Our pre-meeting letter to all members of 504 Eligibility Team

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By Gail W on Sun, 05-29-05, 15:54

We became frustrated with the 504 Eligibility process with our School District. There were 2 problems:

1. The District's 504 Coordinator ("Dr. Y", Director of Student Instructional Resources) was the contractual boss of everyone who was on the committee. So the committee members had a conflict of interest. We started seeing that everyone on the committee was probably going to lean which ever way their boss steered them. Because staff on the Eligibility committee had made violations in the IHP, we wanted to figure out a way to protect the staff from feeling that their past actions wouldn't be revealed/evaluated in the 504 Eligibility process for their boss to see. In short, we wanted a fair process that only looked at our daughter's condition and the eligibility criteria.

2. Problem #2 was that the District's 504 Coordinator (Dr. Y" Director of Student Instructional Resources) acted as the gate-keeper controlling the information that the 504 Eligibility committee received. Incorrect statements about our daughter and 504 had been announced in a previous IHP meeting by "Dr. Y." We didn't know what else she had told committee members, or if they had been told additional erroneous information. We wanted to speak for ourselves.

So, we decided to communicate directly with all members of the 504 Eligibility committee instead of going through "Dr. Y". We felt we needed to make sure we did this before the Eligibility meeting. Of course, we copied her in the communications.

We wrote two letters. The first one was to "Dr. Y" and copied to several staff because the committee members hadn't been appointed yet. It's posted here: [url="http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum7/HTML/001879.html"]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/Forum7/HTML/001879.html[/url]

Here is the second letter after the committee had been appointed. (I posted this in another thread, but was asked to post it in a separate thread.)

[i]May 10, 2005

Dear Members of the 504 Eligibility Team:
Dr. X, Elementary School Principal
Ms. X, Elementary School Counselor
Ms. X, Elementary School Nurse
Dr. X, Middle School Principal
Ms. X, Middle School Counselor
Ms. X, Middle School Nurse
Ms. X, Middle School Teacher

We have been informed by Dr. Y of your appointment to the 504 Eligibility Team for our daughter, Mariah X. We've worked closely with some of you for years, and some staff we only just met for the first time. Based on the response at the recent IHP meeting, it seems there may be some concern regarding the reason we are requesting a Section 504 Designation for Mariah at this time. We want to address this issue with you upfront now before the Eligibility Team meeting on May 12.

The reason we have requested an Eligibility meeting for a Section 504 Designation for Mariah is because she meets the criteria.

The (Elementary School) staff can attest to the fact that managing Mariah's severe food allergies has been a learning process for all of us. There have been bumps in the road, and we have worked them out. When Mariah first entered kindergarten six years ago, she was the very first child in the District whose severe food allergies required significant accommodations. After a few years, we arrived at a written plan in the format of an Individualized Healthcare Plan (IHP). And now, as Mariah's leaves the comfort and safety of the "(Elementary school) nest" to enter a new environment, it is naturally time for us to look, once again, at her situation.

The scope of an Eligibility meeting is to determine if Mariah meets the criteria for a Section 504 Designation. It is with this understanding that we have asked for and that we will be attending the Eligibility meeting. It is not our intention to re-visit what has not worked well in the past because it is simply not relevant. Our purpose for requesting and participating in this meeting is for Mariah to receive the formal 504 Designation. The need to make accommodations to the learning environment to ensure her safety has already been acknowledged by the School District with the creation of Mariah's IHP.

Thank you very much for participating in this important role. We sincerely appreciate the care you have already given our daughter and we look forward to seeing you at the meeting on Thursday.

Sincerely yours,

(parents)

cc: Dr. Y, Director of Student Instructional Resources[/i]

[This message has been edited by Gail W (edited May 29, 2005).]

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By Gail W on Thu, 10-27-05, 18:48

bumping up for a friend.

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By Gail W on Thu, 02-02-06, 15:41

bumping up for notnutty

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By notnutty on Thu, 02-02-06, 16:55

Thank you.

__________________

No longer a member.

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By Gail W on Fri, 02-10-06, 01:37

Bumping up for Lana.

Quote:[b]Originally posted by Cam'smom in another thread:
Hi Gail,
I was wondering if during your written or verbal request for receiving the 504 designation, did you ever give a "reason(s)" why you now wanted the 504 rather than the IHP. Why the IHP wasn't sufficient anymore.

I'm in the process of requesting Cameron having the 504 for next year and am wondering if I should be stating any reasons why I feel the Health Care Plan he is now covered under is not sufficient for our situation.

I know I'm going to be questioned, if you were, how did you handle?

If you want me to move this to a seperate topic, PLEASE let me know, I will be glad to.

