From: "Suzanne Heath" To: Subject: Re: CHILD ABSENT Date: Monday, October 10, 2005 9:48 PM Children tend to get sick less often as they get older and get more immune to their germy little friends. The team needs to teach the child they have, not the child they might prefer to have. The child they have gets sick a lot. The IEP team needs to consider that when they plan his instruction to be sure that they get him to where he needs to be. If his absences have affected the amount of instruction he has received then the IEP team can increase the services to make up for lost time. Send in a note every time he is out sick so you can document the illness. If he sees a doctor mention that in a note also. It will help if everyone who works with him knows as much ahead of time as possible when he will be absent. Educating Children with Autism by the Nation al Research Council says children need a minimum of 25 hours of services per week year round, (page 6). The team should work to make this occur even in a week when illness, holidays, and staff meetings take place. Illness, holidays and staff meetings do not change a child's educational needs. It will be difficult to do this. What you provide at home should not have any effect on what the team provides at school. If someone on the team is sensitive about your home program then just talk about it as little as possible. You will be working with the school staff for many more years. Do not let things get under your skin. I am sure the illnesses are frustrating for the teachers but do not let comments about it get to you. The teachers have a big job ahead of them. It is okay if they get frustrated about the absences. Educating Children with Autism http://www.nap.edu/books/0309072697/html Sue ----- Original Message ----- From: Getsons4@aol.com To: sueheath@wrightslaw.com Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 8:26 PM Subject: CHILD ABSENT Hello Sue My child is 4 years old with Autism. We have learned that he is deficient in a lot of vitamins and that prevents his body from functioning at an optimal level. He is on vitamin and supplements to help him however, he gets sick when everyone else gets sick but it always last longer. He has been in the school system for seven weeks now, however he has been absent seven times. 2 days due to doctors appointments to specialists and 5 days due to illness. I notified the school for all of his absences, however at our last IEP and at other meetings with the school they imply that since Matt has been sick a lot they cannot effectively teach him. I have contacted my doctor to put a letter on file. Can the school do that? If so, how is that fair. They have several days off a month for in-service meetings and holidays and we as parents do not complain that our child is not being taught effectively because of that. They seem to be pulling out all of the stops because we are proposing setting up an in home ABA program for half of day but we are not declining their school portion. We are not saying that is not of benefit, just that he needs as much one on one as he needs school. I am afraid that if we go to mediation what will come of their claims. I can not promise that Matt will not get sick. I have doctors notes and emergency room documentation. Please advise. Thank you.