Connie: I reside in Texas and believe my 12 y o son was one of many affected by the 8.5% cap the Texas Education Agency arbitrarily placed on enrollment in Sp ed. as he should of received services starting 5 years ago.
Through request of son’s student record (3 requests to get the record only 24 hours before 504 when began requesting 1 week before )I realized evaluations I had provided were missing from four years prior. I provided school with psychiatric and psychological testing when he had behavior problems in kindergarten, ADHD dx and placed on meds. More behavior problems and the school had an RTI meeting with a school psychologist in attendance, I again provided another psychological exam. School said would contact me to schedule a meeting, never contacted, school refused further testing. I then had a private evaluation by a neuropsychologist and it showed a specific learning disorder in reading comprehension. I unilaterally placed son in private school and filed due process.
The school is still silent about what happened to the missing evaluations. I no longer have the email exchange with guidance counselor that would prove the school had these evaluations but failed to act and therefore discriminated against a child with a disability. Is it too late to file on if this was 5 years ago?
The school is withholding information. The public info. officer claims an email archive error with promised 45 day resolution only to wait and be told an unfortunate warehouse fire wiped the electronic data some 125 days out on request.
I regret the fact that I was not an advocate for my son at this time as I wasn’t fully aware of what was going on and the obvious probability of a SLD and I truly trusted the district. I believe the district owes my son 4 years private school but due to timelines. What can we file for? Thanks for any guidance and all parents in Texas need to be very on top of the school’s management of their child’s education as these folks are not trustworthy.
I am not clear if your situation would be covered by 504 or IDEA. The basic rule is that IDEA complaints must be made to TEA within 1 year of the issue, but exceptions can be made to this. You can make a complaint, & see their response. You can certainly make a request for special ed testing now. Requesting mediation might help you get some compensatory services. I work for the TX parent training & information project. You can find help at prntexas.org/