I hope someone out there will know the answer to this one. I pulled my son out of school last year. He has been at home with me since the beg. of Dec. 2006. I'm not going to go into long details. But, the bottom line is the school and I disagred with the term "approprate" So I have been getting all my indepentdant evaluations in preperation of coming back to the dist.
I recvied a IEP notice from the dist. with the suggested date. But what I don't understand is why would all the people who my son used to work with ie. teacher, OT, SLP, and Behav. be attending this coming up meeting. None of them will have any current infromation to add/comment at the meeting.
The dist. has been known to invite alot of people to meetings, I feel as a why to try and intimidate the parents. There have been times when someone the pipe up with recommendations, and they have never even met my son.
Is there anything I can do leagaly to not have them not attend? Some cut off time frame where they would have had to worked with my son to be able make constructive contribution to the meeting? I hope you can understand what I'm trying to get at. Thanks!
The District is REQUIRED to include a special ed teacher of the child and a regular ed teacher of the child (or someone as close to that description as possible) in the meeting. This is Federal law. State law can add other members. For example, in New York State, a psychologist and another parent of a special needs child, called a Parent Member, are required attendees. Also, anyone else who has "special knowledge of the child." That means, any therapists or others who work with him. You should check our State regs as well as IDEA 2004 for the IEP Team members required. YOu can also just call the IEP Team chairperson and ASK why any individuals on the invitation list are going to be there. You should be able to insist on understanding their need to be there, even if the only reason they are is because that's required by law.
You as a parent on the IEP team can also invite others to the meeting if they have knowledge of your child. I don't know the law, but I know that you can notify the IEP tem in writing ahead of time that you have invited, for example, an advocate, the neuropsyhchologist who did your child's eval, and your child's private speech therapist. (I have invited these folks in the past so i am using examples that I am aware of!)
Make sure that you give the school/IEP team the names and titles of these folks ahead of time. Sometimes it feels more comfortable if it's not just you, one parent, and a room full of school district reps.
Thank you ALL so much for your great input.
Dave ~ Thanks for reminding me how important it is to stay grounded, and keep my eye on the ball. It's not so much fall out, its....... just so hard sometimes to work with individules on my son's "IEP TEAM" who are not really very good team members!
I live in a very small district where there are not lot of program choices. And, my dist. student support director is not really that interested in creating any new programing. Or, addresing your childs "unique needs". If your child doesn't fit in what they offer. Too bad!
Jane ~ I too live in CA. and have Reginaol Center services. What area do you live in?
The truth is that schools are bureaucracies. Bureaucracies of any kind can't deal with individualizing. They exist to push things through the Bureaucracy. If our kids fit into the mold they've created, great. Otherwise, too bad. Of course, they HAVE to individualize to some extent, but they're just not good at it. This is possibly even truer in larger districts because they think there MUST be something that fits the kid. Knowing the law is the tiniest first step. Knowing how to convince people to go along with the law is at least 90% of the battle. I'm still battling after 14 years of this. That's not to say everything has been bad. And now parents can DEMAND results because PROGRESS is the name of the game under IDEA 2004. If your child does not meet state standards, you have a leg to stand on when you demand more, better and more intense services. The "I" in "IEP" counts for very little with SD's. But they DO understand test scores. They know that scores that show lack of progress under their current system are going to come back and bit them. So use test scores that show need to instigate better help for your child.In addition to the legally required member of the IEP Team, a parent can bring anyone she wants to the IEP Meeting. Bring your OWN team if you like. This is not what you asked, but I will mention that it is a good idea to bring in the important independent evaluators to the IEP. (I know ... they will be charging 0/hour just to drive there). Otherwise the SD will spin things to their best advantage, and it is just impossible for a parent to prevent it. We learned this the hard way.
I agree with the above posters. Have others like specialists, etc, come with you. Especially since your child has been out of the district, anyone who has worked with them and can shed some light on the child's needs.
It can be over whelming at IEP meetings. If you can find a child advocate to accompany you, do it. We are very lucky in Calif. Our child advocate is provided for free through an agency that works with the regional centers. After having the advocate work with us, things changed dramatically. I am thankful we have her help. Good luck!
