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Post by laurasnowbird on May 11, 2011 9:02:38 GMT -5
You know what I love about Uno? I can post things here that I wouldn't put on Facebook because someone might tell someone else what I said......
We had a BIG meeting at Ethan's school yesterday. He goes up to the intermediate school next year. He's been in this school for SIX years, because 3 year old and 4 year old preschool, young 5s, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade were all in the same building. He's very comfortable there, and I'm worried about the transition to the "big school" next year.
We had a disaster of an IEP in December. I was NOT a happy momma, and while I was courteous, I was obviously livid, and adjourned the session after enumerating the reasons I couldn't participate that day (all things they had failed to provide to us for meeting prep). I've never gone into an IEP angry, and the fact that I was obviously angry (but politely livid, LOL!) seems to have made a big impression.
The IEP reconvened after the holidays and we met three more times, but we had fabulous meetings and incredible collaboration. One of the things I insisted upon was a joint meeting of the old and the new before this school year ended. We had a meeting yesterday with the principals of both schools, this year and next year's general ed teacher, both special ed advisors, both speech therapists, both occupational therapists, the special ed director, and the OHI (otherwise health impaired) consultant from our ISD.
I'm not too sure about the general ed teacher for next year, because there were too many people there for me to get a good read on her. The new ST is amazing! Has actually heard of Sarah Rosenfeld-Johnson, has her tools and is very open-minded. She asked US about oral-motor (after six years of the clueless ST at this school) and said she was certain we'd been doing it because when she observed Ethan in this year's classroom (one of the requirements of his IEP for next year's therapists....got it in writing so it happened) she said was amazed at his nice jawline and the musculature in his face!!! She had also heard of Lori Overland, and was thrilled that we are in touch with both of them and work with them for Ethan.
See what I mean about Facebook though? I wouldn't post that stuff about the ST there, because SOMEHOW it would get back to her, or my uncertainy about the general ed teacher.
I'm feeling so much better about the transition now. They also agreed to place a few hand-picked friends in Ethan's classroom next year. Cloud Nine!!!!
If you got this far, thanks for reading, LOL! I just had to get it all out!
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Post by Jackie on May 11, 2011 10:00:32 GMT -5
Laura...this all sounds good to me. Sounds like you have covered all the bases...and love the part about hand picked friends. You know in elementary school (when all this was new to the educators) they always gave Emily the best teachers and all of a sudden every parent wanted their child to be friends with her because the principal also hand picked a few kids to be in with her as well....LOL.
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Post by kg91207 on May 11, 2011 10:03:50 GMT -5
Sounds like a great team! It's good to hear about successful IEPs!!
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Post by laurasnowbird on May 11, 2011 12:17:57 GMT -5
You know what though, Brandi? It would have been an OK IEP, had we done it in December. And we would have gotten the services he needs, because we always do.
BUT, we were not treated well in the prep to the last meeting. Given no choice of meeting time, almost no notice, and they scheduled a time my husband couldn't attend. We didn't have the copies of evaluations the performed, and were given a song and dance by the special ed secretary about how they never give those to parents before meetings. I was NOT happy, as it has been our past practice to contribute goals to his IEP based on the evals.
Additionally, I don't EVER want my first glimpse of an eval to be in a room crowded with professionals. They never reflect his true ability, and they are often devastating to read. If we let ourselves see those for the first time in their company, we can't do our best advocacy for Ethan. Much of what happened was not the fault of the teacher and other team members, but it still was not a good scenario. We are a TEAM, my husband and I, and for them to sideline him in the process was completely unacceptable.
I attended the IEP, everyone was there, and explained that I was unable to participate because we were not given proper consideration as members of the team. I apologized for wasting everyone's time, but right up until the meeting time was trying to secure copies of the evals. A good part of what happened was a special ed secretary behaving like she was the gatekeeper, but the end result was an adjourned meeting.
When the meeting reconvened after the holidays, it was with a completely different spirit. My husband has always said my IEP style is a steel fist in a velvet glove. That was the first time anyone ever had cause to realize the fist was underneath that glove.
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Post by kg91207 on May 11, 2011 13:00:29 GMT -5
I got to attend a meeting with regional special ed people and parents recently, and one of the big things they talked about was exactly what you mention in that 3rd paragraph. that is just not right. So at least in Texas they are working on handling that better.
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Post by Chris on May 11, 2011 20:13:53 GMT -5
Laura,
I hope I am not stepping on toes or being too nosy but how does Ethan quailfy as OHI? Sarah started out as OHI because of her heart defect but was changed to CI when she had her first three year evaluation. I always wondered if the OHI classification could have gotten her more services.
I know we are constantly struggling with minor health issues. She has had a productive cough for almost two years now. We have gone to two allergists, her pediatrician (of course), a pediatric pulmonologist, a pediatric ENT and tomorrow we are going to see a pediatric gastrointerologist. I teach in a school with three self-contained POHI classrooms. I can say my daughter has as many health issues as many of those kiddos.
Now on the other hand, thank God, she is relatively healthy.
