Shari
IsItFridayYet?
my question is, if we don't have said meeting before school starts, do I send my kid to school?
Long history, but here's the nutshell (I'll try to keep it short).
2005/2006, wee difficult child was evaluation'ed by local district, found in need of services, and sent to early intervention preschool. With highly trained staff and low student/teacher ratios, difficult child was a model student (also, note, tho, that when he tried summer school with a different teacher, it was a disaster...even at this same school setting).
Pre-K evaluation, school refused an aid to transition to public school setting, so we placed him in a private setting similar to the early intervention school. Did fine there until the 2 teachers that were good with him were no longer there; situation escalated til difficult child was kicked out in Dec 2007.
Jan 2008, re-evaluation at public school. No question about the need for aid. Pricate school teachers came in, ones that could handle him and one that could not. Difference in personell was purposely pointed out. School still refused a single aid, but provide a full time para (rotates between 2-4 people with me filling in, as well). Less than 6 weeks into school, principal and superintendant decide they can not handle him, and reduce him to less than half days. When I argue, they say its that or he doesn't go to school there. I know, not legal, but is what happened.
IEP is in place, but is lousy and sketchy. They have him requiring 360 minutes of service daily...I think they intend that to be partial day, but it is only a few minutes off of being a full day. Multiple copies given to me were outright wrong.
Knowing they intend to change nothing, I contacted school 2 months before school started to begin planning. Heard nothing. One month out, no reply. 2 weeks out, sent a letter stating I wanted him in full days, and since that was not an iep decision, there was no need to have a meeting for that, however, if they wanted to meet, I was requesting the meeting.
They replied to that letter, saying it was in the IEP, so we'd need a meeting. I replied saying how it got there wasn't legal, so no, it shouldn't be, but I requested a meeting. I got a phone call that day scheduling the meeting for this past Friday. On Thursday, the SpEd teacher's (who is pushing 50, by the way) grandma died, so the meeting is cancelled. It will not happen before school starts on Wednesday.
SpEd director was not aware of the plan for wee difficult child other than same situation as last year, same lousy paras, rotating in and out, same half days.
Wee difficult child has had a really good summer. Not perfect, but close for him. After our first visit to school (that I initiated, by the way), we started seeing behaviors increase, but has still been managable. In addition to the problems he has...we are now pretty certain he has some school anxiety from the "aids" he had last year and the overuse of the closet they put him in to "calm down".
My question is...if we don't have this meeting before Wednesday, do I send him to school, or do I keep him out til they get a plan in place with me.
I let too many things slide last year in an attempt to keep the peace with this school...they will not walk on me this year, and I know, if I send him on Wednesday, that meeting will take another 2 weeks and probably another threat to get to happen...but I don't want to be "illegal", either.
Long history, but here's the nutshell (I'll try to keep it short).
2005/2006, wee difficult child was evaluation'ed by local district, found in need of services, and sent to early intervention preschool. With highly trained staff and low student/teacher ratios, difficult child was a model student (also, note, tho, that when he tried summer school with a different teacher, it was a disaster...even at this same school setting).
Pre-K evaluation, school refused an aid to transition to public school setting, so we placed him in a private setting similar to the early intervention school. Did fine there until the 2 teachers that were good with him were no longer there; situation escalated til difficult child was kicked out in Dec 2007.
Jan 2008, re-evaluation at public school. No question about the need for aid. Pricate school teachers came in, ones that could handle him and one that could not. Difference in personell was purposely pointed out. School still refused a single aid, but provide a full time para (rotates between 2-4 people with me filling in, as well). Less than 6 weeks into school, principal and superintendant decide they can not handle him, and reduce him to less than half days. When I argue, they say its that or he doesn't go to school there. I know, not legal, but is what happened.
IEP is in place, but is lousy and sketchy. They have him requiring 360 minutes of service daily...I think they intend that to be partial day, but it is only a few minutes off of being a full day. Multiple copies given to me were outright wrong.
Knowing they intend to change nothing, I contacted school 2 months before school started to begin planning. Heard nothing. One month out, no reply. 2 weeks out, sent a letter stating I wanted him in full days, and since that was not an iep decision, there was no need to have a meeting for that, however, if they wanted to meet, I was requesting the meeting.
They replied to that letter, saying it was in the IEP, so we'd need a meeting. I replied saying how it got there wasn't legal, so no, it shouldn't be, but I requested a meeting. I got a phone call that day scheduling the meeting for this past Friday. On Thursday, the SpEd teacher's (who is pushing 50, by the way) grandma died, so the meeting is cancelled. It will not happen before school starts on Wednesday.
SpEd director was not aware of the plan for wee difficult child other than same situation as last year, same lousy paras, rotating in and out, same half days.
Wee difficult child has had a really good summer. Not perfect, but close for him. After our first visit to school (that I initiated, by the way), we started seeing behaviors increase, but has still been managable. In addition to the problems he has...we are now pretty certain he has some school anxiety from the "aids" he had last year and the overuse of the closet they put him in to "calm down".
My question is...if we don't have this meeting before Wednesday, do I send him to school, or do I keep him out til they get a plan in place with me.
I let too many things slide last year in an attempt to keep the peace with this school...they will not walk on me this year, and I know, if I send him on Wednesday, that meeting will take another 2 weeks and probably another threat to get to happen...but I don't want to be "illegal", either.
