How to have a successful IEP meeting..

Sometimes, you might feel as if you and the school are working at cross-purposes.  One thing to keep in mind is, in general, both sides are focused on what is in your child's best interest.  Sometimes, you may even be saying the same thing, but with all the educational jargon that can get tossed around a meeting table, you may not feel like that is what's happening.

Some rules to follow to ensure you have a successful IEP meeting include the following:

1. Know what you want for your child.  This can encompass both the types of setting you feel he or she will be most successful in, and it means the goals you have for him/her.  Do you want her to be able to tell her times tables through the 9s? Do you want her to be able to understand a grade level chapter book?  Do you want him to be able to write a sentence using nouns and verbs? Do you know that he will do better on tests if he is allowed to take them in a separate room?  If you know what you want to see for your child at the end of the school year, you can help guide the process.
2. Try not to blame, or criticize.  This can be hard, because this is your child, and nothing brings out the Momma Bear like a momma who feels like her child is being short changed.  If you feel something is not right, take a deep breath, and ASK for clarification instead.  A simple "Could you explain that to me a little better" may open the door to better communication and a greater understanding on everyone's part.  You may certainly exercise your right to disagree with what is being discussed, but if you can keep away from blaming others or criticizing the school or personnel, you will to a long way to fostering a positive interaction.
3. Seek solutions in which everyone can win.  Keeping in mind the limitations that may be on certain schools or districts, if you can work with the team to help develop solutions that meet with the best of what everyone wants, the team will move forward and progress can begin for your child.  Offer what you know works best - does your child respond to positive interventions? Would a time-out be better for changing behavior? Would it be better for your child to take a test a few questions at a time rather than get overwhelmed? Ideas like these can create win-win scenarios at IEP meetings.

And remember, you don't necessarily get what you deserve - you get what you negotiate.

Educationally yours...


The SpEd Guru

My child has an IEP.. how can they get an F?

This is one of the most common questions I get as a teacher. Students with IEPs are entitled to many benefits to help them be successful in the classroom setting, however, the students still need to be part of the process. Here is what I mean by that.. So long as the accommodations are being met in the classroom, a student with an IEP still has the right to fail. An IEP simply levels the playing field; your student still needs to be willing to play the game! In fact, in my professional opinion, a few of the accommodations we allow in our IEPs actually are detrimental to the later success of our students with IEPs. "Extended time on assignments" is one of such a beast. This accommodation recognizes the fact that many students with learning differences need additional time to complete a task. We allow for assignments to be turned in late for full credit. This works reasonably well when a student is in early elementary school but by the time he or she gets to middle school, the following scenario happens like clockwork: a student knows he has extra time to complete an assignment, and so rather than doing what he can when he can, procrastination takes over. Soon, that student is facing not only the end of a grading quarter, but an amount of work to complete that has snowballed beyond all reason! Rather than allowing this to happen, a more reasonable and appropriate accommodation for extended time should read more like this: "Johnny will receive assignment X number of days before his peers to allow for extra time to complete the assignment." All assignment due dates are solid and there is not wiggle room on the back end with just changing the assignment time frame. If accommodations are not being used appropriately in the classroom, and you feel your child's failing grade is due to this, please have an open dialogue with the teacher and with your child's special education case manager. Perhaps your child truly needs more modifications to the curriculum, but if all parties are in agreement that modifications and accommodations are reasonable and being enforced, at that point, your child's failure or success is up to him. Remember, while no one wants to fail a child with a learning difficulty, the child still needs to hold up his or her end of the gig.

ACK! We're moving!! Will my child still be entitled to his IEP at the new school?

This is an excellent question! Under most circumstances, the answer is YES.  If your child has a current and valid IEP (meaning there is appropriate testing within the last 3 years to back up the need for SpEd services and the IEP has been updated within the last 12 months), then any school you attend must recognize that need.

