Let's Start From the Very Beginning

During much of our transition and IEP process, Drew's Dad and I felt that it was necessary to remain silent on the blog. While there are many positive aspects to keeping this blog public, not knowing who is reading is not one. So, to protect ourselves, and Drew, as we went through a very heated, conflict ridden process, we remained quite.

I would like to start at the very beginning, in order to try to help other families who may experience a similar situation. When a child, under three years of age is diagnosed with a disability, s/he begins to receive services through state funded programming, provided through the health department under Part C of IDEA. These services are very family centered, and focus on the wishes of the parents and family. Our services were provided through Help Me Grow and The Columbus Hearing Impaired Program, and were exceptional.

When a child turns three, the early intervention services provided through IDEA Part C are discontinued. If a child is still suspected to still have a disability at age three (some children may outgrow a disability), then a child enrolled in IDEA Part C services goes through transition. The child will now eligible for services, following evaluation showing a continued need for services, under IDEA Part B, and an IEP will be developed.

As your child nears his/her third birthday, the process will begin with a 120 Transition Meeting. This meeting is arranged by the family service coordinator you currently have for your early intervention services, and is a opportunity to introduce your child, and family, to the school district. This is an opportunity to discuss current performance levels, concerns, testing, therapies, etc. with your school district. If the LEA (Local Education Agency) suspects that the child has a disability, a referral for evaluation is completed. This begins the time lines for transition, and is vital to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition process. If an IEP is not developed by a child's third birthday, s/he could go without vital services while the process plays out. Before you attend your 120 Meeting, review the Interagency Agreement between your school district and the county or state program providing services. There are time lines for transition that exist between Part C and Part B agencies to make sure the transition process runs smoothly. We had significant issues with our school district following time lines for transition, as outlined by law.

To me, the family aspect for a deaf or hard of hearing child is crucial for a school district to understand, because it has a significant educational impact. As parents, we make very difficult decisions very early on about the communication modality we are going to use with our child. From Auditory Verbal to Total Communication to American Sign Language, we have all made decisions that must be respected in the educational setting. I would strongly encourage you to educate the personnel you are working with from your school district on your the choices you made for communication modality and the needs you child has from an educational perspective as a result of this choice. This one area proved to be very powerful when it came down to writing Drew's IEP.

So, what should you do to prepare for your 120 Transition Meeting?

1. Prepare an introduction on your child. This is the first opportunity you have to introduce your family and your child to the school district. Be prepared! What is your child's disability? What type of medical devices, i.e. hearing aids or cochlear implants, does your child use? How long did your child go without hearing? What are his/her strengths? Weaknesses? What are your primary concerns of his/her disability on educational performance? What communication mode does your child use? What current services is your child receiving? In what environment does your child learn best? Include anything that will help the district get to know your child, and make a case for the placement or services you would like.
2. Read Procedural Safeguards of IDEA 2004.
3. Make a plan. Discuss your goals for the meeting with your family service coordinator, and anyone else that may be attending the meeting. Make sure that everyone understands what your wishes are for placement or services from the school district once your child turns three years of age.

What should you do during your 120 Transition Meeting?

1. Take notes! You will not be able to remember everything you discussed during the meeting. If both Mom and Dad are attending the meeting, have Mom do the talking while Dad takes notes, or vice versa. That worked really well for us throughout the process. Drew's Dad was excellent at taking notes, while I did most of the speaking. If both parents aren't attending, ask someone else, like your family service coordinator, to take notes.
2. Expect to be given a copy of IDEA: Procedural Safeguards. This document is required to be given to parents by the school district at the 120 Transition meeting. Again, our school district did not follow through with this. Make note of this in any letters you send the district, as it can be helpful should you need to file a complaint or due process.
3. Gain a clear understanding of the school districts timeline or plan for evaluation and writing of an IEP. Voice any concerns you may have with the timeline at this meeting.
4. Make note of any discussion of placement or money. A school district can not discuss placement prior to performing an evaluation on the child. In addition, a district can not determine placement based on money. Make note of any references to either of these, as they will be very helpful should you need to file a complaint or due process. (Note, our district mentioned both of these during our 120 Meeting.)

What should you do after your 120 Transition Meeting?

1. Write a thank you letter to the school LEA. This should include acknowledgment of their time to attend the meeting. In addition, let the letter breifly recap the meeting, highlighting the information you find most important and useful. If you do run into issues down the road to an IEP, this letter begins a trail of paperwork that can be useful during a complaint or due process.
2. Follow up with the LEA to make sure that the referral for evaluation is completed and that the evaluation is scheduled. We had significant issues in this area, so it's important to stay on top of the time lines. And, again, if you are having issues getting an evaluation scheduled, continue to write letters. They are excellent to use in case of complaint or due process.

Honestly, we did not go into our 120 Transition Meeting prepared. We fully expected Drew's transition to be a "walk in the park," as everyone we know through our area did not experience issues when seeking placement at the oral hearing impaired program. I think it is important to understand that every transition, just like every child, is different. So, do your homework, and be prepared. We really discovered that (not all but most) school districts will try to wear you down throughout this process with demoralizing and nasty letters, strong-armed, bully-type tactics. In our experience, the district expected us to get tired and go away. But when they met well prepared, determined parents, they eventually have to follow the law. And that is all we really expect.

The Post In Which Things Get Personal...

**I originally wrote this post on August 24th, as we were still working with the school district to find Drew as a child with a disability. While the process has gotten a bit better, with Drew having been found as a child with disability, I thought this would give you an idea as to why this process has been so difficult for us, on so many levels.

We've been dealing with this transition process for nearly five months, and with each passing day the situation becomes more and more stressful; more and more frustrating; more and more hurtful. I sit in disbelief nearly everyday about the issues we are facing, because I have built great memories from the very school district that is violating my rights and not providing special education services for my son.

