Child and her IEP Please advise!

[Princess Nancy]

Maybe someone can suggest a better place for me to get info, but for now I am looking for opinions...

Grace is 11. SHe is in 5th Grade. She wears Hearing Aids, her IQ is low but not MR. She does qualify for help at school for reading, math and speech.
She is socially awkward. She is on an IEP.

Mostly she does OK at school with lots of help. She does better in the resource room than in the inclusion setting. Last year she was in the resouce room but this year they are really pushing inclusion. It has been an awful year so far. Conferences are next week and I am gearing up to go to battle I think.

Her district separates the kids by ability by class. She is in the lowest level. We just failed our 5th levy last night. So there are 32 children in her class. She even came home last week complaining about getting bumped into so much in the classroom. The size of the classes is appalling. Her regular teacher seems to have decided to ignore the kids like Grace who have the resource teacher. She never emails me back and I am totally incontact with the resource teacher. Grace comes home saying Mrs. P will not answer her. I think the teacher is just overwhelmed.

So ask me q's, tell me what I need to ask, suggest what I should do!

I am considering moving her to the Catholic school but the reason we are not there is services, but I think the small classes might outweigh the services.

Thanks!

 

[dunbarfamily]

Hmmmm...I won't give you the best answer since I'm very new to IEP and its only for speech for our kindergartener. I can tell you that as the parent, you know what is best for your daughter. It sounds like she is benefiting from the services the PS offers, but I understand the need to have her in a smaller class. If it were me, I'd fight as hard as I could to keep her in the resource room, as this is where she appears to be the most successful and have the most positive experience. It doesn't sound like inclusion is really even a great option becuase of how she is treated and the class size. That is a huge class.

Is it an option to have her at the Catholic school and maybe take her to the PS for an hour of services each day? I really don't know how that works. I thought services HAVE to be provided by the ISD to anyone of age in the district. I understand the Catholic school doesn't offer them, but if you could arrange transportation back and forth, is that an option?

I guess I don't have a lot to offer you besides support and encouragement to keep on fighting for the best for your daughter! She is blessed to have such a caring mama! Hugs!

 

[bdoyledimou]

My son has been in IEP for 6 years now (speech delay caused by temporary hearing loss during developmental stages and ADD which is actually caused by his regaining his hearing, and not being able to filter and prioritize the sounds he hears. To him, the sound of a clock ticking is just as important as a person talking)

If you feel the inclusion teacher is ill prepared, unable to provide the support your daughter needs, and have all your correspondence with the IEP/Resource guide, i think that's a strong indicator that she should be placed back into resource.

If you play it cool, and point out that inclusion is important, and you have tried it and it is clearly not working out for your daughter, that would be your best bet. (We went through the same thing, the first two years, grades and 7 DS was in inclusion for 2 months, then 4 months before going back to resource full time.. this year, in grade 8, he is back in inclusion, but is doing very well so far, even getting As in a couple of tests/projects where previously he was a D in inclusion)..

 

[bookwormde]

If he inclusion enviroment does not meet her need and if they can not "fix it" then have her move back to a dedicated enviroment.

Most inclusion enviroments are not well done ( to high a percentage of kids with needs, to big of a class, teachers who are not perpared for an inclusion enviroment etc.)

bookwormde

 

[Kat77]

I think you should go into the IEP with back up (Dh or good friend) and state exactly what you did here (and restate... I go into broken record mode). Then ask them what they plan to do to fix it because her needs are not being met and she is not progressing academically. Be a squeaky wheel. It may take leaving the meeting without resolution but sometimes you have to be that parent.

 

[chellt]

Federal law (IDEA) states that school districts must provide FAPE in LRE. That is free and APPROPRIATE public education in the least restrictive environment possible. If your DD was moved from a more restrictive placement (resource) to a less restrictive placement (inclusion) because she made adequate yearly progress, then great! If the move was made because they simply wanted to make a "move towards inclusion" then I would ask for data to support her move. You have the right to see the data that drove the decision making. You can call an IEP/ARD meeting AT ANYTIME to discuss your DD's placement. If my child were moved to less restrictive environment, I would want to know what modifications were going to be implemented to ensure her ability to succeed. The least restrictive enviroment is the goal, but not at the expense of the child!

