Yesterday I had my oldest son’s IEP meeting and it proved to be very interesting. My son’s goal has been to “graduate” himself out of special ed, he has been working hard on this goal for almost 3 years now. His skills have improved dramatically. Yesterday he got his wish and “graduated” out of special ed. The interesting thing is he was invited to join in another program that offers some of the same supports. Here is the plan, he will take summer school PE freeing up a space to take “SAI”. SAI is a study hall type class the difference is there are two regular education teachers in the class to assist the students. The class size is kept very small, about 5 students. The students are all in the same grade and taking regular sophmore classes. The goal of the program is to forster organization, study skills, ect. These students get the same accomodations my son had on his IEP, no points off for spelling, extended time, test read, ect. The goal is to help the students to slowly eliminate all the accomodations that they can. He is also being interviewed for a special reading class. This class is filled by interview only, the student must be recommended by teachers or guiadance to even get the interview. Again the class size is small. The students in this class are not as far behind in reading as the ones in my sons current reading skills class. Both these classes are geared for students who need assistance but not neccissarily special ed. The reason for the recommendation, interview policies is the classes are geared for students who are highly motiviated, the student will not be accepted if they do not show strong motiviation. Neither of these classes are listed in the school handbook or student course catalog. I was curious if there were other schools out there with the same style program? My son is doing very well this year he is currently maintaining a B in every class except language. I think moving him out of special ed which is what he wanted is going to prove a good move (I hope)
Re: Strange IEP meeting
My son just called to tell me he was accepted into the program and had to fill out forms and sign a contract today. The forms were similar to an intake form, what are your strenghts, what are your weakness, what are your goals. The contract stated that he was to take all his classes seriously, do his work, ask for help when needed, ect or he would be dropped from the program. He seemed really excited about being in charge of his own destiny. We will see how it goes.
Re: Strange IEP meeting
Lisa,
These programs sound fantastic! I haven’t heard of a program like that in our school district. What they offered to 10th graders when my senior was in that grade was a mentor program. Ninth graders who were considered at risk were invited into a program where two of them would be matched with a senior as mentors. The class met a period a day. The problem is that if the 10th grader is not self-motivated as your son is then it doesn’t work very well.My son would sit quietly doing work but would not ask or accept requests for general assistance. My son didn’t need someone coming up to him asking him if he needed any help, instead he needed someone who knew what he should be working on and asked to see his work or automatically quized him for a vocab. test. He requalified for services before mid-year and moved at semester time into a class where the aid provided this type of help. Each child is different.
He is now a senior and has been excepted to a four-year college that I feel will be at his comfort level. He had an awful 9th grade but is now functioning on his own with the assistance of a once a week private tutor who can help him with either math or science. What my hope is that he will get a math tutor the first week of school instead of waiting for the need. I’m working on empowering him but that in a separate post.
Helen
They have these types of classes in my son’s school. My friend’s son has this in middle school and says it is great. They have the best writing teacher working with them on their writing in small groups.
They are for regular ed students and are more specific than “resource room.” There is a specific writing help for those who need it and math etc. They place kids usually based on their performance on the state testing.
Before my son was classified he was ICS which stands for in class support. The purpose is to get the regular ed kids some extra help.
If I had to do it all over again I would not have had my son classified but would have kept ICS.