2e Learner Struggling for Eligibility? Learn about IEP and 504 Support

Join Special Education Advocates from Lamborn Advocacy to learn more about supports and services available for Twice-Exceptional students within public school districts. Learn about 504 plans and IEPs and how to push for eligibility even when the district mentions that your student is performing at grade level and is thus not eligible. Learn various support options available under a 504 or IEP. Learn how to work with teams to creatively extend learning beyond grade-level curriculum. And lastly, learn how Advocates can support your journey.

Laura Kimpton and Heather Johanson, both with Lamborn Advocacy, have over 20 years of experience in the field of 504 and special education as Teachers and Advocates. Both have worked diligently over the years in securing eligibility and services for Twice-Exceptional clients.

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See the transcript here:

Yael Valek:

For that, you are welcome to ask questions in the chat at any time. Just know that we are recording this part of the session um up through the presentation, and then we will turn off recording for the Q&A at the end in case you want to ask more personal questions. Um, so welcome to the 2e um IEP 504 Support Evening hosted by REEL. My name is Yael Valek, and I'm co-founder of REEL along with Callie Turk. And for those of you who are new to REEL, welcome, and for those of you who have been part of our journey, we're excited to be together with you again.

So we're going to start off by defining what is 2e. So 2e, or twice-exceptional children, have exceptional talents, and they experience learning differences such as autism spectrum, ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, and other things that may interfere—interfere with their learning. And because they don't often fit into the common understanding of IEPs and 504s, they may not be failing their classes. They may be able to compensate. Their profiles are inconsistent and are confusing to educators, so it can be difficult for parents to obtain the services and supports that they need from school.

Um, so if we can go to the next slide—okay, sorry, I'm having a technical difficulty. I don't know why it's—what am I doing? Sorry, sorry. This is why—okay, why does it not want to go to the next? Okay, let's try this again. Okay, there we go.

Okay, so for those who don't know REEL, we um are working to build bridges for twice-exceptional learners between their educators and their parents. We raise awareness and understanding about two-week kids, and we provide resources to help make school a place where they can be successful. We create two resources and disseminate them to help parents advocate and to help educators understand how to best support chewy learners at school. You can see our website there—reelpalowalter.org. You can sign up to receive newsletters and be part of our support group where we ask each other questions.

And if you go one more slide—if it cooperates—uh, REEL just published um this new toolkit about distance learning. We actually had an interview with a bunch of REEL parents uh about what worked and didn't work in distance learning, and we have now created a one-pager as well as some more detailed blog posts that you can share with teachers and educators at various schools. So feel free to share it widely, and we've gotten really good feedback that has been very helpful for them to understand how to support people with distance learning.

So what I wanted to say: Parents of chewy kids often find themselves struggling to get the supports and services that their children need because tui children often mask their challenges using their strengths. But this masking can lead to anxiety, low self-esteem, and exhaustion as they work twice as hard to keep up in their challenge areas, and they don't get to showcase their strengths.

So Laura Kimpton and Heather Johanson from Lamborn Advocacy are here tonight to speak about the various supports that might be relevant for two-week kids, how to qualify for them, as well as discussing what's happening now with distance learning support.

Laura is passionate about helping children receive the education and services they need and deserve. She brings over 20 years of educational experience to the practice as a special education advocate, a special education program supervisor, a teacher for moderate to severe special day class, and an independent homeschool teacher and principal. Having worked on both sides of the table, she's developed strong working relationships with district employees and understands how to brainstorm and collaborate to achieve the best possible outcome for her clients.

Heather has over 20 years of experience in K-12 education as a special education advocate, an executive functioning coach, an inclusion specialist, instructional leader of special education, educational specialist, reading specialist, and an elementary school teacher—so she's covered it all. Heather is passionate about creating environments where all learners thrive and continues to provide training in the areas of universal design for learning, dyslexia, inclusion, and supports for students with ADHD and executive functioning struggles.

So welcome, Laura and Heather.

Heater Johanson:

I think we also have to just introduce our founder, Renee, who is also on the call um, who will be here to just kind of help along the way with some extra things. She's got great ideas in our brains. We—we dragged her in. She said she's technically retired, but we're not letting her all the way retire. Perfect.

