{"id":5147,"date":"2011-05-16T11:18:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T15:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=5147"},"modified":"2016-06-29T18:14:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T22:14:11","slug":"does-the-district-need-to-make-up-therapy-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/does-the-district-need-to-make-up-therapy-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the District Need to Make-Up Therapy Sessions?"},"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=\"Does%20the%20District%20Need%20to%20Make-Up%20Therapy%20Sessions%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>Since we signed my daughter\u2019s IEP, she has missed 6 sessions of weekly OT. The therapist was absent for two of the sessions.\u00a0 She missed four sessions on \u2018Delayed Start Days.\u2019 Our district starts school 2 hours late on one day each month. Does the district need to make up these days?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The school needs to make up any missed time on items required in your daughter\u2019s IEP and\/or provide a qualified substitute.<\/p>\n<p>A regular ed student gets a substitute when the regular teacher is out for some reason. This absence could be for just a day or two or for an extended period of time. Why would the special ed student any different?\u00a0 They deserve the same requirement as the regular ed student.<\/p>\n<p>Specific therapy services (like OT, PT, or speech-language) often present a problem.\u00a0 It is sometimes difficult to find a qualified substitute or replacement staff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Caution!<\/strong> Interrupting or failing to make-up missed services could constitute a denial of FAPE.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Compensatory Time for Missed Services<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I understand your situation. Our son, who is dyslexic and on an IEP, had (3) 40-minute sessions per week for speech therapy. When the school speech therapist was out for months due to health reasons, the school tried to hire another speech therapist. None were available. After three long months, the school hired an excellent speech therapist. My son started progressing again.<\/p>\n<p>The school owed my son (and all other students who required speech therapy) compensatory time.<\/p>\n<p>They agreed to compensate us for the time, even if it meant using the summer months.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Compensatory Services Must Meet Your Child\u2019s Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In our case, when the original speech therapist returned to school, she attempted to make up missed time by adding minutes to the end of each weekly session. This did not meet my son\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0There was no value to the compensation of time. My son\u2019s attention span was only so long.\u00a0 Extra minutes in each session were not doing any good. My son needed the time made up in \u201c extra sessions\u201d not in \u201cminutes added to sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Added minutes of make-up time did not equal actual time lost.<\/p>\n<p>Parents should also be concerned about therapy time being used for testing. During the course of a school year, therapists test students to provide information for the IEP meeting. I consulted with our state Legal Services. This practice is not acceptable unless a parent agrees to use therapy time for testing.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong><\/span> While progress monitoring is important, have a discussion with your therapist about when and how often your child is tested to ensure she is not losing valuable time for therapy time as \u201ctesting time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I also consulted with an independent professional speech therapist and paid for her time to attend our IEP meeting. She explained to the IEP team why \u201ctesting time\u201d and \u201cadding extra minutes\u201d were not compensatory time.<\/p>\n<p>The school agreed to complete any required sessions in the summer as part of Extended School Year (ESY). We thought this was a good solution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Services Designated in the IEP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Ohio, my son\u2019s school also had a delayed start. None of the regular education students lost any of their normal school class time. Your daughter should not lose her time either.<\/p>\n<p>The school needs to follow the IEP. The school should follow the designated time stated in the IEP or make it up.<\/p>\n<p>Check to see if anyone else is losing class time due to \u201cdelayed start\u201d scheduling. This sounds more like a civil rights issue of discrimination towards special ed students versus a regular ed student.\u00a0 Point that out to your school administrators and see what happens.<\/p>\n<p>My guess is that they will want to work with you rather than to take a chance on a civil rights issue.<\/p>\n<p>You may be interested in reading these articles.<\/p>\n<p>A question from Virginia: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/ltrs\/kids_sent_home.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Is It Legal to Send Kids with Disabilities Home Early?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=24\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">OCR and Discrimination: Dismissal Times for Special Ed Students<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Lutz (Sharon L.) of Ohio is a parent of 3 sons with learning disabilities (ADHD and Dyslexia). Sharon is an advocate for her sons and has 25 years of experience working with school districts and the IEP process.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon enjoys\u00a0sharing information with other parents so they can benefit from her experiences and is the author of &#8220;<span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/If-Can-Do-Anyone-resource\/dp\/1517342066\/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&amp;redirect=true&amp;tag=thespecialedadvo\">If I Can Do It, Anyone Can: A Resource Book for Parents of Learning Disabled Children<\/a><\/span>&#8221;\u00a0and a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LDAAmerica\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learning Disabilities Association of America<\/span>.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sharon started a parent advocate group. Members shared ideas and strategies and provided information to parents and the community. For more information, please contact Sharon at <a href=\"mailto:helpgrouponline@twc.com\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">helpgrouponline@twc.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/profile\/view\/SharLutz\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/profile\/view\/SharLutz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/575195\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/575195<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/helpgrouponline.com\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/helpgrouponline.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Visit HELPgrouponline.com at<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowpagesforkids.com\/help\/oh.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/www.yellowpagesforkids.com\/help\/oh.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since we signed my daughter\u2019s IEP, she has missed 6 sessions of weekly OT. The therapist was absent for two of the sessions.\u00a0 She missed four sessions on \u2018Delayed Start <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/does-the-district-need-to-make-up-therapy-sessions\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"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":[1274],"tags":[1306,770,416,417,225,771,772],"class_list":["post-5147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-related-services","tag-discrimination","tag-missed-services","tag-ot","tag-pt","tag-related-services","tag-speech-language-services","tag-therapy-sessions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17419,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions\/17419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}