{"id":7275,"date":"2014-01-02T10:25:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T14:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=7275"},"modified":"2014-01-02T10:25:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T14:25:24","slug":"school-removes-primary-diagnosis-from-iep-what-happens-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/school-removes-primary-diagnosis-from-iep-what-happens-now\/","title":{"rendered":"School Removes &#8220;Primary Diagnosis&#8221; from IEP &#8211; What Happens Now?"},"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%20Removes%20%22Primary%20Diagnosis%22%20from%20IEP%20-%20What%20Happens%20Now%3F\";<\/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=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: right;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/schoolboy.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"149\" \/>My child entered special ed with autism \/ ADHD classifications.\u00a0 Now the school wants to remove the primary diagnosis of autism from the IEP &#8211; to focus on the ADHD.\u00a0 Why?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If there is documentation from your doctors that your child has autism along with the ADHD, it should not be ignored.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What documentation or data does the school have to justify this decision?<\/li>\n<li>Is your child&#8217;s autism no longer impacting his ability to learn?<\/li>\n<li>Are there no behaviors that are impeding learning?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>I understand that once a child is found eligible, services must be designed to meet their unique needs, and that the designation is not supposed to matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>IDEA requires that the school assess your child in all areas of suspected disability so the IEP Team can develop a program and services designed to meet his unique needs. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/selaw2.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law<\/span><\/a>, 20 U.S.C. 1414(b) p. 96 and 34 CFR 300.304, p. 241)<\/p>\n<p><strong>If the school will <em>not acknowledge<\/em> a learning disability, they will <em>not provide<\/em> <em>services<\/em> for the learning disability.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Individualizing Your Child&#8217;s Program<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is NO justification for limiting eligibility categories.<\/p>\n<p>This limitation flies in the face of the requirement to individualize your child&#8217;s educational program so it meets ALL of your child&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n<p>The school appears to be misrepresenting the eligibility options under the IDEA.<\/p>\n<p>If there is evidence for a qualifying category, your school district must consider eligibility for this category.<\/p>\n<p>More than likely, the school wants to remove autism from the IEP because ADHD is a less severe diagnosis. The district may hope that it will be less expensive for them to provide services for just ADHD, rather than autism.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Caution!<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>If your child is currently struggling more with ADHD concerns right now, the district may claim an IEP is adequate for the present.<\/p>\n<p>However, he may still have needs uniquely related to his autism. Reducing services now will mean you have little protection for the future.<\/p>\n<p>What will you do in the future if one disability is no longer found to be an eligibility category? When all disabilities are listed, they are less likely to be overlooked in future.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Put Your Concerns in Writing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Restate what the school told you.\u00a0 Have them confirm <em>why<\/em>, in writing.<\/p>\n<p>You may want to consider a DOE complaint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My child entered special ed with autism \/ ADHD classifications.\u00a0 Now the school wants to remove the primary diagnosis of autism from the IEP &#8211; to focus on the ADHD.\u00a0 <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/school-removes-primary-diagnosis-from-iep-what-happens-now\/\">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":[35,18],"tags":[1307,42,44,1301,1122],"class_list":["post-7275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eligibility","category-ieps","tag-adhd","tag-autism","tag-classification","tag-eligibility","tag-eligibility-categories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275","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=7275"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10927,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275\/revisions\/10927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}