Laura Kimpton:

All right, so we just put in an agenda for the meeting just so that you could kind of understand the flow. First, we're going to talk about supports that are available both through 504s and IEPs for 2e students and what curriculum enhancements are possible and what you can ask for in terms of working with the school district to help your child. We are also obviously going to touch on distance learning um because I think that is forefront right now to most parent concerns: What is um school going to look like for their students starting the new year? And then at the end, we'll have like a Q&A session um, so feel free to ask any questions if there's anything um that you would like either further explained or have additional questions about.

Heather Johanson:

Okay, so kind of our first slide is the presenting concern. So when you have a student with 2e, a lot of the times you hear, "Well, there's—as we talked about earlier—they're coping so well, but where are those kind of popping areas where you could probably bring that to a school team and say, 'Hey, these are the things that are really concerning'?" And they kind of fall under all these categories.

So have those social skills—when you're seeing students have a hard time with pragmatics on the playground, during group work, really having a hard time interacting with peers, even with adults. Those emotional needs—anxiety, depression is a big one, and sometimes that usually comes in—that can come in with another piece. Like you might see they have real big executive functioning deficits—hard time staying organized. The homework's done, but it never quite makes it out of a backpack. But then there's that anxiety on top of it.

That behavioral challenge piece—impulse control, that like, "Just I'm stuck, and I'm gonna refuse to do this," and you know that they have it in their brain, but for some reason, it's just not coming out in a classroom. And then academic challenges—I think the number one we see for a lot of our 2e kids is writing. Um, that is usually the area of most challenging, but you also see it through reading comprehension, math calculation, and that fluency of being able to do tasks really quickly. And attention—trouble taking notes and that distraction piece and that boredom.

Laura, do you have anything to add to that one?

Laura Kimpton:

Okay, so we we started off just um—you might be in very different places along um the process in terms of getting supports for your child. So the first step that we would always do is to request a Student Study Team. It allows for the beginning of the documentation in terms of what you're agreeing upon in terms of accommodations and supports. It's not um as formal as a 504 or an IEP um, and it has to be worked on every year. Every time you have a new team, you work on an SST again. But it begins a process of the documentation that your child is having struggles.

If the child is not able to reach the goals or is still having difficulties, then you would request an eligibility to a 504, and that is also including an assessment. Um, I think lots of people don't know that schools do have to do assessments for—they don't for 504. They can—they don't always. You can get a 504 without assessments um, but a 504 again is reviewed on an annual basis so that um all the team is aware and understanding of what accommodations and struggles that child is facing.

And assessment may involve record review or socially distanced in-person assessment. So depending on which district um, some are just doing record reviews for assessments, and that would qualify a child for a 504, or they are doing assessments as well. Um, you don't necessarily need the 504 to have an IEP or two to request an IEP. Again, it depends on the individual struggles of that child.

But an IEP is a legal document. It mandates that all staff implement accommodations and services. It also has specific goals, so that the two main differences between a fiber phone and IEP is an IEP has specific goals, and it has direct service, whereas a 504 can be um just accommodations. Caveat: You can also get services for a 504 but um.

And so an IEP again is always reviewed on an annual basis. You have to re-qualify a child for an IEP every three years. It's called the tri-annual evaluation. And again, currently during distance learning, those assessments can involve either a records review—which the team would review previous assessments, any other information they have from the district, and to re-qualify that child—or they can opt to do assessments as well. Some are doing them online; some of them are doing socially distanced assessments. It really depends on the district and the team. But that's kind of the um the makeup of different levels of support that you can get in terms of different intensities—so SST to a 504 to an IEP.

Renée Lamborn:

All right, so I'm going to jump in. Um, Heather and Laura asked me to do the 504 section. So in addition to being a school psychologist and a director of special education, I was also a 504 coordinator in a district for eight years, so I have a lot of familiarity with 504. And I think the best way to explain 504—Section 504, which falls under the Office of Civil Rights—is to think about the continuum.

On one side, we have a general education student with no supports. On the other end of the spectrum, we have a student whose disability and struggles have risen to the significant level of being eligible for an IEP, and that falls under IDEA as an IEP. And then in the middle, we have Section 504, and that is a general education support um. So it's run by a separate team than the IEP team.

