PALS Meeting Minutes
September 25, 2024 9:30 a.m.
Virtual Meeting using Zoom
Shawn Funk
20/20 Hindsight Review: Insights on Parental Advocacy for Children Who Learn Differently
Shawn Funk has been working actively in music and education for more than 40 years. He retired from the Fox Chapel School District in 2019 after 32 years of teaching, where he served as the Music Department Head for 17 years. In addition, Shawn taught the first fully inclusive classroom at O'Hara, when this process began in 1992.
Currently, Shawn serves as the Director of Outreach and Inclusive Programming for Pittsburgh Youth Chorus, where he founded and teaches the “Cantate Choir” for singers who are neurodiverse and may benefit from individualized support. In addition, he serves as an adjunct professor of music education at Duquesne University, where he teaches “Inclusive Practices for Music Education”, as well as Group Piano and Student Teacher Supervision. Shawn also provides educational advocate services.
His family includes his wife, Anne, a recently retired music educator who is now working for Evolve Coaching, a 22 year old son with ASD and a 26 year old daughter who is an Occupational Therapist in Pittsburgh. Completing the family circle is a Shetland Sheepdog named “Poppy."
Shawn was kind enough to share his family's personal journey navigating the world of student support services in public school. He provided the following insights from his family's experience;
Basic Resources:
Some Things We Wish We'd Known and Learned "Along the Way":
Never sign off to waive a Re-evaluation Report (RR): it drives the IEP and keeps things current.
In Pennsylvania, a re- evaluation for students with an intellectual disability is required by law every 2 year for students with intellectual disabilities and every 3 years for all other students with disabilities and is a critical component of the IEP process.
Pennsylvania Re-evaluation Process
You can request what kinds of tests are to be included in the Re-evaluation.
Executive Functioning
Autism
Reading, Writing, Math, etc.
Know the timelines for testing and insist that the school is following them.
There should be a separate meeting (with the psychologist who performed the Re-evaluation present) to review all the data collected in the RR, so that you may ask questions.
Often school district's try to combine the RR review meeting with the IEP meeting. Upon receiving the re-evalaution report, set a meeting to review, followed by requesting a draft of the IEP to be received prior to a separate IEP meeting.
While a school district does not have to officially agree with any outside evaluation, you can demand that an outside evaluation become part of your child's IEP.
Always ask for a draft copy of the IEP proposed revisions 5 days prior to your meeting.
The time allotted for an IEP meeting isn't enough for parents and guardians to read the entire IEP, properly review Goals and SDIs, and to make informed decisions about their child's education.
Special Education teachers work on a draft IEP prior to the meeting, meaning the IEP team members within the school have access to the draft, and so should those equal members of the IEP team (parents/guardians/students in some cases) outside of the school.
Do not be afraid to question the legitmacy of a school telling you that IEP's are written at the IEP meeting. If there isn't enough time to actually review an IEP in a meeting there certainly isn't enough time to write one.
Carefully read the document (even though it is very long). Particularly critical are: Present Levels of Education; Goals; SDIs; Related Services; State Testing; and Transition Planning (if 14 or older).
You are an equal member of the IEP team;
You can request that an IEP meeting be called at any time (not just once a year).
You can request who/whom will attend.
You can also request a Re-evalaution at any time.
If you are allotted 30 minutes for an IEP revision/meeting, that is rarely adequate, simply do not sign the paperwork, schedule an additional meeting.
You cannot be forced into a rushed meeting model.
All goals must have a baseline to be fully functional. Make sure that they can be assessed/evaluated.
If you are not good at critiquing goals, and you have an advocate, ask them to evalaute the goals. Need an advocate? Find information on our Resources page.
SDIs need to be individualized, not just cut and pasted from someone else's IEP.
If SDIs are not being implemented, then the district is out of compliance.
Parent communication should be outlined in the SDI section.
How will school/home communication happen? How often-daily? Weekly?
Social goals are very beneficial for some students, but it is often difficult to get a social goal into an IEP. Preference is usually given to "lunch bunch", "speech groups", etc.
A true social goal commands an assessment that is individualized for the student and the needs that exist with them.
Extended School Year (ESY) has 7 criterion for qualification, however a student only needs to meet 1 criterion to qualify.
ESY is a TEAM decision; not the schools.
Parents may offer suggestions for out of district ESY programs if the home school "in-house" program is not meeting the needs of their child.
Extended School Year Services in Pennsylvania
ALWAYS ask for artifacts if you feel that something is amiss on the progress monitoring report.
You have a right to see any data collection, written assessment, as well as gaining an understanding of how these were compiled.
Additionally, just because a student meets a Goal does not mean their complete needs are met. As that particular Goal may be dropped from the IEP, chances are high another Goal needs to take it's place as scaffolding will be needed while learning the next State Academic Standards, Executive Functioning, Social, Speech, Occupational, or Physical aspects of their needs.
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) You may request that an FBA be conducted, but the district must have your permission to conduct one. YOU are part of the FBA process in terms of the Why? When? How? What? Who? Etc.
The FBA drives a student's Positive Behavior Support Plan (PBSP), which is put in place as a part of the IEP.
FBAs and PBSPs are not a negative. It is about providing the support the student needs to receive an appropriate education.
TRUST YOUR GUT, your instincts, and TRUST YOUR CHILD. While their perceptions may be incorrect, if they consistently tell you that something is amiss, it probably is. It may take a completely different shape than what they were concerned with, but it is always worth an investigation.
Please feel free to reach out to Shawn via email (funkpyc@gmail.com) if you are in need of an educational advocate.
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