About a month ago I had to go to the school for JJ's IEP meeting. The school says he doesn't need an IEP anymore. Last year he had two goals on his IEP and at the meeting one was classified as "not introduced" and the other showed "minimal progress". In math, JJ tests at a 4:7 (high fourth grade level). How can they say he doesn't need an IEP when they haven't met the goals of his existing IEP??? Unfortunately, I don't have Educational Rights for him, and Children's Home doesn't want to fight it. My hands are tied.
Two weeks ago I went in for Braden's IEP meeting. He has three goals. Two were marked "moderate progress" and one was marked "significant progress". However, the school has no data to back up these statuses. When I requested it, they said there really wasn't any. Braden went from a tested sixth grade level in math at the end of 8th grade, to a 5th grade level at the end of ninth grade.
Also, according to all IEP's, there are supposed to be quarterly IEP progress reports sent home...I never get any for either boy. I talked to my neighbor, whose son has an IEP, and she doesn't receive the progress reports either. And, all three of these kids have different special ed caseworkers at the school, so it's just not one person not doing their job....it's standard operating procedure.
I called the Director of Special Ed yesterday and she wants me to come in today for a meeting at 9:am. I know a lot of you aren't familiar with IEP's, but Nazareth is being non-compliant. That's against the law. I know it. They know it. She said the meeting was going to be with her, and JJ's and Braden's caseworkers, but, I know I'm going to walk into that meeting this morning and have to face about 8 people with various degrees. I'm very nervous. I'm so pissed about this whole situation and I'm going to forget all the logical points I have made in my mind. I'm going to come off as a stark raving lunatic....but, holy crap, this is about the education of these boys. And, if the three kids I know with IEP's are having this problem.....what about all the other kids with IEP's? It just can't be a coincidence that these are the only three problems.
Wish me luck!!!
6 comments:
you meeting is probably already over by the time you read this, but I hope it went well and you were able to articulate yourself to a point where you felt good about it!
I have the joy of not only teaching special ed but having a child in the system. sometimes they think i "know how it is" and give me shit service, and others they realize that i know the laws and i get top notch. i want everyone to get the same quality service that i supply. here's my two cents.
1) make a list of all your points, facts etc. make sure they know that you know the law. you don't look stupid walking in with notes.
2) GET AN ATTY ADVOCATE they are supposed to supply a list of ones that work for free or for pay and as soon as you ask, they have to give the list over.
3) talk to other parents of kids in the system. united front of pissed off parents gets people to act right.
4) keep your own records of who you talked to, when you talked and what was said. i keep my own records at work for the kids i work with and at home for my daughter.
5) don't wait around for those people at the school to respond. they're out of compliance. end of story. file a due process claim as is your right under federal law. people get fancy private schools paid for their kids all the time because of this.
6) all of the educational decisions for the foster kids i've worked with at school were made by the foster parents. if you were at the IEP meeting, you have some say. Plus, JJ, as someone over 16, is allowed to speak up and demand what he wants.
if he wants to stay on his IEP (which he needs), then they should consult with him and hear your point of view. When was the last time they tested JJ (did a woodcock etc?) they should have some hard-core test results to justify an exit meeting. just because some goals were met doesn't mean there weren't any more goals.
Times are tough and they're booting people out of special ed to save money, but the people they're tossing out will just end up in prison costing society more money in the end.
i had a meeting last week for my daughter and i made it clear that i don't care if my kid is doing better than some other kids in special ed, she's still not meeting benchmarks, so she's still getting services.
Oh, and if they do succeed in booting them off the iep, can you get a 504? these seem to help for kids that can't get ieps.
jilly
what the hell does IEP mean?
an iep is an individual education plan, emma. it's what one gets when one is tested into special education.
it lays out the current levels a student is at, goals/benchmarks, test scores, disabilities, interventions, services (like speech, OT, PT), future goals and transition plans, eligibility for testing with general ed students and some other stuff. Teachers are supposed to use it to provide accomodations and or modifications to students as well as track progress.
i am constantly filling out progress reports like the ones schell mentioned. We do them about once a month. if you have your grades done, they take 3 minutes per student to do, so there's no excuse for not filling them out. We also send IEP report cards, which is a detailed progress report, every time report cards are mailed out by the county.
Small details on IEPs vary from state-to-state and system-to-system, but the bare bones are laid out in federal laws and should transfer from place to place.
i think that schell should toss the book at them if they're screwing thir kid over. in the end, if a parent doesn't want their kid to exit special ed, then the kids stays in. also, as soon as a parent says they want the kid out, they're out. it's the intro process that takes a lot of time because they don't want to over identify people.
jilly
How can your daughter have an IEP? Isn't she like 2 years old?
ifsps and ieps can start as soon as a baby is born or as soon as a disability is identified.
that's why sarah palin had that big bitch session about ieps/ifsps. they probably had their first meeting at the hospital when her son was born. my guess is that she didn't like the services her kid was getting and didn't like the process because she had a big beef.
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