I am a single father of an amazing 15 year old young lady with Joubert syndrome. Angelina is non-speaking however I taught her ASL and how to communicate with AAC using Proloquo2Go on an iPad. She is funny, smart and sassy. And has been in a blended inclusive schedule with 1 on 1 support in the General education since second grade.

Upon our transition from Middle school to Highschool Angelina was denied access to the Least Restrictive Environment. The school immediately removed her from her inclusive placement and put her in a self contained Learning Disability Instruction program. They then proceeded to gather as much behavioral, and evaluation documentation as they could to justify yet another placement change to deny her access to grade level academic instruction in favor of vocational training and independent life skills (which I have every intention of offering her outside of school while the school focuses on giving her her Academic education owed to her through IDEA)

they refused. I requested mediation which was unsuccessful. I created this fundraiser because I had 10 days to retain a lawyer and file for Due Process in order to prevent her placement from being changed from LDI to FSI (Functional Skills Instruction). I have since retained the lawyer and filed. I increased the goal amount at the request of others because the retainer is just the beginning. There will likely be ongoing legal fees and the potential for looking into alternative schools if this doesn’t go well. Any help would be appreciated. All kids have a right to a 9-12 grade academic education and shouldn’t be denied in favor of life skills and kindergarten level math.