Paperwork

Lil,

I know what you are saying! I am in the same place you are. If there is all this paperwork, I would be interested in seeing it. The subjective, vague goals that are written on IEPs with the progress reported again by subjective teacher observation, where is all of this paperwork to back up their reports on progress. How do I even know they are working with my son? Is there a record for that?

They say they are working with him, I say he’s making no progress, so I ask for proof. Can’t get it from them. What the heck IS going on?

Be very curious to hear the responses.

Well, here are some of the things that I can think of off the top of my head: psychological reports, social histories, eligibility papers, classroom based assessments, test reports such as the KTEA, PIAT, etc., release of information forms, IEP progress reports, data collection (charts, logs, self-monitoring charts, checklists, grades, etc.), the IEP’s themselves (which might not seem like a lot, but when you have to write them they can take a good hour or more unless you’re being vague and not very descriptive in the PLOP), and hosts of other reports that go in the child’s special education folder. I teach a self-contained class, grades 1-5, so I have standards of learning as well as IEP goals to incorporate in to lesson plans, which have to have an objective, materials, process, & evaluation-no to mention that I have four reading groups and four math groups in the class. I have papers to grade for 14 students and while our grades are in a computerized gradebook, it takes me longer because where a 2nd grade teacher has buttons to click to access only for reading, math, science, history, etc., I have to go back into the screens for first grade math, science, etc., 2nd grade science, math, etc., and so on. Not to mention that I only have 2 real 40-minute planning periods per week & the children are in the classroom for one of those.I think planning is a problem for most special ed. teachers. There’s also attendance, lunch counts, and all the other things that regular ed. teachers do.

I too am a special education teacher and I concur with what the previous poster is stating. When sitting in IEP meetings, yes the IEP is being written at that time, however, IDEA also allows us to fill in other areas of the IEP and this is usually done on our own time. When sitting in a meeting, if it is held during the school day, I must then prepare work for the substitute, inform the sub what needs to be done, make sure I have all the necessary paperwork. If the meeting is held after school then all papers that need to be graded are put off to that evening. However, we are required to do a tremendous amount of assessments, reports, and paperwork required by the school and the system.Not to mention all the paperwork must be filed away usually at the board of education office. My principal expects me to do this on my time. I have a 90 minute planning everyday, however, IEP meetings of all types, grade level meetings, parent/teacher conferences (I also teach one general education class), district meetings take up those precious minutes.Because I have a full caseload of students (25) and in order to streamline the annual review meetings, I have to write a rough draft of an IEP (allowed by IDEA) in order to make the meetings go by quickly and smoothly. Again this is done on my time. Since the start of summer vacation, I have spent two days a week at school trying to prepare for the upcoming school year. I have no paraprofessional to help so I am on my own. When attending a meeting with your child’s teacher please understand that the paperwork that you see being completed at that time is only a small amount of what a special education teacher completes on a daily basis. Everyday I watch my general education co-workers leave at the appropriate time and I am sitting at my desk with a pile of work left to do before I can even go home.

I hate to sound callous, but this is called WORKING in the real world. We all have jobs that require bringing work home at times. And I get 15 days of vacation, mandatory overtime and alternating holidays off. Other than service jobs, there is rarely one that you do not have to spend your off time and money on work-related issues.

The original question was, what is all of this paperwork, can we see it, why is it inaccessible and not brought into the IEP meetings or given to parents to help us make educated decisions about our child’s progress. What is the big secret behind the so-called paperwork mountain?

I have to say, that in the 3 years that my son has been under the charge of the same sped case manager, I have not seen ONE of the reports that you mention.

I had requested all of his educational records three months ago, none of this was in there. The progress reports on the IEP goals are poor copies written in microscopic handwriting, three words long and dated the day before the IEP meeting.

As a parent, I want to see this data that sped teachers/case managers use to report on my kid’s progress. How am I an equal player in monitoring progress and developing new goals if I do not have access to the same information the school supposedly has on my child?