And 504 in general um allows accommodations for students um, but when we get to the last paragraph on the slide, I'll I'll talk a little more about what it's really meant to be. So the eligibility for a 504 is that the student must demonstrate a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. And there is a long provided list of major life activities, but I've included the learning, concentration, reading, thinking, communicating—that sort of apply more to a public school setting because 504 is broad. It covers wheelchair access, elevators, everything else. But in the public school system, these are the major life activities that typically come up.

Um, quite a few years ago, they changed the eligibility um criteria for 504 so that it would be a much wider net and it would capture more individuals, not less. So 504 has a very wide, fairly loose eligibility compared to what is required under special education to receive an IEP.

Number two and number three: You can have a record of such impairment. So maybe you have um an outside private diagnosis of ADHD. Or you can be regarded as having such an impairment. So maybe a family chooses not to pursue a formal diagnosis of autism, ADHD, a learning disability, but the school views you as if you have some level of disability.

Section 504 requires that the districts provide a free and appropriate public education who meet that eligibility criteria under Section 504. And this last paragraph—if you can put a big star next to it—this is the piece that even school district staff don't understand. And that is that a student who's eligible for a 504 plan, they're entitled to receive regular or special education services and supports.

So school districts will tell you um over and over and over that a 504 plan only includes accommodations. And we're going to give you some examples later on. But the the truth of the matter is that students with a 504 plan can also receive special education services. So when I think about my clients, I've had 504 students receive occupational therapy support or speech and language support to address social skills.

School districts again will argue that it's just accommodations, and I always show up at meetings with that bottom paragraph to really help enlighten teams that those students really are [Music] are eligible to receive more. And the main difference between the 504 and the IEP is that there's no funding behind a 504 plan. So districts are reluctant to give out direct services um, and if a student needs a lot of direct services, you can bet they're going to move towards that IEP eligibility piece.

And on the next slide um, we we included this one. This is another um sort of section that we print and bring to meetings with us, and it's really pertinent to 2e students. Um, we hear a million times—both for 504 and for the IEP—that a student who's passing, who's getting good grades, who's got all C's, who's got all A's cannot possibly be eligible for 504 or an IEP.

And I think what is really critical to remember is that it's not about 504 and even an IEP—they're not necessarily just about academics. They're also about social, emotional, and behavioral realm. And the 504 plan doesn't care at all. I think all three of us in the practice have students with straight A's who also have 504 plans because their disability—whatever it is—is impacting one of those major life activities.

And I forgot to mention on the last side—the last slide—that even if your student doesn't meet one of those listed major life activities, you just write it in. The lovely thing about 504 is there is another line that says "other," and so we write in things like executive functioning, uh, processing speed—whatever you can dream up that can be a major life activity um—and your student could be eligible for the 504. Um, so this is another one to print out and bring with you.

And then on the next slide, what we did is we gathered together some of the general 504 accommodations that all three of us um work hard to get on a 504 plan for students. And it really has to do a lot with both challenging the tui student, minimizing repetitive tasks, and then working with some of that—some of those social, emotional, behavioral sections.

So um, you'll see a daily workflow list, check-in/checkout system, lots of executive functioning support. We use technology for a lot of writing assignments, including writing software, writing templates—lots of different things to help that writing process. Behaviorally, we really work with teachers and teams around avoiding those power struggles that can come up um—where can a child go to privately calm down, things like that.

During group work, we do a lot of support where the teacher and/or another adult in the class is really facilitating the group that the tui student is part of if that's a real struggle. We do a lot of work with teams around challenging activities and tasks. So many of our t2e students can whip through an assignment—they're done in three minutes—and then there's another 20 minutes left to work on the assignment. So we set up a whole basket or online access to more challenging activities for them.

Um, and then we often allow different ways for them to move throughout the classroom—stand while they're working, whatever they need in terms of movement. So that's kind of a broad overview of a lot of the accommodations we typically will do for two students.

