IEP annual reviewVery smart thinking. Planning is essential as presentation is a big part of getting a consensus to agree to services and placement in the I.E.P. . I understand how you feel and what you a think is best for your child. My son is almost 16 now(non verbal ASD) and I've been through the 'battle of the districts' with not just my son's district but with districts in almost every major city in the U.S. over the past 12 years as an Educational Advocate and Civil Rights Lobbyist for our kids. One key element I am not seeing within your post is whether or not an I.E.E. has been asked for. Do you agree with their assessments ? If you want a second opinion or a non biased opinion you may request an I.E.E. and the school may either grant you one or show cause not to in due process. Generally even the hardest districts in the hardest states will still pay for the I.E.E.. What his teacher wants to do is admirable - she seems to truly care. But, what an expert opinion in an I.E.E.'s report and recommendations/or school evaluations that are accepted by you are the basis for building the I.E.P. without personal opinion's working their way in. Input is always good and necessary, but sometimes even what we think is best turns out not to be (I've done that a few times). One troubling thing I am reading is that 'they don't want to wait until the end of the year to determine the level of support for the following year' . Although this seems to be a great teacher, waiting until the end of the year makes perfect sense. There are 4 months left in school. This is approx. 7.5% of the time he has been alive left ! So much can change - we never know. What kind of services do you have now ? The obligation to educate starts at age 3 so they should be giving you the services he needs. The social skills area is one that all of our children really need help in especially in the younger years to help them learn to generalize things. Not having him in school for 9 months could possibly hurt vs. help. Another issue you brought up.. you were afraid to ask for a 1:1 .. why ? What state do you live in ? Most states recognize 1:1 aides and the need for them with children such as your son who from what I'm reading has needs with coping skills or 'transition' in new settings or into different activities. Does he have any behavioral issues, sensory issues, speech and language needs, need for adaptive P.E., need for O.T. S. I. - now those are basic services that should be given. Almost all of our kids need help in at least one if not all of the above issues. The need for an I.E.E. seems to be clear. If you wait until they do the evaluation and don't like it, you'll be stuck in the middle of summer getting an I.E.E. and waiting for an I.E.P. in the start of the year to get him placed and off on the right track. If this were my case (and I know it's not !, but 'if') I would call for an I.E.E. on the issues in which need to be addressed or ask them to get evaluations done so you have documentation that suggests (vs. recommends in an I.E.E.) what should go into the I.E.P. . After 12 yrs. of Advocating I can certainly say with confidence that stating in early Feb. that a child will not be ready for the next grade in Sept. .. 7 months away.. is looking at the glass half empty. That is just my personal opinion and I give great value to yours - Mom always knows what's best - usually. I would just take it day by day working towards goals and giving him every opportunity you can to learn...and hold the IEP at the end of the year to give him a chance to excel . We all want what is best for our kids and I understand that many make great relationships with teachers as they are truly 'advocates' of sorts. Give it a long thought and discuss it with other you know, I always say keep an open mind and you have an opportunity to fill it ! I'm glad you and the school had a good meeting in which you came home with shared concerns vs. having one of those 'I.E.P.'s from hell' !!! Contact me at Peace4kids@yahoo.com if you ever need any assistance. We do nationwide teleconference IEP's , consults, etc. at no cost. We do Due Process on a case by case basis. Have a great evening, Michael E. Robinson, Sr. Lil Mikey's Dad www.officeofautismadvocacy.com This IEP is based on an evaluation that is 1 year old. He has made a lot of progress since then, but the same basic issues are still there. Right now he is in a Special Ed. PreK class with 3 other children. He receives ST, OT, Adaptive P.E. His sensory issues are addressed pretty much on a continuous basis in his classroom. They tell me he is doing really well in the sensory lab. On his IEP, mild artic. disorder, mild delay in expressive language and pragmatics are the only things addressed concerning ST. He has delays in gross, fine, and sensory motor skills and, of course, he has social concerns. He doesn't have behavior problems and at this point, our only concern socially is whether or not he can tolerate the chaotic times of a regular education class. He likes calm and quiet. His teacher has been working on including him in more "assembly-type" functions so he can get accustomed to being around more students. I think they officially call this, activities with non-disabled peers. Right now, this occurs during library and assembly time, lunch and recess. But he has his teacher or one of the aides with him during these times, plus my daughter just happens to be in the cafeteria during the same time. That really helps because she has a good connection with him. This week, he attended a school program with his teacher. There were several grades present so the auditorium was very loud (to him). That is something he has a hard time coping with, but his expressive speech has gotten so much better, he is able to communicate his frustration. He still stands there shaking his head rapidly with his hands over his ears. I would hate for him to go through that every day at lunch time or recess in regular ed. kindergarten. That is where I think an aide would come in handy. Is that a reasonable request in a situation like this? During the assembly, his teacher was with him the entire time and there were no other students from his class present. She was able to kind of talk him through until the noise level in the room came down.
Okay, today we met for our annual review. I had a lot of concerns about B being ready for kindergarten in the fall. Originally, we were supposed to talk about that today. As it turns out, the teacher now says she shares my concerns about his academic progress. However, she says we all seem to be in agreement that he needs to go to kindy in the fall. I was afraid to ask for (even though I think he needs it) an aide for him in the fall. I don't think he necessarily needs one full-time, but clearly there are going to be times he needs a little help, especially with his lack of coping skills. His teacher said, "We all want to see him go to kindergarten in the fall, but we want to wait until the end of this school year to determine the level of support he will need." She stressed that they (the special ed. staff) will be there to support him the whole time. So I'm thinking this all sounds good so far. I just don't want to mess up since this will be his official beginning of school.
|
||
|
Copyright Autism-PDD.net |