Our progress report is TEACHER OBSERVATION. I have tried to bring in yearly achievement scores as objective data (to be used along with classroom work) and have asked that the sped teacher use objective testing along with her “observations;” can’t get it, there’s always the excuse of we just don’t have the time. Is this acceptable? I don’t think so, not when my child’s report card says Cs and when I average all the work together and get Ds and Fs. I want to have access to how they come up with the “he’s doing just fine” report at every IEP meeting. My definition and interpretation of scores is not on the same page as the school.

How do I get access to all of these reports that you mention?

Yes in this day and age we ALL work hard both parents and teachers. What good does it do for us to sit and blame each other. What achievement tests did you try to bring in? Were they group tests or individual tests? Group tests are not as accurate as individual tests and will show much more varience then individual tests. How closely were the tests given, how close do they match the cirriculm your son is being taught? Is he behind enough to be put in a self contained classroom where the typical student is several years behind? Would you want your child placed in such a class? How many LD students are in your sons class? school? How many resources available? If your son is behind and not making progress why not bring the school to due process? Are you sure the records you got were not just what the school had. Maybe you should ask if there are more records. To get an idea if he is making progress before the IEP due a quick test yourself. There are books out there for what every for example 1st grader should know. Get the book that corresponds to your sons grade and see how much of it he knows. Or have him read a book to you to get an idea of grade level. Then you could go to the IEP and say from what I see helping my son with him homework or helping him does not match what you show. Just some ideas.

If you are not satisfied with the answers that you are receiving from your child’s teacher, then you should contact your school system’s special education director. If that doesn’t work you are given a copy of your rights at each and every meeting. I suggest that you review these rights and decide how you want to proceed. As for the statement about the real worldI certainly understand how it works. I have been in it long enough to comprehend that concept. However, the issue that special education teachers are concerned about is the fact that paperwork takes away from the reason why we are teachers: to teach children with special needs. My point in my response was not to complain about the amount of time spent completing paperwork, but because of it I have very little time left to plan appropriate and effective lessons. Your child’s teacher should be supplying you with the information that is documented on your child. My parents have a copy of everything that I have on their child. When I conduct an IEP meeting I bring the child’s file with me, and my file is an exact replica of the parents and the county office file. I encourage my parents to look through the file to see if there is anything that is in there that they don’t have. If there is I will make them a copy. Not all teachers are like this, and I am sorry if yours isn’t. In closing, I hope you find the answers that you are seeking and have a blessed day.

Thanks for the feedback. I think about 75% of the information in my son’s folder has been provided by me (and that is really testing results, and some information on his identified disabilities that the school district didn’t have). As far as I can tell, and I do listen and watch very closely, no one ever looks at his folder until about 5 minutes before every IEP meeting (I had 7 last year, because the sped heads just didn’t listen - I pulled my son from the resource room - ugly situation - and am tutoring him myself this summer - that is an entirely different story).

My biggest concern is that as I have read info on the IDEA reauthorization (spasmodically), I have seen one of the big items is a reduction in paperwork. In my son’s case, I can’t determine how there can BE less paperwork from the school system. In my son’s school, special ed seems to be a cake job - no accountabilitiy, no research, no required training, not even a response to a parent’s request for a meeting to go over progress reports (that’s one of the reasons I have had so many IEP meetings - the response from sped head is that if I have a question, the only way to address it is in an IEP meeting). My son’s general ed teacher did far more tracking for ALL her students than the resource room teacher did. And she has more kids!

Actually, I have a very good friend whose daughter was totally self-contained in this particular resource room from second grade through fifth. She improved on an average of 1.5 years on tests such as Brigance during her almost 4 year tenure with this teacher. Now that she is in middle school, she has almost caught up to her peers in only two years - go figure.

