{"id":273,"date":"2009-04-06T07:29:30","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T12:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=273"},"modified":"2018-11-12T12:32:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T16:32:03","slug":"individualized-instruction-is-not-one-size-fits-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/individualized-instruction-is-not-one-size-fits-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Individualized Instruction is Not One-Size-Fits All"},"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=\"Individualized%20Instruction%20is%20Not%20One-Size-Fits%20All\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px; float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/bs\/girlstudent.teacher.tutor.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"438\" height=\"322\" \/>As a teacher, how can I advocate for a third grade student who receives resource support services, but failed to make any progress in reading or math this year?<\/p>\n<p>Her parents paid for a daily specialized reading program for three months. She made astounding progress.<\/p>\n<p>She learned to read and her scores improved greatly. Her parents have now requested the school fund the continuation of this program for reading comprehension and the LMB math program.<\/p>\n<p>The school district says &#8220;No.&#8221; They say they have a solid reading and math program, while not &#8220;a cadillac,&#8221; it works.<\/p>\n<p>The program they use may be good, but it has not been adequate for this child to learn or reach her potential.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You are right. A program the school considers &#8220;good&#8221; may not be adequate for every child, depending on the child&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bottom line is the child has a right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE)<\/strong>. If she did not learn and make progress in the district&#8217;s program, the district did not provide her with FAPE.<\/p>\n<p>The parents were faced with a choice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>keep her in the district&#8217;s program where she isn&#8217;t learning the most basic skills, or<\/li>\n<li>pull her out and pay for the services she needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fortunately, the parents took the second option. But this is <strong>not<\/strong> what Congress envisioned when they enacted the IDEA in 1975.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What the Courts Have Said<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The district should reimburse the parents for the cost of the child&#8217;s education retroactively and prospectively. Courts have held that while children are not entitled to a Cadillac, they are entitled to a serviceable Chevrolet that runs. Courts have also held that if a child isn&#8217;t learning, the school provided a lemon and the school should reimburse.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, schools are not inclined to do this. This is especially true when they claim that their program, which didn&#8217;t teach a child to read, &#8220;works.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The special education law is based on the fact that children learn differently.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A standardized one-size-fits all reading and math program may &#8220;work&#8221; for most kids, but it won&#8217;t work for every child. This is why the law requires schools to provide services that are individualized to meet the unique needs of each child.<\/p>\n<p>For reasons that are not clear to me, many schools don&#8217;t seem to understand the requirement that they must individualize instruction. If a child isn&#8217;t learning in a particular program, that program doesn&#8217;t &#8220;work.&#8221; <strong>The school must provide a different program that <em>does<\/em> work.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for caring about the kids!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>You may also like&#8230;.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/art\/endrew.douglas.scotus.analysis.htm\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>Endrew v. Douglas County<\/em>: IDEA Demands More: IEP &#8216;Tailored to Unique Needs&#8217;<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/iep.individ.chklist.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Is Your Child&#8217;s IEP Individualized?<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a teacher, how can I advocate for a third grade student who receives resource support services, but failed to make any progress in reading or math this year? Her <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/individualized-instruction-is-not-one-size-fits-all\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[3,57,5,33,11,64,136],"tags":[56,173,1300,258],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-fape","category-idea-2004","category-reading","category-special-ed-law","category-special-education-regulations","category-strategies","tag-free-appropriate-public-education-fape","tag-progress","tag-reading","tag-tuition-reimbursement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","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=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23548,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/23548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}