IEP or as an attached contingency plan and not actually changing the IEP, so that when you’re back, you have what you had before. Of course, given this break, or this massive change, it is entirely possible that your child’s IEP may not be appropriate anymore, by the time we get back to the classroom. But for now, the focus I want you to have is on maintaining all of the services your child was entitled to in their IEP, in addition to what services they need now, so that when you do go back to the table, you have everything documented. This is where your journal is going to come into play. This is where you’re going to pull out all of the information you’ve written down about your child, during your time at home with them. So that’s a lot about what goes on for children who are attending programs in public school. But what about kids who are in private programs, I am not talking about children who are just in private school, because for whatever reason you decided your child should be in private school. I’m talking about out of District programs that are specifically addressing the special education needs of children who cannot be educated in the public school building. What is happening? This is causing a lot of frustration here in Connecticut, we had some school districts stopped transportation because they were closed. So they stopped the transportation to the private placement, which was still open. And FYI, that can’t happen. They are still obligated to provide that transportation. If you have a settlement agreement with your school district for an out of District private placement, or you have your child placed through their IEP, meaning that at the IEP meeting, the school district said yes, they need this private placement and we are sending them there, then all of those components are still in play. So if you have a settlement agreement whereby there are attendance criteria, that state that your student needs to attend a certain number of days in order to receive the reimbursement. If your school if the private school is still providing services, so distance learning, if they are providing that then the tuition that goes towards that should still be part of your settlement agreement, and or still be provided through the IEP. If you have questions about your settlement agreement. And I know I’m sounding like a broken record here. But if you have questions about your settlement agreement, please please please talk to an attorney about them first before you make any changes. Because it may be that you are completely covered and you don’t actually need to make changes. Or it could be that you’re not covered at all and your settlement agreement. It needs to be renegotiated. So a lot of families are finding themselves in these positions If you are unsure as to where you fit, again, call an attorney and ask. But your settlement agreement terms may not be what you think they are right now, due to this crazy news system. But just like colleges are implementing distance learning, but they’re refunding room and board because the kids aren’t living there anymore, you’re going to see probably similar trends with private programs. I think we have one in Connecticut now that while school is closed, their day students can’t go in, they’re still open for their residential component. So again, this is creating interesting dynamics that everyone’s trying to navigate around. But as long as your school is still providing education to your child, then many components of your agreement or IP should still be in place. If however, your private school has closed, and your child is receiving nothing, well, that obligation falls on your school district. So whatever the private program is, it is their not their obligation to make sure your child’s IEP is implemented. It is your local school districts obligation. So if those private schools close and they do not offer any kind of learning, then you need to go back to your school district and make sure that they provide the fate that your child requires. So that brings me back to IEP meetings. Do school districts still need to hold your child’s IEP meeting even though schools closed? And I think I’ve answered this pretty clearly the answer is yes, they do have to hold IEP meetings if that is what is necessary to provide your child FAPE. Many schools are now holding them virtually many schools are doing either video conferencing or telephonic conferencing. And while that’s a great way to have the meeting still take place, there are a couple things you need to remember. The first is that doing a phone call or a meeting, telephonically is a very different dynamic. And they tend to be a lot more formal and structured because you’ve got so many people on the phone or on the video. And you’re trying to you don’t have those in person cues. And so that sometimes can raise the level of animosity in the meetings, which is unfortunate. But it does happen, because these meetings are now forced to be more structured. And not everyone feels that they can easily participate and put their voice in. It definitely changes the dynamics of the meetings, and parents need to be aware of that and not be surprised or take it personally. So schools do need to hold those IP meetings, they can hold them virtually. And you are still entitled to bring whoever you feel, understands or knows your child and can contribute to that IEP meeting, to the meeting, even if it is virtual. If you do have a number of people that you need to have be a part of that IEP meeting and your school district you are relying on your school district to patch them in, you’re going to have to tell your school district that you can’t get on a telephonic IEP meeting and say, oh, here are the 12 people I need you to dial in. Now most school districts are accounting for this and are reaching out to parents and letting them know exactly what the process is. But if you don’t know what the process is for scheduling and holding IEP meetings in your school district, definitely reach out and find out now before you have to schedule it or before you have to be on one so that you can make sure you have all the information possible. Some parents are asking me if they have to participate in these calls, or these IEP meetings. And my recommendation is that you do if you can. school districts are under obligations to hold annual IEP meetings at certain dates. And I know that some states are giving waivers for other obligations that your public school has but to hold the IEP there’s no waiver for that yet. So school districts are obligated to hold meetings by a certain date for each student. And