To Nymommy of 3,
there is a progress report that you get about 3 times a year but not a face to face meeting unless you need to change something. We had to add the OT because the eval had finally come back after my son started K, but we did this over the phone. You can request to meet with teacher, just like with any student, and/or with therapists but some of the therapists are part time.
To Rockabillychick,
If it gives you some perspective, being diagnosed at 2 means your child gets early intervention which can be very effective. I bet I am not the only one here who WISHES we had figured it all out at that earlier stage. With special classes for the past year, my son is doing great, knock wood...what if he had had three years of help and three years of his parents getting to understand the issues, before even starting kindergarten? I feel your shock at the 1st time diagnosis but I am optimistic for you.
Last thing, for everyone:
There is a book out, at the Scholastic book fairs and catalog sales, called Rules, about a 12 year old girl whose 8 year old brother is autistic. It's a chapter book, not too hard. I'm not done reading it but my 12 y.o. daughter ate it up. She cried but that led her to talk to me about her concerns for her brother and worries about maybe being set aside as he gets the attention.
Take careALL parents MUST be informed about progress toward at least as often as general ed kids get report cards. In most Districts around the country, that is more often than 3 times a year. Check with your own District about how often kids your child's age get report cards. That is how many times you must get written progress reports on your child.Is it typical? I'm not sure, but the School my son goes to will call one if his behavior is going down hill. And I will call one if we see problems arising. Right now since my son just started Middle School at a new School we have it written into his IEP a meeting every 9 weeks, unless there are problems then it's more. I am having my fourth one today, to see if progress has been made since the last meeting. Last Year we only had two IEP meetings the whole year. My son was very familiar with his old School and all the Teachers. You can get it written into his IEP if you can prove a need for it. By law you have to have a one, once a year.
You only have to have ONE CSE per year -- your Annual Review. You can have Program Reviews during the year any time. You can call the meeting or anyone else on the team can call the meeting. However, most often a CSE is only called when someone wants something changed in the IEP or if the CSE planned to call a meeting to review a big change that went into place at some point (like a change in placement and the Program Review meeting is just to make sure this big change is working). Otherwise, you can call an informal team meeting (how to do this depends on individual school policies. You are also supposed to be informed, in writing, of your child's progress toward goals at least as often as other parents of same-age children in your district are informed (ie, reports card periods).
I should know the answer to this after going through so many CPSE and CSE meetings, but now that Nick is in "kindergarten", I'm not sure.
Is it typical to have a meeting called 1/2 way through the school year to talk about how goals are being met, etc.?
Nothing has happened, no one has said anything to me, but I'm just wondering if this is something that is done or not.
Sometimes this is done for different reasons. I would ask around a bit more. Either way it is not a bad idea. This way you can catch any problems before the school year ends.