Refusing to sign IEP

The signature on the IEP,means that you were in attendance. If you want to Distpute the IEP you must write this on the IEP document. I would write a response explaining why you disagree with the IEP. They can legally continue with the IEP,unless you file mediation,a state complaint,or due process. The only time your signature will prevent the school from continuing would be in the event of a change in placement .

In my district in Michigan there are two places for signature by a parent on an IEP. One is for who was in attendance, a sign in sheet. Second is at the end for a parent to sign, date and check boxes if they agree. If you don’t sign in my state I believe you have ten days to think about signing it, if not obviously you are in disagreement. At that point on our IEP you would check a box regarding you disagree with the IEP but request we go ahead and implement or disagree and want mediation, etc. If this is an initial IEP they cannot go ahead and just implement it. When we give out IEP invitations we are required to send home a booklet-for parental rights and procedures, you should be able to access something like that from your school and I bet it tells you what your options are.

A very dear friend of mine has been extremely successful in gaining appropriate services for her child by never signing the IEP at the meeting, but instead taking it home to review. As she and her husband review the IEP, minutes, and their tape recording, they note any discrepancies (schools often only put the information they want included in the minutes, rather than an accurate transcript of the meeting…those ommisions are often critical if you have a disagreement.) They then write a parent attachment, including any therapies they have provided for their son, as well as any information that they feel should have been included in the minutes that was not. Even without a tape recording to back you up, your parent comments must be considered a part of the IEP. Finally, when they do sign the IEP they place an asterisk by their names with a note at the bottom of any page they sign or initial that states “see parent comments”.

While I do not believe that this is necessary in every situation, it certainly doesn’t hurt if you are in some type of conflict (regardless of how minor) with your school district.

As Socks stated above, your signature only indicates your participation in the meeting, not your agreement with the IEP.

Good answer.

Parents like you can effect positive change for many children! Stick to your guns! They have time to have someone trained this summer. One option is that Lindamood Bell will have training in Charlotte in early July. Good luck!

Janis

lET ME ASK YOU HOW YOU WOULD RESPOND - THE SPECIAL ED COORDINATOR IN MY CHILD’S SCHOOL ASKED WHY THE LMB RESEARCH IS NOT IN THE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION JOURNALS. I WENT TO SEE A CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST TODAY WHO AGREED THAT UNTIL THEY START USING STNDARDIZED TESTING INSTRUMENTS, NOT THEIR OWN, SHE TOO DOES NOT RECOMMEND IT. (Sorry about the caps - my husband always sets cap lock and I look at the keys when I type- I was too far into the message when I realized it and am too tired to retype)

We signed that we dissented with our son’s 4th grade IEP. We followed that with a letter explaining why we disagreed with the IEP. We requested that our son finish the school year in his regular education classroom (understanding teacher) and not be pulled out for special ed services (which were totally ineffective) for the rest of the school year. That summer we had private testing, hired an advocate and requested specific programs for him. If the school could not address his needs than we wanted the school to pay and transport him to someone who could teach him.

We too refused to sign an IEP of our son’s at the 4th grade. We battled long and hard with the district. Ended up in mediation, due process and court. District’s legal “consultant” and lawyers claimed that they were obligated to hold to the last agreed upon IEP, which of course was the 3rd grade IEP. It never got resolved. He’s in college now. The last agreed upon IEP was that one, from the 3rd grade!!! Anyway, signing for attendance is fine, but as all others have noted, do not sign regarding agreement, if you do not agree and dispute what is written.

All other advice has been sound. Tape record the meetings. Heck, I used to bring extension cords to ours, as one time they even said the outlets were not working in the room we were meeting in. You should have seen their faces when I brought in a 100’ bright orange extension cord and said “no problem”. Also helpful to have someone along just to handle the tapes, switching sides, marking sequential order, and popping the tabs so as to not record over if you ever get to that point.

Biggest beef I had was the “consultant” claiming we had signed the prior IEP, therefore we must have agreed then, what was the problem…??? When we had started to battle, and took a real close look, the prior IEP was all messed up too, we just didn’t know better then. We trusted the experts and it came back to bite us at that time.

Best lesson learned, NEVER SIGN, unless you agree. Mark the crap out of it, and state your point. If you attach addendums, make sure they are attached with a welder (ha ha). Keep copies and go in periodically and check your child’s records to be sure your addendums are attached physically. Getting the district to follow thru is an entirely different thread.

Best of luck.

Andy

We too refused to sign an IEP of our son’s at the 4th grade. We battled long and hard with the district. Ended up in mediation, due process and court. District’s legal “consultant” and lawyers claimed that they were obligated to hold to the last agreed upon IEP, which of course was the 3rd grade IEP. It never got resolved. He’s in college now. The last agreed upon IEP was that one, from the 3rd grade!!! Anyway, signing for attendance is fine, but as all others have noted, do not sign regarding agreement, if you do not agree and dispute what is written.

