Jan, I am sorry you feel disappointed/frustrated by the meeting while you juggle working full time. Keep going good mamma and do what you can! Well, I had my first meeting on Tuesday. The norm for special ed preschool around here is 3 days 2.5 hrs for 3 yr old, 4 days 2.5 hrs for 4 yr olds etc. And they have a play group for 1 hr a week. Because it is so late in the year, I was fully expecting to get home based services for the remainder of the year, with hopes to have the play group and to transition into the school in the fall. Well, they offered me 2.75 hrs a week home based, which I guess is also the norm, even though I am not real happy with it. But they said no to play group and they would think about letting him in there next Oct or Nov. . Said that at the reg preschool , he would be expected to transition from activities, stay in line, take his coat off, wash his hands, on and on. So they aren't really thinking about school placement for next year either. Well, I don't know what kind of special ed kids they have in this program, but I would think that most of them need to be taught these skills and the only way to learn most of them is to be at school. If I don't sign the IEP, then we sit with no services, which is not O.K. On the other hand, I really feel , along with his 0-3 therapists, that he should be transitioned into school in the fall. They pretty much ignored social skills on the list of goals on the IEP, no matter how many times we brought it up. I know he is considered low functioning, but he is starting to imitate words and movements, behaviors, etc. When I mentioned this, the director said, well sometimes that is not good, they will pick up some behaviors you don't want them to have, in school. Well, no S... Sorry, All kids pick up behaviors we aren't really fond of in school, It is the real world, after all. I am calling DPI today. I am going to try and get it written in the IEP, that we will meet again in the summer to talk about school in the fall. I am also going to try and get going on finding private therapy. I am just so frustrated right now. This is not the outcome I expected. I have heard such good thiings about the program here. One of the teachers , with the school, did tell me that they were really crowded this time of the year. Maybe they don't want to hire more staff? Well, I will see what DPI says. Thanks for listening. Off to work. By the way, it is getting harder and harder to deal with all this and work full time. No time to even make those 9-5 phone calls.
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