Thanks!
Lana [/b]

When is your meeting Lana?

I think you want to redirect the focus back to the criteria of the 504 Designation.

I know this probably sounds silly, but in preparation for my meetings, I would actually practice phrases in my head over and over again until I was comfortable with them. And, LOL, this was one topic that I practiced...

My strategy was to 1.) be preemptive. I wrote the letter above to the eligibility team ahead of time to address this specific issue before the meeting. I thought that would keep it from coming up. I wanted to provide as much compelling information before the meeting as possible. I thought it would be best to give them everything upfront. (It was, in my case.)

But I was prepared for it anyway. My second strategy was then to try to be nice and try to show them how the process is supposed to work. I'd give them 2 or 3 very quick answers to their question, but then move on. The answers/reasons were very safe and benign and NONE OF WHICH INVOLVED THE SCHOOL. And then I'd ask a question to the 504-C to redirect the discussion. So my "pat' response was something like,

[i] 'Gosh, there are so many reasons why Mariah would benefit from the designation.... for one, it's something that she'll have throughout her education, including college, where she may need to make a special housing request.... and two, it will follow her to summer camps where special accommodations would need to occur with preparing her meals... ... and three, a 504 plan would be administered by the school counselor instead of the nurse, which would be so helpful for Mariah as she approaches adolescense. We'd like for her to work with the school counselor to learn self-advocacy skills important to teens...."[/i]

Then my plan was to turn to the 504-C and ask,
[i]"but none of this is relevant right? I'm probably taking your meeting off-track. The Eligibility Team isn't supposed to consider anything other than the data presented as it applies to the [b]504 criteria [/b], right? So the reasons why we requested the designation shouldn't be presented. I'M SORRY."[/i]

Silly, I know. Coaching the 504-C to do her job. In front of her subordinates. <> But that was part of our plan.... To try give some blah, blah, answer to their question in a nice way first. Then try to redirect the meeting to where it is supposed to be.

Then, if that didn't work, we were prepared to play hard ball. No more nicey-nicey. Both my DH and I discussed this and were prepared for this. I would assert for fact that it was inappropriate to for this information to be considered. It is irrelevant. The scope of this meeting is to evaluate our daughter's condition and apply it to the criteria as set forward by the law. Where in the law does it state that current accommodations must not be effective in order for my child to qualify for a Section 504 Designation? Can you show me please? I need to see exactly what part of the law you are referring to now.... because I do not believe you are following the law and if I am mistaken, you need to show me that right now.

I remember my husband and I agreeing ahead of time that if the 504-C insisted on going down this path, after we softly tried to put her on the correct path, that we would hold her accountable in front of everyone. She would need to prove to us that her questions were valid for the purpose of determining our DD's eligibility.

You have a lot of power in this meeting. You need to feel confident and knowledgeable enough to stand up and walk out of the meeting if they are not following the law.

Man, I get worked up just thinking about that meeting.

[This message has been edited by Gail W (edited February 09, 2006).]

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By Gail W on Fri, 02-10-06, 02:11

(sorry. double post. )

[This message has been edited by Gail W (edited February 09, 2006).]

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By Cam's Mom on Fri, 02-10-06, 02:13

Hey Gail,

Thank you for your post! I haven't requested the 504 yet - I'm preparing everything and getting "re-aquainted" with the law. I did email the 504-C and ask her to please forward the districts policies and procedures for Section 504. She responded with "Hi Lana, how are you doing...then gave me the files with their procedures and added the link (which I've posted) from the DOE for district guidelines, which was very informative, and ended it with "please let me know if I can assist you with anything" Which I simply replied to her with "thank you, doing well, etc...then ended it with "Thanks again, and I would be in contact soon" I'm in the process of writing my letter to formally request a hearing, I just want to make sure I'm prepared before I send it. So that's where I'm at.

I do think that with the latest "violation" of his HCP and my email to the principal, this won't come as a complete shock to them. I'm assuming from your letter, that his present principal (which won't be his next year since he's changing schools) might be a part of the 504 team?

Sorry...
Didn't mean to clog up your topic with my "stuff"... [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks Gail.

Lana [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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By Gail W on Fri, 02-10-06, 02:38

Quote:Originally posted by Cam's Mom:
[b]Didn't mean to clog up your topic with my "stuff"... [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks Gail.

Lana [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img][/b]

You didn't clog it. Just thought it would be better over here.

I think I got a little emotional reliving that! I just can really relate to the scenario that if you have an IHP that you need to 'prove' to them that it isn't working in order to justify the 504 designation. It really hits a nerve with me. I can soooo relate.

You're so smart to prepare before requesting it. Know the law frontwards and backwards!

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