What a weird IEP Meeting

It shouldn’t be this hard! I’m sorry for your experience.

I’d ask the speech pathologist what she/he does during a typical session. My experience with two different school speech people is that they give the student a list of “hard words” to say each day after showing them how the mouth/tongue etc should be. My son did this for four years with *some* improvement. Then the school pathologist suggested he see an outside source. This person has him doing oral motor exercises. We have seen more improvement this last 8 weeks then in the past two years. If you lack the strength to say the word correctly, you can say it incorrectly 100 times a day without improvement.

I wish I could offer suggestion for the larger picture you face.

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That meeting does sound weird. I haven’t a clue what they were trying to accomplish.

My son (6th grade) had the in-class spelling help this year, and I never did figure out what they were doing. They kept reporting he was fine and doing well, but he never had a list and I never could get my hands on a spelling test. They just got real evasive about it. In prior years, he had a special list and a methdology he was supposed to use. He could spell the words on the test if he studied that morning, but the next day he couldn’t do it. I don’t think much was accomplished using the prior year’s approach or this years’ mystery approach. There were some posts here recently on AVKO spelling resources that other parents found it helpful. I’m trying that this summer.

We also had the 30 min. a week speech on r’s. It was a waste of time, and if I hadn’t had private therapy for him it’s doubtful he would ever have mastered r’s using their approach of having him repeat the same list of r words 4 times a month. I tried meeting with his school therapist to see how to make his time more productive and the private therapist tried contacting her, but nothing changed.

His private speech therapist zeroed in on his problem, a muscular weakness and sensory issues, and addressed those problems with exercise while she checked periodically on his readiness to start work on r’s. She held off serious on r work until his muscles were strong enough. The private therapy was 45 minutes a week dedicated to him, with homework during the week. Private is expensive, but I was able to watch and learn how to help him at home. Based on what I learned, I’m able to work with him now on the remaining needs she identified.

I don’t know if this helps but I always felt that the school was wary of my son’s success.

It seems as though they believe he is working extra hard to achieve what he has achieved meanwhile it was the outside therapy that has helped him get where he is, we do very little academics.

I think they are stuck on the idea that once LD always LD and that is that.

They might also be threatened by the outside help. Maybe they think if they give him speech they can claim the success when it was really the outside help that got him there.

Dear DEA,
What grade is your daughter in? If she’s anywhere close to middle school, keep her on an IEP if you can, even if what they say they’ll be doing doesn’t seem useful to you. We found that the 6th and 7th grade years were extremely difficult for my son (he’s now on an 504 plan in 9th grade), and we needed the teeth behind the IEP to switch classes around to get teachers who could indeed cope with the 4 very simple accomodations listed in his IEP. (They were: seating in the front of the room, spelling didn’t count against him in essay test situations, extended time if needed on exams, and access to a computer for written work in social studies and language arts.) It amazed me how many teachers couldn’t cope with those accomodations…especially the seating in the front of the room (this was to allow him to more easily tape the lectures).

It sounded like your daughter had a current speech therapist. If so, ask that person what really needs worked on. Then see if you can talk with the school speech therapist, and tell him/her what you know is needed (Don’t ask…tell!).
Also, I’d put in writing a request to see the full set of test scores and the writeup that your school psychologist or sped teacher did in evaluating the scores. You’ve got a right to see those, especially if they become part of your daughter’s permanent record.

It indeed sounded like a strange meeting. I’ve never had one for my son with more than 5 people there. Our last triennial (which removed my son from his IEP) consisted of the sped teacher, his language arts and social studies teachers, and the vice principal. At the end, it was just the sped teacher and me and my husband, and together we wrote up a document detailing his need for a 504 plan.

A key thing to keep in mind, even if the school removes your daughter from an IEP, is that her problems haven’t vanished. Keep working with her with tutors, therapists, and yourself. You probably know how to help her the best. Get her assistive technology if needed, and teach her how to use dictionaries that help with spelling, or spell checkers with a word processor. Make sure she learns how to type efficiently (and with some computer programs, you can even make it fun.)

Good luck,

Kay

I, too, have been amazed at how difficult it has apparently been for otherwise competent teachers to keep track of simple accommodations. I realize they may have several students who may be on IEPs at once, but one thing that our son needs is to be seated close to the front of the room (or wherever the teacher is actually standing or sitting to teach) so that he can see her mouth as she speaks.

I can’t tell you how many Fridays, the day I volunteer, I went into his classroom(s) to discover him yet again at the back or middle of the room, far away from the teacher. One hates to be so bossy about things, but I finally got to the point where I would just take whatever teacher aside and ask her about it. Without fail, I would hear, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I just forgot about it - he’s so quiet and he doesn’t remind me.” Good Grief!

I agree that you need the teeth of the IEP to hold educators’ feet to the fire on these things (I know - that’s quite a mixed metaphor!). I am of the opinion that the pullouts, for our son, are more disruptive than helpful, but I’m reluctant to give up some services because then I will have no leverage to get them to help him in the areas where he really needs it.

jao

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I am an SLP and I want you to know we don’t just work on Articulation, we work on a lot of things at once. We are also required to keep our skills current with continuing education. I have been working with a school based SLP who has been out in the field for 24 years and I have learned more from her in the short time I have worked with her than I learned in over 150 hours with an SLP who had 10 years experience in the private sector. It all depends on the SLP’s dedication and passion for her craft too.