 

[LoveKermit]

I am a high school teacher so my chain of command is different. I am a regular ed teacher who has experience with co-taught classes. I would be inclined to speak to the supervisor of the regular ed teacher (probably the principal). Maybe starting with the communication piece. When I co-taught there were parents I never heard from, they always went through my co-teacher. But if a parent of a child on the co-teacher's list emailed me with concerns, I certainly would address it, while CC'ing the co-teacher and maybe even the case manager depending on the situation.

If you think your child can handle inclusion, I would try to continue with it. But, again, I am on a different side of the group from all of you. I did have an Algebra class that was almost 50/50 regular to special ed and had about 34-37 kids on the rosters. We managed. Kids still learned algebra, we still had classroom management, she taught, I taught, we split the kids up as needed. It ran as it's supposed to despite the overwhelming numbers. If your teachers are committed, it can work.

You need to pursue the regular ed teacher.

(I hope I do not offend with my teacher jargon--not my intention)

 

[bookwormde]

Lovekermit,
I have to congratulate you for managing the class you described, How did the kids do with getting there functional curriculum generalized in the class (EF support, social skill , OT integration etc). This is an example of a class structure that is not inclusion. Inclusion is supposed to be no more than 25% classified students, no more than 33% classified and placed for needs students with the balance picked randomly from available general ed students. The 50% sped, large class size structure is precisely the type which have been ruled under IDEA to not qualify as a less restrictive environment with equivalency to the general ed classroom. It is just an administrative convenience method to save the money of having to have 2 inclusion classes and having to hire an additional special education teacher.
I am wondering how much more you think you could have done to meet all the students needs (both academic and functional) if your school had followed the intent of IDEA.
Thanks for your dedication and skill.
bookwormde

 

[LoveKermit]

Oh yes, we were totally breaking the law. We had a student on the sped list who we never saw and we didn't tell anyone, just to keep our numbers wrong so they wouldn't add more students.

And by the end of first semester, we were probably closer to 35-40%, so I was exagerating. But we modified, made alternate assignments, etc to cater to their needs and we split teaching duties. My second co-teacher was a little more proactive in separating needs, but both did a good job being a second teacher as well as meeting the needs of their students.

The percentage almost doesn't matter. The next year I was closer to that 25-30% mark but I had a student who was borderline paranoid schizophrenic--he tossed some desks around the first week of school (and was removed), the same class had a bipolar not correctly medicated (at first) and a selective mute who functioned at about 6th grade level. This was in addition to my regular ed kids in that class, 3 of whom bumped up to Honors the next year.

That was co-teaching burnout.

 

[Princess Nancy]

Thank you all SOOOOOO Much!

You have given me alot to think about and lots of info to look up so I am better educated. Mostly you have confirmed my feelings.

Love Kermit, I need to reread your post when it is quiet at my house. I do want you to know that I have emailed the regular ed teacher on several occasions and copied the Special Ed teacher, only to hear back from the Special Ed teacher. Most definitely I copied more people than I probably should! Like the principal or counselor!


THANKS!!

 

[carrie6466]

I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll give it a shot.

My 7 yr old dd is on the autism spectrum and in an inclusion class, albeit a smaller one. She also gets OT, Speech and is in a social skills group. There are 17 kids in her class, 8 of whom are sp. ed. I did call the advocate who attends my IEP meetings to find out what the law is, because I thought that was a lot of sp. ed. children in a class that only has a sp. ed. teacher for half the day. The other half there is a reg. ed. teacher and a reg. ed. teacher assistant. My daughter also has a 1:1.

