I just had an IEP meeting last week for my 1st grade daughter.
She has severe CAPD. She has been receiving speech therapy
2x week and OT once a week for 30 minutes. She really struggles in
school. Well, I get to the IEP meeting and the SLP and OT
tell me that she no longer qualifies and they want to dismiss her from
special ed. I was floored. I argued but to no avail. I would not sign the IEP.
My child has been making A’s and B’s on her report card. How I do not
know. Well, I was a sub in her class and when I was taking attendance,
I noticed that nobody in the class got lower than a “C” on the report card.
The school says “A child making a’s and b’s doesn’t need help”.
Well in that case, nobody would need help because they don’t give
anyone failing grades. I am new at this IEP business and feel like
they are taking advantage of me. I asked that she go to resource
for math. They said no. She can’t even add and subtract. But,
she made an A on her report card. She receives no tutoring or extra
help. The school said that was up to me to provide that.
Can someone help me here? I don’t even know if it would be worth
it to fight for services because I doubt they would even try to help
my child after an ugly battle. My insurance won’t pay for speech
and OT. My child has an IQ of 107, had educational testing done.
all was okay except low in math. I get the feeling that the only
people who qualify for services at her school are severely
retarded. The speech therapy that she gets is with a group of
4 other kids on following directions.
The therapy they provide is not that great. I feel like my only option
is to pay for private therapy and go broke in the process.
It burns me up that this school could care less and that they don’t
care at all what happens to my daughter. They are supposed to be
providing this therapy, why do I have to spend my life savings?
Can someone out there who has been down this road before help me?
Thanks,
Stephanie
ps. they only qualified her for OT and speech after she was diagnosed
outside the school.
Re: help dealing with school
What state are you in? The students who get classified for special ed. in my state of Mass. are the children who: have one of the disabilities in the Federal definition, are NOT making effective progress in school, can prove their lack of progress is caused by their disability, and NEED special ed. to make effective progress. The problem is that in many schools this is the ONLY source of ed. help; it shouldn’t be, because lots of kids need extra help(who may have a diagnosis of language delay, or fine motor delay) who don’t meet the classification for sp.ed. You may need to continue services outside the school, and see how your child does; many children do not get classified as LD in first grade…most tests of academic skills don’t start until age 7 or so. I would push the regular ed. system to provide help for your child.
A lot of people don’t realize that the school can’t reduce or stop services unless the parent signs. They might try to force you into mediation and/or a hearing eventually. How long has it been since her last private language evaluation? If it’s been more than a year, you may need to have more recent evaluation results before going through a hearing. You are right. The grades are irrelevant, they are not standardized scores.