Good public school district in bay area for special ed?
We are currently in Fremont now and schools are extremely competitive here. My son is in middle school and has IEP because of his ADD and LD. FUSD does not provide electives for kids with IEP! During the elective period he has to Sit in resource room. My son is extremely social and creative, but he gets easily distracted in classroom and zones out a lot of things doesn’t interest him. We want to move out , trying to find a place in bay area where the special ed is good and give equal opportunity to every kid in the school and appreciates individual strengths and needs.
appreciate any suggestions and advice. Thank you
Sep 7, 2021
Parent Replies
Sadly this is not too uncommon at middle school - taking away an elective to provide services. One question is what services is your son actually getting (if any) in his resource class?? Another question is, can you find him a school that offers two elective periods, so he can be in a resource class (if necessary and useful) AND have a free choice class? When we found out this was the situation at our son's upcoming middle school, we hired a tutor to scaffold him in his area of weakness and switched school districts to one that offered two electives, just in case the tutor wasn't enough to keep him afloat and out of the resource class. Expensive, and sucks socially, but worked academically.
Hello Fremont Family,
It is illegal for the school district to prevent your child from having access to electives, just because he has a disability. Of course this is not the reason that they will give as to why he is being excluded, but you are right that it is happening. You can request an IEP meeting in writing to address this right away. They have to hold the meeting within 30 days since your child already has an IEP.
Choose the elective(s) now that will fit into your child's schedule. Then figure out exactly what type of support he will need to access this curriculum. If he would need a Para or Instructional Aide to help him integrate into the elective class, then request this in writing ahead of the IEP meeting. If he would need an escort to get to and from class, request that, too. Request whatever it will take to allow him to access the elective class(es). Including prompts or assistance from the gen ed teacher to keep him on track. Don't leave it up to the school district to figure out how to make this work, and do not take "NO" for an answer! The parent and student are the most important and knowledgeable members of the IEP team. The District does not always have the best solution.
We live in Oakland and the School Board recently passed a Resolution (OUSD Board Resolution No. 2021-0159 - Ensuring Access to Social-Emotional and Academic Supports for Students with Disabilities) to allow children with disabilities access to all school-based activities. This includes many activities that our children have previously been excluded from, such as: field trips, afterschool programs, science fairs, clubs, tutoring, college prep, work experience, etc.
Attend your Community Advisory Committee for Special Ed so that you can make this injustice more widely known. There are other families in the same situation, but it can be difficult to connect with families who have students with disabilities. It is unfortunate that parents must fight for services for their child to succeed, but do not give up. Best of luck.