In this episode of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter speaks with April Rehrig, Special education advocate, school psychologist and founder of Rise Educational Advocacy, a firm based in California offering affordable and accessible advocacy support to families and schools nationwide. With her extensive experience as a school psychologist and a mother of three, April provides valuable insights into navigating the complexities of the IEP process.
Tune in to the episode to hear about:
April’s Journey: Learn how April transitioned from being a school psychologist for 20 years to an advocate dedicated to reforming strength-based IEPs.
Navigating Assessments: Key strategies for parents to request assessments effectively, including using the right terminology and knowing what to ask for.
Accommodations vs. Modifications: Clear definitions of accommodations and modifications, their differences, and how they relate to IEP goals.
Collaboration Tips: How parents can collaborate with schools to make IEP meetings more productive and ensure their child’s strengths are highlighted.
Empowering Students: The importance of involving students in their IEP meetings and how it can lead to greater self-advocacy skills, especially before transitioning to college.
Read the whole transcript of this interview below.
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Stress-Free IEP®:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP® experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
Voice-Over: Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www. Shefterlaw. com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and more.Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Hello everyone and welcome to the show.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Today’s guest is April Rehrig and she is out in California and April is a special education advocate, a a psych a, sorry, a school psychologist and the founder of Rise Educational Advocacy. April, say hello and tell [00:01:00] us why you started RISE Educational Advocacy.
April Rehrig: Hi Frances, thanks so much for having me. Gosh, that’s a great question to ask. Um, why I started RISE. I guess the answer would be I started RISE because after being a school psych for 20 years and being a mom of three kids and being a teacher, I wanted to make advocacy affordable and accessible. And so I crafted my business to do, um, online support and really.
Make things easier for teachers and parents and everyone at the table. And so that’s why I started RISE to kind of connect families with schools and really reform how we meet and how we talk about strength based IEPs.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: That is awesome. Similar to me, like started off in the school and said, We need to do something different, right?
April Rehrig: Exactly.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Um, so you’re just doing the [00:02:00] advocacy now, right? You’re not doing any of the school psychology anymore?
April Rehrig: No, no, I left. Um, I, I left, uh, before the pandemic. Um, I guess I got lucky with the silver lining, but, um, yeah, I left, I retired and I formulated my business. And then because of the pandemic, I was like, wow, okay, I can do things online.
So it’s sort of all worked out, I guess you could say.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Got it. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, I love that you’ve retired. And I, you know, I used to say all the time, my father worked more after he retired, you know, cause he just, he could then do what he wanted to do, you know, like, um, so I know like you do a lot of, you know, a big thing we have is.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: requesting assessments. And I know from my point of view, like what I do as an education attorney and advocate and also a former special ed teacher, but I’m sure from a cycle psychologist review view, like what is it you think like is really important to make sure the psychologist really knows what the parent [00:03:00] is asking for?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question, Frances. And that’s, that’s one of actually the biggest things that I help families do is, um, I, when I became first became an advocate. I knew that families were like, I need testing, but because I was a school psychologist, I thought, okay, I know what they need to ask for, because as a psych, I know what I wanted to hear.
And that’s one of the biggest barriers is that families are told, well, just ask for testing, but it’s not just in your ask, but it’s how you ask, when you ask, and what you ask for, because you have to tell the school, What you’re suspecting and what you’re looking for. So, um, when I became an advocate and then I formed rise I decided to sell very low cost templates because There’s not a lot out there in terms of saying well What do you say in the letter and then families get really confused because the school honestly doesn’t really tell you Okay, here’s what you need to [00:04:00] say in the letter.
They’ll say just write it down so But we all know that how we write it and how we ask is not only going to fast track testing Get the um assessment approved, but really get an assessment that’s individualized and catered So if you don’t know that and nobody is going to know that then why not figure out a better way to um, inform families and so that’s why I created a template because I wanted to make it really easy and not you know Hours and hours of trying to make it write a dang letter You
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right.
No, that’s awesome. I love that you have templates because I know like around here a lot. I get a lot of clients of like, well, I’ve been asking for templates for over a year, you know, not templates. I’ve asked him for test testing for over a year. And they just keep saying, no, we don’t see special ed. And it’s so frustrating, but then usually You know, if the, if the clients don’t engage with me, I’ll just tell them like, look, Hey, you need to write an email to the principal and a special ed coordinator and specifically say, this is what I suspect.
[00:05:00] I want testing. We need to have a meeting within 30 days. So like have the language there because if not, they just ignore it. But once you use the language of know what you’re asking for and know the deadlines, amazing how schools respond, right?
April Rehrig: Yes. I worked with a family a month ago and I’m sure a lot of your listeners will resonate with this story.
She moved to a new school. She sat down with the counselor and said, I’m really, you know, I want my child tested. I’m suspecting dyslexia. And she wasn’t really informed. Well, you have to write it down. Well, you need to ask for IEP testing. And so the counselor said, you know, thank you so much for letting me know.
You know, he’s in the RTI program. That’s so great. And nothing happened for months and months and months. And then once she started working with me and we wrote down a letter, she was like, oh my gosh, if I would have known to say, I want IEP testing, if I would have known my rights, it would have stayed a half a year.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And that’s [00:06:00] why I do this show. And I also have my YouTube channel with over a hundred videos because it frustrates me so much. And I don’t blame the schools. I know, you know, we’ve worked for the school systems. I don’t blame them. They do what they can with what they have. They do the best they can, but it’s just frustrating because it’s, you know, The parents don’t know, and they don’t know what to ask, and the school’s not always offering, or sometimes the school doesn’t necessarily know, the counselor might not know that it needs to be this way, or how it needs to be done, and, um, I find that a lot, and it’s just a lot, and it’s just so frustrating for me that, I, I mean, I, I guess, like, I’m just thinking, like, the parents don’t know, but how would they know?
You know what I mean? Like, as parents, we have our kids, and great, they don’t come with the handbook, and as soon as you think you figure it out, they switch the game up, and the second one comes, and it’s completely different, and then you add neurodiversity to it, and it’s just a whole nother ballgame, um, and to know in the special ed process, I mean, I’ve been in this [00:07:00] industry way more years than I want to, you know, want to share.
But like, even with me, things change all the time. Right.
April Rehrig: Yeah. And that’s exactly, you brought up a really good point, Frances, about education and training. And when I was a teacher in a school psych, we wanted IEP training. We wanted to know how to write IEPs. And honestly, we were not given training. We were told, okay, this is a compliant IEP.
I was never trained as a school psych how to connect my assessments with the reports. I was never trained on strength based IEPs. And any training we got was given by someone who was not a teacher and not someone who worked in the classroom. And so the whole time I’m like, Well, if they want us to do better, why don’t they give us the training?
Um, and so you bring up such a good point.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no, and I remember back as teachers, like I remember learning I’m trying to remember. It was like when I was a special ed teacher, I remember learning IEPs and in one training, they’re like, Oh, the way it should [00:08:00] be is that, you know, a goal should be if you’re saying 75 percent that objective one is to reach it at 25 percent and objective two is to reach it at 50 percent and objective three, you know, and that way.
And so all of my IEPs were just like that, which is not necessarily individualized and not necessarily the way it should be written. But, um, That was a little bit of training I got. It’s like, Oh, this is what they should look like. Oh, okay. Let’s make it look like that, which as we know is not individualized,
April Rehrig: right?
And then if you’re not given the right information, you just pass it on. And so you’re exactly right with the counselor in mind that happened to my client. The counselor hadn’t been trained, so it wasn’t her fault, and a lot of things, a lot of the mistakes that happen in special education are because someone told someone else, okay, this is what FAPE means, or this is LRE, and there isn’t really a training, and so just like the game of telephone, the information gets misinterpreted, and it’s just, you know, all of this can be reformed, but we have to revise how [00:09:00] and when we communicate at the table to get better IEPs.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no. And I think I look back of when I was a teacher and when I was special ed coordinator, um, and I look back at the things and, and what I did. And, and honestly, I look back and I’m like, yeah, that probably wasn’t legal, but that’s what my bosses told me. That’s what central office told me. That’s what the principal told me.
So that’s what I knew to do. And I didn’t know any better. And so, you know, and that’s a thing. And that’s why, like, I never put it on the teachers or the school staff. It’s like, It’s, it’s, it’s a systemic issue all over the place of just the training. And it’s, you know what, there’s so much training to be done for teachers.
It’s really a challenge. Whereas like if they had like one special ed person that, that it’s like just known, like, If anybody asks any special ed questions, send them to this one person, you know, that, that like centralize it all. So everybody doesn’t know how to know any everything. They just have to know if they hear the words, testing, evaluation, special education called [00:10:00] this person.
And then it just makes, it makes it more streamlined and easier for everyone.
April Rehrig: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean if we think about for those of your teacher listeners out there You’ll resonate with this but like every week we always had in services And all of us in the special ed department and it would be like gosh, well, well, can’t we meet?
No, no, no, no. No, you need to go to the ela. You need to go to that I’m, like, well, what about our team meetings and I found like honestly when we met as a team When, for example, some of the schools I was at, we were able to map out all of the year in advance of all of our meetings, or we would sit there and not pre meet about an IEP, but talk about, okay, like, what’s the plan?
How are we doing that? And if we had time to collab, and we Incorporated that in our normal prep time That was the best way to do it or if we spikes we had like a monthly meeting and we could just co lab together And trade info on cases. That’s it. So the availability is there. It’s just getting that kind of aha I can do this with my team better and I can [00:11:00] plan better is so much easier than going to those dang, you know, monthly meetings.