I’m considered a problem parent by my school district, but my son has thrived under the tutoring I have given him this summer, that I asked the school to give him all year last year. The reason I couldn’t do it during the school year was because of the ADHD meds he was on - they ran out about the time his homework was finished, and if I gave him more, he couldn’t sleep. Isn’t that part of what special ed is all about?

So I get really confused when I read information from other resource room (special education) teachers! :)

Lil

I am sorry that your child’s special education teacher wasn’t of any help to your child. Special ed. teachers do not pretend to be perfect, and by any means are we. I will say this much, your son’s school is an exception. In the school in which I teach, special education teachers in all exceptionalities (SID and PID included) are held accountable and do answer to an administrator if progress is not being made. However, I am not sure how the reduction in paperwork is going to happen. I have read about many different solutions but none that I feel will be helpful. As to being a problem parent,they are the type of parents I like to have. Why? Because they are the ones I go to if I need something for their child. I can ask all I want and still won’t get it! Therefore, do not be concerned about being a “problem parent”. The “problem parents” are the ones who iniated IDEA. Good luck to you and your child. Be vigiliant with your special education teacher and the administrators.

Thanks for the kind words. You know, after a while on the receiving end of sped that I’ve been on, I begin to feel like a pariah! But I do watch my son and his school work closely, I firmly believe I know what he needs - fortunately I found someone on the LD Online Bulletin Board who gave me the material I need to tutor my son. I’ve paid three private tutors with no real success for my son - and when I have told them he needs specific things, they don’t listen, they feel they know best (and then he fails their end of tutoring tests). It is certainly an uphill struggle to give your LD child the education they need and deserve. Fortunately, I run my own business, and have cut it by 75% since my son was identified as needing special ed services. We can survive (not terribly comfortably) on my husband’s salary, so we are really fortunate. I do worry about the people who don’t have the luxury or education my family has - there are so many minds being wasted out there!

As far as why you don’t see the documentation, I can’t answer for your child’s teacher. The score reports from his testing should be in his IEP. Some tests have a score sheet where the administrator marks correct/incorrect responses. I destroy that because it’s not supposed to go in the file. If your child is being evaluated through teacher observation, then the teacher may not be required to show you how she observed the child. I’d suggest keeping a notebook that you & the teacher send back & forth with daily or weekly notes about the progress. Of course, I find that with many parents who ask this, they don’t like it when the teacher is honest about how their child is performing. Even when I write positive things that the child is doing, they can’t accept the negative.

I know it was asked why you couldn’t see the paperwork, but it also seemed like the original author was suggesting that spec. ed. teachers complain about having lots of paperwork to do, but really don’t do it. At least that’s the way I read it, so I wrote about the paperwork that I have to do. Yes, that’s part of my job as a special ed. teacher, but we shouldn’t be put in the place where we have so much work that we can’t do it during work hours and have time to do what I really went into special ed. for-helping the children. One of my biggest problems with special ed. programs is that the teachers have less planning time than reg. teachers but much more documentation to complete. We have to differentiate our instruction to different levels, which most reg. teachers aren’t willing to do, at least those I’ve worked with. We aren’t compensated any more for the time we put in at home. Yes, I know that is called working, I have worked since I was 16, so I know about the real world. Prior to teaching, I was a child abuse investigator, so I had a great deal of paperwork to be done in addition to driving all over town investigating complaints all day. I managed to get it all done in the day while I was in the office because there was time allotted for that. I never took work home with me. The reason I continue to talk about this is because people need to understand that spec. ed. teachers are becoming endangered & stop thinking that all we do is “babysit”. The number of people going into the field is decreasing and the number of good teachers leaving the field is increasing because of burn-out. I love working with special needs children, but with all the other things I have to do I’m finding it more difficult to create lessons the way I’d like to & research new strategies for teaching.

It’s called working — but there’s this arithmetic problem. When you have 20 hours of work to do in 10 hours time it DOES NOT FIT. That’s not working, so it doesn’t work.

