{"id":6721,"date":"2012-05-07T11:53:33","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T15:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2017-03-22T11:17:32","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T15:17:32","slug":"is-the-school-required-to-provide-social-skills-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/is-the-school-required-to-provide-social-skills-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the School Required to Provide Social Skills Training?"},"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=\"Is%20the%20School%20Required%20to%20Provide%20Social%20Skills%20Training%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/istock\/mom.daughter.concerned.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"189\" height=\"218\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My daughter with autism needs help with social skills. Her peers avoid and tease her so she has stopped trying to approach them. She gets 90 minutes of social skills counseling a month. I think she needs to learn &#8220;hands on&#8221; in class, lunch, or recess, not in the \u201coffice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is the school required to provide social skills training?\u00a0 Would this be considered a related service?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here\u2019s an easy to read <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/growing-friendships\/201108\/what-are-social-skills\">description about social skills <\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">from Psychology Today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Social skill is not a \u201cservice\u201d but a <em>functional skill<\/em> necessary for daily living activities. Learn what the IDEA, the federal regulations, and the Commentary say about Present Levels of Functional Performance and IEP goals for functional skills.<\/p>\n<p>Read Pat Howey&#8217;s article <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/howey\/iep.functional.perf.htm\">What You Need to Know About IDEA: Present Levels of Functional Performance and Functional Goals in IEPs<\/a>. <a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/howey\/iep.functional.perf.htm\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/howey\/iep.functional.perf.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your child\u2019s IEP <strong>must<\/strong> include a description of her Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance. This means what her strengths and weaknesses are \u2013 both in academics and in functional areas like social skills.<\/p>\n<p>If your child has \u201cfunctional needs\u201d the school must meet these and address these needs with goals in the IEP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Questions to Ask<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Remember, you are part of the IEP team. You have input about your child&#8217;s needs and what services may be needed to meet these needs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Does your daughter have challenges in the social skills area?<\/li>\n<li>Is her weakness in social skills accurately described in the Present Levels?<\/li>\n<li>Does her IEP include goals about how the school will meet these challenges?<\/li>\n<li>Do the goals meet her needs?<\/li>\n<li>Is she making measurable progress toward these goals?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You need to request a meeting of the IEP team to discuss your concerns and to review and revise the IEP.<\/p>\n<p>More than likely, you are correct. 90 minutes of counseling <em>a month<\/em> is probably not what your daughter needs to help her learn to interact with friends and react appropriately to teasing or bullying.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find more help in Chapter 4 of <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/aaieps.html\">Wrightslaw: All About IEPs<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0 Turn to page 29 for information and answers to questions on Present Levels of functional performance and functional IEP goals.<\/p>\n<p>To find out more about &#8220;related services&#8221; read this definition of <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/relsvcs.defs.htm\">Related Services in IDEA<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/relsvcs.defs.htm\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/relsvcs.defs.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My daughter with autism needs help with social skills. Her peers avoid and tease her so she has stopped trying to approach them. She gets 90 minutes of social skills <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/is-the-school-required-to-provide-social-skills-training\/\">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":[1271,18],"tags":[919,918,225,917],"class_list":["post-6721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism","category-ieps","tag-meaurable-iep-goals","tag-present-levels-of-academic-achievement-and-functional-performance","tag-related-services","tag-social-skills"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721","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=6721"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21660,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions\/21660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}