Joseph is a seven-year-old boy in foster care. He had severe behavioral problems in school and was put on RTI Tier 1 Intervention. Last year, the school attempted to cease RTI intervention and it became uncertain whether Joseph was going to begin first grade. The Education Legal Rights Program (ELRP) team at Legal Aid put their best foot forward and kept Joseph on the program which led him to advance to the first grade.
During the Fall 2019 semester, the ELRP team was successful in getting a 504 Plan in place for Joseph, along with continued Tier 2 RTI support. With a 504 plan now in place, Joseph will have accommodations that will cater to his specific diagnoses and help create a better chance for his academic success. Some of the accommodations he will now receive include, but are not limited to, extended time for assignments, sitting in close proximity to the teacher, ensuring that he understands via repeating, and breaking his assignments up into smaller segments.
Part of our advocacy in drafting a 504 Plan for Joseph was to consider the increasing likelihood that he will be reunified with his parent and change schools. With that idea in mind, the ELRP team ensured that all accommodations that Joseph needed were memorialized in his 504 Plan and that the accommodations were written with sufficient specificity that should it follow him to a new school to ensure continual success.