under those circumstances, they are going to require that they move forward, they may not be willing to reschedule them for past that annual date. So what you can do as a parent, if you’re in a position where you cannot attend that meeting, and it’s the last date that they have to hold it, you can agree with the team that they can hold the meeting and nothing will change until you hold a subsequent meeting where everyone can be present. That way they meet their date and you still get to participate in the IEP meeting. This of course only works if you trust your school district to not change anything drastic in the IEP while you You are not present. But if you have an agreement in advance, it really shouldn’t be a problem. At this point. We’re all trying to make these IEP meetings as smooth as possible, so that everybody is within compliance. But we are also able to meet the needs of the students. So, yes, these meetings will be different, they will be more formal, there’s a chance they’ll be more contentious. Please be aware of that. And don’t let this format ruin your relationship with your school district. If you have a good working relationship with your team, then I’m hopeful that these new formats will not change that. But if you didn’t, this new format can be extra challenging. And it’s important for us to remember that it’s extra challenging for everybody involved. And who knows, maybe having telephonic IEP meetings will work in your favor. If you don’t have to sit down at the table with everyone you’re fighting with, it might actually be easier to do. Again, just one more thing we’re waiting to see. So what is this compensatory education that I keep talking about? And I’m hearing a lot of people say combat here combat there. I’m hearing people talk about it on listservs and on Facebook, and all of that. So what is compensatory education? compensatory education is services provided to a student as a result of services they missed. So a deprivation of faith if the school district did not provide a faith, compensatory education can be on the table for the student. And if they flat out missed services, then compensatory education can make up for it. But compensatory education is not just okay, I missed 10 ot sessions. So now I get 10 ot sessions, it is meant to not only fill in what the child missed, but bring the child up to where they would be otherwise, if they did receive those services. So if let’s say for the next three months, your child was expected to have 12 hours of speech and language therapy in school over the next three months. And now the school is not providing that at all, for whatever reason, you are not just entitled to those 10 sessions, but they are entitled to however many sessions they need to bring them up to where they would have been had they had those sessions when they were supposed to. So if you came up with a combat agreement with your school district now proactively saying Okay, I’m going to take my child to those 12 hours a speech and language with our private speech and language person and the school districts has great you do that and will pay the bill. That’s an agreement for compensatory education, you should get that in writing, or it should be in the IEP, that that’s what will happen. But if you’re unable to come to that agreement now or you are unable to provide the service, whatever it may be, then you may be looking at compensatory ed in July, August, maybe next September. And so you’re talking about possibly having missed three to six months worth of services. That child may require or may have required only 10 hours during that three month period, but because we skipped it, maybe now they require 30 hours. Maybe they don’t, but maybe they do. So you do want to keep that in mind if you are coming to an agreement for compensatory education. If that agreement is for after the fact then you definitely want to take into consideration whether your child will need additional education or compensatory education to make up for that loss. So definitely keep that in mind. And again, if you’re asked to sign something on this compensatory education component, please do check with an attorney to make sure that you fully understand all of the pros and cons of such an agreement. It’s also important to note that compensatory education does not need to take the same form as that service would have taken in the IEP. So perhaps your child required a one to one para for some component, but the compensatory education piece has been arranged such that they don’t require a one to one para, that is possible. It does not need to be in the exact same format that it would have been previously. I’ve even seen compensatory education take the form of teacher training, where the parent wanted to make sure that the staff was properly trained, moving forward. And that was their form of compensatory education so it can take any form and you can be creative and think outside of the box and right now is that time to be creative and think outside of the box. which most of us parents have. children with disabilities have had many years of experience with. So all of those years of out of the box thinking, this is what you were training for. So that pretty much covers what I wanted to cover with you. Don’t sign anything before you have an attorney review it. Document documents, documents, nothing is set in stone. There are no waivers for FAPE. Distance Learning is a change of placement. Your child’s out of District program is still possibly there program. schools do need to hold ppts you should participate in telephonic meetings, if possible. And compensatory education is probably something that’s going to apply to your child and something that you need to learn a little bit more about, and be prepared to ask for. So I know my office is open to talk to anybody and help them through this challenging time. I know most special education attorneys are feeling the exact same way and we are just doing whatever we can to get information out to you and hopefully help you through this challenging time. So with that, good luck.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Please don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast so that you get notifications whenever new episodes are available. You can also find this podcast on his website at special ed dot life. You can follow me on Instagram at special ed dot life or you can email me at Dana at special ed dot life. I want to know what you want to know. So please reach out with your comments and questions. And I’ll see you next time here on need to know with Dana Jonson Have a great day.