504 plan confusion

[boiler717]

Last Tuesday, we got an email from the social worker at my son’s school saying she wanted to meet with us to discuss a 504 plan. We were pretty surprised to hear this, but we had been discussing letter reversals with his teacher and the reading specialist and thought maybe he needed more support. So before I responded to the social worker, I reached out to the two of them to ask if they had noticed something with my son the promoted them to escalate to the social worker for a 504 plan.
His classroom teacher said she wasn’t aware of any 504 discussions. The reading specialist said that she had touched based with the social worker regarding a 504 plan for my son. At this point I still haven’t emailed the social worker back as it was the end of the day.
The next day, my son’s classroom teacher emails me that she discussed the 504 meeting I had with the social worker the previous afternoon. She said she was glad we were able to meet and that the social worker said she clarified everything with us. However, we did not have a meeting with the social worker. I told his teacher this and she said the social worker said we met in her office yesterday.
Today I get a call from the social worker and she asks me if my son is working with the school psychologist, I said no. She asked if our school psych has discussed a 504 plan with me, I said no. She then tells me that she has mixed up my son with another child (same first name, different last name, different classroom teacher), specifying the exact kid instead of being vague and also giving me even more info about this other kid (he is working with psych and the reading specialist). She said she met with his mom yesterday about his 504 plan. She apologized for the confusion she caused. I asked if my son was the subject of her convo with the reading specialist and she said he was, so I said I was still wondering if the specialist had concern about needing support / 504 plan, and she said no but I could ask for one at any time. I said I was concerned that the content of this discussion was misrepresented as being about another student to his family, but she said nothing private about my son was shared. I also expressed concern about the other student’s privacy; she brushed it off and said they didn’t know we were involved in this discussion at all.
I do not understand how all this has happened. The social worker met with a family about a 504 plan and didn’t even know what kid it was about. She followed up with the wrong classroom teacher. If I were the other family I would be so upset but it sounds like they aren’t going to tell them. As an aside, I have had some concerns about my son being lost in the shuffle at this school and this was a huge confirmation of that concern. I am also not confident that my son doesn’t need additional support because apparently there have been 504 discussions about him but we don’t know about the content of those conversations. I always thought 504 plans had really strict rules about how conversations had to happen and am just shocked that it went down this way at his school.
Can anyone confirm this is way out of the ordinary for how this process is supposed to go? I really hate to escalate but I feel like the principal should be looped in since it sounds like the social worker doesn’t plan on notifying the other family (I am not expecting them to confirm they are telling the other family, but would like more of a response than “well they don’t know about it”) and chose to continue to reveal more and more private information about another student in the process of clearing up confusion. I also would really like to discuss the conversation the reading specialist and social worker had about my son to see if he needs more support / 504 plan — it seems like there was enough of a concern for the 2 of them to have content for a discussion but now I’m being told there’s no concern. It just seems so odd.

[AdaraMarie]

This is unacceptable. I can see how a mistake is possible if they are just being identified for services and don't have a relationship yet, but if it was an honest mistake they should be much more apologetic and give you and the other family confidence that it won't happen again.
For what it is worth, my kids team generaly sends emails with her first and last initial in the subject line which I think would address both privacy concerns and the some potential for mixing up kids.
I would escalate.

[VillainV]

I’m by no means an expert, but this is NOT right and should NOT have happened. Maybe the Social Worker is disorganized or flaky, or maybe they are overwhelmed without sufficient resources. Either way, it needs to be brought to the Administration’s attention. Your son’s info was discussed with another set of parents, their son’s info was shared with you. She was so confused she couldn’t even tell you which child was discussed in which meeting.

A) She needs to go back and review both cases thoroughly, and untangle what she’s done so she knows who is who and who needs what services, then clarify with all parties involved.

B) If private info was shared, it needs to be acknowledged.

C) The Administration needs to make sure this never happens again. Either by reprimanding the SW or getting her more resources or both.

[nicolewi]

Holy $&@!, that’s not okay!!!!

[boiler717]

Dec 1, 2022 15:33:38 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I’m by no means an expert, but this is NOT right and should NOT have happened. Maybe the Social Worker is disorganized or flaky, or maybe they are overwhelmed without sufficient resources. Either way, it needs to be brought to the Administration’s attention. Your son’s info was discussed with another set of parents, their son’s info was shared with you. She was so confused she couldn’t even tell you which child was discussed in which meeting.

A) She needs to go back and review both cases thoroughly, and untangle what she’s done so she knows who is who and who needs what services, then clarify with all parties involved.

B) If private info was shared, it needs to be acknowledged.

C) The Administration needs to make sure this never happens again. Either by reprimanding the SW or getting her more resources or both.

THANK YOU. I am so scattered I didn’t even know what to ask for and case review is perfect. I have no confidence that my son is getting the support he needs now and I want to make sure he is. I also think the other family needs to be made aware of the situation.

[W.T.Faulkner]

...whew.

I would let the principal know about all this; it's a matter of what's best for the students that communication/info is better organized. Lawsuits can and will happen eventually. You are doing the school a favor by bringing this problem to light.