Our own experience with Gwinnett County Public Schools [sic] are just as bad--worse, really--as this mom's:

IDEA is the Federal law that has been in place for YEARS to protect
the rights of children with special education needs. IDEA had been
around for 25 years and kids here in Georgia are "protected" by IDEA,
like they are in every other one of the united states. However, the
level of provisioning and systematic failure to "get it" means that
IDEA is administered differently in EVERY state.

For example IDEA specifies that a child with a disability must make
"meaningful progress", have equal access to the "general curriculum",
and must be served in the "least restrictive environment". These are
ALL elements of the law that are up for interpretation, and are poorly
administered in Georgia.

Knowing how kids are served in the public schools system (been there,
done that for five years), and being a trained Special Education
Advocate (trained through the Georgia Advocacy Office), I know first
hand how Georgia's interpretation of IDEA leaves a LOT to be desired.
Children's rights are violated every day and the school systems
seldom serve a child well. Even as a trained advocate in Gwinnett
County, able to get "services" for my child, I found the services
weren't worth the paper they were written on. In my opinion, You can
make them provide services, but you CAN'T make them serve the child
properly (try watching Braves games and cutting out snowflakes in
reading resource for starters), and you can't make them believe in a
child with a specific learning disability's ability to learn (such a
child has an average, above average IQ, or may even be gifted, but the
school system has a "You can't expect much, he does have a disability"
attitude.)

Additionally, My opinion is that the Gwinnett County School system
tends to be very arogant in their own ability to serve children with
disabilities. Our child, with significant dyslexia, was in Gwinnett
schools for five years and we pulled him out still reading at a 1.9
grade equivalent. We were faced with arguments and debates at every
IEP meeting.. Our child made little progress, they wouldn't serve him
properly, and the school believed they were 'doing all they could'.
After one year of homeschooling, our child was reading at a 6.4 grade
equivalent, and after the second year was reading at a 10.0 grade
equivalent (taught by me after going to get training on how to teach a
child with dyslexia to read using Orton-Gillingham). You tell me..
Who is the slow learner here? Not my son! Perhaps not me (although
it did take me five years to figure out the school system was probably
never going to serve my child well). The school system has been at
this for years upon years, and I still get cases regularly where they
aren't providing what's needed.

SO.. My opinion on this letter -- Yes, they may be turning over a 'new
leaf'. I'm skeptical. If you do take your child in and they make an
IEP, my fear would be more that they'd then arogantly assume if your
child is behind it is because of YOUR teaching, they could use DFACS
to force you to send your child to school, where the child will then
get services that aren't worth the paper they are written on. Once in
school, your child might be made fun of, called moron, bullied, etc
for having a disability, and you could see any spark of learning go
out of your child. (Been there, done that too).

If you think your child has a disability, check out my website about
homeschooling children with specific learning disabilities and read
more about my qualifications
(http://www.learningabledkids.c...). I
would not tell you not to go to Gwinnett's meeting--you can check out
their services if you are seriously in need of help. Maybe they are
turning over a new leaf, but my significant skepticism about what
kinds of help they'd actually provide are high. They get several
thousand dollars per child with a disability (more than 5K, I
believe), and are probably eyeing the additional funds more than being
able to actually serve your child well. That's my opinion, for what
it's worth.

SandyKC

Home Educator
Graduate, Parent Leadership Support Project - Georgia Advocacy Office
Graduate Student, Master's of Education - Instructional Design and
Technology
Lifetime Member, Phi Kappa Phi Academic Honor Society
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Learning Abled Kids - http://www.LearningAbledKids.c...