open house

I can’t even get ahold of the staff at my child’s school (school starts monday) because all the teachers in the district apparently are at an “excellence for schools” rally, and every other day the teachers worked before school starts have been professional development days. So, if I am lucky, maybe the inclusion teacher will call me back this afternoon and I will find out if there has been any preparation for my child’s arrival on monday—as she enters 8th grade. Every other year has been a disaster of teachers not being told about her IEP for the first month, of bad class scheduling—against IEP statements, and currently, I am going into the school year with a half-done IEP, no goals, no behavioral plan and no response from the school about scheduling another IEP even though I have written two letters, and they agreed to have it before Sept 16. My husband tells me try not to be cynical, but I have no faith in the school once again being able to give her an appropriate education.
I did at least call the superintendent’s office and registered a complaint.

We learned the hard way—if it’s not written down, it was never said. If you want your complaint to be taken seriously, write down the facts in a non-emotional letter. Immediately state the purpose of your letter, and conclude with what you are asking them to do and the date by which you expect a response.

certified mail, return receipt requested, also gets their attention.

I did get calls back at 3:30 in the afternoon—at least I know that the teachers are the right ones (in honors classes) and I know they will be told she has an iep. We spent all last year in mediation and then trying to get a new iep written. I have a good advocate and the reality is that the district has agreed that I never have to deal with any resources teachers again at this school (they are truly incompetent and ignorant) and the inclusion teacher I am now dealing with seems to have a clue. I know I will have that IEP within two weeks and I know I will be back in a due process procedure because the district will not want to pay for the outside tutoring necessary. I am basically waiting to see what happens, so when I do file a complaint and/or due process, I will gather all ammunition together at once. I do send certified letters—but you have to know that in three years, the district has never been in compliance with my daughter’s iep and I am gathering evidence to insist that they pay for a private high school. I have to pick the battles—because the school fails in so many areas. I have to also focus on being able to get my child through the day to day crap, and hope the teachers might listen this year. My daughter is learning, and she scores in the 90’s on the SAT 9 tests—she has asperger’s and is so high functioning, they don’t intuitively remember she has difficulties. I do have extensive and good documentation of all the problems. the district paid lots for private assistance this summer—and they will be paying again.
PS I did find out from another list that the district paid $16,000 for the building for their rally—how many books would that buy in a district where many textbooks are 30+ years old and the parents paid for math books (at $40 per) last year?

If the high school district also includes the middle school then you have a chance at them paying for High School otherwise you would have to make the change in 8th grade to private and hope the High School agrees.

Helen

I have some of the same problems. A LD daughter who is scoring in the 90’s+ in yearly assessments, so they want to “pull her support”. I told them the reason she is able to score like this is b/c of her IQ and her accommodations and the fact that she has a GREAT self esteem b/c we found and addressed the problems very early (beginning of 2nd grade). I then explained to them that they are NOT going to pull her support and make her fail in order to prove she needs it - look at her evaluation - that proves she needs it. They don’t expect much from LD kids and they are shocked she is doing so well.

BTW we just got a laptop for her gifted resource room and it only cost me $32.37 in certified mail and postage. :-).

this is a large urban district-15+ high schools and 50,000 students.
when I asked for the ability to be able to print at school—off my daughter’s alpha smart so maybe she would use it in school for assignments, or homework notes, they told me flat out we can’t accomodate it. (they don’t have a spare plug and can’t get a $150 printer I guess). It only two two weeks of arguing with them that I wanted an iep in private out of sight of students mostly because my daughter was attending the meeting. They also tried to talk me out of having her in the meeting. They have lots of problems with knowing the law.

Lisa,

I think I started a reply to you yesterday and apparently never sent it! I just wanted to thank you for sharing your positive open house experience. There are teachers out there who care! I hope your son has a wonderful year!

Janis

For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of one of those classroom teachers. 2000 students arriving on Monday, not enough textbooks, no IEP’s from the specialists, no money for desperately needed equipment in their classrooms, a whole classroom to arrange in two days, assignment to teach the wrong subjects and classes and too late to change — and as much obstruction as parents get when they call on the office — and you have to go to some auditorium and listen to some self-promoter yakking at you about “excellence in education” while your own potential for excellence is being sucked away from you into a black hole of no time, no money, no administrative support, and conflicting and often impossible demands.
Yes, some classroom teachers are incompetent. But most could do at least a fair job if they got reasonable support themselves. You know how difficult it is for you when you don’t get the support you need; well, it’s the same for the classroom teacher who spends all day with that same administrative system. Your child isn’t the only one being shortchanged there. If you can possibly get changes for the whole class or school, that’s better than a one-time-only change for your daughter (likely forgotten next week) and then back to our usual program.

to victoria: my husband and I both come from families with teachers—and we are very careful to make sure everyone knows in these meetings and conversations that we do not blame teachers!! I would think the teachers of the district would be very fustrated with an administration that basically allowed little preparation time in their classrooms before the start of school. One principal’s attitude was “don’t worry, it will all work out!”. Preparation is the key for the success of teachers and students. Our children have overall had some fine teachers—just a few rotten ones in the bunch. (I refer mostly to teachers who don’t teach the curriculum, but teach their own personal pet issues, who don’t correct and return homework, who deny they need to change anything about the way they teach to help a child, honors english teachers who never assign a writing assignment in 6 months,etc.).
I hope by advocating for my child, I am advocating for all special needs child—to get the system to follow the law and to take parents seriously—which administrators basically don’t here. It is sad for the teachers and the students—many good teachers leave as soon as possible—not only is the administration difficult, the politics are horrible, and the pay means that most teachers qualify for low income housing—not that any is available.