Principal Interview #2

Principal Interview #2

I decided to interview our Assistant Principal of Instruction at Ardrey Kell High School, Jennifer Lowery.  She stated that the 2 most challenging issues for her have been: How to handle the increase of 504 plan’s this school year and a recent 504 case involving parents.  I found our conversation quite interesting when I found out about these issues.  I thought there would be more challenging cases pertaining to IEP’s and parents for some reason.  Maybe that is because at my last school that topic was a main issue.

The first challenging issue Ms. Lowery spoke to me about was the increase of 504 plans this year with students.  According to Ms. Lowery many parents in the Ardrey Kell zone are becoming very familiar and knowledgeable about the recent law change last year concerning 504 plans and these parents are coming out of the woodwork to have their children placed in the 504 program.  Parents are aggressively finding any medical diagnoses for their child.  Up until this year, Ardrey Kell was able to handle the 504 case loads through the Counseling and EC Departments, none of the less;  now with the increase in 504’s the Exception Children Department was stretched to the limit.

With the increase of 504 plans at Ardrey Kell, administrators found the need to develop a 504 Team that specifically handles all 504 plans,  whereas, the Intervention team handles all other cases that are for at risk students; academically, behaviorally and socially.  The 504 team consists of the API, Ms. Lowery, the counselor of the student, School Psychologist, classroom teacher, school nurse, and the parent.  The advantage of creating this team will enable the 504 process to be smoother and more efficient along with completing yearly updates efficiently.

The second challenging issue that Ms. Lowery stated was concerning a specific 504 plan where the parents were disagreeing with the 504 Team concerning a requested accommodation for Suzie in class.  I will reference to the student as Suzie (not her real name).  Suzie was medically diagnosed with ADHD and had a long list of accommodations.  She also, had other issues outside of the classroom; behaviorally and socially at home and at school.  During the first 504 meeting, the Team agreed with several of the accommodations; extended time on tests and assignments, preferential seating etc.  However, the parents wanted to add another accommodation that stated that another student needs to take notes for Suzie.  This was not on the original list of accommodations, but the parents insisted on including this on the 504 plan.  The 504 Team thought otherwise.  The teams reasoning, yes she has ADHD but if she is not focused on trying to write the notes in class what is she doing? Several teachers of Suzie said while she was supposed to be taking notes she was “daydreaming”, writing personal notes, and talking to classmates to name a few behaviors.   Before the conclusion of the 504 meeting with the team, Suzie was summoned to the meeting.  She admitted that she needed to be more motivated and attentive in class; not doing the behaviors stated previously.   The result….the parents scheduled another meeting for next month.