Posted on 04/02/2008 7:11:05 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
Did you see post #63 by metmom? She quotes the NY regulations regarding an IEP here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995460/posts?page=63#63
I don’t know the difference between an ISP and an IEP, and the article isn’t making distinctions.
I can understand the schools knocking the service down to the federal minimum, but not restricting homeschoolers from these services completely. What’s being done is not right because, not only does New York collect school taxes from homeschoolers, it requires them to report to the public schools, and now it wants to deny them services.
It seems New York found a legal loophole allowing the state to deny these services to homeschool students probably to push special needs students into school. If it’s going to deny services, the state at least should stop regulating homeschooling there so heavily.
NY has not just cut back but stopped it completely.
Post 63 is the NYS Homeschool Regulations that were enacted in 1988. I’m not sure how old the section on special needs is but I’ve had that copy of the regs for YEARS. It’s newer than the 1988 ones but not by much, so what I posted from the regs is not new by any means. I’m guessing the copy I have is about 8-10 years old.
Now, an official can SAY that they are getting rid of ISP's, but any parent with an educational attorney with 1/2 a brain can fight that and win it. Heck, **I** could fight that and win it by simply pulling up the regs
An IEP = Individual Education Plan. An IEP is for students with disabilities who are enrolled in either the public school or a school that the school is responsible for paying the tuition. An IEP outlines specific goals, accommodations, and service times, and the services are required to be offered within the normal school day
Both are legal documents, both are legislated under IDEIA. These regulations can be accessed by looking up Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.
You are right that the article does not make a distinction, but from talking to a former principal with whom I teach who just came from NY, I found out that many districts were going far, FAR beyond what was required, at great expense to the districts for children not enrolled in the schools. If the children are not enrolled in the public school, then the school does not receive the allocation from the US Gov't or the NY gov't. People here are all the time talking about how to make schools go broke by withholding their kids. Well, this is in essence the blowback. The NY Education dept is saying that "if you want the service, we want the $$, so come on in, the water's fine." The NY governemnt is not collecting school taxes if the kids are not enrolled.
Do districts provide therapy to illegal alien students?
Everything is 100% correct. The part that that doesn’t mention is the school has a right to say where these services are delivered and the parent has the right to say yes or no. The school must provide transportation to and from the facility - that is why many areas have gone to door-to-door busing for all students because of this requirment. Schools are required to transport sped students to and from school, therefore, they just went to transporting everyone.
Yes, they are required to offer services to all students enrolled in the schools. And by Constitutional law, school officials CANNOT request proof of citizenship, they can only request proof that the student resides in the district. This can be proven with a lease, an electric bill, phone bill (landline), or any other utility.
We’ve thought a lot about the whole sueing the district.
I think we finally came down that if we did sue them we would probably have to put my daughter back into the public schools system where we live.
We love the private school where she is. It’s small (300 kids from k-8), and there are only 20 kids in a classroom. My daughters twin sister is gifted and the school seems to be a good mix for both girls. They have music, art, spanish for my gifted daughter, and pull out for reading/language arts for my special needs daughter.
It looks like the school is working. My daughter (5th grade) just had a seizure in October, and we’ve been concerned if it hit her academically. Two years ago, she had horrible phonics skills (pre-reading) something like less than 25%. It shows up on the WIAT II pseudoword decoding. Yesterday, she took the test and was at a 10th grade level or 75%. Her spelling went from 43% to 66%. What surprised me the most is that one of her math scores went from 73% (already good) to 93% (excellent).
Her reading is still very slow, and it has gotten slower since the seizure (speech and memory issues since the seizure). However, it looks like she has good solid academic skills right now to help her manage the negative impact of the seizures and medication.
That's a good point.
If the children are not enrolled in the public school, then the school does not receive the allocation from the US Gov't or the NY gov't.
I'd like to see that policy changed. When will a candidate be brave enough to talk about this issue? Illegal aliens are receiving public school services, but funding is denied for taxpaying citizens because they're not enrolled full-time. It makes no sense.
That’s a sticky area isn’t it? In fact one of the ‘battle cries’ here on FR is that pulling your child from the public schools starves the system of needed funds, therefore possibly causing the system to eventually implode. But then, when funds aren’t available for special needs, folks want to know why their tax dollars aren’t being used for this when their kids aren’t enrolled.
We don’t homeschool to starve the school system. We homeschool because it works best for our children.
But, it is a sticky situation because homeschool parents are stuck with paying into a system they don’t want to use.
Here in my state, even though we pay the highest property tax rates in the nation, homeschoolers warn each other not to use public school services. There are no regulations here, so, as the thinking goes, why invite intrusion?
But - and here’s the key point I keep making - in New York, homeschoolers not only pay school taxes, they’re required by law to report to the public schools. They must report to the superintendent, file forms and test with the district, and follow a schedule established by the state, or risk “probation”. So, New York goes “above and beyond” in its homeschool regulations, too.
From the point of view of a homeschooler living in absolute freedom, there is no homeschooling in NY. All children in NY are wards of the state. NY homeschoolers are forced to use the public school system.
That’s why it’s not right: NY forces them into school for reports, tests, etc., but then turns around and denies access to special ed services.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.