Special Education SOP

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Late night last minute preparations for a CSE meeting for one of the children in the morning. I already know what I'm going to say and I already have information at hand to back me up. New York state education regulations as written and implemented tend to throw stumbling blocks in the paths of students with IEP/504 Plans.

A student with an IEP/504 Plan that includes an extended time testing accommodation can end up enduring 12 hours of testing to complete Regents exams if they have two exams scheduled on the same day. New York doesn't reschedule these exams to accommodate students with IEP/504 Plans. One option is for student to take one of the exams months later during one of the other allowed testing period in January, June, and August. The other option is to not take one of the exams at all.

I'm not a fan of any of those options for my children or anyone else's. So I've got my copy of the full text of IDEA, all 162 pages of it. Download your copy today! I also have copies of the state regulations concerning testing accommodations. Needless to say I will have better options for my children than what has been standard operating procedure.

If families are willing to dig deep enough and pester enough people they might find out that they might be able to get their child’s school to petition the state for special dispensation months in advance of when their students will take the Regents exams. Then you wait and hope that someone will agree to remove the stumbling block from your child's educational path.

Nope.

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