{"id":22788,"date":"2019-11-14T12:16:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T16:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=22788"},"modified":"2019-11-14T12:16:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T16:16:31","slug":"school-has-no-retention-policy-but-teacher-insists-we-retain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/school-has-no-retention-policy-but-teacher-insists-we-retain\/","title":{"rendered":"School Has &#8220;No Retention&#8221; Policy, but Teacher Insists We Retain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"School%20Has%20%22No%20Retention%22%20Policy%2C%20but%20Teacher%20Insists%20We%20Retain\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>My son struggles to learn in school.\u00a0 In the past, he was behind but the school &#8220;moved him on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His teacher says she sees success this year and believes my son is making progress, but says moving him to middle school just when he is beginning to make progress is a mistake. The teacher insists on retaining him and wants me to request retention.<\/p>\n<p>The school has a &#8220;no retention&#8221; policy. What should I do?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-23433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/test.boy_.elem_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"548\" height=\"370\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The answer is in the basics.<\/p>\n<p>Special education means to provide <em>specially designed instruction<\/em> and the <em>specially designed instruction<\/em> needs to be at a level that it will &#8220;ensure access of the child to the general curriculum, so that he or she can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to all children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is it clear that your son is meeting state standards for 5th grade?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You say the school just &#8220;moved him on&#8221;. It seems you think that the school has not met your son\u2019s needs in the past.<\/p>\n<p>If the school has not provided the services or programming your son needs, doing more of the same is unlikely to work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade retention is neither &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> a research based method of instruction<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>nor is it specialized instruction<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Retention is not an alternative to specialized instruction and an appropriate placement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is <strong>no research to support<\/strong> the theory that grade retention results in academic gains.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unless a private sector evaluator has recommended grade retention, there is no reason to assume that grade retention is appropriate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You need to focus instead on getting an appropriate IEP for the next year.<\/p>\n<p>Meet with the IEP Team to look at alternatives to the regular public middle school in order to meet his needs. This would be the &#8220;other settings\u201d under the definition of special education.<\/p>\n<p>See page 202 in your law book &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/bks\/selaw2\/selaw2.htm\"><em><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition.<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a7300.39 Special education.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(a) General.<\/p>\n<p>(1)Special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child<br \/>\nwith a disability, including&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>(i) Instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">You may also like&#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.strategies.heath.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">10 Strategies to Fight Mandatory Retention<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.strategies.heath.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.strategies.heath.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Retention, Delays, and Social Promotion<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/retain.index.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My son struggles to learn in school.\u00a0 In the past, he was behind but the school &#8220;moved him on.&#8221; His teacher says she sees success this year and believes my <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/school-has-no-retention-policy-but-teacher-insists-we-retain\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33,1275],"tags":[1300,106],"class_list":["post-22788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-idea-2004","category-reading","category-retention","tag-reading","tag-retention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22788"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25327,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22788\/revisions\/25327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}