My special needs child has missed 21 days of school, all excused with doctors notes. I am being taken to court

Question

I am being taken to court for contributing to truancy. What the h**l? She is special needs, is in special ed classes at school. She gets ill a lot and goes to the doctor EVERYTIME she is sick. I provide the school with documentation of this everytime and her absences are listed as excused on her progress reports. However I have to go to court next week for truancy charges. This happened last year also, I paid about $100 in court costs and the charges were dropped. I was instructed to continue bringing dr. notes for each absence (last year). What are my rights, I feel I am being harrassed. What can I do??? I can not afford to hire a lawyer. If anyone can help...please do!

Answer 1

You can call your superintendent, you can call your local special ed director (I assume your child has an IEP?) and raise a fuss. Tell them you are willing to get a lawyer as you are tired of paying court costs and you feel they are discriminating against your special needs student.

You would be amazed at how far a parent advocating for their child can get.

Answer 2

There is a good website for parents,which I've listed below. Please contact them about your rights. Also, parent advocates for parents of special needs children are available from your state dept. of education, which you can contact on-line. They will explain your rights and accompany you to meetings and court appearances, if needed, and speak on your behalf when necessary.

Your district is only following the law. They are required to track attendance and take steps to reduce absences. There is also a financial issue. Every day a student is absent the districts lose hundreds of dollars in funding from the state and federal governments. This money is critical, because special education is vastly underfunded above the local level. That being said, I believe it is very wrong for your district to be harrassing you this way, when they know of your child's medical needs and you have documented proof that you are not keeping her at home over a simple sniffle.

Answer 3

Oddly enough the same thing almost happened to me. I was a special ed teacher where my son attended grades 1-3. During second grade he had pneumonia, I taught in the classroom next to his classroom. The teacher received the doctor's note for my son to return to school after a week's absence. He was on half-days for a long time because the first part of the day was PE and swimming lessons. Naturally he could not participate in either of these. Because he could not attend the first part of the day he was counted tardy for 21 days. If these activities had been the last half of the day there would have been no problem. I received a certified letter in the mail informing me of this serious offense. Well they heard me coming the next day. I was in the principal's office and called out his teacher who had failed to turn in his excuses, plus he failed PE because the PE teacher had not been informed that he had pneumonia. Then my son's physician became the head of the school board, I never had another problem.

I suggest you talk with the principal. Visit the special education director of your system. Explain your situation. Tell them that you feel that you must seek due process with the state department of public instruction concerning this discrimination. If your school or system has a nurse on pyroll, involve the nurse. Nurses carry a lot of weight when it comes to this issue. Perhaps they need to provide homebound services when your child is sick, hold them to it.

However, as sickly as my child was, it was not until high school that he had to receive homebound services and I turned my own school system every way but loose until they provided what my child needed. I  must admit, the fact that the principal went to high school with me, helped a lot.

Answer 4

i would say that this would be a case where you should be able to find an attorney pro bono

http://www.probono.net/

but i really am not sure...maybe this is a start...

Answer 5

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr...

This is the ADA's website, on the list choose Education and you should be able to get some help there. Good luck!

Answer 6

This sounds like they are harassing you due to your childs disability. Most schools don't require a Dr's certificate for each and every abscence. but if you are providing them then they should have no where to go on truancy. A dr doesn't just issue a certificate for because a child doesn't want to go to school.

If you've got any legal aid places near you try and get their help. Also contact a disability advocacy organisation to argue your case.