I blew it! I did not get it written in the minutes!
A few weeks ago, I posted about a county level iep meeting that went very well. We are reenrolling our son in public school (he was homeschooled last year). He has learning disabilities, behavioral issues, and most recently a very scary pattern of running away when he is upset or overwhelmed. Prior to homeschooling, he was in a special self-contained classroom for students with behavioral/emotional problems. He is returning to that program but has been unsuccessful both academically and behaviorally there in the past and requires additional support. I am convinced that he needs one-to-one support to be successful even in the smaller classroom. Everyone at the meeting was very agreeable based on the recent developments, past hospitalizations, and outside evaluations I presented at the meeting. The old iep is being revised and a brief line was in the placed in the meeting minutes stating that staffing and safety concerns will be discussed with the parents prior to the start of school. A week ago, the principal put in a request for a transitional assistant with the county until she is given the go ahead to hire a permanent assistant. On Saturday, two days before school was to start, I get a brief email from the principal saying that difficult child's class will have two assisitants but not one assigned to difficult child directly. THIS IS NOT WHAT WAS DECIDED AT THE MEETING! I email everyone from the meeting to ask how I could have misunderstood this and while I admit that the writing in the minutes is not specific, I felt that I received verbal confirmation that my son would get one-to-one support. The casemanager and behavioral support specialist that I brought to the meeting with me also felt this was the case. I spoke to the special education teacher after the meeting and she felt this was what was going to happen. And the principal, up to the point of this last minute email, thought this was happening. Now they are saying that he needs to be evaluated by the specil education coordinator from the county in the school setting, I hope he doesn't run out of the building before they get the chance to do this!
I requested another iep as soon as possible (principal gave me a tentative date of Sept. third). I will be more careful this time. Lesson learned
the hard way. I am in the process of finding an advocate as we will appeal the decision if it does not look like they are willing to provide this support.
Christy
A few weeks ago, I posted about a county level iep meeting that went very well. We are reenrolling our son in public school (he was homeschooled last year). He has learning disabilities, behavioral issues, and most recently a very scary pattern of running away when he is upset or overwhelmed. Prior to homeschooling, he was in a special self-contained classroom for students with behavioral/emotional problems. He is returning to that program but has been unsuccessful both academically and behaviorally there in the past and requires additional support. I am convinced that he needs one-to-one support to be successful even in the smaller classroom. Everyone at the meeting was very agreeable based on the recent developments, past hospitalizations, and outside evaluations I presented at the meeting. The old iep is being revised and a brief line was in the placed in the meeting minutes stating that staffing and safety concerns will be discussed with the parents prior to the start of school. A week ago, the principal put in a request for a transitional assistant with the county until she is given the go ahead to hire a permanent assistant. On Saturday, two days before school was to start, I get a brief email from the principal saying that difficult child's class will have two assisitants but not one assigned to difficult child directly. THIS IS NOT WHAT WAS DECIDED AT THE MEETING! I email everyone from the meeting to ask how I could have misunderstood this and while I admit that the writing in the minutes is not specific, I felt that I received verbal confirmation that my son would get one-to-one support. The casemanager and behavioral support specialist that I brought to the meeting with me also felt this was the case. I spoke to the special education teacher after the meeting and she felt this was what was going to happen. And the principal, up to the point of this last minute email, thought this was happening. Now they are saying that he needs to be evaluated by the specil education coordinator from the county in the school setting, I hope he doesn't run out of the building before they get the chance to do this!
I requested another iep as soon as possible (principal gave me a tentative date of Sept. third). I will be more careful this time. Lesson learned
the hard way. I am in the process of finding an advocate as we will appeal the decision if it does not look like they are willing to provide this support.Christy