Today, I live not even one mile from my childhood home, the only home I ever really knew, and the home which my parents still own today. The playgrounds I let my children play on today are the very ones that I played on as a child. I know all of the neighborhoods, and all of the shortcuts through them to miss traffic. The elementary school my children will attend is the same elementary school I went to as a child. I can remember performing my fifth-grade musical on the stage of that school's auditorium; it was Cinderella: Past, Present and Future. I was cast as a member of the 50's and had the line, "Well, my boyfriend's taking me to the Buddy Holly Concert!" That's a totally random story, but this is what my life is filled with. Constant, wonderful memories of my childhood everywhere we go.

And then you add the fact that Drew's Dad and I met in the hallways of the high-school in the school district in which we live, as 16 year old kids. We flirted, fell in love and started the foundation of our life together in the very schools we want to send our children to. Drew's Dad played football; I played field hockey. Conveniently, we had practice each and every night after school on adjacent fields. He could watch me practice; I could watch him. (Boy do men's bottoms look nice in football pants!) Oh, it was so much fun. That feeling of falling in love, where little butterflies dance in your stomach each time you see the person. Just thinking about it brings back such wonderful memories. We continued to date all through college at Ohio State, where we developed a strong foundation for our relationship that lead us to the alter as 22 year old kids.


Throughout our entire relationship we have always talked about and wanted to live in our community and raise our children through the school system we were raised. We love it here, and in many ways, this community is the only reason we are still in Ohio today. We've always talked about sending our kids to school in the same buildings we attended; we still know many of the teachers in the system today. We can't wait for the day that Drew runs out onto an athletic field wearing the Black & Gold; we want to hear our fight song play as we cheer Drew's Sister in field hockey, tennis, or what ever sport she chooses. We love going to community events and running into friends from high school, who also have the same love for this community as we do, and also are raising their families here.


But with the entire transition process, the violation of our rights, the complete disregard for the needs of children with disabilities, my love for this community overall is dying. So, while we go through the daily grind of trying to get Drew's evaluation completed, trying to gain eligibility for special education services, trying to get Drew into the preschool setting that he needs, pieces of my dreams from childhood are dying. And that is what I am having the most difficult time with. I don't want to send my children to another school district. But how can I choose to send them to a district that apparently has no concern over the needs of children with disabilities?

And the Struggle Continues...

Just when I thought we might be able to get through this IEP process, with finally having some dates to look forward to firmly scheduled on the calendar, the process takes a turn for the worse. Again.

Our MFE Meeting was on Wednesday, where we discussed the results of Drew's evaluation, performed by the school district. These evaluations were to determine Drew's eligibility for an IEP, and thus special education services. Let me say that the law clearly states that a child with a "50db pure tone hearing loss over [4 different frequencies]" qualifies under the category of deafness. Since Drew's pure tone loss is 100db, across all frequencies, it's clear as day, correct?

The first forty-five minutes of the meeting were spent giving the school district personnel an education on hearing loss and how to read Drew's audiogram. Seriously, the representatives from the district could not read an audiogram, and had no idea what a normal hearing range for a child even was. I had out pictures of audiograms showing what sounds Drew can hear, what he can not; pictures of what items make sounds at what decibel levels so that they could have some understanding of normal hearing. It was really quite shocking how little they understood about hearing loss. And they certainly knew nothing how how a cochlear implant works, and even less on how Drew actually hears with his cochlear implants. This is very alarming, especially considering that these individuals are involved in making decisions about my child's education.

Clearly Drew is doing well with his cochlear implants, and scored within one standard deviation of average on the PLS-4, a speech and language evaluation given by an SLP from the school district. Because of this score, the district sees Drew as an average child for his age, and is saying that his disability has no adverse effect on his education. (Which, again, it outside of the actual law.)

Are you kidding me? I think I've spent enough time and energy researching Drew's disability to know that profound hearing loss has had an adverse effect on his education to date, and will continue to have an adverse effect on his education. Since Drew has been in early intervention since he was six-weeks old, and has had a minimum of two hours of formal aural or speech therapy a week since implantation, in addition to the therapy provided by us at home, how has his disability not impacted his education? If a typically hearing child was given as much therapy as Drew, s/he would test so far above average on the PLS-4 that s/he could go ahead and start Kindergarten at age three. I mean, seriously, this is just a bunch of crap. Drew's hearing loss has an impact on him each and every day of his life. As his parents, we do as much as we can to minimize those effects; we minimize background noise, speak so that Drew can see our lips, phrase questions in ways we know he will understand, speak louder and clearer, get his attention before speaking to him, just to name a few.

So, after three and a half hours, we left the meeting with no determination on Drew's eligibility for an IEP. And, to top it off, the meeting ended with the Special Education Department Representative storming out of the meeting after I questioned why the law was being interpreted differently by our school district than what it is in every other district we know in Ohio. Apparently my question, while valid, was seen as "disrespectful" and warranted juvenile behavior that you would see from a 13 year old child. Not surprising; pretty much every encounter we've had with the school district has included juvenile behavior.

This is what we are dealing with, day in and day out. And we have been dealing with since the day we had our transition conference back in March. One delay after another, in an attempt to deny our son special education services that he so clearly needs and qualifies for. So, we left the meeting without eligibility, and will reconvene on Monday to make a final determination.

**Updated: We received an email from the district on Sunday morning indicating that they would like to complete further testing of Drew and reschedule his eligibility meeting for later in the week or early in the following week. The stall attempts continue, because with each passing day, they give us one less day to do the things we need to do in order to get our son the services he needs. Seriously, I don't think I could even begin to share all we have been through because it is just so ridiculous that it is almost unbelievable.