Ok, so, in a nutshell
Wee attended the early intervention preschool (EIP) from Jan 2006 thru June 2007. In the EIP classroom, where he was 1 of 8 students with 1 teacher and 2 aids, he was a model student.
When it came time to transition to kindergarten, EIP recommended Wee have a 1:1. School District (SD) refused, so we sent Wee to private school, where the student:teacher ratio was much smaller than SD. He did well at private school until an accident took away the teacher that worked well with him.
Wee started at SD in January 2009. The IEP team met with his teachers from the private school before he started. The teachers from his private school consisted of the 1 that could deal with him very well (she kept him in small group or 1:1 settings) and 1 teacher that couldnt handle him at all (she refused to acknowledge he had any problems that punishment wouldnt fix). SD agreed to give him a full time para, but refused to give him a dedicated para.
In less than a month, SD informed me that he could not longer attend school past 11am due to their inability to deal with him. In a team-agreed upon decision, I observed the paras, and in the course of one day (the first day I observed), I saw one of the paras working with him rip a pencil from his hand when he didnt want to transition at the end of art, grab him by the arm and pull him out from under a desk where he had holed up (but was not making any noise), and quarrel with him when he chose to work on the floor instead of at the table in an otherwise empty room, among other things. Those were never addressed.
His morning schedule was changed so that he worked in the sped room around lunchtime, and it went well. So for the last 3 months of that year, he was allowed to extend his day and stay til 1:30pm for specials. Instead of having that particular para come back in and work with him, the sped teacher asked me to come in from 12-1:30 each day to take him to class and specials. I did, and for that 2.5-3 month period of time, he attended class and specials, did all of the work as directed by the teachers, and never had a single incident in which he had to be removed from the classroom.
In 2009-2010 school year, it was agreed to extend his day at the beginning of the year. I was to attend with him the first few days, the paras working with him were to shadow me. The morning para was moderately successful for a period of time. On the afternoon of the second day of school, during math instruction, Wee was getting frustrated, and I offered him manipulatives. The para, who was to be shadowing me, told me Wee was perfectly capable of doing the work without them "if he wanted to", scolded me for doing her job, and sent me out of the room. Less than 2 minutes later, she brought him kicking and screaming out of the room, and he was sent home with me, and his extended days were nixed right there.
He was suspended 7 official times (not counting the 20+ days he was sent home early which they didnt count as suspensions) that year before a manifestation determination was held. During that meeting, it was decided he would be moved to the sped room with sped teacher and her ONE classroom aid for the remainder of the year. For the last 3.5 months of the 09/10 school year, while in the sped room with sped teacher and ONE aid, he did not have ANY suspensions, and was only sent home early ONCE due to behavior, and it was not a major infraction. And he started to make academic progress.
At the end of the 09/10 school year, for whatever reason, SD decided Wee needed to be in the gen ed classroom again for the 10/11 school year. He would still have a 1:1, but it would be a parade of them. I refused to agree, but the district informed me this was all they were going to offer. I never signed off on that IEP.
I refused to allow Wee to start with the proposed schedule I was given the day before school started. It consisted of 5 different paras, and 4-5 teacher transitions in the 4.5 hours Wee was to attend school. The IEP team met and reduced the paras and teacher transitions, but he still had major behaviors that resulted in multiple incidents and 2 suspensions before he was put back into the sped room with a consistent para again.
I dont really care how its worded, but this needs to be reflected in that IEP, or as Marg said, if nothing else, as an addition to his file, so that the hairbrained **** theyve pulled by trying to stick him back in gen ed with a parade of paras this year doesnt happen again.
And they have a line in there that says his behavior escalates as the day progresses. Its been in there since they wrote the IEP in 09. Id like to see the data that supports that. Ive asked for it before and they cant produce it. I just don't want them to have the opportunity to give him the parade of people again.... (their excuse is that they'll be making him learn to deal with different people, which has been SD's consistent answer for why he cant have just one person working with him).
I believe I'll be pushing this issue. This year is going well...I want to make sure the setting remains so that it can continue...