Example of student letter to administrative body asking for changes in IEP process for classroom placements

 To the Members of the Illinois State Board of Education,
    The mission statement of the Illinois State Board of Education is to “provide each and every child with safe and healthy learning conditions, great educators, and equitable opportunities by practicing data-informed stewardship of resources and policy development, all done in partnership with educators, families, and stakeholders.”  The goals, vision, and commitments of this institution are aligned in a commitment to provide a quality education for every child, ensuring that each student leaves our schools equipped to make a meaningful contribution to society. However, some children are still facing disadvantages in our school system, including some that have been inadvertently created by the very programs intended to help them.
    My son, R_______, was born in May of [year]. Although he began showing signs of autism at only eighteen months old, he was not formally diagnosed until January of 2020. When he started preschool in the fall of [year] at the [School and its location], his father and I already knew he was neurodivergent, but the psychology professionals were hesitant to diagnose him at such a young age. During his screening for public school, we voiced our concerns to the professionals who administered the tests, but R____ was having a good day and eagerly participated in the tasks. He was judged to have no problems and placed in a normal classroom.
    The problems began almost immediately. R____ was used to receiving individual attention and was not capable of understanding that his teacher was responsible for another twenty students. He began lashing out on a daily basis, disrupting the classroom and sometimes endangering those around him by throwing or pushing large objects. Luckily, the school now had evidence that R____ had special needs and moved him to a smaller classroom that boasted three teacher aides and a teacher skilled in dealing with students with behavioral problems or emotional disability. Under her patient care, R____ began to learn and socialize with other students. R____ was given his first IEP and dedicated, specialized care that helped him enjoy and learn during his school experience. In addition to having four adults to manage his class of twelve, R____ received daily one on one time with his social worker, who worked tirelessly to help him learn to control his emotions and manage his behaviors.
    The pandemic robbed R____ of kindergarten, so his first year at [elementary school] was in the classroom of Mrs. [teacher name]. Mrs. [teacher name] was a joy to have as my son’s teacher, but, once again, the setting of a normal classroom was simply not conducive to R____’s learning. There was not enough adult attention, the level of overlapping noises of twenty children caused sensory overload, and he was often confused by the curriculum and had no one to ask. When we as parents inquired about the services R_____ should have been receiving, we found that his IEP from the [previous school] was not even considered and R_____ was receiving no accommodations. We were then told that he could not be moved because he was to be placed in the “least restrictive environment,” among normal students if possible.
    Despite the incredible efforts and passionate advocacy of Mrs. [Teacher], R______ learned nothing during his time at [school] and was suspended a total of twenty times before the principal stepped in and demanded that R______ receive accommodations that would create a better learning environment. The decision of the committee was that R______ should be placed at [Name of School] Elementary School. Mrs. [Teacher], R_____’s father, and I argued that if R_____ were given an aide to assist him in regulating his emotions and to help him understand classroom instructions, he would be able to remain in a normal classroom. While R______ had known many exemplary teachers, Mrs. [Teacher] was the first to really bond with my autistic child, and I was often humbled by her fierce advocating for my son and grateful for her advice and experience. It was she who advised us to find an advocate to help navigate the system after we were out of her hands. The professionals at the IEP meeting did not even consider our request, instead informing us that there were procedures to follow. R______ must move to the next level rather than receiving the accommodation recommended by his teacher, social worker, and psychologist.
    The next step in placement turned out to be a classroom for intellectual disabilities, even though R______ is not and has never been intellectually disabled. Worse, the string of suspensions were worded in such a way that the new teacher interpreted them to mean that my six-year-old was violent and dangerous, and she treated him as though he would attack at any given moment. In the short month in which he attended her class, I received daily phone calls, all of which occurred after incidents. However, by this time, we had found an IEP advocate, an incredible woman named Susie Woods. During the first IEP meeting attended by Ms. Woods, the educators of [School] expedited R______’s placement to a classroom for children with emotional disabilities. In August of [year], he began attending a classroom designed for children with social and emotional problems. R_______ has begun progressing academically and making friends, but the bureaucratic method used by local schools to determine placement for special needs students cost him over a year of education and caused significant setbacks in his social and behavioral development.
    Of the nearly two million students enrolled in public school in the state of Illinois, approximately 16.5% have IEPs, a total of 307,555 students in 2022. Students who qualify for IEPs often have disadvantages when compared to students who do not need individualized plans for their education. Programs such as special education and accommodations made for students with IEPs are designed to level the playing field and help relatively disadvantaged students succeed. However, students with IEPs are 10% more likely to be chronically absent from class and 5% more likely to be chronically truant. In addition to these issues, students with IEPs are more likely to drop out of school before achieving their diploma, a relatively small difference in percentage but one that remains persistent going back to 2018, when the percentage of students with IEPs who dropped out was nearly double the number of “normal” students who dropped out. While the gap is closing, its persistent presence seems indicative of ongoing problems faced by students with special needs.
    The Illinois State Board of Education installed a policy regarding Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) in February of 2000 which was intended to establish guidelines that follow the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997. The policy states that “to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities aged 3 through 21, in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled.” It further requires that the first placement option “is a regular education environment, with the use of supplemental aids and services as needed. Special classes, separate schooling, or other placements by which students with disabilities are removed from the regular education environment should occur only if the student’s Individual Educational Program (“IEP”) team determines that the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in a regular classroom setting, even with the use of supplemental aids and services, cannot be achieved satisfactorily.”
    On the surface, the policies surrounding students with IEPs and Least Restrictive Environment provide reasonable accommodations to students with special educational needs without unnecessarily segregating them from the general population. However, in practice, these policies are causing some students with IEPs to suffer delays in their education as they are shuffled from one unsuitable classroom to the next in an attempt to keep them in a “less restrictive environment.” Since change of placement takes time, it can take a year or more to find the best environment for a special needs student—years during which these students fall further and further behind their peers.
    I do not want you to advocate for extensive change in policy; least restrictive environment policies are most often beneficial and prevent students with IEPs from feeling isolated or abnormal and keeping them actively a part of the population. However, the policy should be amended to allow for more rapid change of placement for students when it is found that the classroom they have been placed in is unsuitable. This could be accomplished by giving  the IEP committee more discretion in placement decisions. For example, educators should be able to forego steps in placement, moving the child to a “more restrictive environment” sooner if the committee deems it appropriate.
    In addition, each student with an IEP should be automatically assigned an IEP advocate. The well-being of a child in our education system should not be dependent on how knowledgeable their parents are regarding their rights, nor should they be reliant on the goodwill of individual educators. Even if the child has knowledgeable or caring parents, the parents may not be able to attend IEP meetings; for example, single parents cannot always get the time off work. An assigned advocate would be able to represent the child’s best interests at these meetings when their guardians cannot.
    These changes would assist families and educators to minimize delays in providing special needs students with the setting, services, and accommodations required for effective learning. However, it cannot be ignored that these changes will incur financial costs and require school districts to employ IEP advocates. Another complication arises from having these advocates employed by the school districts, which may make it difficult for the advocates to remain unbiased when representing a student against their employer.
    It is the vision of the public education system of the State of Illinois to provide every child with the tools and skills they need to succeed and make a meaningful contribution to society. To this end, it is my recommendation that these changes be adopted as a policy by the Board of Education.
    
Sources:
Illinois Report Card
https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/state.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&source2=iep&Stateid=IL