All other advice has been sound. Tape record the meetings. Heck, I used to bring extension cords to ours, as one time they even said the outlets were not working in the room we were meeting in. You should have seen their faces when I brought in a 100’ bright orange extension cord and said “no problem”. Also helpful to have someone along just to handle the tapes, switching sides, marking sequential order, and popping the tabs so as to not record over if you ever get to that point.

Biggest beef I had was the “consultant” claiming we had signed the prior IEP, therefore we must have agreed then, what was the problem…??? When we had started to battle, and took a real close look, the prior IEP was all messed up too, we just didn’t know better then. We trusted the experts and it came back to bite us at that time.

Best lesson learned, NEVER SIGN, unless you agree. Mark the crap out of it, and state your point. If you attach addendums, make sure they are attached with a welder (ha ha). Keep copies and go in periodically and check your child’s records to be sure your addendums are attached physically. Getting the district to follow thru is an entirely different thread.

Best of luck.

Andy

Janis,

We met for the seconded IEP team meeting. they included goals that her phographix tutor recommended which were more appropriate than the schools goals. Under parents concerns regarding IEP - I wrote we were concerned that a scientifically based and research effect reading prgram was going to be implemented next school year with special ed teacher or reading specialist trained in the selected approach. We are consulting an advocate if the school system does not have this in place. I shared research studies cited in the book Overcoming Dyslexia. I thought it was a good conference and we certainly have thier attention. I told the IEP team if an appropriate program was not in place at the beginnig of the school year we would seek mediation and/or due process. The school is hiring another resource teacher and I was asked to participate in the interview process. WE were given the resource time we requested. 60 min. in the resource classroom and 30 min. in her regular ed. classroom. We requested checklists as a way to measure progress. I am still very skeptical, I really hope the school system can deliver the goods. Thanks for everyones input. It helps and is very empowering.

You could refuse to sign a portion of your IEP. If you agree with all other aspects of the IEP I would sign, but stipulate that you disagree with the reading portion. This will allow the school district to implement the portion of the IEP that you agree with. If you are requesting a certain methodology in reading then put together a letter along with any reports that substantiate your request. Send the letter to the person in charge at your IEP and ask them to put in writing as to why they are rejecting your methodology. This is called prior written notice. With prior written notice the school district must provide you with the reason as to why they are rejecting your request for a certain methodology, the data they used to deny this request, the tests that they ran on your child to determine why their methodology is sufficient and what other option they will be providing. This will answer your questions that you have regarding the methodology the school will be implementing.

A warning about tests to determine best methodology. I taught in a school for a year, and then tutored privately for three more years, in a particular district that had a very formal testing process. They told parents and teachers that they tested every student to find the “best fit”, the program that would best teach that child to read. Funny thing, every single student I met or heard of in that district was determined to do “best” with word memorization and no phonics.
I don’t believe there exists such a test in reality. What they do is to test a child’s phonics knowledge. If he had good phonics knowledge, his reading would be better; and besides, this district’s general philosophy was anti-phonics so very little was taught; so of course all the kids tested were very very weak in phonics. Then since they hadn’t learned it out of the air, the district determined that they *could not* learn phonics, and went on with their favourite word memorization.
Note that by this logic we would never teach any math at all to 999 people out of a thousand. So don’t fall for it.

(This board is so messed up, I hope Amy can even see this is in reply to her comments).

That is absolutely wrong! I just went to a Lindamood Bell open house and I specifically asked for the names of the tests they use. It was a long list! As far as I can recall, the only one that is theirs is the LAC. They used subtests from several well known reading tests like Gray and Woodcock. I can’t find the paper now, but you can easily call LB and find out. Then send a copy to that psychologist so she doesn’t keep giving out wrong information.

There is one reason LB is not well received by public schools: cost.

Janis

WHile you won’t find a whole lot of research supporting LMB per se, you’ll find a lot more supporting the multisensory, structured, systematic approcah they use. Something tells me there’s support for including the speech-language element lurking in the journals, too.
The cost is pretty formidable. There are somewhat less pricey ways to get many of the benefits.

Thanks Connie, very helpful.

Last year, when our assistant principal refused to allow our son the accomodation of extra time on standardized tests, despite the fact that all evidence about expressive/receptive language disorders (his diability(ies) supports the “extra time” accomodation, we signed that we agreed with the IEP all except for that sticking point (there was a line to do this on our Ohio IEP) and then filed an “Administrative Review” request with the Central Office guru who could overrule her. Within one day of sending the request for review via certified mail, I got a call from this CO person, stating, “No problem!”

Makes you wonder why they sometimes think they have to torture you! Anyway, this year we took the IEP home to review it before signing it. That worked out fine.

[%sig%]

We’ve gotten to the point where the ESE teacher has several “pre IEP” meetings with me to make certain they get it right (they don’t want another letter). Someone from the district now attends our meetings as well. I figure the more the merrier. I have an outline and conduct it like a business meeting. It lasted over 1-1/2 hours. I follow up on everything and oftentimes I will say when making telephone calls, “IF I don’t hear from you by ___ (date), I’ll drop you a letter. They usually call and do as much as possible - they don’t want any more letters in the file!