There are, as you might expect, a few areas where things get sticky. If the IEP is out of date, or the services are not something the current school can offer, a new IEP will likely need to be written.  If accommodations are not something that can be offered in the current school, the IEP will likely need to be rewritten. If the goals do not match services offered, then the IEP will likely need to be rewritten.  What this means for you, the parent, is simply another meeting.  The burden during this process is generally on the special education teacher and staff of the new school.

You may run into problems, however, if your IEP has not been updated in the last 3 years with updated testing or, at the very least, a review of existing data.  Per federal guidelines, a student who qualifies for special education must be re-evaluated every three years.  Generally, this means the same battery of tests (or something very similar) which were used to determine eligibility in the first place.

If testing was done, say, when your child was in the 2nd grade, and then in the 5th grade, the school chose to use a 'review of data' to continue to find him/her eligible, well, now that original data is pushing 6 years old and may no longer be valid.  What can sometimes happen, (and this is really a GOOD thing) is that after enough time has passed, the student may have closed the achievement gap that originally qualified him/her for services.  This means they may no longer have a learning disability!  While this is excellent news, because we really don't want our children "disabled", it is scary to both the parent and the child to think of a new school without supports.  Often, the IEP can be written in such a way as to monitor progress for a semester and see how things go.  Should the student not make progress, the team can reconvene and see what may be done next.

So, what can you, as a parent, do to ensure a smooth transition to a new school for your child? Most importantly, please tell your new school that your child was receiving services.  In my years of teaching, I have seen many instances where students literally get left behind because the parent did not tell the school that the child needed services.

Remember, your child's psychological file with their school WILL NOT be automatically forwarded. The receiving school will need to request records, and that can often take some time.  Until a current, valid IEP is in the school's possession, the new school is under no obligation to provide services for your child.  In order to side-step this, I always recommend parents bring their OWN copy of a valid IEP to the new school.  Once your child is enrolled, and the school has something to work with in terms of an IEP, then the request for records is not as vital or time-sensitive.

It's my first IEP - what does my signature mean?

Many parents and guardians are concerned about what their signatures mean on the front page of an IEP. That first meeting, and in truth, any and all subsequent meetings, can be intimidating.  You will likely have a table full of people who seem to know more than you do about your child and his or her needs. You may be overwhelmed with test scores, accommodations, goals, and so forth. You know you signed a few pieces of paper, but in looking back on it, you wonder.. just what did I sign my name to, and what does it all mean??

One of the first things to remember is this - your signature on the IEP front page does NOT imply that you agree with the contents of the document.  It is simply an attendance form to show you were present at the table when the plan was discussed.

Other papers do not carry this caveat - placement pages, for example, specifically ask for you to agree or disagree with placement in Special Education.  On those, you are stating your opinion.. but the IEP signature page is simply to show you were there. Should you disagree with any part of the IEP, even after you have signed it, you are welcome to call the case manager, (generally that is your child's Special Education teacher, sometimes it is the school psychologist) and request an additional meeting. 

Just because an IEP team MUST meet at least once per year, there is no regulation stating that you cannot meet again before that year date is up!  When in doubt, call an IEP meeting!

My Child has ADD; do they qualify for Special Education?

Without wanting to come across circumspect, the best answer to this question is MAYBE.  There are certainly cases where students are serviced under Special Education who are not learning disabled or meet the criteria for having an emotional handicap. In fact, in my years of teaching, I have always had at least one, often more, students whose only "issue" is that they have ADD.

So how does a parent get to the point where their child gets the additional servcies that come with an IEP? Its not a short process, I want you to know that going into it.

And why does it often take so long for a student with ADD to be indentified as needing an IEP? I hope to address that point as well in this post.

Remember, the whole goal of education is to provide a FREE AND APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION to all students. Along with that, the federal guidelines established under 2004's IDEA show a push toward maintaining a "Least Restrictive Environment" for all students.  This regulation is in direct contrast to the way things were handled fifty years ago when students who didn't fit the typical picture would be sent off to either a special school or an institution.  Times have changed dramatically since then and I would like to think we have learned a thing or two along the way.

