Was it legal to exclude my son from field trip due to his placement because of his disabilities?

Okay... the school succeeded in pissing me off this morning. When I dropped Elijah off at his school this morning his 1:1 aid told me she was a little upset that all the kindergarteners at the K-2 school up the hill went on a field trip yesterday to an animal farm. She did not get notified of this trip and neither did I. She has spoken to the SPED director several times about including Elijah in trips, performances, etc. with his peers. Is this legal? From my understanding it seems that it might be a violation of Section 504 because he was excluded do to his placement which is a result of his disabilities (PDD-NOS, SPD, BP).... The school district only had one substantially seperate classroom in the whole district which is at his current school of 3-4th graders. We told the SPED director that we wanted him included in activities with his peers from kindergarten. When his aid was talking about it this morning Elijah mentioned how he would have petted the animals like this... showed with a gentle hand, and how he would have fed the baby sheep it's bottle. He looked sad too that he was excluded.



His aid also told me that the rest of the kindergarteners are having a Memorial Day Program which she did not get informed about. They all started practicing thier songs last month, but he did not have a chance to. I don't even think that the plan was to include Elijah, but his 1:1 aid is going to get a couple songs that they are singing, teach him them, and bring him any ways.



Another thing the kindergarteners have their own computer based reading program called Lexia that his aid is doing with him... yes his aid... not the SPED teacher. She is getting some good teaching experience because it seems that she is his unofficial teacher. Any ways the teachers, assistants, etc. got a three day training on this program which is new a couple weeks ago. She did not get informed of the training, so she did not go until the second day when she found out from word of mouth, not from a supervisor, that it was going on. So great not only is my son excluded from field trips, but his aid is being denied the right training do to his placement as well....



I guess I should look on the bright side... at least Elijah is getting to go on a field trip on a Trolly Tour with the 3-4th graders that I am chaperoning him on. When they told me about the trip they were telling me that they did not know if maybe I wanted to drive the 90+ miles and meet them there because he might not do good on the bus. No thank you! I told them that I would go and he would be fine if we get to sit up front where he won't be able to see all the other kids.



I already called the SPED director but he was not in his office so I left messages. Later this afternoon I will call the SPED director back. I also wrote letters which I am going to bring to the SPED director and Superintendent's offices which state my concerns. I felt like going down to the SPED director's office and waiting for him to return but that might be unprofessional.



Just a reminder: his placement is in the 3rd-4th grade school. The kindergarteners go to the K-2 school which is up the hill a few feet away. The only substantially separate class our school district has is the class Elijah is in at the 3-4th grade school.Was it legal to exclude my son from field trip due to his placement because of his disabilities?
I sympathize with you. I have a child in a special education setting as well. It is often difficult to juggle all of the elements of special placement, because by nature it is 'different' than what most of the school employees are used to.



I would like to point out that there is a significant distinction here, however. It does not appear that they are excluding your son 'because of his disabilities'. It appears that they are excluding your son because he has been placed in a program that is not normally included in the field trips you are describing. It sounds more like a procedural problem than a discrimination problem.



The evidence for this is that they are planning to take him on a field trip with the students in the classroom he is placed in. If they had a problem with his disabilities and they were using that in some fashion to discriminate against him, I do not see how it would mesh with taking him on a field trip with substantially older children; I would imagine that would be MORE difficult (rather than less) and such a decision runs contrary to what you would expect if they were doing this on purpose.



I think you need to take a step back from this problem and review it from that perspective. If you begin attacking the administrators for 'discriminating' against your child, you are going to set yourself up in an adversarial position and they will respond in a highly defensive posture - and in this case they may well be right, since as I said I do not believe they are intentionally discriminating. What you should do is approach this calmly. Explain to them why you think it would be beneficial for him to attend field trips with his peers, and talk to them about what process they can set up so that he is included in future peer activities.Was it legal to exclude my son from field trip due to his placement because of his disabilities?
I honestly don't know the laws for your area or even federally. Contact an ACLU lawyer in your area and find out. I'm sorry that your child is being excluded because of his disability. That's unfortunate.Was it legal to exclude my son from field trip due to his placement because of his disabilities?
I agree with you, I feel like they are leaving you little boy out of things because of his disabilities. which is wrong in so many ways. My daughter is now in 6th grade and we have had the pleasure of having special needs children in a couple of her classes and they are treated the same as every other child as much as possible, her class goes on a field trip, so do the special needs children.The parents of the children come as well to help with their children, but you would want to go anyway.

You need to find out what your rights are and what rights Elijah has. It wasn't fair not to allow him to go and see the animals, he is part of this world too. Keep fighting, i feel you are within your rights to let them know this is unacceptable.