Apparently the law in NYS is that they are allowed to have up to 50% sp ed kids in an inclusion class. The max is 12 reg. ed. kids and 12 sp. ed. kids for a total of no more than 24. I don't know how or if that would differ on a state-to-state basis. I would say if inclusion isn't working for your daughter, definitely call an IEP meeting and figure something else out that will work for her.

Also, pretty much all of my contact is with the sp. ed. teacher. The only other person I've spoken to, at times, is the school psychologist. The sp. ed. teacher seems to be the 'head' of the school's team. She relays information to me from any of the others and vice versa.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I can tell you from experience (both professionally and with my own son) that when going into an IEP, it's very important to know what you want for your child and to have specific reasons to back it up. We just had an IEP the other day for a child in my special ed preschool class. The mom asked for a placement in a regular preschool with an aide rather than being keeping her in our class. But, she really had nothing to back up her request. She couldn't say why that placement would be better for her child, except she figured a regular preschool would do more to advance her socially.

With my own son (who is 15 and has Asperger's), I have learned to go into an IEP with notes detailing specific questions and instances that are of concern to me. When I asked for a new placement, I had tons of documentation (including e-mails and notes on conversations with teachers) to back-up why I thought his current placement wasn't working.

If you want your DD placed in a different environment (even if it's just spending more time in the resource room), be sure to have plenty of back-up material to help you plead your case. I hope it works out for her!

 

[DisneyPups]

I don't have kids of my own, but I can tell you from the standpoint of the school... if you walk in to the IEP (or conference, if that's the stage you're at), it would be helpful to mention exactly what you said here. That you're concerned with the placement and you feel it may not be best for your child's education, and sufficient to meet IEP goals. From the school's point of view, it may have been a testament to the success of your child last year that they felt she was ready for inclusion as her skills were improving, and there are social situations that can't be recreated as well in a more restrictive environment. However, IEPs-- and class placements-- are fluid and working documents always. They need to be monitored and modified as necessary. If you share some of your concerns, as well as what your daughter has shared, they may see right away that placement needs to be reconsidered. Often times schools feel the pressure to "include" students because there are many parents OPPOSITE of you who want their children in the "normal" environment no matter what. Of course, communication with the classroom (non-special ed) teacher is a different matter and something you should bring up with the principal, if you have tried sharing your concerns with the case manager/teacher with no positive outcomes.
As for advocacy, if you cannot make headway on your own, please do your research when choosing an advocate. There are some that you pay simply to argue and they don't listen to what is going on, they just want to make waves. This is not beneficial to you or your child's education. Good luck!

 

[Princess Nancy]

Thank you all so much.

I felt like I had sooo much to think about this week. I also felt really supported so thank you for that!

I did alot of listening today. I am still thinking about if I want to call an IEP meeting.

I will update you soon.

I cannot tell you how much your kind words and suggestions helped today!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I know this is older, so I'm not sure if you have called the meeting yet. If not, I wanted to repeat the caution on using an advocate:

Do your research! I have had one exerpience with an advocate and it was horrible. The student needed a new placement that could better meet his needs. We had tons of documentation and had been in communication with the mother so that it was no surprise. The advocate came in confrontational, kept speaking up and I didn't know that the advocate couldn't ask questions, only the mom. (The advocate can give her questions to ask, but they need to come from the mom.) She really set us upt o be the bad guy.

It also really ruined what had until that point been a good relationship with that mom. In the end, she ditched the advocate and we were able to go ahead with the new placement. All the advocate did was create a confrontational relationship where there had been none and delay a much needed change in placement.

Not to say all advocates are bad. The other sped teacher had to deal with an advocate and that advocate was wonderful. Just make sure you do your research and find out if the advocates have their own agenda (I think the one I dealt with did).

 

[Princess Nancy]

Things are slowly getting better after the conferences. I am getting better feedback and communication from the teachers. My DD all of a sudden wants to be more independent and I am seeing huge strides.

Now if I could just make all the bullies be nice!

 

[LoveKermit]

Now if I could just make all the bullies be nice!

Yes, that's another topic for another day....