I am in need of parental input. As some of you may know I teach 7th grade Interrelated, also called cross-categorical. Last year I taught 6th grade Interrelated so I am essentially moving on up with my babies. (I’m thrilled, their not!). I have a student who is OHI and receives 20 minutes of consultation each day after school. “J” started receiving services within the last 9 weeks of school and although mom new her son needed help, she was not too happy for him to receive sped services. During consultation I work with “J” on organization, making sure he wrote down his homework and checked for understanding of content, and remediate as needed. Towards the end of the school year “J” was needing more than 20 minutes per day and not wanting to say “Okay kiddo, time to go!” we usually went until 30 minutes. After consultation I sent him to the after-school program. When mom found out that the sessions went over the 20 minute mark she became furious and accused me of violating the IEP, which of course she was right. My question is this: I know that 20 minutes may not be enough for “J”, what will be the best way of approaching mom and suggesting that we may need an IEP review to see if the current time is sufficient? Or should I just see how the new school year goes, after all “J” may not need the extra time. How do you all think I should approach this issue? Am I just overreacting and should just leave things alone and try to plan for only 20 minutes? I hope I don’t sound like an incompetent teacher I just want what is best for my students and want to be on good terms with my parents.
Laurie
Re: Need input from parents
I’m not really getting a feel for mom’s reluctance, however, “J” doesn’t seem to mind the services. Mom doesn’t seem to want to open up to me and I’m not going to push it. “J” comes to me after school so the stigma of being in sped isn’t as pronounced b/c his friends aren’t aware of his situation. Or at least I don’t think that they are.
Re: Need input from parents
Okay Is this for real? Let me get this straight? The mother is upset that you violated his plan by giving him ten more minutes of instruction?
wow,okay let me see. I believe that on the IEP you can have a range of time.
Of course you probably already know this.
As for the Mom yelling about spending too much time,is it possible there are other issues? I might try the direct approach,and say,gee,no one has ever complained about spending too much time? While I suppose technically it is a violation of his IEP,I doubt filing a due process case would get you too far.Why do you have an issue with it? Your son doesn’t?
was he missing something in afterschool time?
Maybe homework wasnt getting done in the afterschool program like Mom wanted and kid’s answer was “I’m in with Mrs. Smith so long I don’t have time, Mom.” Or he was missing snack, or entering at a time when everyone asked-where were you?
Or maybe Mom has just not accepted it yet-I think everyone gets there in their own time.
I myself refused services for my son in first grade-ds had received extra help since 22 mos-I felt we needed to see if he could do without and we’d never know if we didnt give him that opportunity.
Midway through second grade I wanted services back(he was never taken off consultation so it wasnt starting over) Im sure the teachers thought I was looney tunes(after all THEY knew this would happen) but I had to get there in my own time and in my own way.
I would tell mom upfront you found 20 min wasnt enough last year and you anticipate the possibility of that happening again. You will not keep him longer w/o her permission but would it be okay if you dropped her a note asking for that permission should the need arise? And Id wait 6 wks or so before I wrote it-let her be ‘in control’.
Re: Need input from parents
I’d look for an IEP review in general — see if she’s willing to sit down and go over it. I’d take some notes on exactly what I did during the >20 minutes - basically you want to show his need and how it’s being met.
For some parents “coddling” is a huge issue. Often they wish/believe that gosh, a few Consequences For HIs Irresponsibility would be better than Doing IT For Him. And they live in terror of “What Is He Going To Do In THe REal WOrld????” If that’s the case, showing 1) xactly what you are doing -2) including all thestuff that the kiddo has to do — and then 3) the steps you are taking towards independence and not needing the help can really help. It doens’t matter how long it will take to get that independence, especially if you have criteria like “okay, when he’s written his assignments down 2 weeks in a row in Math, I’ll only check that every third day” or something like that.
You may, anyway, have to keep it to 20 minutes — in that case ask the parent how she would suggest you meet the unmet needs… and look for alternatives yourself, like an afterschool program “buddy.”
Re: Need input from parents
Maybe he’s missing the bus home or an after-school program that has rules about attendance; why can’t this student learn these skills during school? I’d think they should be part of a study skills curriculum for middle school students.In our middle school, afterschool time is for detention.
Re: Need input from parents
He stayed in after-school until 5:30 when mom came and picked him up.The after-school program teachers were aware of his situation and he is not the only one that is in the program and that I have on consultation. He did receive a study skills class, which is an exploratory class, however, his ADHD (he doesn’t take his med’s regularly) is within the severe range and he continues to have weak organizational skills. Often times I do have to make him go back to certain classes because he has forgotten to write down his homework. By pulling him during the school day I will have to pull him from a class and it still doesn’t mean he will write down his homework from the afternoon classes.”J” does miss snack in after-school, therefore, he is on a token economy and he works for a snack that I provide during consultation. Prior to services, “J” never bought a snack and views this as definitely a reward. During the eligibility meeting it was discussed that weaknesses in content is not a problem, his lack of focus does prevent him from receiving all necessary information, writing down homework, and in the words of his mom his “organization sucks!”. Therefore, it was agreed that consultation is at this time the most appropriate placement. The after-school program was supposed to help with homework, however, that has because nonexistent and “J” just wasn’t doing it at all. Mom reported that battles at home were becoming a norm and as a result “J“ ‘s behavior was worsening at home and at school. At the initial IEP meeting, it was decided to have the sped teacher work on homework at school and see if behavior at home and at school would improve. When school recessed for summer vacation “J“ ‘s office referrals dropped significantly. He no longer was misbehaving because the stress of completing homework was not an issue at home and his relationship with his parents has improved. Also, he was now coming to school prepared to learn which improved his relationhip with his teachers.
After seeing the responses from ya’ll last night, I called mom this morning and we chatted awhile. She has agreed to an IEP review which will convene during pre-planning. We live in a small community where issues like sped and anything related to it implies that you are “retarded”. After speaking with mom I inferred that this is more than likely the reason for her reluctance to increase the minutes. She feels that an increase in services means “J” is getting worse than better.
I know that this is quite long and I do apologize. I felt a need to get a parent’s perspective on this issue simply because I don’t have that understanding. This is very much a real case, at our school we deal more with parents not wanting services than those who push for sped.
Thank you for your responses ya’ll have been most helpful.
Laurie
Re: Need input from parents
It *really* helps to know what’s behind the attitude :-) If you can show her that this is a path to independent learning and more opportunities (such as college) and not the path to sitting homeless on a street corner or whatever her nightmares are, you might even get a parent who will talk to you about ways to add structure at home & get meds & things under control.
And if you can figure out what works, who knows, it might work for other disorganized kids in your school with or without labels…
Gosh. I would be thrilled with ANY extra time from a teacher. Is the son or the Mom embarrased by the fact that they are singled out for help? It could be denial or they must feel stigmatized in some way. I the parent has a problem, they can just refuse it.