And you’re like, I spent three hours here in PD and I didn’t learn I
Frances Shefter, Esq.: remember those days. Yeah. And it’s, I mean, I get it because the principals probably, you know, whatever, like this is what the in service has to look like and, and it’s, you know, they kind of stock our training as teachers and psychologists rather than individualize it to what our needs are and what the kids needs are.
Um, it’s just, it’s so frustrating because I remember sitting in some of these in services and I’m like, are you kidding me? Like I was teaching, I mean, I was teaching the very intellectually disabled. I mean, back then it was something totally different. That’s not PC. I don’t even know what they’re calling now, but like my kids were the IQs under 40, you know, the nonverbal and all that other stuff.
So 95 percent of the in services made no sense to me because it was completely not, I wasn’t working on curriculum. My kids were all non diploma bound. I was working on the function skills. And so like sitting there in this class to learn this [00:12:00] stuff. Um, and when I was doing it, it was way before internet.
So it wasn’t even like I could be on the computer to do something like to work on my IEP as well, sitting at this desk.
April Rehrig: Exactly. And the way that they do the in services is a little bit like the boring lecture. You know, they don’t make it usable. So it’s, I felt like after I taught kindergarten, I’m like, all right, I’m going to teach everybody differently here because honestly, we learn so much better in short little increments and 20 minutes a year in a video here, just like our kids.
So when they do the PDs, they need to make them, They need to make more interesting.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Agreed. So for parents out there that are listening, cause like this is, you know, like, Hey, parents, we know, um, the schools are struggling too. Right.
Effective Strategies for Parents in IEP Meetings
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Um, what are there, like, what do you find is the best for parents to do?
Like going into an IEP meeting to make it more collaborative, because there’s just so many times. parents don’t feel like they’re part of the team. There was a meme [00:13:00] out once with like 15 people on one side and one, two people on the other side. And the, over the 15 people, it was the school saying, we don’t understand why it is you feel you need to bring an advocate with you.
And it’s like, well, let’s look. So how do you think, like what can parents do or say to help make it more collaborative?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question. Um, so when you think about, you know, collaboration and when you have a meeting coming up, for example, if you’re a parent, you need to first of all tell the school what you’re concerned about and you need to formulate your information so you can attach it to their record.
So I always tell my families, write a parent letter of attachment and when you get the IEP invitation or if you request an IEP invitation, you’re going to attach it. And in your attachment, you’re going to say, here is what my concerns are, here are my child’s strengths, here is what I would like you to review and consider.
So when the team finds out early, oh, okay, mom wants us to talk [00:14:00] about A, B, and C. She put it in bullet points, she made it less than a page so it’s not overwhelming. And then you ask for drafts. And so with the drafts, for example, you can review the present levels of performance. You could submit as a parent, what I call a parent report, which is where you put your information.
Here’s what I’m doing at home. Here’s the outside of VALS. Here’s what I want you to list on the present levels page. And then you’re giving the team information. You’re attaching it to your record. You’re putting it on the IEP itself. And then when the team meets with you, they already know, Oh, mom wants us to discuss this proposed goal, or mom is concerned about this, or here’s an agenda that mom created, and we’re going to walk through the agenda.
So then when you walk into the IEP. You have your child’s record and you have like a whole little Folder that you make and it’s got the prior IEPs in there the progress reports your parent letter of attachment you bring [00:15:00] copies And then as the team’s going through they’re like, what are your concerns?
They’re like, oh, I already submitted them They should already be incorporated in the present level section in the parent input section And then you pass out your agenda and the team’s like, Oh, now I know you cut down the meeting time, you get your drafts, you can get to the offer of FAPE by cutting down the time because you’re planning again, so it’s sort of a proactive way of collaborating with your team instead of waiting for the IEP to fail, waiting for problems, looking for errors, and then be like, Oh, this meeting was terrible.
Now I’m going to say what I don’t like,
Frances Shefter, Esq.: right? No, and I love that because doing the letter, they’re doing the in writing before the meeting is then like, one of the issues I have often is that PWNs, the prior written notice that comes after me are just junk and 95 percent of the time they don’t include everything they’re supposed to include.
And so, and if the parents, I actually didn’t quite know this, but if the [00:16:00] parents write like, Hey, here are the errors in the PWN, The school’s supposed to edit the PWN and they never
April Rehrig: do it. They have to respond. You’re exactly right. And they don’t.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yep. And, um, so, you know, that was a violation on a state complaint that I did.
But so then you can say, on this date, I sent you this letter asking for all of these things. So now all of this, if it didn’t get discussed needs to be on the PWN of why it didn’t get discussed because school, you had that responsibility. This is what I wanted as a team member. And it kind of puts that accountability back on them.
And I know for me, I found is that once the, the, um, family starts using the language. And starts, you know, quoting the laws and just saying the rules and stuff. And, um, even sometimes saying, well, I was talking to an attorney and she said, um, that the school start changing a little bit on their attitude and the things they do.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s, that’s actually [00:17:00] true. It’s, it’s kind of sad that it requires someone else to come in, but you’re absolutely right. A hundred percent of the time when I was a school psych and we had an advocate come in. Everyone would dot their I’s, cross their T’s, they would just sit up more, they’d be more willing to do stuff, and it shouldn’t be like that, but the reality is it’s true.
Just like if you go anywhere else and someone hears like even a whiff of like an attorney involved, people are like, Ooh, you need to be careful. It
Frances Shefter, Esq.: was funny that you say that. Cause like people always ask like the difference between advocate and an attorney and I, you know, I 100 percent support advocates.
I think they’re great. There’s a place, the difference at least around here is when you bring an attorney to a meeting, their attorney comes and central office comes. Yeah. And central office is the decision makers. And so it’s a very different meeting when you have the higher ups looking at you. Um.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s true.
And you bring up a really good point is that sometimes I’ll have families and they’ll say, [00:18:00] man, I do not get along with this teacher or this principal’s always, you know, da da da da. And I’ll, I’ll say, well, you know, you can ask someone from the district to come to the meeting. You can ask for a facilitated IEP.
You can ask for another representative to come to the meeting because there is a conflict of interest or so and so and so Parents can ask for people from the district to come to the meeting But again, they have to tell them in advance They have to cite the reasons why and they have to let the team know what’s going on If they don’t say anything to the IEP, it’s not useful.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, that’s so true. And that’s the thing. It’s a lot of, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know what to ask for. And that’s, you know, again, the reason for my show is to put it out there like, Hey, do this or ask that and stuff like that. Um, so I know a big thing that I get a lot is, is clients.
You know, families don’t understand like accommodations and modifications and like, what’s the difference? What, you know, because we also call them supplementary aids and services and like, [00:19:00] wait, what’s what and why and where and how does that all work? So what’s the difference?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question. Um, I did a blog, um, on this, um, and I did several reels and honestly it was the thing, one of the highest rated items that I did because there’s such misinformation out there.
So if you think about accommodations versus modifications. Accommodations are going to adjust how. How is the instruction delivered? How is the information given? And accommodations are kind of broken into four different subtypes. So when you look at an accommodation, it could be instructional, it could be time, it could be how you’re delivering the information, how you’re receiving it.
There’s four kind of different subtypes of an accommodation. Now, a modification is going to be adjusting the what. What is the curriculum? What are we doing? And what adjustments are being made? [00:20:00] So, in accommodation, it’s going to be working on access to the curriculum and it’s not going to be altering the curriculum itself, versus a modification is.
An accommodation really has to do with the delivery of the information versus a modification is more of the actual output of the information itself. So there’s kind of two different camps and if you think about an accommodation, that also has to do with prompting and queuing, which is pretty much given before and after.
So like a prompt hierarchy, all of those things. That’s an accommodation versus a modification is the actual output of the information Now there gets to be some kind of gray matter when people will say well, I want less Um, I want less homework assignments, right? I want to do five instead of ten and the team will be like, oh my gosh That’s a modification and the answer is it can be one or the other it really depends on how you word it So if you’re doing less assignments But [00:21:00] you’re still expected to be using the grade level curriculum.
That’s actually a non accommodation versus a modification is you’re doing five out of 10 assignments. And maybe you’re using a second grade curriculum instead of a third grade. So it’s really depending on how you word it. And that’s honestly, when it comes to accommodations and modifications, these need to be embedded in the present levels page.
And they need to be embedded into the goals because the accommodations and modifications are actually the setup to achieve the goals and these come from the present levels that start from the assessment.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. Yes, because it’s all supposed to be connected. Exactly. And they’re so not. And you know, some IEPs, like I know DC’s IEPs, actually has, you do present levels, and then you do the goals.
So instead of like, all the present levels together, and then all the goals together. Which makes sense, because your present levels is what sets the stage for what your goals should be. [00:22:00] And, you know, and it’s so That’s what I talk about, yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I want to touch on the modifications because one thing people that parents don’t know that they have to be really careful with.
I don’t know how much you guys have the issues out there in California, but we have a lot with the alternative learning outcomes. At a very young age, school is trying to put the kids in the alternative learning outcomes, which, you know, they say, Oh, we’re not determining if you’re high school bound or not high school bound.
We’re just saying for now, but you start a kindergartner in alternative learning outcomes. And for those of you that don’t know what those are, it means not curriculum, not grade level material. You’re not working on common core curriculum. You’re setting the kid up. You know what I mean? They’re not, you know, they’re going to be three years on ALO and then automatically, Oh, now they’re on second grade level.
