H
HaoZi
Guest
Okay, she qualified under emotional disability (we already knew that) based on diagnosis's of bipolar affective disorder and atypical and oppositional defiant disorder by the psychiatrist that saw her in the psychiatric hospital for about 4 days, and her former psychiatrist's diagnosis's of anxiety disorder and disruptive behavior disorder. I have no idea where the ADHD diagnosis disappeared to, or if they didn't include it as being irrelevant. Either way, it's basically about her lack of coping skills causing behavior issues.
She is on the high school diploma track with an anticipated graduation in 2019 (I feel old now, thanks). She will participate in testing programs her peers participate in (no surprise there). Due to the fact that experiences extreme anxiety over such testing (perfectionist, tendency to really turn on herself if she scores less than she expects to), she is being given accommodations for testing: additional breaks, extended time, preferential seating, small group setting, and can read aloud to herself. The extended time is to reduce the pressure she puts on herself and therefore reduce her anxiety/frustration level.
Goals include developing self-management skills to handle stress and cope with frustration and anxiety. In addition to her case worker coming in once a week at school for an hour, she will also have 2 others from SpEd come in about 30 min a week each to work with her on this. One is a SpEd teacher that travels to all schools in two counties, and the other one has a social work background. They will help her with the same things, but from two different perspectives to help expand her from her extremely rigid thought patterns.
Other goals the team with work with her on are to solve conflicts with words instead of violence, to learn to see and believe in herself in a positive way beyond just "being smart" (and not being allowed to "rest on her laurels relying on that"), and to contribute to group tasks when prompted.
She is also allowed extra verbal prompts on work, etc.
Included in her goals are a scoring scale to show where she is on each goal - progress reports on her goals will be included with her report card, mailed to me when report cards come out, or I can stop at their office and pick it up (right across the street from us, hence my suggestion that I could pick it up, since not everything that is supposed to come home with her makes it home).
Minutes of the previous meeting where we went over the testing results for about an hour and half look pretty complete to my eye and were included in the draft. Minutes of today's meeting will also be included on the finalized version, which I think I can pick up tomorrow before we go to Kiddo's therapy so I can give her therapist a copy (therapist was able to attend this one, think providence was making sure of that, first was canceled due to snow, second canceled because Kiddo got sick, and therapist couldn't make it to either of those!).
It was openly acknowledged (and I expect will be in the new set of minutes) that though this IEP is a one-year IEP, Kiddo will likely be more of a work-in-progress for a while (I'm paraphrasing, but they don't expect to "fix" her in a year), and that as she ages and expectations change and that medication changes can cause dramatic differences in her (good and bad), that we can tweak this as needed if situations deem it. It was also stated that one of her frustrations is that this is the first year that she's hit an academic roadblock - prior to this she has never been presented with material that she did not "get" immediately, and this causes her frustration followed by shutdown.
State testing started earlier this week, and they deemed it in her best interest to go ahead and implement the testing accommodations for her even though the IEP is not finalized yet and because it's not her fault the previous meetings had to be rescheduled. They had already added in reinforcements for her prior to this and have been tweaking them to suit her better as we go. Looking at the piles of things they've tried in her FBA, I can't complain - they've done a LOT and I can't come up with anything else they could have done in that arena. I can say that the supports they put in place for her already HAVE helped, both at school and at home, and it looks like the new medication combo is helping, too.
Any additional thoughts?
She is on the high school diploma track with an anticipated graduation in 2019 (I feel old now, thanks). She will participate in testing programs her peers participate in (no surprise there). Due to the fact that experiences extreme anxiety over such testing (perfectionist, tendency to really turn on herself if she scores less than she expects to), she is being given accommodations for testing: additional breaks, extended time, preferential seating, small group setting, and can read aloud to herself. The extended time is to reduce the pressure she puts on herself and therefore reduce her anxiety/frustration level.
Goals include developing self-management skills to handle stress and cope with frustration and anxiety. In addition to her case worker coming in once a week at school for an hour, she will also have 2 others from SpEd come in about 30 min a week each to work with her on this. One is a SpEd teacher that travels to all schools in two counties, and the other one has a social work background. They will help her with the same things, but from two different perspectives to help expand her from her extremely rigid thought patterns.
Other goals the team with work with her on are to solve conflicts with words instead of violence, to learn to see and believe in herself in a positive way beyond just "being smart" (and not being allowed to "rest on her laurels relying on that"), and to contribute to group tasks when prompted.
She is also allowed extra verbal prompts on work, etc.
Included in her goals are a scoring scale to show where she is on each goal - progress reports on her goals will be included with her report card, mailed to me when report cards come out, or I can stop at their office and pick it up (right across the street from us, hence my suggestion that I could pick it up, since not everything that is supposed to come home with her makes it home).
Minutes of the previous meeting where we went over the testing results for about an hour and half look pretty complete to my eye and were included in the draft. Minutes of today's meeting will also be included on the finalized version, which I think I can pick up tomorrow before we go to Kiddo's therapy so I can give her therapist a copy (therapist was able to attend this one, think providence was making sure of that, first was canceled due to snow, second canceled because Kiddo got sick, and therapist couldn't make it to either of those!).
It was openly acknowledged (and I expect will be in the new set of minutes) that though this IEP is a one-year IEP, Kiddo will likely be more of a work-in-progress for a while (I'm paraphrasing, but they don't expect to "fix" her in a year), and that as she ages and expectations change and that medication changes can cause dramatic differences in her (good and bad), that we can tweak this as needed if situations deem it. It was also stated that one of her frustrations is that this is the first year that she's hit an academic roadblock - prior to this she has never been presented with material that she did not "get" immediately, and this causes her frustration followed by shutdown.
State testing started earlier this week, and they deemed it in her best interest to go ahead and implement the testing accommodations for her even though the IEP is not finalized yet and because it's not her fault the previous meetings had to be rescheduled. They had already added in reinforcements for her prior to this and have been tweaking them to suit her better as we go. Looking at the piles of things they've tried in her FBA, I can't complain - they've done a LOT and I can't come up with anything else they could have done in that arena. I can say that the supports they put in place for her already HAVE helped, both at school and at home, and it looks like the new medication combo is helping, too.
Any additional thoughts?
We usually see your weather a day or two later.