Little Bro,
I've been to many IEP meetings and have found the following are those who ordinarily attend:
director of special education
school psychologist
child's special education teacher
child's current regular education teachers
when transitioning from, say, middle school to high school, the high school special ed teacher should be there.
speech pathologist (if child is receiving language and social skills services)
occupational therapist (if child is receiving this service)
parent (parents)
A word of advice; Never go by yourself. Your spouse should go with you if possible, but if not possible, a sister, brother, friend, etc. It would be a good idea to get a copy of "From Emotions to Advocacy" by Wrightslaw and read it the best you can. It can be a bit dry with all of the legal jargon, but much of what is written is designed to help you deal with the emotional aspect of these meetings and to make you strong in these situations so as not to be intimidated by the district. Having someone with you may help you to stay calm. You and your partner will appear as a unified front. They (the school) have much more to fear from someone who appears collected, prepared, intelligent and unswerving in there dedication to their child's success, than they do from someone who can be easily undone (emotionally). It's important to stay the course and be cool, focusing only on the issues relevant to your childs education. You should be aware, that anything negative you say to or about someone at the school, (whether in a meeting or simply in private) will be noted in writing and placed into a file for future reference to make a case against you if you should ever go to a hearing. They will try to make you out to be neurotic and unreasonable before the hearing officer. Don't give them any ammunition.
Another important aim of the book is to convince you of how important it is to work "With" the school on the education and development of your child. It almost sounds to me (and you may correct me it I'm wrong) that you had a significant falling out with certain members of the IEP team with whom you are angry and would prefer not to deal with. This is quite common. These people will, however, most likely be the one's working with your child and should be made aware of your concerns regarding your child's education and development as they'll be the one's addressing them at school.
If you feel you need specific legal advice, you might try sending a private message to andrew cuddy. He's a member on this forum (click member list link at top of page) and also a special education attorney. Perhaps he might be able to answer some of your questions. I don't know your location. Andy is based in NY state and travels around a lot representing parents whose school districts are unwilling to provide IEP's and services in accordance with the law.
I'm sorry if I wrote too much, without even answering your specific questions, but I've recently gone through a lot with IEP issues and just thought I'd share some of what I've learned. Hope you don't mind.
Best Regards
Dave
[QUOTE=Little Bro]I live in a very small district where there are not lot of program choices. And, my dist. student support director is not really that interested in creating any new programing. Or, addresing your childs "unique needs". If your child doesn't fit in what they offer. Too bad!
Jane ~ I too live in CA. and have Reginaol Center services. What area do you live in?
[/QUOTE]
We live in Northeastern Calif, Lassen County. Far Northern Regional Center and Rowell Empowerment center have been helping us. Its been a fight. We have a little group of parents that fight tooth and nail. Now the regional center is finally providing what they do in Redding and Chico to us. But it took alot. Where are you at?
We are also in a very small district. Our SEPLA director at the county office of education is working to get provide better services. But its taken alot including a class action lawsuit to get him in gear. There is power in numbers. If you and parents of all developmentally delayed kids can get together and say we want this, you will have a better chance of getting it.
If you are in a rural area, you should have access to one of the empowerment centers, you can get that info from regional center. The empowerment center has free child advocates and other resources. Check them out. It takes time to get all this figured out. Most of the time I have just stumbled across it. Also, some counties have a Family Resource Center. Ou FRC has a prgram called Rainbow Family Services for developmentally delayed kids under 3. But, they have been a huge resource for my child, even though she is 7.
Also, contact the nearest Easter Seals. I just got into contact with the office in Chico and now the coordinator said now that someone from our area has contacted him, he will see what he can set up for us. I am active with our local parent support group and the Family Resource Center, so I hope we can get some kids camps for all the developmentally and physically challenged for next summer. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
[QUOTE=tzoya]The truth is that schools are bureaucracies. Bureaucracies of any kind can't deal with individualizing. They exist to push things through the Bureaucracy. If our kids fit into the mold they've created, great. Otherwise, too bad. Of course, they HAVE to individualize to some extent, but they're just not good at it. This is possibly even truer in larger districts because they think there MUST be something that fits the kid. Knowing the law is the tiniest first step. Knowing how to convince people to go along with the law is at least 90% of the battle. I'm still battling after 14 years of this. That's not to say everything has been bad. And now parents can DEMAND results because PROGRESS is the name of the game under IDEA 2004. If your child does not meet state standards, you have a leg to stand on when you demand more, better and more intense services. The "I" in "IEP" counts for very little with SD's. But they DO understand test scores. They know that scores that show lack of progress under their current system are going to come back and bit them. So use test scores that show need to instigate better help for your child.[/QUOTE]
I totally agree. When setting IEP's we have had alot of luck with very specific goals. Then there is less wiggle room when the scores come in. I have seen IEP's where the goals were not specific and the scores really didn't mean much.