Laura Kimpton:

Um, so this—we're beginning now to move away from the 504s and talk more about IEPs. There are 13 different eligibility criterias for for a student to qualify for an IEP. Um, when it comes to twice-exceptional students, these are the five that we see most often. Now that doesn't mean we don't see the other ones at all, but SLD is specific learning disability, and that really is what—if a child has dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia—that is what is the term used by districts. It's just is considered a specific learning disability.

There's also OHI, which can be ADHD, it can be anxiety, it can be depression—it's any other health impairment that is impacting that student's ability to access the curriculum. Autism—again, um, you know, that that might be impacting them with pragmatic language; it might be impacting them with communication, um, executive function. Um, so that's another eligibility criteria.

Speech language impairment—um, again, that's that could also be the pragmatic language. It doesn't necessarily mean just articulation; it could be pragmatic language—some of those social language skills that that child might be lacking, which does impede their ability to learn in the classroom. And then emotional disturbance, which is a—this can be the anxiety and disturb—and depression is normally more at a heightened level by the time that it gets to emotional disturbance um, but that would also mean that you would ask for a lot of other services in terms of counseling, mental health issues as well.

So those are the five most common um eligibility criterias that we see for for two-week students.

Renée Lamborn:

And Laura, really quickly, if I can just jump into—I think the different—the main difference between the 504 and the IEP is the degree of the challenge um—how significant is the disability impacting the child's ability to access their education. So I think that really helps distinguish the two.

Heather Johanson:

So this next slide kind of says, "Okay, well, you—the district—you've gone through that process, the assessment process, and yes, they do qualify. So what would that even look like for for your student?" So one, they would have all those accommodations that we talked about earlier, and then there would be direct services. And here's sort of a list of direct services you could potentially expect on an IEP.

So counseling services—a lot of the times these are called educationally related mental health services or services, but they would have a therapist on campus. They would check in with um speech and language. A lot of times this is around like social skills, pragmatic language. Some schools even have social cog programs where they're really working on those specific social skills that students need to really be successful.

Behavioral support—and this would be you know having a behavior plan in place for that kid that's really struggling for just that um overall ability to stay in a classroom or like regulate in a classroom. Occupational therapy—you would usually see this a little bit more for the younger guys, but I have seen it for the high school guys. Kind of remember on that finding gross motor.

Assistive tech—assistive technology is a really big piece, obviously more so than ever now um, but there's some amazing programs out there that can really help take that load off students and help them be very successful. Um, executive functioning supports—it's kind of like, as we know, that prefrontal cortex on their—our neurotypical brain takes a long time to grow in. But then when we're dealing with a student that has those kind of executive functioning deficits, they're really almost sometimes two years behind, and they're being asked to you know seven to six different operating systems, and that's really tough. So having somebody to support them with that.

And then the good old specialized academic instruction—or SAI as it's called in the IEP world—and this is where you get that pinpointed support on math, reading, and writing.

Laura Kimpton:

Um, so this slide is really um—it kind of encapsulates some of the things that we have been able to request through IEPs for 2e students.

Um, you know, lots of times as well—just you know my the students getting C's or B's in the class, so it seems to be fine. Um, I've also worked with lots of students who do the bare minimum because they're just so bored at school. Um, the curriculum isn't enthralling or difficult for them, so they just get very bored. So these are some of the things that we have been able to get districts to do.

One of them is obviously participation in the district gifted program. The other one is really to differentiate the instruction. Again, an IEP is supposed to be an individualized education plan, so a lot of this is accommodating the content, the product, the learning environment—thinking of different ways for that student to show knowledge. So maybe rather than doing 25 math problems, they can create something. They they can create a model; they could do something that they find more intrinsically interesting than just pen-on-paper work.

So that leads into project-based learning, where they can take their knowledge and demonstrate it in other ways. Sometimes just getting them intrigued and learning about something and excited about being able to do it in a different way is enough to to keep their interest.

Also that for them to work on high-grade-level curriculum. Again, this doesn't have to be cross-curriculum. So let's say we have a student who is just exceptional at math—we can get it so that student can work at a higher grade level for math, maybe not necessarily for English or reading, but just to continually keep their interest peaked with school.

