I am confused about why anyone would mix up being on an ARD
committee with being asked to give a recommendation to a private
school? When a family approaches a private school, and I know
this because I have investigated many private schools for my
child, most private schools provide a application packet which
includes a recommendation form to be filled out by the teachers
of major courses. The parent then passes these out to the
current teachers. It is likely that the parents want a
particular teacher to follow through with sending it in because
the parents perceive that teacher to have a positive
relationship with the student and they foresee that teacher
making positive comments. The recommendation form specifically
asks that it be sent to the private school directly. As a
teacher in public, I have filled out many of these forms and I
was truthful. I sent it in a sealed envelope to the school.
This has nothing to do with legal obligations as an ARD member.
The recommendation forms that I have filled out merely ask if
the student receives any special services: yes or no. Those
forms do not ask for any delicate information. Please explain
why being on an ARD committee or not being on one would matter
in this case.
On 1/10/15, my 2 wrote:
> A recommendation for private school goes in a sealed envelope,
> mailed by the teacher, to the private school. At that point,
> it is not revealed to the parents. I don't get what the issue
> is. A person can refuse to give a recommendation. The
> private school will use other items such as test scores on
> tests that they give, and in my son's case, an interview that
> was extensive. I would not worry that the school will accept
> this student. There is one caveat. If the private school
> wants to accept this student because they want the parents'
> money, then they will do so no matter what the recommendation
> says anyway, which might be the case. If that is the case, so
> what?
>
>
>
> On 1/10/15, Curious wrote:
>> A person in my department is being pressured by the family
> of a SpEd student
>> to give a recommendation for an elite professional school.
> This student has
>> been provided with an enormous amount of support and her
> IEP's water down
>> even some of the basic skills and principles of the classes
> involved. Sadly, the
>> administration is terrified of the parents because one is a
> well connected
>> lawyer.
>>
>> This student, who I have also had in class, has a low IQ, is
> limited in every
>> aspect of reading, writing and speaking. In addition the
> student has other
>> disorders which her parents have taken pains to avoid
> revealing to the student
>> who is now nearly 18. The parents have basically demanded
> every kind of
>> implementation available, to the point of even threatening
> standardized
>> testing organizations if they don't allow the student to
> exercise all of the IEP
>> demands that include extended time, access to dictionary and
> more. They
>> didn't ask me for a recommendation because I was very
> straightforward about
>> this student's abilities. The teacher in my department is a
> very sweet lady who
>> is dealing with a number of personal issues and the family
> and administration
>> are using this opportunity to bully her into a
> recommendation. So LEGALLY,
>> can the administration force the teacher to do this?
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