That’s why teachers are prone to saying “I hate to sound callous, but I haven’t had time to …”

And when we’re all callous because we’ve had to make calluses on our hearts so what we can’t do doesn’t make us crazy, we alienate each other.

LiL:

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Each district works a bit differently. We do not write IEPs during our meetings. We do them on our own time—usually at home. As a Special Ed. monitor and teacher I am responsible for the following:

1. Set up all meetings for my grade levels (Gr. 5-8) and make sure all staff involved are informed..
2. Fill out written invitations and mail home (not just my students but for all other Sp. Ed. classes in grades listed above).
3. Assess for all new referrals, annual reviews, triennial reassessments (done during planning time and sometimes after school).
4. Write assessment reports for all above testing that is completed.
5. The first three IEP pages are usually completed at the meeting, but the majority are completed on our own time. Here is a list of all pages that are required.
a. P. 1 (Recommendations/Signature pages
b. P. 1a Minutes Page (can have more than 1 page)
c. P. 2 Written Prior Notice
d. P. 3 Functioning Levels, Strengths, Weaknesses, Justification for SPED placement
e. P. 4 Goals and Objectives (No limit to how many p. 4s there are)
f. P. 5 Services and hours listed
g. P. 6 Information about placement and hours spent with SPED/Reg. Ed. and reason.
h. P. 7 Testing Modifications/Modifications with justification
i. P. 8 Accommodations/Modifications in Reg. Ed. classrooms
j. Least Restrictive Environment (2 pages)
k. Documentation of Contact with Parents about meeting
l. Functional Behavior Assessment (if applicable) (2 pp)
m. Behavior Intervention Plan (if applicable) (2 pp)
n. Consent for Special Ed. Placement (if new student)
o. Assessment Reports (for all services and related services that are involved)
p. Health Report (Nurse does this)
q. Principal’s Report (Principals may supply necessary info. but Sp. Ed. teachers fill it out.
r. Multidisciplinary Report (to determine if student meets LD guidelines) (2 pp.)
s. SED pages if applicable (Worksheet to determine if student qualifies for the label of Seriously Emotionally Disturbed) (2 pp.)
t. Invitation (Copies that are left after mailing to parents

Each form is made of four copies. It is my job to collect and collate these forms when they are all completed. For new referrals, trienneals, and change of placement meetings, there can be as many as 30 pages multiplied by 4. For one student, that may not seem like much, but during the course of the year, it adds up. Of course all of this paperwork is done after school. I am also a full-time Special Ed. resource teacher and need to complete lesson plans, and prepare lessons as well. I rarely leave school before 6 pm each day.

I really don’t think you can compare the workload of a Special Ed. teacher and a regular ed. teacher. There are similarities as well as differences in our jobs, but all committed teachers work very hard.

Marilyn

I totally agree with Marilyn. The biggest thing is that not only do special ed teachers have all of that to do we also have all of the forms and paperwork required of a regular ed teacher. I do inventory forms, book inventory forms, staff development, committee meetings etc. This last year I was at school every day until 5:00 with one committee or another. I went to school almost every Saturday so that I could complete work for the week. I love teaching but something is going to have to change.
Nan

I do NOT write IEPs at the IEP meeting. Before going into an annual review I have already invested an average of 4 hours into testing to collect data, have written an assessment/progress update that is 2-3 pages long and includes test scores and other data. I have also met with the classroom teacher and have collected her concerns (we do this ongoing, but must be really up to speed for annual reviews), then I spend another hour or more (usually in several sittings) preparing a draft IEP to share at the meeting. I explain that this is a draft and change as needed during and after the meeting. To actually write an IEP at an IEP meeting would create 3 hour IEP meetings. Now, there are parents who seem to think this is nice, and it may be nice to have the attention of an administrator, special ed. teacher and classroom teacher sole upon you and your child for three hours (may be a real ego stroker), but most resource teachers, not to mention administrators, do not have available hours to spend this many hours in IEP meetings over every child they teach. We just don’t have that much time available to us to permit us to do all of that AND plan AND teach, too. What I work on outside the meeting is often done at home in the evening on my personal and family time. That way, it does not adversely effect my teaching/planning time.

