Off Topic Anyone here have a child with learning disabilities?

[Rhonda]

My youngest daughter was diagnosed with ADHD? after 30 years (18 of which we dealt with a diagnosis of "visual learner")
She was attending nursing school and they would not accomodate her needs this past term, they gave her a list of accomodations and told her to basically take it or leave it. She paid out of pocket for a neuro psychologist testing which ended with adult adhd and recommendations for accomodations for the school. Needless to say, after being told many times "we are a private school and this is how it will be..." she failed by 1.25 points. She was not allowed an appeal on her final to see if points were available and when she spoke with the director regarding her scores and the apparent "discrimination" regarding her testing diagnosis from the neuropsych she was told she was done at that school.
I am in the process of typing a letter to the State Nursing Board (of which the director is a member) and to the State Board of Accreditation of Education - Nursing Programs.
We have asked her to speak to a lawyer (which we will pay for, she's 30 has left a full time job with benefits and retirement to go back to school, is now $25,000 in loan debt for the two years + testing) regarding whether the school did discriminate against her. They are very proud of their conversion of students to passing the Nursing Boards on first attempt (100% the past few years) and it seems that over 40% of the students in their curriculum fail this semester. Can you say weeding out of those marginal students to maintain their quota?
If you have had any similar problems with your children, do you have any suggestions or agencies to query regarding her next step.
As you can imagine, she's devastated and depressed with what has happened and sometimes I believe she has lost the will to "fight" what has happened to her.

 

[Flore]

I have had similiar experiences with my son when he was in high school. Yes..you are not imagining that they weed out marginal students to maintain their quota. I finally got an advocate to attend all of our meetings and she fought for my son to get all the special services and accomodations he needed to be more successful in school. If it wasn't for her knowledge of how to get things done in the system, he'd never had gotten what he needed.
I wish I could give you better advice except to let you know that you are not imagining the unfair treatment, and by all means fight for everything!!!!

 

[TOTO]

1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

The 1990 ADA may hold an answer for your daughter's situation.

While her nursing school may be PRIVATE in the sense that, they take no PUBLIC funds, that does not preclude them from being held accountable under TITLE III of the 1990 ADA.

http://www.justice.gov/crt/edo/faq.php#1

Q. What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

A. The ADA was enacted in 1990 to address discrimination against persons with disabilities (see also the ADA homepage). Title II of the ADA provides that no individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, program, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. OCR has primary responsibility for investigating Title II complaints.

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations, such as schools, operated by private entities. The Department of Justice has primary responsibility for enforcing Title II as it relates to education.

I would also check with your own State Disability Department for additional information.

At the very least, a good disability attorney should be able to convince the school that, a re-test would be in the best interest of everyone concerned.

 

[hollyflr]

Good advice Toto, and I doubt they are totally free from federal or state funding. And I do believe that if they do not make all necessary accomodations, they are weeding out students that will have a difficult time taking State Boards. Keep after them.

 

[CRICKETS FLOWERS]

disabilities

Did you look at Maine.gov
they have a site on diabilites?

also try the Maine DOE
Education, Dept. of (DOE)

Phone: 207-624-6600
TTY: 888-577-6690

also try Visit Students.gov - a Federal website

you might also look to contact local parent groups, in Mass we have MASSPAC www.masspac.org lots of resources


The Federation for Children with Special Needs
Resources for parents who care for children with special needs, including links to a nationwide directory of Parent Centers on Disability.
www.fcsn.org


Good luck

 

[theRKF]

I have a cousin with William's Syndrome, a sister(-in-law) with Bardet-Biedl, and two cousins on the Autistic spectrum. I have CAPD and Prosopagnoia (mild face blindness).

Certainly, it's reasonable for the school to make accommodation for some students' needs to enable their education. I do have to wonder, honestly, if this particular condition might impair her ability to perform this particular job? Not to excuse the school - I think their refusal to address the issue is deplorable - but before getting into a legal battle, be sure this is the best venue for her.

