Jay: My daughter had an IEP throughout her primary/high school period. Upon graduating from high school (with very good grades) she was accepted into four year college. My wife & I met with the school upon her acceptance and was told she would not receive any help for her disability. We were not informed about the process nor did we understand the difference between an IEP & a 504. They also put her in a dorm with upper classmen and it was a disaster. We again met with the dean of her school when she was involved in a situation involving drugs and alcohol. She was cleared of the situation and the girls that were guilty were left in the dorm with my daughter. The parties, drug and alcohol increased. Eventually my daughter quit going to class and the school asked her to leave. I feel they failed her miserably, but we did not have the resources to fight it (I am a service connected disabled veteran and live on only disability). This happened in 2015, is there any recourse that we might have against the school? She has gone into deep depression, tried to commit suicide, and feels as though she is a complete failure. The problems we worked so hard to correct growing up have returned, magnified and multiplied.
Morning’s advice is excellent.
i’m sorry your daughter had such a miserable experience in her first year of college. As a therapist, I have provided therapy to many young adults who were put into similar positions. They don’t know what to do about it, feel helpless, get depressed. Because they don’t know what to do and get depressed, they stop attending classes and have to withdraw for academic underperformance.
A good therapist will help her see this as a “learning experience,” deal with her depression.
The first step is to treat the depression.
Take care,
Pam
The priority is to hope that she is willing to receive help for the depression, etc. She is not a failure. She is going to learn to “begin again” with a new set of tools and resources (her own personal toolkit) once she receives help and accepts that help. I am not sure about recourse. She can move forward at this point. Start over in little steps like at a community college. She can always talk to the disability support centers at any college to understand the process. You are right, it is a process.