Per Diem Allowance for Transportation & update

[ALLISA]

Thanks to those who replied to my "happy news" post....

Steff..... ( and all ) I have read many times about bringing snacks/coffe. etc to meetings....but , after attending so many without bringing munchies ( bad advocate over here ).....would it feel contrived to suddenly show up with pastries ?? Has anyone else felt that way ?

MB.....my team and the special ed director have already "voted" us out .....I was the one clinging to the last hope of staying in public.....but after touring a few different ones....I am very happy with the decision and what it will mean for Erin. The only thing I need to now "convince" them of is all of her supports, etc staying in place and making no change to her current IEP ....such as 1:1, home training, bus monitor.

Which brings me to my point of this post......the school is 20 minutes away with NO traffic.....could be up to 40 if there is a lot of traffic. I have already made up my mind that Erin is NOT going on a bus, cab, or van......I need to be able to see her teachers, have that little extra conact vs. just the written notebook communication. And my fear of a non-verbal child by herself for that long is paralyzing to me !

So, I am opting to drive.....BUT.....I feel that the district should compensate somehow for gas & time ( as you brought up, MB)

How much is appropriate ?

I know that transportation costs are sky-high and I am happy to minimize the district costs in a small way.....but......my reality is that I have a limited budget, I work from home, so my gasoline expense is minimal monthly and that will be changing drastically.
Also my time for the 2 roundtrips will cut deeply into my work hours that are already very limited by school schedules.

If the district were to bid out for a driver for Erin ( with a monitor as she now has in her IEP) I think the cost would be incredibly high.

I have looked all over web to pinpoint transportation costs and what is customary but can't find any speicific numbers ( which I am sure vary region to region anyways).

Anyone have any links on this or thoughts on what is a "fair" request from me ?

Thanks.

[MB]

I think we pay .40 per mile when going out on Down syndrome business. Surely the school district has mileage costs in place for its employees who go from school to school.

mb

[momofrussell]

I think in IL they offered to pay me .40 cents a mile too. I know a general mileage reimbursement rate is also .32 cents. So... I could see it being anywhere from .30 to .40 and yes, they should be reimbursing you.

Also... YES.. BRING FOOD! Who cares that you never have before!!!! I went years without bringing food and I do it ALL the time now!!! They love it!!! Food makes everyone happy!! It's a great way to start a meeting!

I am sorry I didn't read your other post yet.. I need to get to that one! I am slacking on most reading here lately!!!!!

A.

[ALLISA]

Thanks guys....

I had looked all over the web....googling special ed transportaion cost....didn't think to google "mileage reimbursement rate" until I saw it hear in black and white and I found the exact thing I was looking for from the MASS DOE speaking specifically about re-imbursing paretns for transprotation.....thanks for the point in the right direction !

www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=2676


I think I am all set for tomorrow.....I have a few prepared things to say, and I think I have a good handle on what they will say...we'll see....wish me luck !

[momofrussell]

Well... how did it go? did you bring food? That's really all I care about LOL

A.

[CC]

"did you bring food? That's really all I care about LOL"

LOLOL A You are to funny...

I have never brought food to an IEP and for us NOPE never going to even now that the IEP's are a breeze BUT thats just me.

BUT saying that, I too an interested Allisa did you bring food??

CC ~

[ALLISA]

No I did not.....

I got very annoyed the night before the meeting because I got 2 different emails from the principal and teacher regarding some ongoing issues we'd been having and they were both SO uncoopeartive with helping Erin through some transitions that I just thougth " thank god we are outta here and I'm saving my $$ for coffe and pastries for the new school !"

Do you know that NO ONE from Sped or her teacher or anyone has even seen the school she is going to ? I've been 3 times, and going tomorrow for the 4th....and invited her teacher and sped people every time....they couldn't care less about seeing it.....as long as we are gone, they are happy......

The whole thing has left me with an extremely negative feeling......but at the same time, feeling very postitive about the new placement.

I almost don't even want to send her to school at all right now....would rather keep her home until we start.

[momofrussell]

Why isn't the IEP with the old school (teachers) and the new school (teachers). That's the way it should be. So, you had a IEP meeting with JUST the old school? Ususally with a placement change/transition like this, both teacher should be at the meeting.

Oh.. and CC... I don't bring food to my IEP's because they aren't a breeze... mine are pretty good meetings too. But I still like to bring food.

A.

[ALLISA]

YEs, the meeting was just the old school. It was a placement meeting ( we had her annual IEP last June) and at the time of the original scheduling of it, I wasn't even sure I was agreeing to an out-of-district placement,

So the meeting was scheduled to review what I thought of the places I saw, and what I wanted to do for placement ( the team had already decided on out of district and I was dragging my feet to be sure it was the best scenario).

So I gave them my reviews on the different places I saw and said I felt one was highly appropraite for Erin. It hit everything I had on my "checklist" and they said " OKAY" let's get her signed up and go forward.

The new school said they usually take the students in with the IEP in place, take 4-6 weeks to get to know the child and then reconvene to see if the IEP needs to be re-written. She said it is usual that the IEP goals from the public school are much more vague than they like and that they will fine tune them.