The Yellin Center Is Moving To A New Home!

 

Big News!

Beginning Monday, May 20th, The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education will be located at 225 West 35th Street, just west of Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan near Penn Station. Our phone number and email addresses will be unchanged. Our new mailing address is: The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education 225 West 35th Street Sixth Floor New York, NY 10001 It wasn't an easy decision to leave our offices after 15 years, but changes in the way we all work in the post-pandemic years helped us decide to explore new space. Getting ready to move has been a big job, but our entire staff pitched in, our boxes are all packed, and each item of furniture is marked with its new location. The movers come on Monday morning and we will be sharing photos of our terrific new space over the next few weeks. We look forward to seeing you on 35th Street!

Summer Subjects

We've noted before that the questions that families ask us tend to come in bunches. Many of them are seasonal, and lately we have been asked lots of questions that relate to changes that families may make over the summer and to summer activities. We thought these might be of general interest, so are sharing them with our readers.

Moving

For many families, summer is the ideal time to move. There will be less disruption in school and by the time the new school year begins, everyone will be unpacked and ready to roll. But what about families where children have IEPs? These have been worked out with the student's current school. But how does a child get an IEP by the time classes start in her new school?

Fortunately, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) sets out very specific rules for all kinds of moves -- to a new school within the same district, to a new district, or even to a different state. You can read one of our prior blogs- What Happens to My Child's IEP When We Move? to learn the details that may apply to your family. 

College Road Trip

Back in 2010, we wrote about a summer activity for many families whose children are approaching college age -- the College Road Trip. Take a look at our timeless suggestions for ways to get the most out of your travels to college campuses. And remember, even if your trip isn't focused on visiting colleges, any road trip can include a stop at a local campus, even if it is not somewhere your student plans to apply. Seeing a variety of campuses helps give context to what different schools look and feel like. 

Summer Vacation

We also have suggestions for Making the Most of Summer Vacation, tips like how to get ready for a new school, ways to keep skills fresh, and how to handle summer assignments. [Hint: don't wait for the last minute!]

Summer Skills Building

We've also got tips for ways to use the summer break to build vocabulary skills, phonics, and to improve math skills with a tool called Dreambox. 

Sun Safety

Finally, we have suggestions on keeping kids safe in the summer sun. It's not always easy to get children to use sunscreen or to cover up, but the evidence is overwhelming about the dangers of too much sun exposure over time. 

So, enjoy your summer, which is flying along way too quickly!

Signs It May be Time to Change Schools

I have been preparing for a webinar I will be presenting for ADDitude Magazine on March 6th on"A Parent’s Guide to Changing Schools: How to Find the Best Match for Your Student with ADHD or LD" and thinking about what parents need to consider and do before deciding to move their child to a different school.

We aren't talking here about the natural progression from elementary to middle to high school, or the need to move schools as part of a family move from one place to another -- whether in the same school district or across the country. We've addressed these issues before for students with IEPs and there are specific rules to be followed for such moves.

What can be most difficult for families is determining whether their current school is meeting their child's needs and, if not, what can be done to make things better. Whether parental concerns are based on lack of academic progress, social or emotional issues, safety, or distance, there are usually steps that can and should be taken before a decision to change schools is made. 

The first step is generally to meet with your child's teacher, even if the teacher may be part of the problem. See for yourself what the teacher is like (if you haven't already met him/her) and get the teacher's take on the issues that concern you. If the teacher is unwilling or unable to make changes to address your concerns, consider whether a meeting with the principal or another administrator might be helpful. Such meetings can be useful if you want to switch your child to another class or teacher or to have your child placed in a special program -- a gifted track, a bi-lingual class, or a class of diverse learners with a regular and special education teacher in one room. 

But, sometimes these steps are insufficient. If the problems your child is facing are academic or behavioral, this is the time to request an evaluation to determine whether she or he meets the criteria for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or Section 504. The evaluation is the first step in this process. The IDEA also provides for a functional behavioral assessment for children whose behavior is of concern. 

Another issue that might make your child's current school problematic is bullying. In New York City, children who are bullied may be entitled to a transfer to a different school. Our colleagues at Advocates for Children have created an excellent guide to recognizing and dealing with bullying and the right to a transfer.

What about issues that your child's school or district can't really change in the short term? Is your child's class size simply too large? Does the school or the area in which it is located have safety issues? Is it too long a trip for your child to get to school? Does he or she have a talent or skill that the school can do little to support? Or might your child have an IEP and need a specific service, such as speech and language therapy or a reading teacher with training in dyslexia remediation, that your school does not provide and is unwilling or unable to offer? These situations may be reasons to consider changing schools. We'll address the steps to take to make such a change in a later blog post -- and in our March 6th webinar. We hope you listen in and submit your questions. 