If we are at all tactful, you won’t really ever have a clue of just how much we a actually DO.

Hi everyone,
My name is Shay and a lot of you have read my posts in the past, mostly on the reading bulletin board but I sometimes lurk on the other ones to see what is being asked or said. I learn a lot that way. I was reading this thread before going away for the fourth and I thought that I would add my comments when I returned home. My comments are for those students who are labeled LD, ED or mild MR. I teach 11th grade English in a self-contained as well as an inclusion setting. I have 10-12 students on my caseload and I don’t teach all of them, in fact, last year I taught only 2 of them. First, let me comment about the paperwork. I decided that there was going to be a problem with both paperwork and teaching , both competing for my time. Teaching is the more important than paperwork, so I have tried to ‘work smarter’. Unlike some of you, a draft of my IEP’s are expected to be done before the meeting. I type all of mine, at least the first four pages including the goals, and send the drafts home prior to the meeting. This saves time during the meeting. These papers are only a draft and anything can be changed or added during the meeting. I have about six standard goals with objectives in my computer and all I do is add different names, dates and ‘tweak ’ the goals to make them fit for the needs of the student. When I have to do the ‘present level of performance’, I know where to look in the files and I also do informal testing. I know the different forms that will be needed at the meeting, educational testing, grades, schedule, etc, and I copy them so that those that need them have them at the meeting. I don’t call the parents unless I need to. Some sped teachers call parents all the time, but I don’t. I do call them about good news and bad news when I feel that I should. My parents and I have a good working relationship. Preparing for and Iep meeting takes me about 1 and half hours and I do it at home.

I schedule the meetings during my inclusion classes, before or after schools if possible. This saves me from missing classes and my regular ed teacher missing classes. One problem that I do have concerning time, is those meetings that I have to attend because the casemanager doesn’t teach the student. This does give me problems when I really want to teach my students, but it is necessary that I am there because I want to make sure that my students are given the proper placement in classes.

lastly, I want to comment on my biggest pet peeves, the goals and the
objectives. The goals will never be accomplished if there is no remediation and all accomodations. That is why you will see the same goals year after year written in a student’s IEP. I have seen IEP’s that have every goal listed or circled, and they are seniors. Because we can remediate most of the deficiencies, by the time the students are in high school, they should be on monitoring. The problem is even though most of the ld students suffer from dysteachia, most school are not remediating. My high school, before I joined the staff, didn’t have any reading or writing programs that remediate the deficiencies in those areas. I have one student that have many accomodations, which she doesn’t need, because she wants to get all A’s like her sister who is in gifted and talented. The worst think is that they are twins! I guess that I have vented enough. If you want, since this thread is very long, email me directly if you have more questions.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful and thorough responses. I think in my personal case the real issue about paperwork is my son’s caseworker. I have been to school and looked through all my son’s files, and there is nothing there except the information I noted above!

I really appreciate the time and effort you all took to respond!

I was looking through the old posts for some information when I came upon this thread. I hope that you can ALL help me. I have been in denial (it is a wonderful thing when you feel overwhelmed by life), so I haven’t requested a copy of my sons special ed file he started four years ago.

Well, I requested a copy of his special ed file. I was told by the resource room teacher that the spec ed supervisor would be contacting me. So, I contacted the principal who basically said that I should already have everything. What is everything that I should have? I feel that they are asking me to want or need something specific and I am looking at general information. I see percentages rather grade level information. I want to feel confident that I know what is going on in my son’s education. Does anyone have a form letter that I could use to request this information? I would appreciate any help that you can give me, as well as, advice.