Do u request specific teachers?

I wouldn’t try to deal with principal but rather with director of special ed. I have had input for the past two years on my son’s teacher. This year they placed him with the strongest writing teacher because of his poor writing skills. I think you always have to frame requests/discussions in terms of characteristics of the child and teacher. Not a screamer might be too obvious but perhaps there are other positive characteristics of other teachers that might be used.

Beth

msb,

we addressed such letters to a principal (since she was assigning students to a given teacher) with cc: to the Director of special ed. services for a district and cc: to a resource teacher. Similarly to what Beth suggested, we described our son’s needs and what features would we like to see in a teacher to be a good match for our son’s specific needs….

We did not do that only once- for a third grade- and I regretted badly. Looking back at this- we should have asked for a change in teacher in the middle of the school year…

good luck, Ewa

I guess I’m really lucky that my dd’s SLP has no problems making recommendations for teachers to the principal through the IEP turned in at the end of the school year. Our principal is very receptive to those *positive* suggestions. Does your son have a therapist he works with at school? I’d start asking questions there about whether or not a recommendation for a teacher(s) can be made through the IEP. I’d definitely not take the negative request approach. Good luck!

Suzi.

You request a teacher the same way you request a specific goal on the IEP. You first call an IEP meeting,in which YOU have equal say in. ( equal participent is going to be the specific term to use) In this IEP meeting you state for the record,(always bring a tape recorder)that your son,based on his individual needs, requres a teacher who has expertise in his specific needs. I.E. a low self esteem,requires a teacher who is not yelling,but rather understanding a calm.As an equal participent in this “team meeting” you feel it is vital to your sons educational success to be in a classroom in which the teacher has specific characteristics. In a general sense you state what those characteristics are. Not like having the middle name of MEAN,but has specific training in the use of assistive technology,if this is something your son might need,etc. With this being said,if the principal gives a “special ed”student a specific teacher after the parent specificly requested that they NOT recieve this teacher,then this would be one of the few times a parent could actually prove retailiatory efforts on the part of the school district! Not to mention the fact that the principal is disallowing the parents right to advocate for their child,but he is also proving it by harassing the student!Office of Civil Rights would be very disappointed in this practice.

I write a letter every year. This past year I wrote 2 :-).

I tell them: As you may or may not recall, my daughter, has SLD (YEAH, like they don’t recall this child who mother is from Hades)

…because of the private interventiion we have provided, she is making outstanding progress; however, after observing the 4th grade teachers, I came to the conclusion that Mrs. Teacher from Hades, would not be a good fit. (She was opposed to AT).

Then I tell them what kind of characteristics they teacher should have.

They know it’s easier to give me the right teacher the first time around, b/c if not I”ll be back.

It ALL in how you word your letter.

After a terrible school year in fourth grade, I have requested teachers for all of my kids every year. Sad to say, there are some teachers that should not be teaching. My son in in school now, 7th grade, and every spring, I ask a lot of parents who they like and do not like to try and determine what would be a good fit for my son. His classroom teachers and inclusion teacher are very helpful in detmining a good fit for him. I also request an IEP meeting in the spring to specifically discus placement for the next school year. It has worked well for me so far…. Good Luck

Gosh that sounds familiar! You must be at our old school!!! :-o

Our principal did the same exact thing. If you requested you didn’t want your child with a particular teacher, you were certain to get that teacher. It was very frustrating. We’re now at a school where you can request teachers and move if you’re unhappy with one. That seems amazing to me!!!

With regard to our previous school. I remember in Kindergarten, there was a story about a mom who was very unhappy with the teacher her child was assigned to. On the first day she brought her daughter to a different teacher and informed that teacher that her child would be in her class. Apparently she got to stay in that class!

Another thing at this school. If a parent was insistent on changing their child’s class it was very important that they not enter that class ever (even on the first day of school). Once entered, there was no chance of change.

Although we never had to do this, I had thought if I felt very strongly against having a particular teacher, I might have done something like this. I would have brought my child to the office on the first day of school with paper, crayons and pens.
And then I would have informed the office personel that we’d be waiting there until they had an opening in a different classroom. We would have sat in that office every day, with child coloring, drawing on paper, and playing games until they had an opening.

I heard of a parent doing this when she wanted her child to go to a particular school that was “closed.” After a week of waiting in the office they got into that school!

Hopefully you won’t need to do something so extreme!