L
Liahona
Guest
Today was difficult child 1's IEP. I've been dreading this for months just because I'm not sure what to expect when he goes to jr. high. I don't really know the environment, how difficult child 1 would react to the environment, and what difficult child 1 would need to be a success. So I asked here and I asked his therapist and I asked the NAMI/advocate person. I did my homework and had a good list of what might be needed. I even asked them to post-phone the IEP to gather more data. Someone from the jr. high was there to help work through what the environment was going to be like.
That jr. high person was awful. We would think of something difficult child 1 would need and she would shoot it down. Oh, we can't do that because... Almost every time. We ended up with 4 very vague goals and no accommodations written into the IEP. Because she thought that was a 504 thing and sp. ed. is where he would need specialized instruction. Hello, this kid needs so many accommodations that the sp. ed. teachers have to get involved. Plus, he does have a disability as defined by IDEA. All the rest of the team feels difficult child 1 needs an aide and lots of what was discussed was met with "the aide can do that, but we don't know for sure if he'll have one yet." The aide, that he might not get and she doesn't think he needs, will be in charge of all the accommodations. After the meeting I called the school therapist and she and I wrote down what all the aide would be in charge of. Because we sure didn't write it down in the IEP! Even the stuff she agreed with wasn't put in the IEP. difficult child 1 is to have a counselor that I can call if he is having hallucinations at home that would affect school, and whose office is to be difficult child 1's safe spot when he gets emotional (of course the fictional aide is to take him to the counselors office when the aide sees that he is getting worked up.) This isn't in the IEP! I feel steamrolled by just one woman. The rest of the team wasn't happy with her either. The next IEP will be in Aug. right before school starts. I think next time I'm going to write my own IEP draft to take with me and an advocate. A lot of what jr. high woman said was well we don't know what his schedule will be or I have the ask the district about that. One thing that she might be good at is getting difficult child 1 a sp. ed. bus instead of having him take the regular bus. This bus would have more supervision on it and pick him up at our door instead of having him wait with a bunch of other kids.
Thanks for letting me vent. Any suggestions would be welcome too.
That jr. high person was awful. We would think of something difficult child 1 would need and she would shoot it down. Oh, we can't do that because... Almost every time. We ended up with 4 very vague goals and no accommodations written into the IEP. Because she thought that was a 504 thing and sp. ed. is where he would need specialized instruction. Hello, this kid needs so many accommodations that the sp. ed. teachers have to get involved. Plus, he does have a disability as defined by IDEA. All the rest of the team feels difficult child 1 needs an aide and lots of what was discussed was met with "the aide can do that, but we don't know for sure if he'll have one yet." The aide, that he might not get and she doesn't think he needs, will be in charge of all the accommodations. After the meeting I called the school therapist and she and I wrote down what all the aide would be in charge of. Because we sure didn't write it down in the IEP! Even the stuff she agreed with wasn't put in the IEP. difficult child 1 is to have a counselor that I can call if he is having hallucinations at home that would affect school, and whose office is to be difficult child 1's safe spot when he gets emotional (of course the fictional aide is to take him to the counselors office when the aide sees that he is getting worked up.) This isn't in the IEP! I feel steamrolled by just one woman. The rest of the team wasn't happy with her either. The next IEP will be in Aug. right before school starts. I think next time I'm going to write my own IEP draft to take with me and an advocate. A lot of what jr. high woman said was well we don't know what his schedule will be or I have the ask the district about that. One thing that she might be good at is getting difficult child 1 a sp. ed. bus instead of having him take the regular bus. This bus would have more supervision on it and pick him up at our door instead of having him wait with a bunch of other kids.
Thanks for letting me vent. Any suggestions would be welcome too.