Again, placement in higher-level grades. Um, I know it sounds a lot like the curriculum, but I've had students who—let's say they've been in the middle school—they actually go to the high school for math classes or for different classes um to allow them that participation in the class with still general education peers, but they might be older, but they're at their level intellectually. So it's just stimulating their learning. Um, it's making them feel like they can have that conversation with peers or be older just to stimulate their intellectual growth as well.

Um, test out a class prerequisite. So this is really more for the high school students where we've run into a lot where the districts say, "Before they can take Algebra 2 or calculus, they have to do these these other classes." And I've worked with district to say, "Give them a—give them a test—whether it be the final from last year or something—to let them demonstrate that they have the foundational knowledge that they need in order to be successful in this class."

Um, again, this is—it's kind of like advanced placement classes. Um, again, sometimes there's lots of prerequisites before you can take AP classes, but we have worked with with districts to allow tui students in those classes as well.

As choice of topics—sometimes students, tui students, really have an interest in a specific topic um to the point where they probably know more than some of the people that are teaching those classes. Um, but to really allow them the independence to hone in on that knowledge and to hone in on those skills and again to do something that is of interest to them. Um, and rather than making them do um you know what might be basic knowledge in terms of in terms of their area of expertise, but to really be able to develop that knowledge and to develop that interest so that they're not getting bored and they're not losing their interest in learning.

Heather Johanson:

Okay, so moving on to where we are right now in distance learning. I know we're kind of all in this one together. Um, so basically how it's where we are right now: So if your county is on the watch list, you're going to start with this district learning, and if you're in the Bay Area, we're all on that watch list. Once we're off for 14 consecutive days, school can start offering to bring back students.

So just to make it um—so that's kind of like the next step. Um, it will close—like, so let's say everybody's back, and that there starts to be cases are popping up. When at least five percent of the student body and staff are diagnosed with coping, everything closes down for 14 days. Um, and basically if a quarter of a school has been like been—has the that diagnosis, then the basically the district will shut for two weeks.

Those pieces—I think is something to keep in the back your mind just as I'm sitting in IEPs and listening to all these pieces and talking to different directors. I think it's really those first two pieces where we need to focus right now is the idea that for the for the foreseeable future, we are going to be distance learning. Um, so kind of we got a little dicey in March. We weren't sure what was going to happen with IDEA and our current um presidential group up there. Um, Betsy Devos was kind of going back and forth about, "Should we just put IDEA on pause during this time?" And luckily, that did not happen.

IDEA is there; it's not on pi—on pause. And FAPE is still free and appropriate public education, and the LRE is still very much a part of what drives 504 and IEP at this point. So that is still there. Here's what—what does that mean though? What does that actually mean?

So basically, student—schools still need to provide the services that are provided in a 504—accommodations and services that are provided in a five and four—to the best of their ability. There's that statement right—"best of their ability." What does that exactly mean? That is not a concrete term, and it's quite gray. But kind of like basically what's guiding us is the best interest for individual students—not the system—should guide how this goes.

Um, parents and recipients of services must be informed of any changes that are going on. I'm sure some of you that have IEPs for your students right now have gotten something called a PWN or prior written notice. It kind of tells you, "Hey, we're distance learning. Here's what you can expect." And services that were typically in person now need to be provided through alternative methods. So here's the word—I think—requiring creative and innovative approaches. And we're going to talk a little bit more about creative and innovative approaches in distance learning and what that's going to mean.

So going forward, it's kind of like, "What can I do?"

Laura Kimpton:

So we kind of made this as a visual of of how we're working with districts. Um, again, this is all new; there's no real solid road maps. Um, so a lot of it is collaborating with the teams, communicating with them, and accommodating—asking for specific accommodations. We're going into each of these sections after this slide, but this really is a continuum of what we are doing right now in terms of working with districts. It's really the most positive way in order to get supports and help for your student.

So um, this is in terms of collaborating with it with the staff. This is the first step is um if you don't have one, you can request an SST meeting, a 504 meeting, or an IEP team meeting. You can—if you don't have anything established formally for your child, you can request for any one of those things depending again on the the situation of your child.