Chris
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Post by CC on May 11, 2011 22:13:08 GMT -5
Yea ~ Love when IEP's go well !!! We just had Christopher's on Monday, Kodi Lee went with me, she has gone in the past to see how they go. I am happy to say was a piece of cake ;D Sounds like the transition will go well for Ethan
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Post by Chris too on May 11, 2011 22:21:46 GMT -5
Wow, Laura, you are amazing. I would never have thought of having my husband there for an IEP meeting, but I think he'd be a big benefit. I never get evals ahead of time, even though the therapists try to get them in soon enough for me to read them ahead of time. I generally like the goals, and the services seem to be appropriate to Stevie's needs, though I would like more Speech time, so our IEP meetings are pretty much them reading past goals and Stevie's progress toward those, and then reading and okaying the new goals. We discuss transportation and my concerns for meeting Stevie's needs and for handling any issues I think might arise. We eat cookies and drink coffee, chat, laugh, and a week later I get the whole thing in writing. I read and sign the thing (or make corrections as needed), and we're done for a year. Am I a big push-over? I do ask lots of questions of the Speech therapist since she talks in testing lingo, but she's good at explaining what morphemes are and how they are counted and stuff like that. I don't think that Stevie ever speaks as well for therapists as she does for everyone else - I think it's an expectation thing. She seems to think that she's supposed to talk differently for speech therapists It's hilarious, really, but I don't care so long as they are working on her articulation along the way.
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Post by Googsmom aka Jennifer on May 13, 2011 9:22:12 GMT -5
Two things i'm banking into my memory....polietly livid *love it* and steel fist in a velvet glove *love it more* Those are classic!!! I'm so glad it ended up turning out well. I too, have to have the evals before the meeting. If I don't, no meeting. I scan them, disreguard the bull pucky ones, write VOID in red marker on the top and file them away LOL. The ones I agree with are talked about at the meeting. So far this year for kindy all has been going smoothly
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Post by laurasnowbird on May 16, 2011 21:24:31 GMT -5
@ Chris, I can't imagine doing it without my husband, and the language of IDEA says "parents", it doesn't say the school gets to choose only one. The meeting has to be at a time and place convenient to the parents, too. After the debacle in December, I've noticed they've thanked Rod for rearranging his schedule to attend during the school day! Even if Rod never opened his mouth (and there are some meetings he doesn't say alot) he is fabulous moral support, since there are so many more school staff than parents, LOL! I feel better just cuz he's there holding my hand!
I think one of the things that many parents don't realize (these kids don't come with an instruction book, and IDEA is 10 billion pages long) is that we have equal input into goals. The therapists and teachers sometimes have goals that I like, but that are difficult to measure progress against. Goals need to be specific and measurable. Other times, they need reminding that the REASON for the goals is an independent life for Ethan, and every goal has to pass our litmus test as a stepping stone toward that goal.
If you want more speech, increase the number of speech goals. It isn't very effective to simply ask for more time, they can just shoot that down. But if the goals you contribute are going to require additional time to meet, well then, they're going to have to find a way to get her more time with the ST. The school is accountable for her reaching those goals.
If at your first progress report you get information that says she isn't progressing at a rate sufficient to meet the goal, call the team together and say "Hey, I noticed that you think she's not making adequate progress on this goal (or I think she's not making adequate progress on this goal). We all agreed this was an appropriate goal at the beginning of this year, what are we going to do differently to get her there?"
@ Chris
I am totally confounded by that one. How in the world did she "lose" her OHI designation? There's no way that should have happened, and I would challenge that if I were you. I love the designation, because I don't have to do three year evals to prove continued need for services. He qualifies. End of story. We have never consented to IQ testing, and never will. I don't want any teacher teaching either "up" to a score, or "down" to one, if you KWIM.
Her designation shouldn't change her access to services, though. I'm not sure what they are doing differently in OHI rooms, but if you feel that would be a better fit for her, than I would advocate for that! What is different about the OHI rooms?
Gads, I'm still stuck on the lost OHI designation. She has DS, and it didn't go away at her third birthday. The wording of the regs in the state admin guidelines are pretty broad, and I don't see ANY reason why they would have changed her reason for qualifying......
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Post by kg91207 on May 17, 2011 15:06:32 GMT -5
My husband goes to every one too. Of course he's a teacher and knows the special ed laws well! I loved it when Kaelyn first started and they kept scheduling them at times he couldn't go, and I would tell them, no, you need to do it when my husband can be here. I don't think they liked that, but they eventually gave in and now they only schedule them during his conference/lunch times!
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Post by Chris on May 20, 2011 18:59:57 GMT -5
Laura,
Sarah became eligible for special ed services when she was evaluated at 5 weeks old. She was OHI because of her heart defect. By the time we had her three year evaluation, her heart had been repaired.
I teach elementary music and we happen to have two self-contained POHI classrooms in my school. There are 5-6 kids in each classroom with three parapros. Only one child is in a wheelchair. In my daughter's MoCI classroom, there are 15 children with one parapro. Most of the children in the POHI classroom also have a cognitive impairment. It is just about the numbers of adults per child that make POHI possibly a better placement.
Chris
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