I’ve gotten four 504 Plans during the last two school days because we started a new semester. Here are the dates that they were written:
24 January 2006 – 384 days ago
04 October 2004 – 861 days ago
25 September 2003 – 1236 days ago
08 January 2003 – 1496 days ago
Why should I have to provide accommodations for kids who haven’t been evaluated in over four years? Doesn’t anyone think that some things may have changed since then?
2 Comments
You are correct, things might have changed. But speaking as a teacher and a parent of a kid with special needs, that should not slow down the modifications called for! It is the responsibility of the school district to maintain up-to-date evaluations. If they do not, why should the student have services delayed? Waiting days, weeks, sometimes even months for schools to evaluate and update recommendations is very often what causes students to fall so far behind. Do all you can to help these four students – while at the same time, ask the school why they can’t keep their evaluations current.
Some things change; some things don’t. A child who has a 504 plan for a hearing impairment is probably still hearing impaired even if they were last evaluated 4 years ago. (Yes, I know that in some cases, surgery may improve the situation, making re-evaluation of the 504 an obvious necessity at that time. But you in general… it doesn’t just improve on its own.) Similarly for a number of other physiological disabilities for which a 504 plan may have been written.
You seem, in this post and others, to be very resistant to providing accommodations for students who have a documented need. Apparently you disagree with the diagnoses or the recommended accomodations. But just as teachers ask parents and others to let you do the job you are trained for, perhaps you should let the doctors and medical professionals do the job they are trained for and not always assume that you know better.