Um, I think it's really important to approach team with a positive and creative mind frame right now. I—I've um—I've been in a few situations when parents have contacted me because they've been in touch with the district and has demanded that their child go to school and have to be there physically. And I think part of the part of the misunderstanding is that districts are choosing to do this. And I think that's the important thing is—I most districts would much rather be teaching their students in a classroom right now.

So um, I think to work with them in terms of, "What can we do during this time?" is better than making demands that they won't be able to fulfill. Um, I think again if it falls into the next one, which is retaining the insight into school district limitations—they can't open up a classroom for your child. Um, they're not allowed to. It's it's not as simple as just, "I'm going to have one teacher in school for that one child." That it's a—the system is much bigger than that.

Um, I think it's important to try and quiet the emotions. We all feel the frustrations; we all feel the anxiety right now of not being able to live the life that we that we're used to or that your child has been used in terms of going to school. So I think it's really important for parents to think outside of the box. And what I always tell parents is, "You know your child better than anybody else, so be as inventive as you possibly can in terms of what you think really helps your child to learn."

Um, so if it's that your child is good for 10 minutes and then needs a break, if it's that your child is much better with pen and paper than on the computer, if it's that your child is better in the afternoons than the morning—um, any any specifics that you can think of that somebody at the district might not know about your child is the ideal. And then I always say to gather the data regarding that. So take the data of your child—which I know seems very very foreign—um, but if you're having a really hard time getting your child to focus for a long time, take take data on how long your child is able to focus for—whether it's five minutes or eight minutes—so that you have some very hard data to share with the school team.

I know as a parent myself, it's very easy for the emotional part—which is you know, "My daughter's very sad; she's very anxious"—but that hard data is is indisputable. Um, and that's really how you can get the additional supports that your child would need.

Um, I kind of cover the next one in terms of the creative solutions. So specific accommodations your child needs—let them know prior to the meeting. Again, this is uncharted territory. Districts and case managers and teachers and and service providers have never been in this position either, so give them that information of what you're going to ask for before the meeting so that they can discuss it and so that they can try and think of ways to make it work for your child.

Um, because it's the beginning of the year, I always always recommend to parents that if your child is old enough, have your child write a letter. If not, you write for a letter on your child's behalf—really and including a picture—really explaining to them who your child is. Um, you know, what their strengths are, what their interests are, what their challenges are.

It's really difficult—and having been a teacher myself—you get an IEP; you get a piece of paper that's supposed to explain a child to you, and it's it it doesn't do your child justice. So if you can just before the beginning of the school year, you know, send teachers the latter explaining your child as you know them and say, "You know, since distance learning in the spring, this is what I have learned. This is what I have noticed. This is what works; this is what doesn't." Um, you'll find that teachers are very very receptive to that information.

Um, and then the next one is just if you feel like you're not being heard, if you feel like your requests for your child aren't being listened to, follow the hierarchical chain of command. I have lots of parents who jump straight to calling the superintendent or calling this the director of special education, and I think that's really difficult for a team. They they really want to have a chance to do well and to do right, and if they're not, follow that hierarchical chain of command—which is the teacher. At the high school level, it can be the um the lead teacher for that department, then the principal, a program specialist, director of special education. You know, your every district has a little bit of a different um chain of command, but follow that as far as you need to.

Um, but just don't jump to the highest level. I think that that that just naturally puts human beings on the defensive, which is not how you want to come across to a team. It just doesn't build the best relationships right from the beginning. Um, so those are just some of our methods that we use for working with districts. Um, I'm not saying that all of this works all the time, but this is just kind of a good good starting point for for starting the conversation.

Heather Johanson:

And I just had a little brain wave or sitting there in this very digital world we're living in—if your kid hates the idea of writing—writing anything makes them unhappy even to watch you write it—maybe have them do a little video of themselves and then send that along to your to your teacher for that year—especially if they're younger. I mean, that would give them such a nice idea of who this kiddo is and really having them talk about—when they hear when a teacher hears from a student, "This is what's really hard for me, and this is how you can help me"—boom.

As I used to tell my high school students, "We teachers are suckers. The second you get a little vulnerable with us and tell us what you need, we're just we're gonna be putting in your hands." And that's a pretty good way to go about doing it.

