ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Nathan Amos, a Roanoke special-education student who mistakenly was placed in regular English classes at the beginning of three consecutive school years, will be given tutoring, access to computers and other aid to help meet his educational needs.
School officials have agreed to provide testing and assistance for the eighth-grader at William Ruffner Middle School to help him return to school and adjust to his studies, said his father, David Amos.
Amos said Tuesday that he has settled his complaint against the school system through mediation and withdrawn a request for a grievance hearing on his son's case.
"They've agreed to do everything we'd hoped to get in the hearing, and they say they're going to try to help him," Amos said.
Amos decided not to press for a hearing because he said that could have caused a bitter confrontation that could have made it difficult for the schools and family to work together to resolve his son's problems.
"We are all going to have to work together and try to do what is best for Nathan," he said.
Robert Sieff, the school system's director of special services, said the schools will provide "what the child's needs call for," but he declined to discuss details. "The due-process appeal has been resolved through mediation, and it has been withdrawn."
Amos said Nathan, 13, will return to Ruffner this week. He had withdrawn from school recently after a conflict with some students. He had become depressed and lost his enthusiasm for school, his father said.
Nathan's parents filed a grievance earlier against city schools, claiming that their son had not progressed as he should have because of school officials' errors.
His test scores in writing and English are more than three years below his grade level, and his parents requested counseling and tutoring for him to catch up.
The boy's scores on standardized tests in math and science have been consistently higher than grade level. But he has a learning disability in English and writing, and he has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
As a special-education student, Nathan had an individualized education program that called for him to be in a learning-disabled English class and a resource class where he could get special help in his studies.
However, at the beginning of the school year in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, he was placed in regular English classes. He was moved to a learning-disabled class each year after his parents complained.
The wrong placement caused psychological problems for the boy because other students made fun of him after he was moved to the learning-disabled class, his parents said.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/1995. Nathan Amos, 13, is a special educationby CNBstudent in the eighth grade at William Ruffner Middle School. His
parents filed a grievance earlier against city schools, claiming
that their son had not progressed as he should have because he was
repeatedly placed in the wrong class, subjecting him to the ridicule
of other students.