Like, it’s just not, it’s not going to happen. So it’s a big fight we have around here and language that you have to watch for that they put on the IEPs is the modifications is like, there’s [00:23:00] some modifications that are okay. That are slight modifications. Like, you know, when we do is, um, alternative output.
You know, so like the child might not have to write a essay. They might be able to verbally say their essay or things like that, which is technically a modification, but it’s not modifying the curriculum. And that’s the careful you need to do. Cause once you get into modifying the curriculum, that’s when you start having issues with, well, is this a diploma bound child or not diploma bound child?
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s exactly true. And One of the things that I found that’s most frustrating for families, and this happened to me as a parent several times, is that your child starts to struggle, and the team meets, and the IEP team is like, okay, they are failing pre algebra. We’re gonna put them in what’s called a non A through G in California, the non A through G class.
So that still gets a diploma, but it means it’s not college prep. And they were trying to place my kids in the class and [00:24:00] this happens to so many families. We’re failing so we’re going to put you in a lower class instead of what you’re supposed to be doing for LRE, which is You meet as a team and you’re like, Oh, let’s make some adjustments.
Let’s add some accommodations. Let’s change some goals before we change to a more restrictive environment. And instead of expecting less for our kids, we can maintain those high expectations by working with their strengths and strengths are derived from accommodations and modifications. Those need to be based on strengths, not based on weakness.
So you would never do a setup for like an Amazon package and say, well, I’m going to tell Amazon to deliver it by train because that’s a weakness, right? Amazon delivers on a truck. That’s their strength. They’re on time. So you work with the strengths and the accommodations and modifications to help them achieve the goals.
And again, this is the whole reason why you’re exactly right. We need to work on the setups. And when we work on the setups, we can actually increase inclusionary practices [00:25:00] without having to put kids in lower classes and basically expect less.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And that’s a big challenge.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: That is the biggest challenge because, you know, well, they’re not being successful.
Why aren’t they being successful? Are they not being successful because the pace is too fast? Is it not being successful because they need to repeat it a little bit more? Is it not, you know, like looking at why the person child is not being successful to determine What needs to be done? Because I’ve seen that way too many times is that, you know, schools are like, well, they’re not being successful.
So let’s make the goals easier. Well, they’re not being successful. So let’s make the goals easier. And, you know, like that they’re pushing for, like the school thinks, Oh, this child should be life skills, alternative learning, um, outcome. But if the parents don’t agree, they, they cannot use alternative learning outcomes.
In Maryland, at least. So, um, but the school keeps trying to push for that. So they keep trying to lower the goals and parents not knowing what’s happening. They’re kind of key holding their kid. The [00:26:00] school’s kind of doing it in the background. And then the parents are getting themselves locked into this position that is really hard to get back out of
April Rehrig: exactly, exactly.
And that goes back to the setup.
April Rehrig: So if a child is not achieving the goals, one of the things the teams can do is look at the accommodations. So when you have a progress report, for example, and they’re looking at the goals, you also need to look at the accommodations. Are these working? Are these not working?
What do we need to adjust? And it’s not, you do not get accommodations from a drop down menu. I know they’re on the IEP, but accommodations really come from the assessment. And honestly, the child, when the child comes to the IEP, and they should be coming, I always worked with my kids having them come in elementary school, and it’s like, what works for you?
What do you like? Oh, I really like video games. Awesome. We’re going to use this visual, visual, visual, because you are really receptive to visual and like saturation. I’m not going to have you do extended time if time is a struggle for you, because why should I give you more of what you struggle [00:27:00] with?
Okay.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. Exactly. And it’s always the stock, you know, but I love that. Yeah. I, you know, I didn’t even think about bringing them when they were younger, but definitely in middle school, high school, like when you’re supposed to start inviting them. Um, I always, I like to have the kids come to, to do that, the accommodations and the, you know, I do not want them sitting through the whole IEP meeting most of the time, because they’re boring for us as adults.
You can imagine the kids going through it and it’s hard to listen to some of that, but definitely for the accommodations and supplementary aids because, Hey, the kids know what’s working.
April Rehrig: Right. And then if they take their IEP to college, um, and many of them do, it’s like, if they’ve been part of the meeting and they’re in it, it makes a whole difference.
So it’s, they understand what’s effective and then they can sit there. And then as the parent, you’re pulling back because you have to pull back on stuff on the accommodations and the services because If you heavy duty it up till senior year and then you’re like, ah, we’re getting into UCLA But the child like [00:28:00] isn’t been used to Moving into that kind of self advocacy and self determination phase Then it’s not helping so you should be pulling back junior and senior year and just kind of hanging out and then your child Is running the meeting because they’re like I know what I need I know how to access disability supports in college and I understand that this is what I need You And once I get into college, I can access these services myself because I’ve been advocating already at the table.
Transitioning to College: Preparing for Independence
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And so there’s two things on that I want to touch on. First, IEPs don’t go to college. At all. Because they’re not, IEPs die when you graduate high school. Um, but you can get accommodations under the American Disabilities Act. The eligibility is different. And what’s allowed is different. And the other reason parents need to pull out, which parents get frustrated, is it doesn’t matter that you’re paying the bill, mom and dad.
Your child is 18 years old. And then the Yeah, I was talking about the
April Rehrig: FERPA waiver. Yeah, I was talking about that over the, over the weekend with, um, at a conference with, um, [00:29:00] other parents. But yeah, the FERPA waiver. Signing the FERPA waiver, and even if your child doesn’t have an IEP or a 504, and you have a typical, what we call a typical child, which is not typical, you need to know about the FERPA because if you don’t sign the waiver, you’re not going to get any of the tuition stimulus.
So you’re not going to know anything.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Exactly. And that, and that’s the thing, like I did a presentation for, um, Florida ahead and, uh, on that, and like, they’re just, the disability offices are saying, yeah, parents walk in and be like, here’s my child’s IEP. You need to implement it. It’s like, well, no one, no, we don’t.
Two, we’re not talking to you. Cause we can’t, you know, and parents are like, what do you mean? Um, And it’s a hard pill, but I love that you say that is that the parents should pull back and let the kids step up to the plate more in junior and high school because they’re the ones that are going to have to do it.
They’re going to have to go to the disabilities office and ask for it. And if they can articulate it better, there’s more of a chance of them being able to get the accommodations. Yeah.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And when
April Rehrig: they sit in the meeting, I [00:30:00] mean, it, a lot of parents are like, Oh, I don’t want my kid to hear this. And I’m like, why?
I’m like, why is it? It doesn’t have to be like that. When my kids come to their IEP. Things change. Parents and teachers speak to them differently. They don’t talk about, they talk to. And some parents will be like, well, my child has an intellectual disability. I’m like, but they can express themselves. They can, even if they’re not verbal, they can say what they like, what they don’t like.
Imagine your child coming into a meeting and talking about they want to do things themselves. Oh my gosh, like that is in crazy empowering to be able to sit at the table and tell someone what you like and what you don’t like. I mean, that’s the whole goal, right? It’s we want to help our kids to be more successful.
So I argue that there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by having your child at the meeting. And people behave differently when they have to talk to the student at the meeting. It’s a very, very different process.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: So we were talking about college kids going and, uh, um, [00:31:00] about when they’re in 11th and 12th grade, the parents stepping back and letting the kids take over and argue it more, taking that responsibility on.
Yeah, which is so important because, you know, but I, but like thinking about it now and I’m like, yeah, you know, my elementary school kids, they can come in and say what they knew and what’s working.
April Rehrig: Absolutely. And what do you want to say to your teacher and what helps you and what’s hard for you and what do you want to work on?
Right? Working, like when I would work with students as a, um, when I did the, um, school based counseling, I would show them a copy of their IEP and they’re like, I’ve never seen this before. I’m like, well, what are you working on? I don’t know. So I’m like, let’s sit down. Let’s look at the goal. Like, here’s what you’re working on.
Oh, do you feel like, you know, this is helpful for you? Well, kind of. It’s like, they need to know what they’re working on. So I feel like it should be the complete opposite. When you’re having a teacher conference for your child, Your child needs to be in the conference. Even if they’re in elementary [00:32:00] school, we’re talking about them.
They need to be at the meeting. So I feel like it really changes the game plan. And honestly, teachers speak differently when their student is there. They speak really differently. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s just, again, it’s like, what’s the goal here? You know?
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. No, it’s so true. And I’m just thinking about it like that.
My fourth grader shares things like, well, it’s so frustrating because the teacher doesn’t do this or doesn’t do that. And I’m like, and I can relay that to her teacher. And I mean, my daughter’s school is phenomenal and they’re very receptive to both. I mean, they’re phenomenal in a way. I would say also what I do for a living, they kind of know.
So, but I mean, they’re phenomenal anyway. But, um, but thinking about it of like that, that her, the teacher hearing it from her, Oh my gosh, how different would that be, Frances?
April Rehrig: And then she’s speaking to her, and then how great would that make your, your daughter feel? It’s like, I said these things to you, mom, but now I can tell someone.
It’s like, it’s very empowering, and it makes the teacher speak differently because they’re speaking to instead of at. [00:33:00]
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. No, that makes so much sense. And instead of all of us talking about her and what we think she needs, she’s, uh, you know, my, my 10 year old is a little, you know, she, she knows what she wants.
She knows how to say it. Yeah, I’m just thinking about it. I’m like, yeah, I think she’s coming to the next IEP meeting.
