Books teach nothing. The problem is people who are not doing their jobs and dislike parent's like me who will never give up. To be honest the whole system is flawed.
Actually, at least 60 days (if not 90 for some "give") prior to Jessie aging out of EI and into the school district, there should have been a transition meeting attended by your EI case manager and/or therapists, the school district's representatives (administration, teaching, diagnostician) and you. At that time, what was being done therapeautically for Jessie should have been reviewed, and a written request issued to the school district to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Jessie. The testing should have been completed and an IEP meeting held - with you in attendance - to have the IEP in place from the time she started in the district. In actuality, the correspondence that EI (should have) sent to the school district informing them that Jessie was aging out of EI and into their care is the trigger setting off the 60 day window of time for testing and her IEP in place. Get a copy of the correspondence (if it exists), and in the meantime write your own request for comprehensive evaluation to the district and get it there ASAP.
(By using "should" I am NOT pointing the finger at you! The administrative officials involved in both EI and the district know what their responsibilities are - they just feel it can be overlooked if a parent does not stay on top of it.)
At this point, if I were in your shoes, I would notify the school in writing that the comprehensive evaluation needs to be done, get copies of all the therapists' records from EI, and start keeping your own logs and records. Push to keep the therapies she was receiving from EI in place by the school until the services under the IEP can be substituted to avoid regression. If necessary, point out that, no matter who's fault it was (EI or the district's) it's in the district's lap now to rectify the situation.
It's a pain for a parent to have to do it, but ultimately we are our children's best advocates and supporters - we have a vested interest which makes it important to us. They don't. I recently told an administrator who was balking to "think of me not as Mr. B's mother, but as his case manager." That's literally what we have to become...welcome to the club!
Now we did have an eval done and a transition meeting (CPSE) in June and I remember being told then that later on in the summer we would have an IEP meeting. Then all sorts of chaos broke out regarding where Jessie would even attend school (another long story I won't get into) and since she was JUST placed last week the IEP escaped me until now
Will update you on any progress...... I've have a really tough time lately with this education process and Jessie's transition from EI to preschool. I know I should be more on top of things at this point but I'm REALLY trying. Well it dawned on me last night that - hey - does Jessie HAVE an IEP? I don't have a copy of one, I didn't attend a meeting of any sort recently.....So I call the school district and she admitted that Jessie DOES NOT have one, and put all the blame on the school she was attending through EI. Saying they should've sent it but didn't. I said "we didn't have a meeting", she said we could have a "program review" in Oct. She said the IEP is just the goals that her old school wrote down. I know I have a lot to learn but this doesn't sound right! Once again I don't know who to turn to for answers. Called the county and someone there is supposed to try to help me (my former EI coordinator) . I'm SO distraught and sick of dealing with this incompetent woman at the school district. Thank God for "From Emotions to Advocacy" - cause I'm gonna need it!!!
Going to pick Jessie up from school in a few minutes and will also ask why no one at the school could've told me they don't have an IEP for her...... The IEP is not just the goals the old school wrote down. It is determined by your current IEP team which includes you, Jessie's current teachers and therapists through the district. It may and can include others. EI is not responsible for the IEP just with the transition. No, that isn't right. I would keep calling people until you reach someone who takes care of this. I'm not really sure who the right person to contact is, but maybe someone else will chime in. Where to you live in New York State? The absolutely should have had an CPSE to CSE Transition meeting this past spring. At that meeting, the CPSE and the CSE sit down together with you and create a new IEP. At this meeting, a determination MUST be made of what the classification for your child will be. Nowadays, it's possible to go from Preschool Child with a Disability, which all 3 to 5 sped kids have in NY, to Schoolage Child with a Disability (until age 9 , if you like) or one of the 13 more standard classifications. This MUST occur for a child to get services in kindergarten. The SCHOOL DISTRICT is legally responsible for this fiasco. The old preschool is simply a provider -- it has NO legal responsibilty. http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/lawsandreg s/part200.htm Click on the above link and you will get to the Part 200, NYS's regulation of special education law. Click on both 200.3 and 200.4 to see what MUST be done. Also, 200.5 shows you ALL the legal ramifications. You can certainly lodge a STATE COMPLAINT immediately, if you like. Here is the official Procedural Safeguards notice: http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/pro safenotice/sept05.htm If you can have your child classified under autism, do it because your child will then be protected under 200.13, which you can click on, too. The NYS definition of autism is: 1) Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a student's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the student has an emotional disturbance as defined in paragraph 4 of this subdivision. A student who manifests the characteristics of autism after age 3 could be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria in this paragraph are otherwise satisfied Use the recommendations in FROM EMOTIONS TO ADVOCACY to start keeping records straight. Get a 3-ring binder and a 3-hole puncher. EVERY TIME YOU GET SOME PAPER WORK FROM THE DISTRICT and every time you send something in writing to the district, put the date received or sent in light pencil in the upper right hand corner. Punch three holes in the document and put in in reverse chronological order into the binder. That way, the newest correspondence is first. This is your MASTER FILE. Make copies from this but don't give out any of these originals. Put IEPs and report cards here, too, but don't put examples of your child's work here -- keep for that separately if you like. This Master File is ONLY for the official paper trail. I keep hard copies of emails I send and receive, but I keep those in a separate notebook. Please let us know the results of this illegal blunder. I'm in Syracuse Tzoya (Lyncourt School district). What I don't clearly understand I guess is that we DID have the CPSE meeting in June - should that have been were the IEP was discussed? This incompetant woman at the school district keeps trying to tell me that Jessie's IEP is simply her previous school's recommendations. I know for sure that is not true. I feel a little better now that VESID is involved, but to be honest - this school district has done NOTHING right for me from the git-go, it's not just this incident (as you might remember my complaining a week or 2 ago....). And then for the preschool she's going to now to say they DID in fact have an IEP for Jessie was amazing. She printed it out and it was basically blank! It was just a form that stated what therapies Jessie should be getting but underneathe the specific catagories for goals there's nothing. Is this unbelievable or what? And I'm certainly going to keep all my paperwork in order - have started already just like the book said.
Yeah, more to come on this one for sure...... we kept all his past grades actual work from each year.I would only take a different iep to return Daniel to school with our input also taken in.
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