Well, I was pleasantly surprised at yesterday's meeting.
It was JJ's and Braden's school caseworkers and the Director of Special Ed. and me.
First we went through JJ's IEP, and she agreed that the goals were irrelevant and non-measurable. But, she did say that if he has any interest in college at all, a 504 plan is better than an IEP. I don't know if that's true....I can't find any information that says one is better than the other.
Then we went through Braden's. She helped his caseworker rewrite all his goals. Then she said that she knows the school was totally wrong with not sending reports of progress but that she had no idea. She just assumed they were since the middle and elementary schools were sending them. She also said it looked like IEP's needed to be looked at in general and more training was needed for her staff. She said they're using a new computer program next year that will automatically generate the reports, which will be tied right into report cards. She going to implement a plan where the report cards of student's with IEPs will be generated separately and the reports will be attached and mailed together by the main office, who will notify her if reports aren't done.
She thanked me for calling her and said that believe it or not, I'm the first high school parent to ever call and complain about IEP's or lack of progress reporting and if I hadn't called, she would have continued to assum that things were being done the way they were supposed to be.
I didn't particularly care for her....he attitude was a little, "I'm way better and smarter than you'll ever be", but I made my points clearly and she took care of all my concerns. Now, we'll just wait and see what happens next year. But, she clearly knows that if these issues aren't rectified, I will call the state.
3 comments:
okay i stopped reading at "504 is better than iep for college"
if you don't have an iep in 12th grade, you get NO services in college. if jj needs supports or extra time in college, he won't be allowed to get it and a 504 does't extend that far. 504s are mainly for short term or physical disabilities or medical problems, like ADD or ADHD. if he needs out-and-out educational supports, a 504 will do him no good.
i will now go back and read the rest.
schell,
Will you please summarize the problem in Emglish?
I don't know school lingo and it sounds like it's just bullshit
Actually, as I understand the rules, the IEP doesn't mean crap to colleges, because students are required to self-identify any disabilities they have. From what I have gathered from our High School coordinator, the IEP may work as a record of proof, but colleges will want to see the test scores and diagnoses as proof.
Basically, Emma JJ & Braden's school is required to provide them with certain accomodations due to their learning disabilities (and Braden's bi-polar status). To accomodate, the school is required to individualize their education plans. The problem is the boys school has their goals too vaguely written and impossible to measure or have flat out pass the boys when they shouldn't. They are also not sending out the reports to parents--which is a MAJOR nono with the feds.
Prinicpal's attitude aside, at least, she actually recognized the problem and addressed. In education, that is often a small miracle!
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