Service breakdown in wee difficult child's IEP..what does this mean?

[Shari]

In wee difficult child's IEP (at least one of the copies), services summary, it lists the following:

Special Education Services - Reading - 15 minutes Daily
Special Education Services - Math - 15 minutes Daily
Special Education Services - Written Expression - 15 minutes Daily
Related Services - Occupational Therapist (OT) - 60 minutes Weekly
Supplementary Aids - Para - 300 minutes Daily

And he is in the mainstream classroom at least 80% of the time.

What exactly, does this mean? Does it mean he gets 345 minutes of services per plus an average of 12 minutes Occupational Therapist (OT), per day, or am I reading this wrong?

 

[smallworld]

Occupational Therapist (OT) is a related service, meaning it is conducted in addition to the other services he is provided as part of his regular school day. I assume he will either get a 60 minute block per week or two 30 minute blocks per week.

 

[Shari]

I'm actually looking for if this breakdown represents 5 hours of school per week, or 6.

And I'm not even sure if this is the "official" copy, its just one of several I have.

I am trying to ge them to back off the half days. Half days were never a decision made by the IEP team, but they are telling me it will take a team to change the half day placement. What was happening last year was that he went to school from 8am - 1:30pm, and I was his para from 12:15-ish to 1:30. Any of the sped services took place one on one with the sped teacher without the paras. So as I'm reading this...it looks like this is minutes for a full day instead of a half... but am I reading it wrong?

 

[smallworld]

I don't think you can tell from the IEP as written. The IEP provides an aide for 300 minutes, which is 5 hours, but he could still be in school for more hours without an aide unless the IEP specifically states that he needs a 1:1 all the time he is in school. Does it state that? How long is your school day?

 

[jannie]

It looks to me that this iep was written as for a full day. If it's 80% of the day this most likely means that difficult child should have five hours a day of para support mainly in general eduation class and 45 minutes per day special eduacation instruction in reading, writing, and math (which I assume means 45 minutes per day outside of the general education classroom). I know that we often do not include lunch time as time needed with special education support...so it looks to me that you do not need to hold a meeting to schedule full day; the iep is written to support this.

Is the school providing special education transportation or do you drive him back and forth?

Good luck--has school started yet??

 

[Shari]

It doesn't say that, tho the aid was for the entire time he was in school.

Our regular school day is 8:10am-3pm.

And what was happening when this was supposed to be in effect was I dropped him off at 8am, he was in SpEd room with SpEd teacher til the para picked him up at 8:20, bounced between mainstream and sped room, but was only with sped teacher when in sped room, no paras, and I came in at noon and was his "para" til he left school at 1:30. I can't make the numbers match anything that was either supposed to happen or was happening. Other than our regular school day, other than our regualr education day is right at 6 hours long if you knock out lunch and recess...

They are making us have an IEP meeting to address possibly "changing his placement" from half days to full days. His "placement" was "changed" at 5am on February 25th in a meeting between the principal and the superintendant. I was informed of this new "placement" at noon. It shouldn't even BE in the IEP.

But, I've at least got people talking to me..I've been trying to ge a planning meeting together for a month now and got the first reply today...school starts a week from Wednesday. Gee, no rush, guys.

And this lack of response from the new SpEd teacher who, last year while sitting around a table with wee difficult child's DevPed, carried on and on about how she's have him in there with her towards the end of July/first of August, spending time getting to know her and hanging out, etc, so he'd be comfortable...

So much for that plan.

 

[Shari]

Hi, Jannie, you sneaked in on me. That's what I'm thinking, too...this is a full day schedule...but I'm not certain. I guess, tho, since I"m not certain...that makes it cloudy enough to argue the point cause it SHOULDN'T be on there.

 

[slsh]

Shari- once you get the length of day issue straightened out (I still think the whole half-day thing crossed some legal lines - it wasn't an IEP team decision and it's in my humble opinion a blatant failure of the SD to provide FAPE for your son - half days do not equal full days - wishing you much speed on getting that corrected!), you might want to make sure that the IEP specifies if it is individual Occupational Therapist (OT)/para/reading, etc., or group. During one particularly adversarial year with- a sped dir, if any person providing a related service was in the same room as my son, that counted towards his minutes. Rationale being it was "group" services even though my kid has without question a 1:1 kind of need. 15 minutes of 1:1 reading help versus 15 minutes of group help a day are 2 different animals in my book - to say nothing of 300 minutes of a para that is shared with- other students versus 1:1.

Good luck - I really have my fingers crossed for you guys this year. Your son's overdue for some positive school experiences (you too! ).

 

[SRL]

FWIW, 5 hours of instructional time (not including lunch and recess) is considered a legal school day in my state. As long as a student attends for 5 instructional hours it's legally considered a full day by the state. When you take recesses and lunch from your school schedule you've probably got 5 hours left.