Study: Physical Movement Helps Some Kids Focus

Parents and teachers are often distressed when they see young people squirming in class or during homework time. If a child is tapping his foot, clicking a pen, or wiggling in his seat, he can’t possibly be focusing, can he?

At the Yellin Center, we often tell parents that there are two kinds of fidgeting: the kind that distracts a student, and the kind that actually helps him to concentrate. The key is to figure out what kind of fidgeter their child is. A new study indicates that our advice is on target.

In the experiment, students were asked to perform a task that required concentration while sitting in a swivel chair. The ones who had been diagnosed with attention difficulties did better the more they moved. The typically developing kids, on the other hand, performed more poorly when they spun in the chair while working. The movement, it seemed distracted them.

We explain it like this: Moving one’s body is like recharging one’s “battery.” If a child with attention difficulties is forced to sit still, her battery drains, leaving her little mental energy to work with. Instead of devoting her mental resources to thinking, she’s using them up in her efforts to keep her body still. Dustin Sarver, lead author of the study, offers a similar theory: “We think that part of the reason is that when they’re moving more, they’re increasing their alertness.”

If movement seems to help your child concentrate, it’s important to figure out ways that he can move in class without distracting others. (Supportive as we are of fidgeting, we agree that pen-clicking has no place in a classroom.) Perhaps he can do his work standing at a counter or tall table so he can move his feet. When listening to his teacher, maybe he can squeeze a stress ball, sketch, or roll a wooden dowel under his feet on a carpeted floor. Sit discs and swivel chairs are also helpful to many kids. Here at the Yellin Center, our assessment rooms have a variety of chairs, including stationery and swiveling, to accommodate the needs and  preferences of all the students we see.

Remember, though, that the object is to help him focus. If he becomes so fixated on his swivel chair, stress ball, or sketch that he stops listening, perhaps it’s time to try another technique.

What Happens to My Child's IEP When We Move?

Questions from Yellin Center families tend to come in bunches, and recently we have spoken to several families who are planning to move at the end of the school year and are concerned about what happens to their child's IEP in their new location.

The answer depends on where you are going. The simplest situation is when you are moving from one neighborhood to another in the same city or school district. Since IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) are created with a school district rather than an individual school, they are not affected when a student moves from one school to another within the district. For that same reason, students moving from an elementary to a middle school, or from a middle school to a high school, do not necessarily need a new IEP -- although changes in the school setting, like having multiple teachers or dealing with new and more difficult academic demands, may require a change in academic supports or accommodations.

When a family moves from one school district to another district within the same state, the IDEA provides that a student with an IEP shall receive "...services comparable to those described in the previously held IEP, in consultation with the parents until such time as the [new district] adopts the previously held IEP or develops, adopts, and implements a new IEP that is consistent with Federal and State law." [Sec. 614(d)(2)(C)(i)(I)].

So, when a student moves within the same state, the new district may utilize the IEP from the prior district or develop a new IEP. Note that no new evaluation is required; the new district can use the existing evaluation if it is still timely (less than three years old).

The rules are a bit different when the move is from one state to another. In that circumstance, the new district, in the new state, is required to provide the student with "services comparable to those described in the previously held IEP, in consultation with the parents until such time as the [new district] conducts an evaluation ..., if determined to be necessary by [the new district], and develops a new IEP, if appropriate, that is consistent with Federal and State law." [Sec. 614(d)(2)(C)(i)(II)]. Thus, a move to a new state should also trigger a new evaluation, although a full evaluation may not be required if a new evaluation had been begun before the move.

IDEA regulations require school districts to promptly exchange relevant records when a child changes school districts, subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Relevant records include existing evaluation data, and such an exchange of any relevant records can avoid duplicating previously conducted evaluations, and provides critical data to the new school district to ensure the timely completion of the evaluation.

For most students, a move to a new school district is not a common occurrence. Families can often plan their moves so that they happen during the summer, between terms. But for some highly mobile children, including those from military families, migrant children, children in the foster care system, and children who are homeless, moving from one school to another can happen often, and sometimes on short notice. In 2013 the U.S. Department of Education reached out to State Directors of Special Education to address the needs of such children and to make sure that their rights are honored during their transitions.

photo credit: TheMuuj via flickr CC