April Rehrig: She’s gonna put on her little hat and like sit next to you.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Oh, she will. She will love it because she’s yeah, because she’s like, wait, I get to tell everybody, you know, it’s a little firecracker.
Um, my younger one, she would probably, but she’s a little more chill. Um, but yeah, no, that’s so cool. So I know. So we were talking about testing in the beginning. And so I know you were saying you have templates, but are there like, is there like a top 10 tips you could give parents like when asking for them?
Yeah. For IEP testing, like what, like, what are some reasons they should be thinking about or thinking about putting in their letters?
April Rehrig: Yes. Um, so when it comes to a [00:34:00] special education assessment, let’s say you’re requesting for an initial or what’s called a reevaluation or an early try or supplemental, um, the first thing you want to ask for is The scope of the assessment.
So in regular terms that has to do with what kind of testing do you want? So you need to tell them I would like a full psychoeducational assessment. I would like a supplemental academic I would like a speech and language assessment. So the scope, right? Who needs to be involved? And then the second thing you need to ask for is either, what are the eligibility that you are suspecting, one or more.
And then you need to look at your state website first to see what the rules are for eligibility and then cite it in there. And then also, what are the unique learning needs? So there’s actually sort of three different areas. And the unique learning needs is going to tell the assessors what kind of tests you can give.
You’re not able to say, I want the WISC, I want this, but you can [00:35:00] certainly say, I would like tests in executive functioning, I would like tests in this area, I would like this type of assessor with this expertise to work with my child. So when you’re writing your letter, you’re talking about eligibilities or related service areas you suspect.
You’re talking about unique learning needs, strengths, and the scope and sequence in terms of like what you expect the school to do about it.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, that’s perfect. And I, I want to touch on when you said the triennial review. So every three years they have to relook at eligibility and I’ve seen it and heard it so many times that it’s like, Oh, We don’t suspect there’s any other disability.
We think that your kid is still, you know, autistic and autism is going to be the name, main label. So we don’t need to do any other assessments. But I’m like, you know, we can do educational planning without it. And I’m always like flabbergasted that a school would say that, you know, because at the very, very least.
There needs to be academic testing [00:36:00] because if you don’t have like that, that set of where your child is academically, like, yes, it’s, it’s a standardized test. I hate standardized tests. Don’t get me started on those because I’m not a good test taker, but you know, but it, but it’s at least something that gives you a marking period, like, you know, a mark of where your child is and then if their child’s having behavior issues, you need to do behavior checklists.
And you need to see what’s going on. Like, I don’t understand how schools have said, Oh, we don’t need any additional testing for educational planning. You haven’t tested the child in three years. What are you going off of? You know? Um, and then for anybody listening,
April Rehrig: that brings up a really good point, Frances.
So when it comes time reevaluation parents get, well, I call it assessment plan, but in other States is for her to different things, but you get an assessment plan. But before you get the assessment plan, when you submit your parent letter of attachment, you can talk about the type of assessments that you want, because ideally, [00:37:00] the assessment plan is supposed to be jointly developed.
You do not have to sign the assessment plan they give you. You can say, you know what, actually, I want testing in this. So with a triennial, for example, even if they’re not going to give IQ testing, they still need to re establish any changes. So a comprehensive assessment means they do testing in all the suspected areas and they review existing data.
And part of reviewing existing data is, here was the initial IQ, here’s the re eval, there’s no suspected changes, and parent gave permission. Um, So ideally, the school psychologist, when they give you the assessment plan for a try, they should be calling you before. I would call my families and be like, Hey, I’m not going to be getting IQ testing.
I just want to make sure that’s okay. Or do you have any other suspicions you want me to look at? Oh yes, I want this. Great. We’re going to add that to the assessment plan or no. Okay. It’s IQ testing. Great. We’re going to put on their review of existing data and I’m still writing about it in my report, but [00:38:00] I’m not doing new.
Testing so that’s where you can kind of get around that is when you’re looking at the assessment plan and you talk to the assessors
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, so we don’t do it the same out here in Maryland. Um, we do or supposed to do in Maryland and D. C. Um, a reevaluation planning meeting. So where the team gets the I. P.
Team gets together and discusses what evaluations are needed. But I’ve seen it way more often than not that the school says. We don’t see any change in disability. They’re still eligible. Let’s move on. Usually it’s because it is now December and they just realized that re evaluation eligibility was due in January.
And so they don’t have time to do the testing, you know? And so, oops, let’s do the eligibility. Um, but for those listing, if you don’t know, um, For parents listening, if your child has not been tested in the last 12 months, you can 100 [00:39:00] percent ask for testing again. You do not have to wait for the triennial review.
Do not let the school tell you, Oh no, no, no, no. The triennial review is in two years. I don’t care. I want testing now and go up. And I mean, especially like our kids that are having behavior issues and things are going on, you guys need the behavior checklist. Period. Like, you know, like, yeah, they’re doing an FBA, but most people aren’t trained how to do FBAs correctly, I’ve found, in school systems.
And doing the checklists just isn’t enough. makes it seem so well for me because of the way the checklists are written, I feel it’s more, more information and more like, um, reliable information because you’re literally, the teachers and parents are just clicking through like, do they do this? Do they do that?
They’re not, you’re not looking for antecedents or behaviors. Um, it’s just your S what you’re seeing in the classroom. And if you do it, you know, I also get frustrated when schools only do one [00:40:00] teacher. I’m like, no, you need to do a core teacher. You need to do an elective teacher. And you need to do a subject the child likes and a subject the child doesn’t like because those are all information of like, well, where are we seeing the behavior.
So maybe it’s something we need to tweak in that in that classroom, not necessarily a behavior that totally needs to be tweaked.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s that’s absolutely true. And when you think about. Um, an observation. Observations need to, I call it like the two factor method. It’s actually school psychologists, the gold standard is when school psychologists are doing an initial, a triennial, any type of assessment, they need to have two different assessments by two different assessors in two different environments.
It’s two, two, two. So, you should be, when I would observe as the school psych, I would go into the class they were awesome, and I would go into the class that they would struggle, and I would always do the observations through the RIOT method, which is, you first review existing information, you do the interviews, you observe, you observe, you test, [00:41:00] because you need to test in terms of what you suspect.
So you first have to have the reason for referral and then embed it out and then flesh it out last through the testing. If you’re testing and you’ve never met the child, you never observed them. How do you know what to look for? So, you know, it’s, again, it’s just a different way of doing things, but honestly it’s a lot easier and faster to do it.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: You think, no, no, that makes sense. It makes sense. Cause I know like, there’s some people that are like, Oh, I don’t want to see this stuff beforehand because I want to form my own opinion and, and just like, how do you know what to look
April Rehrig: for? It’s like trying to, you’re like, okay, I’m going to pass the bar exam with no studying.
Okay. That’s a great idea, but is that really going to help you?
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, and it’s so frustrating because it’s also like I’ve had, I’ve had psychologists do assessments and it clearly said in our PWN, it clearly said that they were supposed to be doing behavior [00:42:00] checklists and the psychologist didn’t do them.
And when I asked at the IEP meeting, like why? Well, I didn’t see a need. The IEP team just, you know, that knows the child. felt there was a need and why can you unilaterally make that decision, you know, it just like yeah review everything and why is this child being referred and what’s going on.
April Rehrig: And that goes back to the reason for referral, which is what we were talking about earlier Frances, and so if the parent in their parent letter of attachment is like, Here is the reason for referral, right?
So reason for referral is not eligibility. Reason for referral is not triennial It’s why is the child being referred? What are the suspected areas of need? What’s the disability and if it’s embedded in the reason for referral and the language is there it should be strong Then it should be pulled through the entire report So when you’re looking at the recommendations and the eligibility and the present levels, it’s all pulled back and that’s why Parents knowing what to write in their letter.
Oh my gosh It’s [00:43:00] so powerful instead of Well, I want my child tested because I’m suspecting a learning disability and then you get the report and you’re like, but they didn’t test for auditory. And then the psych’s like, but you never told me, I didn’t know,
Frances Shefter, Esq.: you know, like, and you don’t know what you
April Rehrig: don’t know, which goes back to, again, it’s like, We can totally reform that if parents find out before like, Oh, wow, I can do this differently.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no, it’s so true. And I love I know I looked at your website. I don’t usually do this, but I looked at your website real quick before we logged in. And, um, and you have so much in resources or parents there, um, which I love because that’s, you know, my, my YouTube channel and everything, but it’s so important.
So much. And I know you mentioned the blog about accommodations versus modifications, which I know we’re going to have in the show notes below. We’ll make sure there’s a link to that. But if people want to get in touch with you, well, first of all, like you’re based in California. Do you only work in California or how, what areas do you support families?
April Rehrig: Um, I support families nationwide, so I work in [00:44:00] all different states. Um, and so I do in person work for local only, um, because that’s obviously a lot easier. But I do virtual practice everywhere. Um, and if people want to get in touch with me, they can go to my website, riseeducationaladvocacy. com. If they want to check out my Teachers Pay Teacher Store, parents, teachers for fillable templates, do it yourself stuff.
That’s Teachers Pay Teachers slash Rise Educational Advocacy, or they can follow me on Instagram at Rise Ed Advocacy. That is
Frances Shefter, Esq.: so awesome. And all those links will be below. Thank you so much, April. I love like, even, even though our jobs, um, overflow a little bit, the words escaping me, but like, it’s, but it’s so different.
Like we all have different perspectives that we bring to the table and I love it. So thank you so much for being in the show and sharing all of your information with our listeners. You’re so welcome, Frances.
