Informing reg. teachers of goals

: 2 major ways:1. They always attend all or most of the IEP meeting. 2. I give them copies of IEPs and pertinent reports

Isn’t there any legality concerning distribution of the IEP? It is my understanding that the IEP needs to be in a locked place. How do you get around that if copies are made for the regular ed teacher? On the other side of the coin, I feel strongly that regular ed teachers who work with special ed students need to have that info. And they can’t always attend the IEP. I have been told by various people to rewrite the goal on another paper. This is extra work when I could mearly photocopy the goal page. These people have expressed concern that the IEP must be locked up and by giving a regular ed teacher a copy we are risking students or other people gettting a hold of it. My response to this is that regular ed teachers are professionals, just as special educators are, and as such are capable of locking these documents up. Am I way off base here, and has anyone else encountered this or been directed on how to handle this situation.Thanks: 1. They always attend all or most of the IEP meeting. 2. I give them
: copies of IEPs and pertinent reports

: My response to this is that regular ed
: teachers are professionals, just as special educators are, and as
: such are capable of locking these documents up. Am I way off base
: here, and has anyone else encountered this or been directed on how
: to handle this situation.I can tell you that as a parent, I had a nutty over this same situation last year. I had a run-in with the Spanish teacher because she was expecting him to do work that he would not have been expected to do in the regular classroom. It turned out that she had no idea he was on an ed plan. When I talked to the powers that be about the situation, I was told that this was priviledged information, and they had no right to share it with the “specials” teacher. (like Spanish) Fortunately, my son is in a different school this year, but I had it explicitly written into his IEP that his accomodations AND information on his condition (NLD) be required reading for any school personnel that had any contact with him. This was suggested by our Neuropsychologist and seems to have worked pretty well.I don’t know what the legalities of sharing this stuff are, but this is one way around it if it becomes a problem.Karen

: In theory each teacher can lock hers in her room in a file.

As a parent I got fed up with this issue and had it written into the IEP that an IEP meeting would be held before the end of the 5th day of school starting to go over the IEP with all teachers. I got tired of having to go individually to each teacher because I did not know if they know about my son’s IEP and accommodations. My son is fully included with some accommodations as use of computer.I think all of the students teachers should have a copy of a child’s accommodations.Helen

Remember that your regular teacher(s) are part of the IEP team. Your teacher should have a copy of your students’ IEP (only of those students with whom the teacher works). If your student has several teachers (as our students in junior high), you can provide a copy of the IEP for each teacher, or just the portion containing the goals and objectives for that class. Be sure the homeroom teacher has the complete IEP. Then you need to set up a system when you and the teacher(s) can talk about your student’s progress. At first it is a hassel because no one wants to take the time. But my teachers and I(as well as the teachers in regular ed.) are finding how effective it is for everyone to know the students’ strengths, needs, and what the students can be expected to accomplish. It also helps integrate the special education teacher into the mainstream of the regular teachers. Hope this helps.

Be careful about giving teachers “pertinent” reports. Never give anyone a copy of a psychological. Also, I have found that teachers prefer a summary of a report’s findings (e.g., “results indicated that ‘student name’ has central auditory processing deficit which means that the student will probably have difficult with sound/symbol relationships and needs to be taught to read through other methods)There is a confidentialty issue which you don’t have to worry about if you don’t give out copies of reports. Of course, parents have the right to have copies of all the resports they want.

: In my district(s), general ed. teachers have access to student records, including psychological and other assessment reports. They are all filed in the CUM and CUM files are double locked at night and holidays.

Anitya, be very careful about giving copies of all those reports out. Your district special education office should have a copy of a “need to know” list. This list mentiones those persons who can have access to the special education documents. Compare that list against those persons who have access to students’ CUM files. If all teachers have access to students’ CUM files, then you may have a confidentiality issue. Check FERPA guidelines.