Meeting tomorrow and IEP Help Please Again

[HelpForMySon2010]

I see where you have all mentioned that I need to send certified letters for my request for his evaluation for the IEP. My question is, just who all do I need to include in this request? I have a parent conference tomorrow with the 8th grade administrator, the guidance counselor, teachers and eventually my son will be brought it. I had planned to hand deliver my request to everyone in there along with a list of what I have hoped to receive for him until the evaluation is done. Am I being unrealistic in my expectations? I can be a real **#(#)@ if I have to, especially where that child is concerned. I refuse to let him "fall through the cracks" or take the blunt of this because he cannot control what is going on.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[TeDo]

In that case, make sure you note on your copy the date and the names and titles of EVERYONE you hand it to. Make sure you also give one to the SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT (that's what the "head honcho" of schools is called where I live). The date is important because the date they receive it is the date their federally mandated time-line starts. There are certain things that have to be done within certain timelines or they are out of compliance and can be reported to the department of education, etc. Keep track of everything they say & do. Find out ALL the deadlines and monitor closely that they are being kept. Hound them repeatedly if you have to to keep them "on task".

Don't be surprised if they refuse to make any accomodations BEFORE an assessment is done. Mine did at first until I pointed out to them that it would save time writing up an IEP/BIP if they had the trial and error "helps" figured out. I basically challenged them (using creative wording) to prove my ideas wrong. They found out that MOST of my ideas worked like a charm.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[jal]

In our district it is the Director of Pupil Services. That is who we send the request for evaluation form/letter to. Good luck tomorrow at your meeting. Since you already have that scheduled TeDo made some good suggestions on how to handle the request.

 

[slsh]

Here's a sample request for evaluation - http://www.studentadvocacycenter.org/sampleletters/special_ed_eval_request.shtml

There's a ton of other samples here - http://www.studentadvocacycenter.org/sampleletters/index.shtml

In my experience, a request for a sped evaluation is sent to the person in charge of sped for the district. Since that person is not going to be in your mtg tomorrow, I wouldn't bother giving any of them the letter because they can't do anything about it anyway. I probably would advise them that you are requesting an multidisciplinary evaluation/ARD (it goes by different names in different states) to define any special education needs your son has.

The reason for the certified letter is because that starts the time line. I think in one very extreme situation, I did hand deliver a letter to the sped director's office and had her secretary sign, but realistically that is only saving you at most a day or 2.

Since I assume you're mtg with the "not my problem" teacher, I wouldn't expect too much out of this mtg. *Maybe* she was just having a bad day that day but.... well, I'm a pessimist by nature so I always tend to expect the worst. The school is not obligated to provide diddly-squat without an IEP though and they're perfectly within their rights to say he has to sit at the back of the classroom, not tap his pencil, keep his legs out of the aisle, etc. What possible good can come out of these requests is a bit beyond me, but... sometimes school staff can be just as challenging as our kids.

Take very good notes during the mtg - who said what. If there is anything that comes out during the meeting that you disagree with or that you think might be a problem in the future, you need to send (certified, always certified) a letter of understanding to the parties involved in the meeting as well as sped director, with the request that your letter be filed in your son's "permanent" record. This letter should just be documentation of who said what, what you disagreed with, and why. No emotion, nothing more than a factual statement.

If you don't have copies of his referrals, you need to get them. It's time to start keeping meticulous records.

Good luck, keep calm, document, and let us know how it goes.