You can also mention to the school that you know someone who works in "reputation management". We can affect a significant impact in their student intake, should they refuse to comply with the ADA

Ryan

 

[Rhonda]

She is certainly capable of doing the job. She has worked for 5 years as a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Technologist (a very very stressful job) and has worked 5 years in general surgery. She has high recommendations from the surgeons she works with. All her papers, clinicals were above reproach, the problem is testing. She needs silence, longer times to answer (dissect questions) and sometimes needs questions read to her. Her vocabulary and diagnosing of difficult words is lacking due to her general K-12 education. One single word in a question can give her the wrong impression of the answer. All her tests throughout the term were one or two sentence questions, the final is taken from a test bank and questions average 4 - 5 sentences causing the problems. All of the above were noted in the neuropsychologist evaluation.

 

[PhillyPhlorist]

My son has ADD. Note that I did not lump the 'H' in there, as he is by no means hyper. He is like any other 8 year old boy, except for the lack of concentration. After nearly 2 years of trying different diets, supplements, and the like we decided to try the meds. As much as I hate to admit it, his meds have made him an A to B+ student. His IQ tested high, and he is on an 6th grade reading level (he's in 3rd grade) but his daily work and tests were suffering greatly. He barely made it through 2nd grade. Now, he is doing very well. Occasionally he will have an 'off' day, but the next he will be fine.

We still limit the types of foods he eats (no food dyes, watch the sugars, breads, etc) but have resigned to the fact that his meds are helping, and with God's blessing, will keep working with the little or no side effects we have seen.

As far as the schooling - not sure have to handle the private sector, but in the state of PA, there are MANY mandates that a public school district must follow, with regards to special education. Also, I believe there are many federal ones too. You need to get online and do some research, see what other's have done with sim. situations - especially dealing with a private school. We have spent hours and days looking into our rights as parents, etc. and it is daunting. But, it has paid off for us, at least. My son is getting what he needs to do well.

- Herb

 

[lizzie ann]

The 1990 ADA may hold an answer for your daughter's situation.

While her nursing school may be PRIVATE in the sense that, they take no PUBLIC funds, that does not preclude them from being held accountable under TITLE III of the 1990 ADA.

http://www.justice.gov/crt/edo/faq.php#1

Q. What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

A. The ADA was enacted in 1990 to address discrimination against persons with disabilities (see also the ADA homepage). Title II of the ADA provides that no individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, program, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. OCR has primary responsibility for investigating Title II complaints.

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations, such as schools, operated by private entities. The Department of Justice has primary responsibility for enforcing Title II as it relates to education.

I would also check with your own State Disability Department for additional information.

At the very least, a good disability attorney should be able to convince the school that, a re-test would be in the best interest of everyone concerned.

YES YES YES........I wish we had decided to go the attorney route. No ones listens to you unless you threaten litigation. We had to fight ourselves to get an evaluation done on our son who is ADHD. Medicatioin got us thru high school but college is another question. There was a young man who hired an attorney that got the state to pay for a full time tutor that stayed with the young man thru 4 years of school. Go for the jugular, I wish we had.

 

[Carrieann]

Ryan,
I have to comment on your post. People with learning and or social disabilities must work harder than everyone else at a number of different things. They are not any less smart or capable than an "average" person. In fact, many times people with these types of disabilities are very smart and very capable people. They just must work harder at some of the things that come naturally to you and me.

My son has disabilities. It is up for debate as to what exactly he has. ADD, OCD, bi-polar. In the end, it really doesn't matter what you call it, he is still who he is, with the same difficulities.

He is on meds for his "disabilities" he does still have to work hard for simple everyday things. He is always trying out new techniques to help him cope.

He is 13. His social age is more like 8 or 9, he has very poor social skills.

He is a very very smart young man. He amazes me all the time with the things he knows, the things he is interested in, the things he can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.

We tell him all the time your disabilities are NOT an excuse for anything. You just have to work harder.

Sorry, this post got a bit longer than I anticipated. My point is only that just because someone has a "disability" doesn't make them automaticlly any less capable of anything.

Besides, who wants to be "normal"? Normal is boring. I tell my kids that all the time and I truly believe it.