Voice-Over: You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP® [00:45:00] with your host, Frances Shefter. Remember, you do not need to do it all alone.You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw. com, where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments, and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
Navigating Strength-Based IEPs with April Rehrig
Stress-Free IEP® with Frances Shefter, Episode 55
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter speaks with April Rehrig, Special education advocate, school psychologist and founder of Rise Educational Advocacy, a firm based in California offering affordable and accessible advocacy support to families and schools nationwide. With her extensive experience as a school psychologist and a mother of three, April provides valuable insights into navigating the complexities of the IEP process.
Tune in to the episode to hear about:
Learn more about April Rehrig:
Read the whole transcript of this interview below.
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Stress-Free IEP®:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP® experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
Watch more episodes of Stress-Free IEP®:
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
Read the whole transcript here:
Voice-Over: Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www. Shefterlaw. com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and more.Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Hello everyone and welcome to the show.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Today’s guest is April Rehrig and she is out in California and April is a special education advocate, a a psych a, sorry, a school psychologist and the founder of Rise Educational Advocacy. April, say hello and tell [00:01:00] us why you started RISE Educational Advocacy.
April Rehrig: Hi Frances, thanks so much for having me. Gosh, that’s a great question to ask. Um, why I started RISE. I guess the answer would be I started RISE because after being a school psych for 20 years and being a mom of three kids and being a teacher, I wanted to make advocacy affordable and accessible. And so I crafted my business to do, um, online support and really.
Make things easier for teachers and parents and everyone at the table. And so that’s why I started RISE to kind of connect families with schools and really reform how we meet and how we talk about strength based IEPs.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: That is awesome. Similar to me, like started off in the school and said, We need to do something different, right?
April Rehrig: Exactly.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Um, so you’re just doing the [00:02:00] advocacy now, right? You’re not doing any of the school psychology anymore?
April Rehrig: No, no, I left. Um, I, I left, uh, before the pandemic. Um, I guess I got lucky with the silver lining, but, um, yeah, I left, I retired and I formulated my business. And then because of the pandemic, I was like, wow, okay, I can do things online.
So it’s sort of all worked out, I guess you could say.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Got it. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, I love that you’ve retired. And I, you know, I used to say all the time, my father worked more after he retired, you know, cause he just, he could then do what he wanted to do, you know, like, um, so I know like you do a lot of, you know, a big thing we have is.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: requesting assessments. And I know from my point of view, like what I do as an education attorney and advocate and also a former special ed teacher, but I’m sure from a cycle psychologist review view, like what is it you think like is really important to make sure the psychologist really knows what the parent [00:03:00] is asking for?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question, Frances. And that’s, that’s one of actually the biggest things that I help families do is, um, I, when I became first became an advocate. I knew that families were like, I need testing, but because I was a school psychologist, I thought, okay, I know what they need to ask for, because as a psych, I know what I wanted to hear.
And that’s one of the biggest barriers is that families are told, well, just ask for testing, but it’s not just in your ask, but it’s how you ask, when you ask, and what you ask for, because you have to tell the school, What you’re suspecting and what you’re looking for. So, um, when I became an advocate and then I formed rise I decided to sell very low cost templates because There’s not a lot out there in terms of saying well What do you say in the letter and then families get really confused because the school honestly doesn’t really tell you Okay, here’s what you need to [00:04:00] say in the letter.
They’ll say just write it down so But we all know that how we write it and how we ask is not only going to fast track testing Get the um assessment approved, but really get an assessment that’s individualized and catered So if you don’t know that and nobody is going to know that then why not figure out a better way to um, inform families and so that’s why I created a template because I wanted to make it really easy and not you know Hours and hours of trying to make it write a dang letter You
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right.
No, that’s awesome. I love that you have templates because I know like around here a lot. I get a lot of clients of like, well, I’ve been asking for templates for over a year, you know, not templates. I’ve asked him for test testing for over a year. And they just keep saying, no, we don’t see special ed. And it’s so frustrating, but then usually You know, if the, if the clients don’t engage with me, I’ll just tell them like, look, Hey, you need to write an email to the principal and a special ed coordinator and specifically say, this is what I suspect.
[00:05:00] I want testing. We need to have a meeting within 30 days. So like have the language there because if not, they just ignore it. But once you use the language of know what you’re asking for and know the deadlines, amazing how schools respond, right?
April Rehrig: Yes. I worked with a family a month ago and I’m sure a lot of your listeners will resonate with this story.
She moved to a new school. She sat down with the counselor and said, I’m really, you know, I want my child tested. I’m suspecting dyslexia. And she wasn’t really informed. Well, you have to write it down. Well, you need to ask for IEP testing. And so the counselor said, you know, thank you so much for letting me know.
You know, he’s in the RTI program. That’s so great. And nothing happened for months and months and months. And then once she started working with me and we wrote down a letter, she was like, oh my gosh, if I would have known to say, I want IEP testing, if I would have known my rights, it would have stayed a half a year.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And that’s [00:06:00] why I do this show. And I also have my YouTube channel with over a hundred videos because it frustrates me so much. And I don’t blame the schools. I know, you know, we’ve worked for the school systems. I don’t blame them. They do what they can with what they have. They do the best they can, but it’s just frustrating because it’s, you know, The parents don’t know, and they don’t know what to ask, and the school’s not always offering, or sometimes the school doesn’t necessarily know, the counselor might not know that it needs to be this way, or how it needs to be done, and, um, I find that a lot, and it’s just a lot, and it’s just so frustrating for me that, I, I mean, I, I guess, like, I’m just thinking, like, the parents don’t know, but how would they know?
You know what I mean? Like, as parents, we have our kids, and great, they don’t come with the handbook, and as soon as you think you figure it out, they switch the game up, and the second one comes, and it’s completely different, and then you add neurodiversity to it, and it’s just a whole nother ballgame, um, and to know in the special ed process, I mean, I’ve been in this [00:07:00] industry way more years than I want to, you know, want to share.
But like, even with me, things change all the time. Right.
April Rehrig: Yeah. And that’s exactly, you brought up a really good point, Frances, about education and training. And when I was a teacher in a school psych, we wanted IEP training. We wanted to know how to write IEPs. And honestly, we were not given training. We were told, okay, this is a compliant IEP.
I was never trained as a school psych how to connect my assessments with the reports. I was never trained on strength based IEPs. And any training we got was given by someone who was not a teacher and not someone who worked in the classroom. And so the whole time I’m like, Well, if they want us to do better, why don’t they give us the training?
Um, and so you bring up such a good point.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no, and I remember back as teachers, like I remember learning I’m trying to remember. It was like when I was a special ed teacher, I remember learning IEPs and in one training, they’re like, Oh, the way it should [00:08:00] be is that, you know, a goal should be if you’re saying 75 percent that objective one is to reach it at 25 percent and objective two is to reach it at 50 percent and objective three, you know, and that way.
And so all of my IEPs were just like that, which is not necessarily individualized and not necessarily the way it should be written. But, um, That was a little bit of training I got. It’s like, Oh, this is what they should look like. Oh, okay. Let’s make it look like that, which as we know is not individualized,
April Rehrig: right?
And then if you’re not given the right information, you just pass it on. And so you’re exactly right with the counselor in mind that happened to my client. The counselor hadn’t been trained, so it wasn’t her fault, and a lot of things, a lot of the mistakes that happen in special education are because someone told someone else, okay, this is what FAPE means, or this is LRE, and there isn’t really a training, and so just like the game of telephone, the information gets misinterpreted, and it’s just, you know, all of this can be reformed, but we have to revise how [00:09:00] and when we communicate at the table to get better IEPs.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no. And I think I look back of when I was a teacher and when I was special ed coordinator, um, and I look back at the things and, and what I did. And, and honestly, I look back and I’m like, yeah, that probably wasn’t legal, but that’s what my bosses told me. That’s what central office told me. That’s what the principal told me.
So that’s what I knew to do. And I didn’t know any better. And so, you know, and that’s a thing. And that’s why, like, I never put it on the teachers or the school staff. It’s like, It’s, it’s, it’s a systemic issue all over the place of just the training. And it’s, you know what, there’s so much training to be done for teachers.
It’s really a challenge. Whereas like if they had like one special ed person that, that it’s like just known, like, If anybody asks any special ed questions, send them to this one person, you know, that, that like centralize it all. So everybody doesn’t know how to know any everything. They just have to know if they hear the words, testing, evaluation, special education called [00:10:00] this person.
And then it just makes, it makes it more streamlined and easier for everyone.
April Rehrig: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean if we think about for those of your teacher listeners out there You’ll resonate with this but like every week we always had in services And all of us in the special ed department and it would be like gosh, well, well, can’t we meet?
No, no, no, no. No, you need to go to the ela. You need to go to that I’m, like, well, what about our team meetings and I found like honestly when we met as a team When, for example, some of the schools I was at, we were able to map out all of the year in advance of all of our meetings, or we would sit there and not pre meet about an IEP, but talk about, okay, like, what’s the plan?
How are we doing that? And if we had time to collab, and we Incorporated that in our normal prep time That was the best way to do it or if we spikes we had like a monthly meeting and we could just co lab together And trade info on cases. That’s it. So the availability is there. It’s just getting that kind of aha I can do this with my team better and I can [00:11:00] plan better is so much easier than going to those dang, you know, monthly meetings.
And you’re like, I spent three hours here in PD and I didn’t learn I
Frances Shefter, Esq.: remember those days. Yeah. And it’s, I mean, I get it because the principals probably, you know, whatever, like this is what the in service has to look like and, and it’s, you know, they kind of stock our training as teachers and psychologists rather than individualize it to what our needs are and what the kids needs are.
