I don’t think anyone really cares what their PE grade is, but is that grade going to be computed in gpa? I know colleges might take out that (and other grades such as electives) from gpa calculations, but that is not done universally.Your d’s class rank could possibly be affected by low PE grades, depending upon school system policy. Do you know? Of course your d’s safety is paramount, but don’t dismiss the possible importance of that PE grade. Will she have a 4-year PE requirement? Is there an alternative (and safer) way to get that credit? From what you have written, it seems like your d is fit (that hiking) and knows her own body and its limits. Convincing a PE teacher might be an uphill battle, though, so that is why you might want to get the power of the fed laws on your side.</p>
<p>This is just cutting your nose to spite your face. The only person hurt in this scenario will be your child who will not meet the graduation requirements.</p>
<p>In some states PE is no longer waived even if the student has a disability. Since it is a requirement for graduation (check the policy in your state) your state will list how much PE is needed to meet the graduation requirement.</p>
<p>California states the following:</p>
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<p>I think that we can all agree based on what you wrote that your daughter needs adaptive PE (even if she “claims” a disability, which she has, she will be given adaptive PE) vs modified PE because her condition is not temporary. </p>
<p>If there is a doctors note in the health file, you need to give permission for the GC to have a copy (for programming) and that the PE teacher gets a copy with the modifications that your daughter needs.</p>
<p>She will most likely be placed in adaptive PE for her own safety and the school’s. However, neither you or she get a say in how the adaptive PE is carried out. In some schools kids with adaptive PE are placed in a different class from general PE because those classes tend to be smaller in order for the teacher to effectively monitor the students. </p>
<p>General PE along with Band and Chorus tend to be the largest classes in the school where there can easily be 50+ students in the class (California caps at 40 students).</p>
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<p>In this case, the teacher is right and if it is a gen ed class, he just wants to teach to the class and the administration will most likely back the teacher. In your house, you will have to choose your battles; since your child needs adaptive PE, she will most likely be placed in the class with other SWD, especially if it is a programming issue. The big challenge is that the school has made the accommodation for your D, but it seems like it is not the accommodation that she wants.</p>
<p>Absolutely ask for a 504 meeting. The 504 plan is for kids with health conditions, and an IEP is not necessary or appropriate unless there are learning issues. The 504 plan can be a very simple document, or very complicated. Up to you.</p>
<p>Write the 504 plan yourself, get the doctor to write a signed letter detailing the diagnosis and have the doctor sign a list of accommodations that you want. This might include, along with gym accommodations, things like excused absences for medical appointments. I don’t know what other repercussions occur in school or related to school, from you daughter’s health condition, but include everything you can think of: worst case scenario mentality is best in the document, but then you can work toward practical solutions in person.</p>
<p>The meeting should include the 504m coordinator, usually a principal or asssistant principal, and the school nurse.</p>
<p>You can give copies of the 504 plan to relevant teachers. Often the school will put it in a file and noone sees it, so make sure the PE teacher gets a copy.</p>
<p>The PE teacher has legal liability concerns. But the 504 also brings legal requirements. I cannot say what the best accommodation is in your school. In our school, my daughter was, first, accommodated in regular gym class, but then she ended up doing an individualized fitness class one on one for other years.</p>
<p>There are indeed online PE classes, believe it or not. The school would probably be only to happy to accept such a class and be released from liability worries.</p>
<p>OP-I know this sounds strange, but check to see if your district/state offers PE online. It is now offered in my state/district. It involves the healthy lifestyle component and then you have to track physical activity in journal, but it can be any formal activity including working out at gym. Since it does not track exact activities, your D could do what she and her doctors feel appropriate to satisfy the requirement. </p>
<p>It is odd since students were always asking why participating in sport couldn’t be used in place of PE and the answer involved not only the health component but learning different kinds of team sports which online doesn’t really do…but it is now an option here and one worth checking out.</p>
<p>Thanks compmom, I was having a brain freeze and could not think of the words. This is probably what the major issue is that the teacher has legal liability concerns and wants a waiver him & the school from liability or placing your D in an adaptive PE class which will be specifically designed for the accommodations that she needs.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that it is true that because the school has liability concerns, they are entitled to impose an all or nothing solution when it may not be medically justified. For instance, I had a friend in high school with a congenital heart defect. The doctor wrote a note to say that she shouldn’t play volleyball, because in the unlikely event that someone spiked a ball dead on into her chest, there was a small but real chance that it would cause serious trauma. Otherwise, she had no restrictions on her activities. I could see a school freaking out upon hearing the words “heart defect,” but I don’t think they would have been legally permitted to decide that this person couldn’t ever participate in regular gym classes, any more than they could decide that if a student required extra time on tests, that meant she had to be placed in a special ed class. </p>
<p>That being said, the situation californiaa has described seems more severe, and I think the school might be justified here. If a student is routinely unable to participate in the regular class activities and has already had some alarming reactions to a level of exertion that wouldn’t be at all excessive for a typical student, it would seem reasonable to conclude that perhaps a modified classroom is more appropriate than asking the teacher of the regular class to come up with the appropriate level of modification for every activity.</p>
<p>UCBalumnus,
My kid was told by her cardiologist to carry a water bottle and consume 2 litres during the school day as a means of counteracting her low blood volume and low blood pressure. That was hard to suck down from brief stops at water fountains between classes. And at 13-14, it was a lot easier to drink from a bottle and not have to guess how much water she was taking in.
