Just had my first CSE meeting . It went Ok, I think?

Karen,

Sounds fine. An OHI classification can cover his other needs. The important question to ask yourself is; “Will the IEP met my child’s needs?”

Karen,

Once you are classified, it doesn’t matter what the basis of it is in terms of receiving needed services. My son was classified as having a specific language disabiity but at one time was in resource room for math.

I think you are smart to have him classified as a future safety net but you may be pleasantly surprised when you mainstream him. The only accomodations my son now needs are related to spelling: he doesn’t do the “challenge” spelling words and doesn’t have spelling counted except in spelling tests. His grades jump around (only one week all year when there wasn’t something he got a D or F on) but he has been on second honors (requires all As or Bs) two out of three marking periods this year.

My son has an open IEP at the public school. I left it that way when we moved him to paroachial school last year in case he returns to public school for high school. He might need extended time on state mandated tests for graduation.

Beth

Thanks beth. That’s what I thought, but it scared me because were he to mainstream for 6th grade (which is how the IEP is being written) they were talking as if he needed no more remediation! It was a real eye opener into how parents must struggle to get the services they need. Here’s a kid who is only reading b/c of intensive remediation, can’t spell and has limited fluency and they were basically saying that he needs no more reading help. !

It sounds like he’ll get what he needs however with the opportunity to get skills work if needed so that’s what I really needed to be sure of.

One thing at the meeting confused me , maybe beth or anyone can help me understand?

They said repeatedly that my son was too high functioning to be in an inclusion class, but I know several children from his LD school who are mainstreaming and will be in inclusion classes. And their skills are much better than my son’s at this point. They made it sound like the content wouldn’t be stimulating, but I thought inclusion was general ed?

instead they wanted to have him be a “typical” kid in a gen. ed class and then get pulled out for resource room. Then they also talked about a consultant teacher pushing in some number of hours to help him with the day to day stuff.

THis is alot of lingo for a first timer. Can you shed any light?

Karen,

Inclusion is general ed. Perhaps though in your school district they put the lower performing regular kids in with inclusion kids to keep the variation minimal (are the kids you are talking about going into inclusion in the same school district?) In other words, there is tracking in the general ed classes such that he would be in a higher level class if he wasn’t in inclusion.

Pushing in is the lingo for resource person coming to the classroom to assist. Typically, they do that in inclusion classes so that they can hit more than one kid with help.

In our middle school, I don’t think there is a resource room. Lower performing kids are put in self contained classroom for intense reading instruction (tell me why they wait until 6th grade to do this???) and the rest are put in inclusion classes. A resource teacher pushes in and gives extra assistance. This makes it pretty obvious which kids are on an IEP, according to my sources.

When you are ready to mainstream him, you will have to ask very specific questions to find out exactly what they are doing, in order to make the best choices for him. Part of it is lingo but part of it is in the implementation.

Beth

Thanks again.

The kids I know mainstreaming are all going to different districts (some in ours, but not all) so differences in implementation make sense.

SOunds like my district has many options and you are right, I will have to get very specific when the day comes. Thank goodness we aren’t counting on them to remediate the dyslexia!

just wanted to jump in on IEP discussions

My guy has one next week-got the letter in the mail and was surprised. I knew he was up for 3 yr review but the area we lived in before did IEP around the birthdate so I was thinking Nov

Of course this is middle school so I guess it does matter what classes he goes into

This year he is in all regular classes except for Language Arts. It is what Beth called a ‘push’ setup. Oddly enough he was put in there by accident because, with the year out homeschooling, they didnt pick up on the IEP until a couple months into the year(actually I HAD to tell them) I asked the first week how many teachers he had in LA, heard two and thought all was well. Little did I know he was in there as one of the ‘normal’ kids.It was a simple matter to get the coteacher already in there to keep an eye on him

He too has been an honor roll student. I dont know about this last period as he is now off the Adderall(trial run).

I suspect they will want to end things but I too worry about high school. I want to keep things open and since he is still in speech services, that should not be a challenging as if he weren’t

A friend who is the special ed party in another middle school(the ‘pusher’???-still learning the upper grade terms)told me her IEP kids often did better than the regular kids in class. It was her first year in this setup as she had previously done the itty bitty children-it blew her away

So, yes, Karen-you may be surprised at how well he does but…..I think it is important to keep options open as much as we can

I think perhaps the brighter ones(which, of course, our three are :)) learn to compensate for their weaknesses with age and maturity and do better in the later grades(or so I hope…)

Inclusion is, *theoretically*, regular ed.

