DYFridayS

Our department meeting had a special guest today, a representative from DYFS.  We had provided a number of questions ahead of time but the representative didn't seem to prepare responses for them.  While I know that anything having to do with people has to be handled on a case by case basis, the rep could have looked up the law upon which decisions were based in order to answer the questions.

The few things that I was able to learn during the meeting included:

• Even when a child is in a foster home, the parent(s) retains the right to sign consent for evaluations and the initial IEP.
• Based on a recently passed law, when a student has been placed in a foster home in a different town, the district of their original residence remains responsible for their education.  In addition, their is a stronger requirement that the student continues to attend the school of that town in order to reduce the disruption in their education.
• There is no law against corporal punishment in New Jersey.

It was difficult to get definitive answers on anything.

Later in the day, I finally obtained two of the surveys that I needed to complete two psychological evaluations.  So I spent the rest of the day working on one of the reports and packing for the big move next week.

One final note, I had promised an additional update from the professional development day.  Well, I was looking over my notes and the material from the law presentation and there really wasn't anything additional to add.

The lawyer that presented on behavioral intervention plans didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know and the cyber-bullying part really didn't have any ground breaking news beyond the fact that the law really hasn't caught up with technology.

Have a good weekend.