Guess she was ahead of her time, as many colleges now pass out refillable water bottles.</p>
<p>My school had an all or nothing approach as well, but theirs was you could do gym class like everybody else or you could have no PE class at all and had to do your own physician assigned and supervised program at home. This was really preferable to being at the teacher’s mercy every day hoping they stuck with my doctor’s wishes and graded me on the appropriate scale, which I am sure the teacher would have agreed with.</p>
<p>This quote was from my post:
"The PE teacher has legal liability concerns. But the 504 also brings legal requirements. "</p>
<p>I just want to point out the importance of the second half of this quote. Section 504 of the the Americans with Disabilities Act would encourage inclusion with peers to the greatest extent possible. If there are social or emotional repercussions to being in the adaptive class, or for that matter in being in the mainstream class (requiring self-restraint for safety) those feelings are relevant. In this case, the school might argue that separate PE is necessary for safety, but you could definitely argue in turn that with accommodations that separation is not necessary. Up to you, And the online or independent study are options too. Also up to you how much of a deal you want to make on this, because in a practical sense there may be more important things to negotiate with them over time.</p>
<p>Here are a couple (among many) of sites on Section 504 and the ADA:</p>
<p>At our hs, even an unweighted A impacts class rank. (DH took a lot of music classes, with a hit to weighted gpa and class rank). All students have to take PE, but an unweighted B x 4 semester is a factor for students near the top of the class.</p>
<p>ANother vote for online PE. If your state has a statewide virtual high school, check to see if they offer online PE. IN our state, it usually involves learning the rules of various sports online, and then doing some form of activity that gets your heart rate up while wearing a monitor. Kids take it for a variety of reasons – some medical, and often socio-cultural stuff like not being comfortable in mixed gender physical activities, etc.</p>
<p>As I mentioned upthread, D is finishing online PE. Our PE is calculated into GPA and I agree with others that can have an impact. I don’t know if our online high school has PE or not. In my state, no high school classes can be taken P/F.</p>
<p>D’s class is through BYU’s on line high school courses. They have quite a few PE courses from which to choose. She is taking golf, and it’s not the fluff one might expect from an online PE course. She had to play so many rounds, turn in scorecards, take a video of herself playing golf, go through quite a bit of reading and take chapter tests (the one I saw didn’t look too fun) and take a final. One has a year to complete the course and it costs ~$140. I’m sure they are available through other sources. We’ve been happy with them and our school accepts their credits and grades.</p>
<p>OP-I would definitely pursue the 504. Someone mentioned teachers may or may not have the 504 and you should provide it. Teachers are not provided with an IEP (I don’t know if 504’s are the same) and spec ed has repeatedly told me they can’t and that’s for “confidentiality”. Bah humbug–I don’t really understand how I can expect a teacher to do the accommodations when they aren’t aware of the IEP. We do provide this to each teacher and they have always seemed grateful to understand the health concern.</p>
<p>I used to meet with all teachers for whom the 504 was relevant, and I would bring the 504 plan with me. It can be one page, or 40 pages,depending on the problem. The school nurse often went to these meetings with me and even the principal/504 coordinator.</p>
<p>When my kids were old enough (start of middle school) each year they both would meet with all their teachers, their 504 coordinator, and the principal and talk a bit about their hearing loss, then talk about their accommodations and why they’re so important. Those meetings went a long way re: communication between my boys and their teachers. As I told them both - you’re the expert on hearing loss, and chances are your teachers have never had a kid in their class with any sort of hearing loss. They’re both in college now and do a great job advocating for themselves with the campus disabilities coordinator and their professors.</p>
<p>BT good point. In high school it works great for the student to do it, though for the first time I would go along, defer to the student but be there to make the presentation have parental weight.</p>
<p>Bopper, every school is required by law to have a 504 coordinator who works these things out. Could be the principal, a dean, the gc, depends.</p>
<p>We started our kids out “hosting” their own meetings in middle school but DH or I would be there in case something was missed. It was generally really well received. Our 504 coordinator had that as his only role - he was really fabulous. Our kids were the only two in the HS who were deaf and he did a great job of educating himself about it. In retrospect, we were extremely fortunate to be in that particular school system.</p>