THE LAW

 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act was signed into law by the President, December 3, 2004.  IDEIA 2004 maintains the basic principles of the original law: a free appropriate public education for all students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. It does have some updates. Most school personnel should have completed training in these nuances.

 Both federal and state laws mandate that Reasonable Accommodations be made for your child to remain in the classroom. Just because your child has OCD, he/she need not be put into special education. Some school systems are quite familiar with “Federal Act 504”. Other school officials may be confused by this terminology and refer to “Chapter 14” of the state act. There is little difference between these laws. You may simply be speaking about the similar acts by under different names. Please do not let semantics interfere with your quest to provide the best educational environment for your child.

HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK FOR YOUR CHILD

 Accommodations for a child with a disability require that an individual plan be developed, called an IEP. As the parent, you should be involved in how this plan is written for your child. This document should help to maintain a consistent environment throughout the school day with all your child’s teachers.

 You should continue to provide input to the plan as your child’s needs change. You can request participation from your child’s treatment team to suggest possible solutions to potential problems in the classroom.  These professionals usually cannot meet directly with school officials but many are willing to review the plan for you.

 If tension is beginning to creep into the relationship you have with the educational representative with whom you are working, we recommend asking that an additional person be present in the meetings. This can be another school official such as a principal, counselor or teacher. You may also chose a person from outside of the school system. Anything you can do to keep this relationship from becoming adversarial is going to help provide the best situation for your child.  Please keep in mind that your child’s teacher(s) are trying to maintain the most conducive learning environment for all of their students. While you must advocate for your child, please keep in mind that the school officials have a broader objective.

If despite your best efforts, you are still experiencing resistance to your wishes to keep your child in the least restrictive environment, you may need to seek additional help. You can contact the Office of Dispute Resolution at 1-800-222-3353. They can provide guidance in methods to resolve issues or in a worst case scenario, provide a neutral party to facilitate a resolution to an IEP plan. There are also legal counsel groups which provide legal representation for parents dealing with these issues.

A minority of children with OCD will unfortunately require accommodations which are considered “unreasonable” for the general classroom. Special education will be recommended for these children. Please keep in mind that this is not the end of the world. Your child may thrive in this type of environment.

A wonderful resource of information on a variety of groups which may be of use to you in developing the best plan for your child can be found at Kids Together http://www.kidstogether.org/agencies.htm. You can also find information at the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania at http://www.elc-pa.org.

HOW THE OC FOUNDATION OF WESTERN PA CAN HELP YOUR CHILD AND
OTHER CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WITH OCD

The OC Foundation of Western PA can help to arrange a general training session in the school to provide them with tools for recognizing and handling situations arising from a child’s OCD. We prefer that the school contact us with this request so that we can arrange for the most appropriate team given the specific audience. We do welcome input from the parents requesting this service so that we can gather all the information we may need prior to the date of the training session.

You can also purchase a copy of “OCD In the Classroom” from the OCF. This contains written material and video contact to provide information about OCD. Both you and your school officials can then review the information at your/their leisure.