Thanks - I will keep your advise in mind. I feel that the IEP will give us a safety-net once we hit higher grades (dd is in 3rd, going into 4th next year). I need to remember the accomodations you mention on spelling - that may be critical to us going forward. I don’t see her ‘growing’ out of mis-spelling here any time soon.

to increase muscles to make ‘r’ sound? I don’t know if I’m all that happy with our private therapist right now. I haven’t seen a whole lot of improvement in last 3 mo. She is really just repeating alot of r sounding words - beginning, middle, end. Uses a bunch of different worksheets.

She was doing some tongue thrusts (couple various kinds). Maybe we quit doing these too soon? We have homework every week (after 3mo. we started to slack off doing these as much). Maybe that is part of our problem too.

There will be a new speech therapist for next school year (so haven’t met yet). I will most assuredly keep in mind what you suggest.

Thanks everybody for the tips (and letting me vent some).

I think whenever parents use outside sources, the schools worry that they will be hit up for the cost of those services later on. Perhaps a bit of the weirdness of your IEP was some C.Y.A. going on. I experienced some of that myself last IEP since my son is going to a private LD school next. The resource teacher actually said he was reading on grade level! The teacher and I looked at each other, “yea, right, sure he is.” Teacher had just the day before in our conference said he was 9-12 months behind according to the district-wide assessment he did. I guess some miracle happens in the resource room.

My son has been in speech for fluency and articulation since he was 3 - private and public. Whether it means anything or not depends on the individual therapist. Our private one was terrible…and expensive. Our first public one was too out-of-date, ineffective, and spent a lot of the pull-out time doing her paperwork with my son playing on the computer. (Granted some of the playing he did was speech related computer games.) That one retired. Last year’s public one was much better as far as her knowledge about her profession and staying on task. I think she actually helped the articulation issues.

My husband and I are just laughing right now. We just listened to our voicemail from the school speech therapist. She is starting immediately to work with our dd. She will see our dd every Friday until the end of the school year.

Well, we have only 1 Friday left before she tracks off for the summer. ??????

Sec. 1414. Evaluations, Eligibility Determinations, Individualized Education Programs, and Educational Placements.

3) Development of IEP.

(A) In General. In developing each child’s IEP, the IEP Team, subject to subparagraph (C), shall consider —

(i) the strengths of the child and the concerns of the parents for enhancing the education of their child; and
(ii) the results of the initial evaluation or most recent evaluation of the child.

and:
Sec. 1415. Procedural Safeguards.
House Report Reference

(a) Establishment of Procedures.
Any State educational agency, State agency, or local educational agency that receives assistance under this part shall establish and maintain procedures in accordance with this section to ensure that children with disabilities and their parents are guaranteed procedural safeguards with respect to the provision of free appropriate public education by such agencies.

b) Types of Procedures.
The procedures required by this section shall include —

(1) an opportunity for the parents of a child with a disability to examine all records relating to such child and to participate in meetings with respect to the identification, evaluation, and educational placement of the child, and the provision of a free appropriate public education to such child, and to obtain an independent educational evaluation of the child;

they can all show up at your meeting and not ONE of them has a copy of results to provide! How can one determine what she needs or doesn’t need without evaluation results? Your supposed to believe what is being fed?

It feels weird,because your right to equally participate were all but ignored. Personally, I would be mad.

Well, leave it to Socks to get straight tot he point. Not only would I be mad, I would right a letter to the principle pointing out these “oversights’, i.e., the test results not being available.

It makes them look very “foolish” when they try to pull things like this and then, of course, copy the local SD.

We are to the point with our IEP meetings that they will have several “pre-IEPs” with me to make sure everything is to our liking before the final. We had 5 people at our last IEP (8 including parents and student). Even the district ESE specialist showed up (one of her teachers didn’t show so it would have been 9).

Everytime you have an IEP meeting, you need to make sure you write and confirm any “loose ends” that didn’t happen to get on the actual IEP. For instance, this Summer/right before school stary, I will clarify in writing some things that they mentioned at the IEP that I need to “take up directly with the 5th grade teacher”. I will take it up directly VIA LETTER, and cc: ALL those who were in attendance at the IEP.

1) text books on tape for the classroom;
2) tests on Monday, if my daughter misses the “review” due to pull out for resource, etc.;
3) teacher to give long assignments well in advance so she can put these long term assignments on her computer/dana; and
4) that her 15 min consult will be with her resource teacher and NOT her general ed (she’s doing fine in gen ed).

They HATE my letters, but I now have 3 volumes of records/documentation/letters and I’ll start a new volume for 5th grade. I noticed that none of these letters I write are in her CUM folder, so I am going to request that a copy of everything I’ve ever written be placed in there b4 she goes to MS and, ing the kind and considerate mom I am, I will even make those copies and forward them to the guidance counselor for her “convenience”.

As Socks often says, those follow up letters are your most efficient means of getting things accomplished.

I’ll get off my soapbox now!