Um, okay, so for distance learning—our new reality—what are some ways we can work and give some accommodations? So kind of that that top one is for for our kids with social skills challenges. Um, that kind of online—like if they do have an IEP, getting though getting for sure getting into a group—I think is really key. So really pushing those pragmatic social groups would be great. Targeted skills during the distance learning—having that speech and language pathologist kind of really working with those general education teachers, getting that data back—what's hard? Has it been hard for them to go out into those group chats? Is a stuff a social story I should be writing with them so they can understand the process of this?

Um, and then also just that speech and language pathologist really working with you as a family and giving you some tips on ways that you can support your student while we're away.

Laura Kimpton:

In terms of if your child has a specific learning disability, um, technology really helps. There's so much technology out there in terms of text predictive software, speech predictive software. There are some students who don't want to do anything on technology, and so you can ask for accommodations regarding that. Again, they accommodated over differentiated assignments—they don't necessarily have to do 25 of the same math problems if they can show demonstrate mastery after doing 5 or 10. That's all they need to do.

Again, screen-free or email work. I have quite a few clients who really don't do well on on the computer, so the teachers are dropping off their packets at the house on Monday and then picking them up on Friday so that they don't have to be on on a screen all day. And then a little bit like I talked about before, which is um adjusting the time. Again, know know when your child works best, when they don't. Um, you know, again, just anything that you can think of that help your child, you can ask for.

Heather Johanson

And then the good old executive functioning one. Um, this one is—take executive functioning skills and let's just make it real tough, and that's kind of online learning for the for a lot of these kids. Um, one thing that's really been helping a lot of my clients is getting that check-in and checkout at the end of the day. And that can be with their case manager; that can be with an aide; that can be with kind of a person that's really going to help them plan their day, get in a nice linear fashion on a list, and then they have that person kind of checking in out with them at the end of the day—like, "How to go?" And then troubleshooting, doing that metacognition—like, "What got in the way? How can we change that for tomorrow?"

And just having somebody help them make that daily workflow list and help them advocate for themselves with those teachers too—saying, "Hey, the writing assignment where I'm supposed to read that 20 pages and then write this paragraph—that's going to be really tough for me. Could I listen to it and then could I've used bullet points so you know what I'm thinking?" Um, and then just breaking those assignments into smaller chunks.

So kind of every teacher is kind of in a different place, and they're learning how to use this technology, learning how to deliver instruction. Like it just—I actually had coffee with a good friend of mine. We used to co-teach world history together, and we were both sort of lamenting the loss of that classroom. Like, he is brilliant in a classroom, right? He's like, "Because he just feeds off his kids." He's like, "I just don't even know what to do. These kids are so frustrated, and I had no idea." So this—they're losing so much of that queuing they can get when they have those kids in a classroom.

So just kind of once again, that communication piece is really really important. They're not going to pick up on things in exactly the same way because their environment is also totally different. So just kind of making sure that the advocacy piece for you as parents—I know it's tough—but just saying, "Hey, they're really struggling to get this done. We're going to break this into smaller pieces. Friday probably won't work, but we could probably have it into you by Wednesday"—type of thing.

Laura Kimpton:

If your students with ADHD, one of the things that does help is streamlined assignments in terms of making it very specific what's due when. Um, and rather than it—it flows into a little bit what was said before in terms of breaking assignments into smaller chunks. Um, you know, if they're getting an assignment that it just seems so arduous that they can't focus on it, just break it into specific assignments.

Um, again, back what I was saying before with the frequent breaks. Students with attentional difficulties—this is tough learning at home for them. Um, you know, there's not as much um natural breaks. They don't get to go and run off on the playground with their friends and run around for half an hour, so make sure that in their schedule is our breaks. Um, and whether it's they can go for a walk around the neighborhood or they do 10 push-ups just to get that physical energy exerted.

Um, again, the ability to move around. I I know that some teachers are much more flexible with this, but again, it is something that if your child needs, they can actually absolutely access. Um, they don't have to be sitting down; they don't have to have two feet on the floor; they don't have to be facing forward. They can move as they need to. Um, and again, if your child has any OT or sensory needs, you can request all those things. So if your child uses manipulatives at school or has a seat, any of those things, you can request from the school. They have a right to have those accommodations for them at home as well.