Um, it’s just, it’s so frustrating because I remember sitting in some of these in services and I’m like, are you kidding me? Like I was teaching, I mean, I was teaching the very intellectually disabled. I mean, back then it was something totally different. That’s not PC. I don’t even know what they’re calling now, but like my kids were the IQs under 40, you know, the nonverbal and all that other stuff.
So 95 percent of the in services made no sense to me because it was completely not, I wasn’t working on curriculum. My kids were all non diploma bound. I was working on the function skills. And so like sitting there in this class to learn this [00:12:00] stuff. Um, and when I was doing it, it was way before internet.
So it wasn’t even like I could be on the computer to do something like to work on my IEP as well, sitting at this desk.
April Rehrig: Exactly. And the way that they do the in services is a little bit like the boring lecture. You know, they don’t make it usable. So it’s, I felt like after I taught kindergarten, I’m like, all right, I’m going to teach everybody differently here because honestly, we learn so much better in short little increments and 20 minutes a year in a video here, just like our kids.
So when they do the PDs, they need to make them, They need to make more interesting.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Agreed. So for parents out there that are listening, cause like this is, you know, like, Hey, parents, we know, um, the schools are struggling too. Right.
Effective Strategies for Parents in IEP Meetings
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Um, what are there, like, what do you find is the best for parents to do?
Like going into an IEP meeting to make it more collaborative, because there’s just so many times. parents don’t feel like they’re part of the team. There was a meme [00:13:00] out once with like 15 people on one side and one, two people on the other side. And the, over the 15 people, it was the school saying, we don’t understand why it is you feel you need to bring an advocate with you.
And it’s like, well, let’s look. So how do you think, like what can parents do or say to help make it more collaborative?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question. Um, so when you think about, you know, collaboration and when you have a meeting coming up, for example, if you’re a parent, you need to first of all tell the school what you’re concerned about and you need to formulate your information so you can attach it to their record.
So I always tell my families, write a parent letter of attachment and when you get the IEP invitation or if you request an IEP invitation, you’re going to attach it. And in your attachment, you’re going to say, here is what my concerns are, here are my child’s strengths, here is what I would like you to review and consider.
So when the team finds out early, oh, okay, mom wants us to talk [00:14:00] about A, B, and C. She put it in bullet points, she made it less than a page so it’s not overwhelming. And then you ask for drafts. And so with the drafts, for example, you can review the present levels of performance. You could submit as a parent, what I call a parent report, which is where you put your information.
Here’s what I’m doing at home. Here’s the outside of VALS. Here’s what I want you to list on the present levels page. And then you’re giving the team information. You’re attaching it to your record. You’re putting it on the IEP itself. And then when the team meets with you, they already know, Oh, mom wants us to discuss this proposed goal, or mom is concerned about this, or here’s an agenda that mom created, and we’re going to walk through the agenda.
So then when you walk into the IEP. You have your child’s record and you have like a whole little Folder that you make and it’s got the prior IEPs in there the progress reports your parent letter of attachment you bring [00:15:00] copies And then as the team’s going through they’re like, what are your concerns?
They’re like, oh, I already submitted them They should already be incorporated in the present level section in the parent input section And then you pass out your agenda and the team’s like, Oh, now I know you cut down the meeting time, you get your drafts, you can get to the offer of FAPE by cutting down the time because you’re planning again, so it’s sort of a proactive way of collaborating with your team instead of waiting for the IEP to fail, waiting for problems, looking for errors, and then be like, Oh, this meeting was terrible.
Now I’m going to say what I don’t like,
Frances Shefter, Esq.: right? No, and I love that because doing the letter, they’re doing the in writing before the meeting is then like, one of the issues I have often is that PWNs, the prior written notice that comes after me are just junk and 95 percent of the time they don’t include everything they’re supposed to include.
And so, and if the parents, I actually didn’t quite know this, but if the [00:16:00] parents write like, Hey, here are the errors in the PWN, The school’s supposed to edit the PWN and they never
April Rehrig: do it. They have to respond. You’re exactly right. And they don’t.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yep. And, um, so, you know, that was a violation on a state complaint that I did.
But so then you can say, on this date, I sent you this letter asking for all of these things. So now all of this, if it didn’t get discussed needs to be on the PWN of why it didn’t get discussed because school, you had that responsibility. This is what I wanted as a team member. And it kind of puts that accountability back on them.
And I know for me, I found is that once the, the, um, family starts using the language. And starts, you know, quoting the laws and just saying the rules and stuff. And, um, even sometimes saying, well, I was talking to an attorney and she said, um, that the school start changing a little bit on their attitude and the things they do.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s, that’s actually [00:17:00] true. It’s, it’s kind of sad that it requires someone else to come in, but you’re absolutely right. A hundred percent of the time when I was a school psych and we had an advocate come in. Everyone would dot their I’s, cross their T’s, they would just sit up more, they’d be more willing to do stuff, and it shouldn’t be like that, but the reality is it’s true.
Just like if you go anywhere else and someone hears like even a whiff of like an attorney involved, people are like, Ooh, you need to be careful. It
Frances Shefter, Esq.: was funny that you say that. Cause like people always ask like the difference between advocate and an attorney and I, you know, I 100 percent support advocates.
I think they’re great. There’s a place, the difference at least around here is when you bring an attorney to a meeting, their attorney comes and central office comes. Yeah. And central office is the decision makers. And so it’s a very different meeting when you have the higher ups looking at you. Um.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s true.
And you bring up a really good point is that sometimes I’ll have families and they’ll say, [00:18:00] man, I do not get along with this teacher or this principal’s always, you know, da da da da. And I’ll, I’ll say, well, you know, you can ask someone from the district to come to the meeting. You can ask for a facilitated IEP.
You can ask for another representative to come to the meeting because there is a conflict of interest or so and so and so Parents can ask for people from the district to come to the meeting But again, they have to tell them in advance They have to cite the reasons why and they have to let the team know what’s going on If they don’t say anything to the IEP, it’s not useful.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, that’s so true. And that’s the thing. It’s a lot of, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know what to ask for. And that’s, you know, again, the reason for my show is to put it out there like, Hey, do this or ask that and stuff like that. Um, so I know a big thing that I get a lot is, is clients.
You know, families don’t understand like accommodations and modifications and like, what’s the difference? What, you know, because we also call them supplementary aids and services and like, [00:19:00] wait, what’s what and why and where and how does that all work? So what’s the difference?
April Rehrig: That’s a great question. Um, I did a blog, um, on this, um, and I did several reels and honestly it was the thing, one of the highest rated items that I did because there’s such misinformation out there.
So if you think about accommodations versus modifications. Accommodations are going to adjust how. How is the instruction delivered? How is the information given? And accommodations are kind of broken into four different subtypes. So when you look at an accommodation, it could be instructional, it could be time, it could be how you’re delivering the information, how you’re receiving it.
There’s four kind of different subtypes of an accommodation. Now, a modification is going to be adjusting the what. What is the curriculum? What are we doing? And what adjustments are being made? [00:20:00] So, in accommodation, it’s going to be working on access to the curriculum and it’s not going to be altering the curriculum itself, versus a modification is.
An accommodation really has to do with the delivery of the information versus a modification is more of the actual output of the information itself. So there’s kind of two different camps and if you think about an accommodation, that also has to do with prompting and queuing, which is pretty much given before and after.
So like a prompt hierarchy, all of those things. That’s an accommodation versus a modification is the actual output of the information Now there gets to be some kind of gray matter when people will say well, I want less Um, I want less homework assignments, right? I want to do five instead of ten and the team will be like, oh my gosh That’s a modification and the answer is it can be one or the other it really depends on how you word it So if you’re doing less assignments But [00:21:00] you’re still expected to be using the grade level curriculum.
That’s actually a non accommodation versus a modification is you’re doing five out of 10 assignments. And maybe you’re using a second grade curriculum instead of a third grade. So it’s really depending on how you word it. And that’s honestly, when it comes to accommodations and modifications, these need to be embedded in the present levels page.
And they need to be embedded into the goals because the accommodations and modifications are actually the setup to achieve the goals and these come from the present levels that start from the assessment.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. Yes, because it’s all supposed to be connected. Exactly. And they’re so not. And you know, some IEPs, like I know DC’s IEPs, actually has, you do present levels, and then you do the goals.
So instead of like, all the present levels together, and then all the goals together. Which makes sense, because your present levels is what sets the stage for what your goals should be. [00:22:00] And, you know, and it’s so That’s what I talk about, yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I want to touch on the modifications because one thing people that parents don’t know that they have to be really careful with.
I don’t know how much you guys have the issues out there in California, but we have a lot with the alternative learning outcomes. At a very young age, school is trying to put the kids in the alternative learning outcomes, which, you know, they say, Oh, we’re not determining if you’re high school bound or not high school bound.
We’re just saying for now, but you start a kindergartner in alternative learning outcomes. And for those of you that don’t know what those are, it means not curriculum, not grade level material. You’re not working on common core curriculum. You’re setting the kid up. You know what I mean? They’re not, you know, they’re going to be three years on ALO and then automatically, Oh, now they’re on second grade level.
Like, it’s just not, it’s not going to happen. So it’s a big fight we have around here and language that you have to watch for that they put on the IEPs is the modifications is like, there’s [00:23:00] some modifications that are okay. That are slight modifications. Like, you know, when we do is, um, alternative output.
