totoro
Mom? What's a difficult child?
Oh my gosh the meeting was the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced in my life. That being said, from the minute we walked in you could tell they were approaching our situation differently. usually they hold these meetings in the Principal's office (tiny) fits like 4 people, not table to work at... so they were frantic trying to figure out were to hold this meeting, from the whispers we heard, they usually do not require everyone to "show" up nor has anyone expected it in the past.
So every team member "had" to show up... we had to meet in the kindergarten room.
I handed out some printouts on Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP), and how to help kids in the classroom.
So we were denied everything... they gave us speech!!! they basically found nothing wrong with K... except some slight speech issues!
I am ready to get into it with everyone... we have at this point argued every issue... but her holding it together and her IQ, they have never had a Kindergartener test as high as her... they were blown away.
So out of the blue they say well you were denied everything but we are writting up an IEP for speech... they did not consider her OHI, ED or any of her diagnosis's, nothing... I argued all of it... the special services director was on our side! She said let's take this and we can add to it and took the ST aside and told her to let her know if K starts to get close to her goal for speech and we will add something to keep the IEP!!!
So then they just start adding all these write ins to the IEP (yes they had it written up before hand!) they basically added anything we said???
Our therapist was blown away, she was arguing the why wait for her to fail, and the need for help with a calmer environment for testing.
We got into it a little with her teacher, she sees none of it?!?! She kept saying well I will just move her, I had to explain that that could send her over the edge because the boy she sits near is her first friend, we are not trying to punish her!!! She also kept saying all kids hug... I had to explain that K had gone from choking, hitting, biting, inapropriate touching. This is where we were now, the hugging! She had made huge progress, we wanted it to be positive, but she needs to learn and realize what is appropriate in a school setting... "Oh, hmm"
So basically they added some BIP's to help with testing, her handwritting (grip is too tense) her huggig of the other children, help her with aknowledging this and finding alternatives...
Even though they were so unsure of what to do and how to do it... we feel OK because we go the IEP... we can add to it if K needs the help.
Basically the Principal and the special services woman were on our side and they were the ones that mattered and had the most knowledge...
They admitted they have never had a young BiPolar (BP) child... one lady questioned a diagnosis for young kids and we went over that...
When we left our therapist was just standing shaking her head, we all laughed!!! She said she is so amazed how things work here... but she agreed at least we got the IEP and we have a start. Our SD is such a joke!
Then they had us sign a piece of paper that they said was not the IEP but just saying that we wanted Speech Therapy... so then I said well after you have written up the IEP I would like to look it over before I sign it... one of them says, "Oh you already signed it!" I was like what the F'... Everyone was in the process of leaving at that point and the meeting had gone over an hour... she just handed all of the copies and said I would get the final in 3 days...
I know we did things wrong and they really did things wrong... but they were very impressed by how much we had our act together and intimidated!!! They said at the end they wished every pearent did half as much homework as us.
I am going to have to look it over when I am clear headed.
So a big thank you to everyone here!!!! and Martie and Sheila :bravo:
So every team member "had" to show up... we had to meet in the kindergarten room.
I handed out some printouts on Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP), and how to help kids in the classroom.
So we were denied everything... they gave us speech!!! they basically found nothing wrong with K... except some slight speech issues!
I am ready to get into it with everyone... we have at this point argued every issue... but her holding it together and her IQ, they have never had a Kindergartener test as high as her... they were blown away.
So out of the blue they say well you were denied everything but we are writting up an IEP for speech... they did not consider her OHI, ED or any of her diagnosis's, nothing... I argued all of it... the special services director was on our side! She said let's take this and we can add to it and took the ST aside and told her to let her know if K starts to get close to her goal for speech and we will add something to keep the IEP!!!
So then they just start adding all these write ins to the IEP (yes they had it written up before hand!) they basically added anything we said???
Our therapist was blown away, she was arguing the why wait for her to fail, and the need for help with a calmer environment for testing.
We got into it a little with her teacher, she sees none of it?!?! She kept saying well I will just move her, I had to explain that that could send her over the edge because the boy she sits near is her first friend, we are not trying to punish her!!! She also kept saying all kids hug... I had to explain that K had gone from choking, hitting, biting, inapropriate touching. This is where we were now, the hugging! She had made huge progress, we wanted it to be positive, but she needs to learn and realize what is appropriate in a school setting... "Oh, hmm"
So basically they added some BIP's to help with testing, her handwritting (grip is too tense) her huggig of the other children, help her with aknowledging this and finding alternatives...
Even though they were so unsure of what to do and how to do it... we feel OK because we go the IEP... we can add to it if K needs the help.
Basically the Principal and the special services woman were on our side and they were the ones that mattered and had the most knowledge...
They admitted they have never had a young BiPolar (BP) child... one lady questioned a diagnosis for young kids and we went over that...
When we left our therapist was just standing shaking her head, we all laughed!!! She said she is so amazed how things work here... but she agreed at least we got the IEP and we have a start. Our SD is such a joke!
Then they had us sign a piece of paper that they said was not the IEP but just saying that we wanted Speech Therapy... so then I said well after you have written up the IEP I would like to look it over before I sign it... one of them says, "Oh you already signed it!" I was like what the F'... Everyone was in the process of leaving at that point and the meeting had gone over an hour... she just handed all of the copies and said I would get the final in 3 days...
I know we did things wrong and they really did things wrong... but they were very impressed by how much we had our act together and intimidated!!! They said at the end they wished every pearent did half as much homework as us.
I am going to have to look it over when I am clear headed.
So a big thank you to everyone here!!!! and Martie and Sheila :bravo:
