what si the craziest thing you have ever heard at an IEP?

After rivers of tears, years of frustrations, during the rigors of preparing for due process battles, we found ourselves in histerics over some of the inconsistencies that were right there in front of us on multiple IEPs, assessment histories…

“he understands basic math concepts, except when doing addition, subtraction, multiplication”

“he would have done better, had he been able to put pencil to paper” (very dyslexic child, not noted on assessment)

I wish I could remember more for you, but the memories/scars are slowly begining to fade…

By the way, our son will be 20 in a couple months, he’s in his 2nd year of college, working almost full time; and his last IEP was in the 3rd/4th grades! Yeah, there is some truth to time heals all wounds.

Andy

My son’s LD teacher told me that he thought my son was outgrowing his dyslexia, at his last IEP meeting. Hmmmmmm, never heard of outgrowing it, I thought you outgrew shoes and pants. OF course, the LD teacher still has the misconception that dyslexia means you write your letters backwards.

The Principal of the school told me at an IEP meeting that he did not have to follow a Federal Rule because every state was different.

Okay here is one,

At my oldest son’s IEP,his regular ed teacher,for whatever reason could not attend suddenly. They had my youngest son’s regulard ed teacher come instead. We started the meeting with “are you the reg ed teacher?” “yes”,”so you have worked with my son and know him?”,his answer: ” well no,but I know his brother really well”. The sped admin at the meeting immediately cancelled the meeting:-)

Got so much more….

Jesse is dyslexic? I didn’t know that! (After teaching him in the special ed room for 6 months)

My dyslexic son, who is an angel
for teachers, never any problem, is soon scheduled to work
on a computer program designed for dyslexics
in the Time Out room
with the Time Out security guy………..!!!

There is a loooooooooong story behind this, (isn’t there always!)
but our school psychologist has been wonderful in advocating
for my son and even getting this far has been a major undertaking
and any progress made was due to his hard work.

(but it still stuns me - the Time Out room!)

Anne

The sort of STANDARD comment in MA that follows is “We don’t have to follow the federal regulations because the regulations are chnging here in MA.”

And I was getting those comments 2 years BEFORE the regs changed here. But heaven forbid you should give a child a service now that he might not be eligible for in 2 years.

It took our school system most of that two years to get the idea that even WITH the changes in MA law, they couldn’t go below federal standards.

‘course I didn’t find it at all funny at the time :-/
Karen

We had a teacher tell us that at times our son didn’t seem to be listening to her… even though his IEP clearly states that he has a hearing impairment.

Karen

Principal left me a phone message: “Our intent is to follow state and federal regulations.” I replied back in writing that the reality was that they had violated six state and rederal regulations.

(Just trying to get them to stop breaking the law)

At first iep meeting 2nd grade- Your son has a brain processing problem that doesn’t allow him to “retrieve” all the info. he needs -to remember directions, find the answers in his mind or to answer questions instantly etc. They further went on to explain this is the way his academic brain works for every class - - but he’ll only need modifications in English. Took an hour of arguing, but I finally got them to understand Math is important too!

Recently, another son - I don’t think your son has ADD. He has a focusing problem and acts like all the other ADD kids in my class that aren’t taking their medication.

After “dancing” with my local district for nearly 8 months to get an Lovaas ABA program in place for my autistic son, (and doing a great deal of the leg work for the sped director) we had an IEP meeting designed to “bring him back into the fold” (we had pulled him the fall before in favour of homeschooling him). The IEP meeting itself was a comedy of errors, only some of the appropriate players there, a couple “from the district” who were subbing, and eveyone clearly reciting from script (and don’t think I didn’t have fun with them by asking many questions whose intent was to either get them to deviate from script or expose their actual lack of understanding of what they were saying). Finally, we respectfully declined the offering they made, choosing to maintain the homeschooling. We left them with “should you decide to get current with appropriate services for autism and provide us with Lovaas, give us a call”

Well about two weeks later the principal called me, and asked when we were bringing him in to enroll, and I said “oh, then you’ve changed your mind about the program?”

She replied “we are not going to give your boy lupus.”

Without missing a beat I said “that’s good, I hope you don’t give him cancer or ghonorhea either, but what about the ABA we requested?” I don’t think she thought it was as funny as I did, but then you’ll have that…

Try having it in writing from a doctor that your son has Dysgraphia and a severe reading disability caused by decoding deficiencies and needs to use a word processor, going out and buying a laptop with all the necessary software for him, and being told by the IEP team that he can’t use it in class because it is a “crutch”.

Then there was the principal who said even if I signed a “do not paddle order” he could still do it because our state law OKs it. This same principal tried to tell us the State Superintendant of Education isn’t his boss. He loved the phone call he got from the SSoE setting him straight.

Another son:

Below grade level in Math, but doing “Accellerated Math”? Below grade level in reading doing “Accellerated Reading”? Go figure.

It’s like our governor said, won’t those people ever learn?

Crystal

My son resists the help that the LD team wants to provide. We’ve gone round and round for two years with this. So far we have had no creative solutions. He does not want to be pulled out of class. They tell me that’s all they can do and if he resists we will just have to force him because he needs it. So being the naive parent that I am, looking for a compromise while keeping my son’s self respect in tact, I thought I might suggest in the IEP that we use a tutor after school instead of pulling him out of class. Well … . . when I said the word “tutor” you would think by the looks on these seven peoples’ faces that I stood up and shouted a four-letter word. I will never forget how that meeting came to a screeching halt at that point. The special ed director became very abrasive with me and quickly told me that using a “tutor” would be “denying their services!” Now that’s funny. I thought we were there working as a team for MY SON. Boy, did I learn a lesson that day! Five-letter words (tutor) are just as naughty as those old four-letter words.

Oh, I almost forgot this one, when I went to my son’s IEP meeting when he was in 2nd grade, the special education director told me that it looked like my son was going to be a non-reader. I didn’t know near as much about LD laws as I do now, but I knew enough to say, don’t even go there, adults learn to read and my son will to and it’s your job to find a way to teach him.

Yep, because the five letter word would have required another five letter word…..money.