You know, so like the child might not have to write a essay. They might be able to verbally say their essay or things like that, which is technically a modification, but it’s not modifying the curriculum. And that’s the careful you need to do. Cause once you get into modifying the curriculum, that’s when you start having issues with, well, is this a diploma bound child or not diploma bound child?
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s exactly true. And One of the things that I found that’s most frustrating for families, and this happened to me as a parent several times, is that your child starts to struggle, and the team meets, and the IEP team is like, okay, they are failing pre algebra. We’re gonna put them in what’s called a non A through G in California, the non A through G class.
So that still gets a diploma, but it means it’s not college prep. And they were trying to place my kids in the class and [00:24:00] this happens to so many families. We’re failing so we’re going to put you in a lower class instead of what you’re supposed to be doing for LRE, which is You meet as a team and you’re like, Oh, let’s make some adjustments.
Let’s add some accommodations. Let’s change some goals before we change to a more restrictive environment. And instead of expecting less for our kids, we can maintain those high expectations by working with their strengths and strengths are derived from accommodations and modifications. Those need to be based on strengths, not based on weakness.
So you would never do a setup for like an Amazon package and say, well, I’m going to tell Amazon to deliver it by train because that’s a weakness, right? Amazon delivers on a truck. That’s their strength. They’re on time. So you work with the strengths and the accommodations and modifications to help them achieve the goals.
And again, this is the whole reason why you’re exactly right. We need to work on the setups. And when we work on the setups, we can actually increase inclusionary practices [00:25:00] without having to put kids in lower classes and basically expect less.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And that’s a big challenge.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: That is the biggest challenge because, you know, well, they’re not being successful.
Why aren’t they being successful? Are they not being successful because the pace is too fast? Is it not being successful because they need to repeat it a little bit more? Is it not, you know, like looking at why the person child is not being successful to determine What needs to be done? Because I’ve seen that way too many times is that, you know, schools are like, well, they’re not being successful.
So let’s make the goals easier. Well, they’re not being successful. So let’s make the goals easier. And, you know, like that they’re pushing for, like the school thinks, Oh, this child should be life skills, alternative learning, um, outcome. But if the parents don’t agree, they, they cannot use alternative learning outcomes.
In Maryland, at least. So, um, but the school keeps trying to push for that. So they keep trying to lower the goals and parents not knowing what’s happening. They’re kind of key holding their kid. The [00:26:00] school’s kind of doing it in the background. And then the parents are getting themselves locked into this position that is really hard to get back out of
April Rehrig: exactly, exactly.
And that goes back to the setup.
April Rehrig: So if a child is not achieving the goals, one of the things the teams can do is look at the accommodations. So when you have a progress report, for example, and they’re looking at the goals, you also need to look at the accommodations. Are these working? Are these not working?
What do we need to adjust? And it’s not, you do not get accommodations from a drop down menu. I know they’re on the IEP, but accommodations really come from the assessment. And honestly, the child, when the child comes to the IEP, and they should be coming, I always worked with my kids having them come in elementary school, and it’s like, what works for you?
What do you like? Oh, I really like video games. Awesome. We’re going to use this visual, visual, visual, because you are really receptive to visual and like saturation. I’m not going to have you do extended time if time is a struggle for you, because why should I give you more of what you struggle [00:27:00] with?
Okay.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. Exactly. And it’s always the stock, you know, but I love that. Yeah. I, you know, I didn’t even think about bringing them when they were younger, but definitely in middle school, high school, like when you’re supposed to start inviting them. Um, I always, I like to have the kids come to, to do that, the accommodations and the, you know, I do not want them sitting through the whole IEP meeting most of the time, because they’re boring for us as adults.
You can imagine the kids going through it and it’s hard to listen to some of that, but definitely for the accommodations and supplementary aids because, Hey, the kids know what’s working.
April Rehrig: Right. And then if they take their IEP to college, um, and many of them do, it’s like, if they’ve been part of the meeting and they’re in it, it makes a whole difference.
So it’s, they understand what’s effective and then they can sit there. And then as the parent, you’re pulling back because you have to pull back on stuff on the accommodations and the services because If you heavy duty it up till senior year and then you’re like, ah, we’re getting into UCLA But the child like [00:28:00] isn’t been used to Moving into that kind of self advocacy and self determination phase Then it’s not helping so you should be pulling back junior and senior year and just kind of hanging out and then your child Is running the meeting because they’re like I know what I need I know how to access disability supports in college and I understand that this is what I need You And once I get into college, I can access these services myself because I’ve been advocating already at the table.
Transitioning to College: Preparing for Independence
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And so there’s two things on that I want to touch on. First, IEPs don’t go to college. At all. Because they’re not, IEPs die when you graduate high school. Um, but you can get accommodations under the American Disabilities Act. The eligibility is different. And what’s allowed is different. And the other reason parents need to pull out, which parents get frustrated, is it doesn’t matter that you’re paying the bill, mom and dad.
Your child is 18 years old. And then the Yeah, I was talking about the
April Rehrig: FERPA waiver. Yeah, I was talking about that over the, over the weekend with, um, at a conference with, um, [00:29:00] other parents. But yeah, the FERPA waiver. Signing the FERPA waiver, and even if your child doesn’t have an IEP or a 504, and you have a typical, what we call a typical child, which is not typical, you need to know about the FERPA because if you don’t sign the waiver, you’re not going to get any of the tuition stimulus.
So you’re not going to know anything.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Exactly. And that, and that’s the thing, like I did a presentation for, um, Florida ahead and, uh, on that, and like, they’re just, the disability offices are saying, yeah, parents walk in and be like, here’s my child’s IEP. You need to implement it. It’s like, well, no one, no, we don’t.
Two, we’re not talking to you. Cause we can’t, you know, and parents are like, what do you mean? Um, And it’s a hard pill, but I love that you say that is that the parents should pull back and let the kids step up to the plate more in junior and high school because they’re the ones that are going to have to do it.
They’re going to have to go to the disabilities office and ask for it. And if they can articulate it better, there’s more of a chance of them being able to get the accommodations. Yeah.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: And when
April Rehrig: they sit in the meeting, I [00:30:00] mean, it, a lot of parents are like, Oh, I don’t want my kid to hear this. And I’m like, why?
I’m like, why is it? It doesn’t have to be like that. When my kids come to their IEP. Things change. Parents and teachers speak to them differently. They don’t talk about, they talk to. And some parents will be like, well, my child has an intellectual disability. I’m like, but they can express themselves. They can, even if they’re not verbal, they can say what they like, what they don’t like.
Imagine your child coming into a meeting and talking about they want to do things themselves. Oh my gosh, like that is in crazy empowering to be able to sit at the table and tell someone what you like and what you don’t like. I mean, that’s the whole goal, right? It’s we want to help our kids to be more successful.
So I argue that there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by having your child at the meeting. And people behave differently when they have to talk to the student at the meeting. It’s a very, very different process.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: So we were talking about college kids going and, uh, um, [00:31:00] about when they’re in 11th and 12th grade, the parents stepping back and letting the kids take over and argue it more, taking that responsibility on.
Yeah, which is so important because, you know, but I, but like thinking about it now and I’m like, yeah, you know, my elementary school kids, they can come in and say what they knew and what’s working.
April Rehrig: Absolutely. And what do you want to say to your teacher and what helps you and what’s hard for you and what do you want to work on?
Right? Working, like when I would work with students as a, um, when I did the, um, school based counseling, I would show them a copy of their IEP and they’re like, I’ve never seen this before. I’m like, well, what are you working on? I don’t know. So I’m like, let’s sit down. Let’s look at the goal. Like, here’s what you’re working on.
Oh, do you feel like, you know, this is helpful for you? Well, kind of. It’s like, they need to know what they’re working on. So I feel like it should be the complete opposite. When you’re having a teacher conference for your child, Your child needs to be in the conference. Even if they’re in elementary [00:32:00] school, we’re talking about them.
They need to be at the meeting. So I feel like it really changes the game plan. And honestly, teachers speak differently when their student is there. They speak really differently. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s just, again, it’s like, what’s the goal here? You know?
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. No, it’s so true. And I’m just thinking about it like that.
My fourth grader shares things like, well, it’s so frustrating because the teacher doesn’t do this or doesn’t do that. And I’m like, and I can relay that to her teacher. And I mean, my daughter’s school is phenomenal and they’re very receptive to both. I mean, they’re phenomenal in a way. I would say also what I do for a living, they kind of know.
So, but I mean, they’re phenomenal anyway. But, um, but thinking about it of like that, that her, the teacher hearing it from her, Oh my gosh, how different would that be, Frances?
April Rehrig: And then she’s speaking to her, and then how great would that make your, your daughter feel? It’s like, I said these things to you, mom, but now I can tell someone.
It’s like, it’s very empowering, and it makes the teacher speak differently because they’re speaking to instead of at. [00:33:00]
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Right. No, that makes so much sense. And instead of all of us talking about her and what we think she needs, she’s, uh, you know, my, my 10 year old is a little, you know, she, she knows what she wants.
She knows how to say it. Yeah, I’m just thinking about it. I’m like, yeah, I think she’s coming to the next IEP meeting.
April Rehrig: She’s gonna put on her little hat and like sit next to you.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Oh, she will. She will love it because she’s yeah, because she’s like, wait, I get to tell everybody, you know, it’s a little firecracker.
Um, my younger one, she would probably, but she’s a little more chill. Um, but yeah, no, that’s so cool. So I know. So we were talking about testing in the beginning. And so I know you were saying you have templates, but are there like, is there like a top 10 tips you could give parents like when asking for them?
