Just curious how to go about this. We will have our IEP meeting the week before school starts. I have absolutely no faith or confidence in my son’s current resource teacher. Listing all of the reasons would be exhaustive. She is the only one we have for language-based disabilities. My son says she confuses him when she tries to help and his work shows this to be true. The only other resources available are the aides who are rumored to be as qualified as a babysitter. Can I request that someone else (who is qualified) be brought in? Will the law support such a request? We can’t go through another year of her shenanigans.
Re: requesting an effective resource teacher
I think it would be easier to go up against the school to have them pay for a private school for you son than to work to get the teacher changed.
I know in New Jersey (from the parents rights handbook) that you can have a hearing if your childs needs aren’t being met by the public schools. I know of a friend of a friend who did this and won but her child had severe difficuties. Some schools will agree just to get your child out if they know they aren’t meeting your needs. There is a school in my area for children with severe handicaps and I know the public school sends kids there.
Have you been documenting everything well?
I would also obtain documention on the programs they are using for your son. I wonder what the court would say if you could prove the programs they are using are ineffective vs other programs the you could find that have been scientifically proven to be effective.
I know that the schools in my district use programs that have no scientific basis and that they are not working in the schools. (One on one tutoring with reading recovery with a 50% success rate at least in one class I know about) If someone felt like going up against them in court I bet they could win.
Re: requesting an effective resource teacher
thanks for your advice. i think you are right about looking for private placement instead of trying to get the teacher changed.
do you know how i would go about requesting what programs they used specifically with my son? i have asked what the district uses and got many raised eyebrows. they know that something is up. my hunch is that they do not keep records but i don’t want to give them any indication that i assume this. because if it is the case, i hope to blind-side them when i bring our advocate to the next iep.
at the last iep, my husband asked, “walk us through a typical day with our son, what do you do with him?” it was like deer trapped in the headlights, no answer, lots of fumbling through papers. the sped director quickly changed the subject and we were never able to get the topic back on track. i did tape record the meeting though, ha ha!! (they were aware of this).
they have jerked us around for three years now and i do not want to give them any inkling that i intend to hang them up to dry. so far i have been very successful in getting info by playing “the stupid parent who asks alot of questions” by e-mail of course (that way its in writing). any suggestions, because the sped director is a real bulldog and the sped teacher is useless. sorry to be so harsh but i am at the end of the rope.
Re: we partially homeschooled our son
We partially pulled our son out of school mid second grade because of the resource teacher. I brought him in at 10—after he would be back in the regular classroom. I debated putting him full time in the classroom instead but he was too behind to benefit. He made progres with me.
Then when school was about to begin last fall, I sat on the couch very depressed about dealing with it all again. I cheered up when I found out the next day that the resource teacher in question was GONE!!!!
This year we have had a much better year!!!
I thought about legal action but decided I couldn’t handle the stress. Fighting was stressful enough for me. I was much happier once I didn’t have to deal with it all.
Now, in my district you can request a transfer to another school. That’s what I should have done—and would have kicked myself for it had the teacher not changed.
Beth
I had to move my daughter out of school to get her remediation as I had more training and knew more than the Resource teacher, during heated IEP meetings the same old song and dance game up about her willingness to get training and following the IEP but the reality was she was unable to fulfill the IEP.
What the IEP team offered me was placement in another school that was about 20 miles away that they would bus her to with a more restrictive program that they felt would meet my child’s needs. I looked at their location and found it unacceptable. I even found an RSP teacher that I wanted to work with her that was extremely competent but they fought moving our daughter as it was an impacted program! I was so frustrated but I still went through their hoops but I ended up pulling her out and doing my own thing. Ironically, I saw this same RSP teacher the other day while I was subbing and she told me that she finally got the same training I had and asked how my daughter was doing. I told her my daughter is doing great…she smiled and we were cordial..that was absolutely amazing.