Um, and then you know the flexible due dates. Um, this is on you—it's all going to be different. If your child isn't available to get everything done, um, again, with the higher grades, if they've got five assignments for five different classes due on the same time, let's break those up. Let's make it easier and more manageable for them.

Heather Johanson:

And then for the anxiety and depression piece—and I know this is rev and hard for a lot of kids right now—this is as hard as it's been on us moms, I think it's been very hard on them in a different way. And they will show it sometimes in a different way—kind of through that anxiety, depression, or some of that behavioral stuff underneath. But just some ideas that has worked that have worked for some of our clients is that camera. For kids with that anxiety piece, it is quite the push button, and I know every district kind of has a different policy right now—like, "Well, it can be off; it can't be off; it has to be on." That would be a really important accommodation for a student that really has a lot of anxiety about being on camera.

Um, they're going to be doing a lot of breakout groups, so just—just like in a classroom, the idea is that the teachers being thoughtful about who is in this group—is are these people are going to be triggering? Are they going to be supportive? So that that same idea.

Um, presentations will probably still be a part of our world, and just that good gold accommodation of one-on-one presentation with a teacher versus having to do it in front of a whole group. And then daily check-ins with a therapist or case manager—just, "How are you doing? Where's your levels? What coping mechanisms are we using?" All of that kind of stuff would be really important right now.

Laura Kimpton:

And then you know regarding behavior, I think that's one of the areas where there has been such a change because now the behavior is in the home. So rather than the school having to accommodate or help support the behaviors that the student demonstrates in a school environment, they're now having to adjust that for home learning. So really make sure that your behaviorist is involved in terms of what any of the challenges that you're facing in the home.

Um, I think to have the behavior is to even push into some of the classes so that they can see what the difficulties are for your child online. Um, and then for the behaviors to work with you. Um, so for them to give you some ideas of of what you can do um to incentivize a program for them where if they work for this, they get this. And most of the time, students are working for things like you know time more than computers or movie time or anything that your child likes can be used as an incentive.

Um, but to really call in that behavior support and now that they're in the home um and to really if your child has a BIP or a behavior plan to really start fine-tuning that to meet the needs in the home environment.

Heather Johanson:

That's been my number one meeting these last couple weeks is my the students that have that BIP and kind of redefining it for that home environment and what supports they can bring in and how they can help structure all that. Okay, group—there we go. You're up.

Renée Lampton:

So Yael and Kelly asked us to add a slide about sort of how—how do families know when they need to rise to the level of hiring an advocate? Um, and you know, we really support families at every step. We have families come to us and say, "I'd like to get a 504 plan. I'd like to get accommodations in place, and help me line that up so I have the best shot."

We have—we also on the other end—I have failed at every single attempt I've made; now I need you to step in and and help advocate for my child. Um, the word "advocate" often has some pretty negative connotations. Um, some advocates are viewed as confrontational and angry and rude. Um, in in our practice, we are absolutely none of those things. Um, we have really great positive working relationships with team based on the amount of amount of experience that we've all had in the school districts.

Um, we offer—in particular, and I think other advocates do as well—both behind-the-scenes support. We can set you up; we can give you the strongest argument; we can help you line up data, and then you go into the meeting on your own. And then we have other families who say, "You know, I'm a mom; I'm too emotional; I can't do it. Can you come with me?" And then we will sit in that meeting with you and work with the team um to to bring about some positive changes.

Um, if you're thinking about hiring an advocate, there are no licenses; there are no requirements at all for advocates. So any person out there can hang a shingle and call themselves an advocate. So what we always encourage families to do is think about um does the advocate—has the advocate actually worked in the public school system so that they know the breadth and depth of what's available and how to work with teams and access those supports and services?

A number of years working as an advocate—again, experience within the public school. And then also, it's really really critical to think about personality and style. What kind of person do you want to bring into a meeting with you to sit at that table to work with your team? Um, so I think those are the highlights that that we think about.

Heather Johanson:

So now it's your turn. We've done a lot of talking at all of you with a lot of information. Um, so questions?

Yael Valek:

I think we're gonna turn off the recording at this point so that people can ask personal questions.