Yeah. For IEP testing, like what, like, what are some reasons they should be thinking about or thinking about putting in their letters?
April Rehrig: Yes. Um, so when it comes to a [00:34:00] special education assessment, let’s say you’re requesting for an initial or what’s called a reevaluation or an early try or supplemental, um, the first thing you want to ask for is The scope of the assessment.
So in regular terms that has to do with what kind of testing do you want? So you need to tell them I would like a full psychoeducational assessment. I would like a supplemental academic I would like a speech and language assessment. So the scope, right? Who needs to be involved? And then the second thing you need to ask for is either, what are the eligibility that you are suspecting, one or more.
And then you need to look at your state website first to see what the rules are for eligibility and then cite it in there. And then also, what are the unique learning needs? So there’s actually sort of three different areas. And the unique learning needs is going to tell the assessors what kind of tests you can give.
You’re not able to say, I want the WISC, I want this, but you can [00:35:00] certainly say, I would like tests in executive functioning, I would like tests in this area, I would like this type of assessor with this expertise to work with my child. So when you’re writing your letter, you’re talking about eligibilities or related service areas you suspect.
You’re talking about unique learning needs, strengths, and the scope and sequence in terms of like what you expect the school to do about it.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, that’s perfect. And I, I want to touch on when you said the triennial review. So every three years they have to relook at eligibility and I’ve seen it and heard it so many times that it’s like, Oh, We don’t suspect there’s any other disability.
We think that your kid is still, you know, autistic and autism is going to be the name, main label. So we don’t need to do any other assessments. But I’m like, you know, we can do educational planning without it. And I’m always like flabbergasted that a school would say that, you know, because at the very, very least.
There needs to be academic testing [00:36:00] because if you don’t have like that, that set of where your child is academically, like, yes, it’s, it’s a standardized test. I hate standardized tests. Don’t get me started on those because I’m not a good test taker, but you know, but it, but it’s at least something that gives you a marking period, like, you know, a mark of where your child is and then if their child’s having behavior issues, you need to do behavior checklists.
And you need to see what’s going on. Like, I don’t understand how schools have said, Oh, we don’t need any additional testing for educational planning. You haven’t tested the child in three years. What are you going off of? You know? Um, and then for anybody listening,
April Rehrig: that brings up a really good point, Frances.
So when it comes time reevaluation parents get, well, I call it assessment plan, but in other States is for her to different things, but you get an assessment plan. But before you get the assessment plan, when you submit your parent letter of attachment, you can talk about the type of assessments that you want, because ideally, [00:37:00] the assessment plan is supposed to be jointly developed.
You do not have to sign the assessment plan they give you. You can say, you know what, actually, I want testing in this. So with a triennial, for example, even if they’re not going to give IQ testing, they still need to re establish any changes. So a comprehensive assessment means they do testing in all the suspected areas and they review existing data.
And part of reviewing existing data is, here was the initial IQ, here’s the re eval, there’s no suspected changes, and parent gave permission. Um, So ideally, the school psychologist, when they give you the assessment plan for a try, they should be calling you before. I would call my families and be like, Hey, I’m not going to be getting IQ testing.
I just want to make sure that’s okay. Or do you have any other suspicions you want me to look at? Oh yes, I want this. Great. We’re going to add that to the assessment plan or no. Okay. It’s IQ testing. Great. We’re going to put on their review of existing data and I’m still writing about it in my report, but [00:38:00] I’m not doing new.
Testing so that’s where you can kind of get around that is when you’re looking at the assessment plan and you talk to the assessors
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, so we don’t do it the same out here in Maryland. Um, we do or supposed to do in Maryland and D. C. Um, a reevaluation planning meeting. So where the team gets the I. P.
Team gets together and discusses what evaluations are needed. But I’ve seen it way more often than not that the school says. We don’t see any change in disability. They’re still eligible. Let’s move on. Usually it’s because it is now December and they just realized that re evaluation eligibility was due in January.
And so they don’t have time to do the testing, you know? And so, oops, let’s do the eligibility. Um, but for those listing, if you don’t know, um, For parents listening, if your child has not been tested in the last 12 months, you can 100 [00:39:00] percent ask for testing again. You do not have to wait for the triennial review.
Do not let the school tell you, Oh no, no, no, no. The triennial review is in two years. I don’t care. I want testing now and go up. And I mean, especially like our kids that are having behavior issues and things are going on, you guys need the behavior checklist. Period. Like, you know, like, yeah, they’re doing an FBA, but most people aren’t trained how to do FBAs correctly, I’ve found, in school systems.
And doing the checklists just isn’t enough. makes it seem so well for me because of the way the checklists are written, I feel it’s more, more information and more like, um, reliable information because you’re literally, the teachers and parents are just clicking through like, do they do this? Do they do that?
They’re not, you’re not looking for antecedents or behaviors. Um, it’s just your S what you’re seeing in the classroom. And if you do it, you know, I also get frustrated when schools only do one [00:40:00] teacher. I’m like, no, you need to do a core teacher. You need to do an elective teacher. And you need to do a subject the child likes and a subject the child doesn’t like because those are all information of like, well, where are we seeing the behavior.
So maybe it’s something we need to tweak in that in that classroom, not necessarily a behavior that totally needs to be tweaked.
April Rehrig: Yeah, that’s that’s absolutely true. And when you think about. Um, an observation. Observations need to, I call it like the two factor method. It’s actually school psychologists, the gold standard is when school psychologists are doing an initial, a triennial, any type of assessment, they need to have two different assessments by two different assessors in two different environments.
It’s two, two, two. So, you should be, when I would observe as the school psych, I would go into the class they were awesome, and I would go into the class that they would struggle, and I would always do the observations through the RIOT method, which is, you first review existing information, you do the interviews, you observe, you observe, you test, [00:41:00] because you need to test in terms of what you suspect.
So you first have to have the reason for referral and then embed it out and then flesh it out last through the testing. If you’re testing and you’ve never met the child, you never observed them. How do you know what to look for? So, you know, it’s, again, it’s just a different way of doing things, but honestly it’s a lot easier and faster to do it.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: You think, no, no, that makes sense. It makes sense. Cause I know like, there’s some people that are like, Oh, I don’t want to see this stuff beforehand because I want to form my own opinion and, and just like, how do you know what to look
April Rehrig: for? It’s like trying to, you’re like, okay, I’m going to pass the bar exam with no studying.
Okay. That’s a great idea, but is that really going to help you?
Frances Shefter, Esq.: No, and it’s so frustrating because it’s also like I’ve had, I’ve had psychologists do assessments and it clearly said in our PWN, it clearly said that they were supposed to be doing behavior [00:42:00] checklists and the psychologist didn’t do them.
And when I asked at the IEP meeting, like why? Well, I didn’t see a need. The IEP team just, you know, that knows the child. felt there was a need and why can you unilaterally make that decision, you know, it just like yeah review everything and why is this child being referred and what’s going on.
April Rehrig: And that goes back to the reason for referral, which is what we were talking about earlier Frances, and so if the parent in their parent letter of attachment is like, Here is the reason for referral, right?
So reason for referral is not eligibility. Reason for referral is not triennial It’s why is the child being referred? What are the suspected areas of need? What’s the disability and if it’s embedded in the reason for referral and the language is there it should be strong Then it should be pulled through the entire report So when you’re looking at the recommendations and the eligibility and the present levels, it’s all pulled back and that’s why Parents knowing what to write in their letter.
Oh my gosh It’s [00:43:00] so powerful instead of Well, I want my child tested because I’m suspecting a learning disability and then you get the report and you’re like, but they didn’t test for auditory. And then the psych’s like, but you never told me, I didn’t know,
Frances Shefter, Esq.: you know, like, and you don’t know what you
April Rehrig: don’t know, which goes back to, again, it’s like, We can totally reform that if parents find out before like, Oh, wow, I can do this differently.
Frances Shefter, Esq.: Yeah, no, it’s so true. And I love I know I looked at your website. I don’t usually do this, but I looked at your website real quick before we logged in. And, um, and you have so much in resources or parents there, um, which I love because that’s, you know, my, my YouTube channel and everything, but it’s so important.
So much. And I know you mentioned the blog about accommodations versus modifications, which I know we’re going to have in the show notes below. We’ll make sure there’s a link to that. But if people want to get in touch with you, well, first of all, like you’re based in California. Do you only work in California or how, what areas do you support families?
April Rehrig: Um, I support families nationwide, so I work in [00:44:00] all different states. Um, and so I do in person work for local only, um, because that’s obviously a lot easier. But I do virtual practice everywhere. Um, and if people want to get in touch with me, they can go to my website, riseeducationaladvocacy. com. If they want to check out my Teachers Pay Teacher Store, parents, teachers for fillable templates, do it yourself stuff.
That’s Teachers Pay Teachers slash Rise Educational Advocacy, or they can follow me on Instagram at Rise Ed Advocacy. That is
Frances Shefter, Esq.: so awesome. And all those links will be below. Thank you so much, April. I love like, even, even though our jobs, um, overflow a little bit, the words escaping me, but like, it’s, but it’s so different.
Like we all have different perspectives that we bring to the table and I love it. So thank you so much for being in the show and sharing all of your information with our listeners. You’re so welcome, Frances.
Voice-Over: You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP® [00:45:00] with your host, Frances Shefter. Remember, you do not need to do it all alone.You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw. com, where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments, and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
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