How To Know My School Placement?

Was it legal to exclude my son from field trip due to his placement which is a result of his disabilities?

• Okay... the school succeeded in pissing me off this morning. When I dropped Elijah off at his school this morning his 1:1 aid told me she was a little upset that all the kindergarteners at the K-2 school up the hill went on a field trip yesterday to an animal farm. She did not get notified of this trip and neither did I. She has spoken to the SPED director several times about including Elijah in trips, performances, etc. with his peers. Is this legal? From my understanding it seems that it might be a violation of Section 504 because he was excluded do to his placement which is a result of his disabilities (PDD-NOS, SPD, BP).... The school district only had one substantially seperate classroom in the whole district which is at his current school of 3-4th graders. We told the SPED director that we wanted him included in activities with his peers from kindergarten. When his aid was talking about it this morning Elijah mentioned how he would have petted the animals like this... showed with a gentle hand, and how he would have fed the baby sheep it's bottle. He looked sad too that he was excluded. His aid also told me that the rest of the kindergarteners are having a Memorial Day Program which she did not get informed about. They all started practicing thier songs last month, but he did not have a chance to. I don't even think that the plan was to include Elijah, but his 1:1 aid is going to get a couple songs that they are singing, teach him them, and bring him any ways. Another thing the kindergarteners have their own computer based reading program called Lexia that his aid is doing with him... yes his aid... not the SPED teacher. She is getting some good teaching experience because it seems that she is his unofficial teacher. Any ways the teachers, assistants, etc. got a three day training on this program which is new a couple weeks ago. She did not get informed of the training, so she did not go until the second day when she found out from word of mouth, not from a supervisor, that it was going on. So great not only is my son excluded from field trips, but his aid is being denied the right training do to his placement as well.... I guess I should look on the bright side... at least Elijah is getting to go on a field trip on a Trolly Tour with the 3-4th graders that I am chaperoning him on. When they told me about the trip they were telling me that they did not know if maybe I wanted to drive the 90+ miles and meet them there because he might not do good on the bus. No thank you! I told them that I would go and he would be fine if we get to sit up front where he won't be able to see all the other kids. I already called the SPED director but he was not in his office so I left messages. Later this afternoon I will call the SPED director back. I also wrote letters which I am going to bring to the SPED director and Superintendent's offices which state my concerns. I felt like going down to the SPED director's office and waiting for him to return but that might be unprofessional. Just a reminder: his placement is in the 3rd-4th grade school. The kindergarteners go to the K-2 school which is up the hill a few feet away. The only substantially separate class our school district has is the class Elijah is in at the 3-4th grade school.

• Answer:

  So much of what you wrote is illegal (the things the school is doing). An aide is not suppose to be teaching sped programs to a student, the sped teacher is. And the only reason they are letting him go on the trip is because you are going, they don't want to deal with him. The idiots. PLEASE go to this message board, it's the best on the internet for problems like this. They are VERY knowledgable and can help you every step of the way. You have grounds for suing them if you want, but there are other ways to get around it and make them treat him right. http://millermom.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Education