 

[PhillyPhlorist]

Ryan,
I have to comment on your post. People with learning and or social disabilities must work harder than everyone else at a number of different things. They are not any less smart or capable than an "average" person. In fact, many times people with these types of disabilities are very smart and very capable people. They just must work harder at some of the things that come naturally to you and me.

Carrieann - couldn't agree more. I am ashamed to admit that I thought I would "never have to deal with ADD or whatever..." Well, God had something else in mind...

My son works SO hard at trying to focus - you can SEE IT - really - HEAR it - when he is in conversation with you, and he is a good kid. He knows he has a disability, and is working hard to deal with it every minute of his life. We know when to push him, and when to back off, and let him decompress from the efforts of the day.

I did not mention this in my prior post, but I was recently elected to my local School District school board. I have a 4 year term ahead of me, and am learning soooo much about our public school system. I will also be paying particular attention to the needs of those who are struggling with WHATEVER disability they have. I am only beginning to learn how costly it is to the PA School Districts to have these programs, so it is even MORE important that they WORK, and are made available to those in need.

- H.

 

[LOTAKIDS]

I have two childrend with Onocular Motor Dysfunction.... My oldest is 22 and in college and has to study harder than any one I know to make it through. He is making it... not at the top but with passing grades...
Yeah!! Go Scott.

We were able to get him the proper accomidations from 2nd grade on and finally in High School things started to click, but he still had accomiations. (Calif was much easier to get the help we needed).

My baby girl is another story.. 5th grade and it is like pulling hens teeth to get her help. She is bright and in high math, but can't read.. Tracking issues. Opthamologist in WA state will not diagnos, school will not help with out diagnosis... and here were are again another year of promises.

We have had two pow-wows now with teachers and psychologist, and reading specialist... NOW HOPEFULLY SOMETHING WILL BE DONE!!

I hope to have accomidations in place for her to help her where she needs help in Jr high and High school. Oh she is a bright girl and will figure out her learning style... but in the mean time...

 

[theRKF]

Ryan,
I have to comment on your post. People with learning and or social disabilities must work harder than everyone else at a number of different things. They are not any less smart or capable than an "average" person. In fact, many times people with these types of disabilities are very smart and very capable people. They just must work harder at some of the things that come naturally to you and me.
...
We tell him all the time your disabilities are NOT an excuse for anything. You just have to work harder.
...
My point is only that just because someone has a "disability" doesn't make them automaticlly any less capable of anything.

I hope you didn't read anything into my post that wasn't intended. Please note the list of close family members I mentioned: in particular, my cousin with WS was told he would never make friends his age (social disorder), never ride a bike, barely be able to read, etc, etc. He's currently one of the most popular boys at church, rides a bike, reads at his grade level, and in many ways is surpassing all that was ever expected of him.

My point was that a significant aspect of growing and achieving with a disability is picking your battles. Many people with Down's can succeed in a repetitive-task job (maintenance, assembly) but may not excel at Accounting or Sales. People with WS don't do well at all with the repetitive - different challenges, different opportunities. With my prosopagnosia, in-person sales is not a strong suit

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Rhonda:
The short answer is that YES, your daughter's private nursing school most certainly IS COVERED by the Federal American with Disabilities Act. It's the Law. (Toto sited it above).

Once your daughter was diagnosed, and presented the proper information of what accomodations are required for her condition, THE SCHOOL MUST COMPLY.

Get an Attorney -- and Quickly.
Your Attorney will present to the school in short order that your daughter needed to be accomodated, and was not. He will further state that the school will be sued & will lose if they do not allow a re-testing with the proper accomodations for her disability.

My husband teaches part-time in Duquesne University's Business program, and sometimes their MBA program. At least once every year or so, he has to accomodate an ADA person. sometimes, it's as simple as allowing more time. Sometimes, it has been to read the questions out loud. One time, it was to print the test in Braille. Once it was to have an intrepreter available to read the questions in his native language (Russian) & and to take the test in a completely emply room, with complete quiet.

Tom's department chairman makes him aware of the special need, and he and the department chair work together with the student to make the necessary accomodations.

This is NOT brain surgery -- it can be done. It just takes a willing school and instructors to make it happen.

Good Luck to you and your daughter.