IEP process meeting question.

[Shari]

Working towards getting wee difficult child in public school.

The school seems to be working with us. We haven't met, but they are talking about utilizing the special education services right off the bat and para supports for him.

They want to meet tomorrow afternoon. I can get 3 of his teachers from the private school there in person, as well as myself and both grandmas. His Dr can call in for the meeting.

His latest in-home therapist is not available, but her boss, who was difficult child's previous in-home therapist, can call in.

Should I go forward with this or make them wait til I can have more people in person?

 

[jal]

Honestly, I would get going with them right away since they seem to be open to discussion and "offering" services. Why are you bringing so many people to the meeting? Is this fact finding for the sd or do you want to show how he is with different people in different environments (which is a good idea)?

I have had my difficult child's preschool teachers attend also. My difficult child is currently in a therapeutic school and now our in home services team attends the IEP's with us so everyone is up to date all the time.

 

[klmno]

I vote for going ahead too. Just don't sign anything until your comfortable, except for pursuing the iep process/evaluation in general. Good luck!!

 

[Nancy423]

It's very hard to get a group of people that large to be available at the same time for a meeting. I would take what I can get, even tho some may not be physically in the room, they're still there. i think the most attendees at any IEP was 11 at our most recent and I was shocked that we were all able to make it.

by the way, who would you want there in person? would it have any bearing on the outcome if they were there physically vs. on the phone?

 

[Shari]

I am not terribly familiar with this process, tho I'm learning. We don't have an advocate yet (the holidays have delayed that process, also). He had an IEP from this district for the earliy intervention preschool they sent him to, which was wonderful, so they are somewhat familiar with him, and other than fighting the 1:1 for kindergarten, they have been helpful.
***
They asked if I would consider signing the paperwork tomorrow to start the evaluation process and then go ahead with the review of existing data. They are hoping to be able to start him next week, and have told me they are working with the special education staff and para's to get things in place, partly (this part is off record) because they know us and the situation and the director is 99% sure he's going to need the IEP. (small town America, this is the same staff that dealt with his bio dad). While this won't be the actual IEP, from my understanding, they are going to work to try to understand what he needs in order to get started. I think its a good thing....?
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The people I am bringing in person are three of his teachers from the Motessori school; the teacher/director that handled him extremely well, the teacher that tried but could not, and the teacher that he hated and created such a problem for us. While she and I don't see eye to eye, I think her experiences with him may be valuable to others to see/hear how he can react. Aside from that, she's the hard-lined one, and she couldn't get him to do squat. I have one of his docs by phone, the former in-home, and the 1:1 from the Montessori (she will probably not call in, but will be available for us to call her if they want to). I figure these are the ones who've had the most interaction with him and can back the need for the 1:1 thru personal experience with him, half of them in the educational setting.

 

[klmno]

This sounds great, Shari! I think you should sign to move forward with the process- that's not the same thing as an actual IEP that you'll want to review before signing. After getting all those people together, are you for hire by any chance? I can't seem to get 3 people to agree or get together on things here.....

 

[Shari]

I'll consider contracting when he's 22 and a taxpaying citizen! lol Til then, I consider it a successful day every time I don't wake up dead.

(if I only had half this much luck getting his medical team to even TALK to each other, we might be in good shape!)

 

[jal]

Shari - it sounds like you are off to a great start. We tried for our difficult child before kindergarten to get him some services, but they said he didn't qualify. Yet the sd was great enough to maintain contact every six months until he started. Once in the classroom full time they saw it immediately and interventions were put into place. As I said before both his prescchool/daycare teachers were involved in the process and the school really listened to them and took their concerns seriously. Small town America here too - we were fortunate to get what we needed with-o a fight.

It sounds like if you are doing your initial meeting to sign for evaluations and such, you are definately headed in the right direction, so much so that you may not even need an advocate. We were lucky enough not have too and used this site and Wright's law to gain enough knowledge to go in there armed with enough ammunition so that they knew we knew our rights.

Good luck to you!

 

[justour2boys]

This had been (and continues to be) a great web site for me...

www.wrightslaw.com