Functional Behavior Assessment Help

[gynwhyver]

Hello everyone! Very long time lurker coming out of hiding for some much-needed help for my 7 yr old daughter with PDDNOS, intractable epilepsy, ADHD, MR, and various other fun stuff. Very long story short - last yr my daughter was a straight-A student in regular ed with very few behavior problems. This year she began running out of her classroom every day several times a day and once has gotten completely outside the building during bustime, despite having not one, but 2 personal aides! The school is under construction and will be until 2010, and she constantly is running through hallways she shouldn't be. She was also physically restrained by 2 female adult aides in her classroom by her upper arms hard enough to leave red marks and fingerprint marks on the day I first met with a new behavior consultant, because she was kicking and screaming in the classroom, and, according to the Dir. of Sp. Ed., "desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures". This was the very first time in two years of attending this school that restraint had ever been used. She had seen me in the hallway when I was walking to the office for the IEP meeting and wanted to go with me. She had a meltdown when she wasn't allowed. The district is trying to say she is emotionally disturbed, despite having copies from 3 different psychologists (same agency), her neurologist, and a neuropsych eval stating she is on the spectrum. They had an agency come in 2 yrs ago who are supposed autism "experts" say that she wasn't even remotely autistic (she scored a 24.5 on the Childhood Autism Ratings Scale (CARS) 26-30 is on the spectrum, plus is only 73% accurate, last time I checked. The psychologist told the IEP team that the test was on a 60 point scale Yep, I did my research, and had a copy of the abstract with all this info on it to hand to him at the meeting before I walked out.) I had requested a FBA at that point because the reg. ed teacher kept sending her to the learning support room for "behavioral issues" that were directly related to her disabilities.

There is so much more to it, but we had a new agency come in, supposedly reputable, but one which the district had prior "business with". I stipulated that I wanted to work with an agency neither I or the district had a vested interest in, but this guy's reputation checked out (or so I thought), so I went ahead and let them observe. At the last IEP meeting we had about 2 weeks ago, we met with the consultants and I got a copy of the plan, but didn't get a chance to talk about the results because the district is trying to pressure me into transferring her to a "therapeutic emotional support program" after I nixed their recommendation for a partial resdiential psychiatric treatment program outright.

Anyway, I reviewed it, and the plan didn't make a whole lot of sense. So....I asked to see what data was collected and if we knew what her "baseline" was. What's she doing, how often, when, how frequently, and in what context. Something I thought should be pretty easy to figure out. But the guy says that his agency doesn't do that. That they work with the teacher's to collect that data, which ok, I can understand that, but then he proceeds to tell me that all the questions I asked him (see above) are questions any concerned parent should ask and that a teacher should be able to respond to, but that typically only special education teachers receive that kind of training? And that she needs to be in an environment where the teacher recognizes the need to collect accurate information to form a baseline. Is it normal to develop a behavior plan without this data?

Ok, I've been called 4 times in a 2 week period in the afternoon to REMOVE MY CHILD FROM SCHOOL FOR BEHAVIORAL ISSUES, yet you can't tell me what's she's done, how often, or when, or what environmental factors could have contributed to the behavior (ie didn't understand directions to her worksheet so she threw her pencil?) Yet the district is recommending placement outside the district because of her behaviors, and more than that, they are saying they believe she has oppositional defiant disorder which could develop into a conduct disorder and in order to receive the social skills training she needs, she has to be assigned to a social worker and is in need of an "emotional support environment" which offers group therapy sessions.

I've already spoken to the Dept of Ed, the Office for Civil Rights, my local MHMR office - which recommended I get in touch with OCR, and said I should tell the district that and name names, which I did, but then the district superintendent was at our last 2 meetings and said if I didn't agree to out of district placement he would file for mediation....I should have let him! Pretty much the only agency I haven't contacted is the ACLU and they're on my list!

I'm looking at an expedited due process now, because as of 11/13/06, she no longer has a placement. The district agreed to homeschool her for 2 weeks until we could work out an alternate placement since she obviously wasn't safe at the other school, but that agreement was signed on 10/23/06. Taking into consideration time off for holidays and election day, her NOREP has expired. Did I forget to mention that she was supposed to have PT, OT, and ST continued for the duration of her homeschooling but has only received ST, because I'm not being told they need a prescription for her OT & PT, despite her receiving those services since the beginning of the school year....

Anyway, thanks for providing a safe place to vent. Milli, I have been reading through your trials with Vince and want to commend you for maintaining a level head in a sea of idiots. I wish I could do the same...Best of luck! And for all you teacher's out there, BLESS YOU. You don't have an easy job, and I can appreciate that!

Take care,


Gwyn

[peglem]

I'm so sorry you'rwe going through this!

A couplwe of commwents (sorry, my daughtwer got somewthing sticky on thwe kweys and nowe thwe e and w keys go down at the same time- Hey! Its fixed!)

Anyway, "but that typically only special education teachers receive that kind of training? And that she needs to be in an environment where the teacher recognizes the need to collect accurate information to form a baseline. Is it normal to develop a behavior plan without this data?"

Whatever the environment, the district should have trained personnel who can come in and observe as much as they need to to collect the data for an FBA. That should have nothing to do with the regular ed teacher, if it is outside the realm of his/her expertise. As you already know, they're jerking you around.

I hate to be a stuck record here (you've been lurking, right?) but if this behavior came out of the blue or has recently escalated dramatically- have your daughter checked for a strep infection or ASO titers to see if she has recently had an infection. These kinds of behaviors can often be caused by an autoimmune reaction that is triggered by strep. Check out this forum, see if you recognize anything in your daughter.

http://www.wemove.org/cgi-bin/ultima...f=13&submit=Go

Good Luck and please keep us posted as much as you can!

[Isabelle]

Just to welcome you and to say that Peglem is great in advices of that kind. She needs one to one attention if those two aides do not connect with her and really see that she is progressing on her learning is a damn waste of money.

What is happening to all of you, Mili/Vince. etc. I have been there and cried lots.

My son at 32 is at home with me after being on psychiatric drugs for his autism, hyperactivity and compulsive running for 21 years. He was over diagnosed with all sort of psychiatric disorders and "treated" like a guinea pig with every drugs invented and, in addition, he was physically/emotionally abused in a group home.

Every where, in school or in the group home, a kind teaching aide, kind people talking in low voice, a young person running along and giving directions to where to go made a difference, drugs made those features worse. He used to stop and look back for my gestures, on drugs he started to run like a chicken without a head.

Editing: In addition like Peglem we suspecting strep behind his abnormal movements, aggravated by the excessive use of Risperdal and Zyprexa and the rest.

[tgrimes]

g -
just want to say welcome and hi, good place to vent you picked here.

My opinion on part of what you are going through: The FBA is basically a 'CYA' for administrators, since its original intent as legislated has been twisted into a loophole for the district to use to 'legally' force alternate placement. If an FBA is done, and is not 'sucessful', and the student suddenly experiences suspensions for conduct, you know where they are going with it. Least restrictive environment guidelines magically dissapear. Old hat trick, it seems, I thought this sort of thing only happened in Florida.



Just a question though - the multiple diagnosis thing seems to confuse things... if she has a spectrum disorder then these comorbids are just that, and not the main educational problem, so someone needs to define whether the mental retardation or ADHD is more handicapping than the spectrum disorder, to avoid further confusion.
Further, definitions may have changed since her original diagnosis (along with behaviors that are causing the most loss of functionality) thus changing the original diagnosis. Haven't you questioned the MR dx given a straight A report card in a mainstream setting?
I think most doctors today agree pdd-nos means that the individual does not fit on the spectrum, hence the NOS part. Also psychologists can not diagnose. So it wouldn't hurt to see if your pediatrician can refer you to someone who can update the diagnosis if it is years old.