In some school systems it’s turned into the “slow class,” in the old-fashioned tracking way. I would definitely want a bright LD kiddo to be in the “general” class with accommodations. The “inclusion” classes can, unfortunately, be just a way of having a special ed class with a regular class size.

You’re right to be concerned about mainstreaming, but unfortunately it may be your best option and may require serious “out of the box” thinking. In most school systems, even ones with **excellent** elementary programs for LD kids, middle school is “sink or swim.” Special ed is a holding grounds for studnets who can’t make it at all, depending entirely on the individual teacher who is usually pretty much on his/her own (which has definite advantages over being a slave to the curriculum, but also involves almost no accountability). “Regular” ed has its own caste system and you don’t want to get your kiddo into the ones who are doing the “butt time” version — show up, don’t cause trouble, and few demands will be made of you. A “consultant” teacher may provide some help, but accommodations really need to be figured out and then followed up on to make sure they’re just sort of never gotten around to. Often students are given the option of things like getting tests read to them — but they’re expected to be the ones to raise their little hands and say “remember, I get to go take my test in the retard room” (or the social equivalent thereof)… which some students can handle, but most students can’t. So work on those advocacy skills *now* :-) …. and include a “how to make this actually ***happen*** ” plan in every IEP.

I think one thing that helps our kids is that they are used to working hard. Earlier this term my son had a major project to do. At the end, there was an open house where each child dressed in costume appropriate to their explorer did a little speech on command (there was a button you pushed). Several of the parents told me how glad they were this was over. It didn’t seem that bad to me or my son and we’d even gone out of town the weekend before it was due. But we both are used to having to work ahead and plan because he can not pull off doing anything with writing quickly.

As difficult as it can be, I see some positive life traits evolving.

Beth

Karen,

I found inclusion to be an all day resource room without walls. The LD kids worked with one teacher on one side of the room and the regular kids on the other with another teacher. There was some areas that were shared teaching but not enough. My son really felt singled out and it was obvious who the kids with the problem were as he was grouped with some behaviourally challenged kids. It caused him a GREAT deal of anxiety to be placed that way.

The resource room in our district was for severe issues. I actually think if he could have been taken out for extra help with kids who only needed a little help he would have been happier but that wasn’t an option.

I found the best help in a program called basic skills. This is a program for kids who are not classified but need a little extra help. He currently gets writing help after school once a week from a phenomenal teacher. He can get help for math basic skills if he needs it. There is a teacher that shows up in his class and going to her for further explanation of concepts is voluntary. He has done that on occasion but everyone goes to her so it is no big deal.

I tried to get him extra time and that backfired on us too. He was taken out of his class during the state tests to receive the extra time and was placed with a bunch of kids he didn’t know. He felt really uncomfortable with this option and for him anything that produces extra anxiety is detrimental. I also tried to get him an accomodation for copying from the board but they looked at me like I had two heads. He has always had trouble focusing near to far. The school can’t even grasp that concept. They think anything having to do with vision issues is voodoo. No wonder they couldn’t help him.
Best to you and your boy!!

hey Linda, good to hear from you!

It sounds very frustrating, which is what I fear the reality will be for us.

I’m sure all the accomodations look good on paper, but how its implemented is always the big question.. My son will need extended time. In fact, he needs extended time for daily tasks, and I don’t know how any school can really provide that. I’m afraid he’ll always be behind the ball in terms of the day to day things you need to do in a classroom - reading, writing notes, following directions. Cognitively he can comprehend the material, but its the process of learning that will always be a challenge.

Thankfully, we have a few more years before we have to figure this out and we are hoping some of these issues will ease up.

Funny story about extended time.

My son got a few friends to sign a petition because they felt they needed more time at their lockers in the morning.

His teacher told him it was disrespectful. I thought it was pretty clever.

Just take it one day at a time. He will let you know what works for him. Just listen to him.

My son is actually pretty happy in school these days. Despite the above story his teachers are really good and that makes all the difference.

we have found the best way to get extended time is to get a headstart. With extended time for work-we were always behind. We got the extended time but the class had moved on. My child (and the teacher) felt pressured to ‘catch up’ all the time.
Now we get the projects ahead of time and its done on time with the rest of the class and dd can move on with the rest of the class. Yes, we have to do some pre-teaching but its easier on all of us.

just a thought.

It also spares a lot of those “why does *he* get an extension” conflicts, and is a heck of a lot more manageable for all concerned. Brilliant thinking — I’ll be stealing that idea :0)

ooh, that is a really elegant solution. It prevents the anxiety of feeling like you are always playing catch up also. Very good!