IEP Question The main issue also is not enough people have proper asd training . All staff need how to deal with all types of SE kids. This I believe what is lacking in schools in general. I also feel ieps don't always have the best help either. Some just scale down lessons to hopefully work for a child. I found Daniel's ieps were not helpful. He is getting in his new class stuff never taught at all to any kids. Most of its stuff he should of gotten in younger grades. The style this teacher is doing I learned in school. Some of the old teaching methods were better in my opinion. I also have learned some are not getting enough therapy either. I believe in order for some to ever move out of se they need help in behind areas daily. I feel they expect us as parents to fill in at home what school isn't helping with bull if you ask me. This is what they are at school for. RNAn IEP is a legal contract.  Don't sign it unless you agree with it.  The ONLY way to guarantee that your child is getting enough therapy and the right kind of therapy as well as appropriate teaching is to get it on the IEP.  NOTHING that is not on the IEP is owed to your child.  By signing an IEP that is inadequate, you are legally agreeing that inadequate is OK.  If you are consistently getting bad IEP's, hire an attorney.  Or at least an advocate who KNOWS the local laws.  If you can't get something on an IEP, don't be surprised when your son doesn't have an adequate education unless you plan on picking up the slack at home, which many of us have to do. Wow!  I never even heard of a special ed. PTO.  The two districts I've taught in are both very small rural districts.  Again, I applaud you for being so involved.  I imagine you are right about the parents of autistic students being involved out of necessity.  I, too, hope my parents will be more involved.  I do know a little bit about the students I will have - I attended their annual reviews this spring, and took many, many notes.  I am not sure I am able to summarize their abilities yet.  But I will continue to come back here, and once I get to know them better, I may take you up on your offer.  Thanks so much, Karen     I was going to say exactly the same thing as Brent - all school employees should be trained.  Teachers' Institute days are ideal for that kind of training.  In response to tzoya, please be careful.  On our IEPs, a signature just indicates that a parent was present at the meeting.  I agree that it's important to get something on an IEP if you want the school to be responsible for doing something, but whether it's signed or not is not important where I teach.        As I mentioned on a previous post, I am a special ed. teacher, and I'm spending my summer learning as much as I can about autism in order to be ready for my kiddos next fall.  I just reread the posts on this thread, and I wanted to make another comment on what Brent wrote.  Brent, I work very hard to meet all the needs of my students, but I ABSOLUTELY do need my parents to help at home.  Even with 8 hours a day, there is never enough time.  I don't know about the quality of teachers in your area, but I do know that, try as we may, we can't do it all. I live in NY and, here, no one signs and IEP after preschool.  That is not required by law here.  It is ONLY required to get a parent signature when there is a change of placement, inital entry into the system, exit from the system or when trienniel testing is being requested.  However, from what many people post on this board, other states DO require agreement with the IEP and I believe it is required in all states at the preschool level, but I could be wrong.  The point is, each parent should ALWAYS be very careful about what they are signing and why.  Here, once I get a copy of the IEP the SD says we all agreed to, if there is an error, I get back to them immediately and have it changed.  If I misinterpreted what the District was saying, I will put in writing my objection to that IEP and ask for "pendency," a "stay put" is what it's called in some areas.  That way, the old IEP sticks until we iron out he new IEP. Eventhough not every state asks the parents to sign the new IEP to show agreement, every state MUST implement a stay put at the parents request until the issues are resolved.Karbie -- YOu sound like a wonderful, dedicated teacher and my son has been fortunate to have a lot of teachers like you over the years (he's 10th grade age now).  And I agree that all teachers and paras get training.  BUt there is a VAST difference between spending a professional day getting introduced to autism or reading a lot of material over the summer and having an aide or teacher working with your child who already HAS serious training and experience working with autistic kids.  This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to autism, which is a confusing disorder even to experienced people.  Our district had a staff autism consultant who was given the responsibility of doing a day's inservice with the aides in our District.  She was VERY discouraged.  Although the aides were REQUIRED to go to the in-service (they were getting paid for their time and it was during school hours), according to the consultant -- a very interesting and knowledgable presenter from the seminars of hers I've attended -- a large majority spent time polishing their nails, talking on the cell phones, gossiping with one another or zoning out DURING the presentation.  Most were resentful that they had to learn something.  They get paid minimum wage and felt that babysitting is all they should be expected to do.  The aides who really DO want to learn what to do are considered butt-kissers.  FOrtunately, NYS now is requiring testing for certification of paraprofessionals.  They HAVE to pay attention now. Tzoya, thanks for the kind words. I agree that one day of training isn't ideal.  I just feel that some training is better than no training.  As the special ed. teacher, I'm hoping to learn enough this summer that I can fill in where the training leaves off.  Among other things, I'm working on visual aides that my students will be able to use from one classroom to another, and I'll have to have it together well enough to be able to explain them to my inclusion aide and the other teachers.  I'm working on compiling a list of reliable web sites to add to my school web page as references for teachers, parents and students, as well.   I'm sorry to hear about the aide situation in your district.  Most of the aides in our district are very professional and take their jobs very seriously. It's great to see how involved you are in your son's education.  One of my major stumbling blocks has been a lack of parent involvement.  Keep it up!     Karbie -- I was the president of our school district's SPec. Ed. PTO for 6 years.  We have about 2,000 kids in our district who are classified into the spec. ed. system.  Any given month, I'd have 6 to 8 parents attend the meeting.  It was VERY discouraging, especially since they were the parents who were the MOST knowlegable and needed the help the least.  What I HAVE noticed, though, is the parent of autistic kids seem FAR more involved than the parents of kids with other disabilities.  That may be because autism has, until recently, been enough of an unknown disorder that even the teachers were sorely uninformed, so the parents HAD to get involved heavily.  It may be possible that the two autistic children you are getting will have similarly involved parents.  I hope so. If you know a little about these students (age, functioning level, verbal level, etc.), perhaps some of us can post resources we have that might help you a bit.  Of course, this is an excellent site -- better than any other autism site I've been on. Are you able to request in your son's IEP aides that are specifically trained in autism?  Would the school need to hire someone with this type of training if you request it in the IEP?  I just want to be ready when my son goes back to school.  I just don't want to be blindsided... Thanks! YOu can request it.  YOu can INSIST on it.  You can get it written into the IEP.  But good luck on actually GETTING it.  If none exist in your area, none exist. Try your best, but the most success I've gotten is to have an autism consultant come in and train the aide on the job. Not perfect, but better than the usual no training at all scenario. To answer your question directly, yes it IS possible to have an autism trained aide written into your child's IEP. Yes!!!  I don't know the specifics, we've not had to request it yet, but here is IDEA addresses it. http://www.cesa7.k12.wi.us/sped/discoveridea/idearegsmain.ht mThank you so much for your replies.  Horanimals, that link is very interesting...thank you.
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