With that in mind, when a student exhibits behavior in the classroom, say, "typical ADD behavior", many things need to happen, in sequence, before a student is identified as needing special education. General classroom interventions are the first place to begin.  I will have a seperate post on things that have been proven to work with students who are easily distracted. When those classroom interventions show they are not successful, the next step in the process is NOT an IEP.  Since ADD is a medical concern, the logical next step is for the child to be serviced and proctected under what is called a 504-plan.  Just like an IEP, a 504 is a federally recognized, legally binding contract between the parent and the school, and it should lay out reasonable accommodations that your child is entitled to in order to help him or her be successful.

An IEP is advised for students with ADD only when other resources have proven to be 'not enough' to help the student.  Some parents do want to jump straight into an IEP once the diagnosis of ADD is handed down by a doctor (and remember, schools cannot diagnose. This is not to say that teachers are incapable of noticing the behaviors associated with a student with ADD, but since ADD is often treated with medication, it is only diagnosed by a doctor). I would caution them to do this for the following reason. 

The nature of an IEP basically states that for whatever reason, that child is "disabled". While that may be true, and again, in my years' of teaching, I have met students who were truly disabled by their condition, remember, no one wants to call a child disabled when he or she is not.. it feels wrong to educators, to parents and especially to the children affected.

So, the long and short of the question is this - can a child with ADD qualify for and receive Special Education servcies? Yes.  However, as a parent, it is your responsibility to ensure that your child is successful in the LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT POSSIBLE before placing him or her in Special Education.

Educationally yours,

SpEd Guru

Least Restrictive Environment

Many times, educators throw around not only acronyms, but whole word phrases such as this one above, without going into much detail as to what it means.

In accordance with IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2006, it is the goal to provide support to students with disabilities in an environment that takes them away from their peers as little as possible

There is an entire spectrum of "environments" from the very least restrictive to the most restrictive. Generally speaking, a student with a disability who is in the regular education setting for 100% of his or her day, without the support of additional professionals, would be considered in the very least restrictive environment. Adding the support of a paraprofessional would be the next step down, followed by the addition of a special education teacher and so forth. A full list of environments can be found at the end of this article.

Again, the goal of Special Education is to help a student remediate the skills he or she may be lacking, but to do so in a way that will not negatively impact that child, either socially or academically.  Looking at Least Restrictive Environment and ensuring this very fine balancing act is in place is paramount to both working within the confines of the law, as well as working in the best interest of the child.

Environments, from least to most restrictive, in the eyes of the law..

1. general education classroom setting with no supports
2. general education with in-class resources (push in services with either a paraprofessional or special education teacher)
3. resource specialist program (pull out services - this is your typical LRC pull out class)
4. special day class - may be a self-contained program within your school or district
5. non-public school
6. day treatment center
7. residential treatment center
8. home hospital

Educationally Yours,
The SpEd Guru

Making sense of acronyms

Do the acronyms used in Education drive you a little batty? Confusing as they are, teachers and administrators use these acronyms as easily as they breathe, often giving out the air that everyone knows exactly what they mean.

Here is a list of the most commonly used acronyms in Special Education, and their definitions.

• SPED - Special Education
• Reg.Ed or Gen Ed - refers to the General education setting.
• IEP - Individualized Education Plan
• SLD - Specific Learning Disability
• SLI - Speech/Language Imapairment
• A - refers to the Autistic Spectrum and its disorders
• OHI - Other Health Impairment
• ED - Emotional Disability
• OT - Occupational Therapy (often refers to fine-motor function)
• PT - Physical Therapy (often refers to gross-motor function)
• PLEP or PLAAFP- refers to a students Present Level of Educational Performance or Present Level of Academic Achievement  and Functionial Performance.  In other words, how is the student doing RIGHT NOW in school.
• WISC/WIAT/WJIII  - these are terms used to describe some of the most commonly used psycho-educational tests.

Your own state, district and school may have their own short-cut language too.  Never feel afraid to ask what those acronyms mean!! You have a right to know!!

Educationally yours,
The SpEd Guru