Article about IEP's

hmmm….I personally didn’t like it but that was more on sytle issues than necesary content. I persoanlly don’t find the arguement that good IEPs are important because it raises the adjacent real estate values impressive. And I would be more than happy to have tutors from India if it helped our children.

In general, I found his writing very sloppy.
For example : “Very frequently teachers find that it is not the student who needs academic assistance that requires the most time, but the unruly and poorly behaved child whose actions undermine the efforts of others to achieve. There is a special program for them, called a 504.”
There are many unruly children who do not quaify for a 504 and if the child’s behavior is significant enough, they don’t get a 504 but an IEP under EBD. Also, children might have a 504 for a reason other than being “unruly.”

And I was not able to calculate how he determined that a student spends only 10% of his or her time in school each year.

AND I thought “a teacher, parent, and school administrator” had to be at IEP meetings, not “if so desired.”

I wasn’t able to determine who his audience was or the main purpose of the article.

I DID agree with the statement that the IEP ought to also address how the parent could help the child but the “However, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” line didn’t set well.

So, what did you think?

Barb

To quote Mr. Horse, “No Sir, I don’t like it”…

I found my exceptions were more fact than style. I agree with you that a school’s ability to educate Sped students appropriately will have only marginal impact at best on property values. Certainly goes against the escalation of property values in our urban centers considering that many of these areas have some of the most poorly run schools in the country.

I believe that his statement concerning 504 eligibility that you highlighted is a complete misunderstanding of Section 504. It concerns me that “one of best” teachers this country has could hold such a fundamental misunderstanding of just what 504 is about.

Additionally, I have a small issue with another of his assertions: “The process and the manpower involved make such programs (IEP’s) one of the greatest expenses in a school district’s budget outside of salaries and benefits.”

Considering that the single biggest item in any school district’s budget is “salaries and benefits” (which is almost assuredly 90%+ of the money LEA’s spend) almost anything left will be “one of the greatest expenses” in a budget. But wait - isn’t the cost associated with generating an IEP part of the “salaries and benefits”? I wonder how the costs directly associated with developing IEP’s compares with the cost of running a high school football program, especially considering that it is extremely unlikely that ANY school district in the US has 20% of their students playing high school football.

[DISCLAIMER: I am NOT knocking football, high school or otherwise; I feel that proper team sports is both a chance for children to learn teamwork, sportmanship, get exercise, etc. as well as a very nice opportunity for those who are economically disadvantaged to earn scholarships for college. I do however acknowledge that in the pecking order of importance, extra-curriculars do take backseat to education, Sped or otherwise.]

To answer your question about percentage of time…

Assume 6 hours in class for 180 days a year.

6 x 180 = 1080 hours in class
24 x 365.25 = 8766 hours in a year
1080/8766 = 0.1232 or 12.32%

Pretty close to his off-the-cuff “10%”

But then, perhaps he isn’t a math teacher ;)

I noticed that the article has been pulled from the site. Should I be able to dig it out of the archives, I will post it in full for those who may have missed it and not know what we are talking about…

Okay, I’ll buy the 10% although I’m not sure its fair to count sleeping time as “parent” time.

I almost posted about the “greatest expense” line too! I decided not to because, as I read and re-read his sentence, I wasn’t sure if he was talking about IEPs or special education programs as the expense. Really, another example of sloppy thinking and writing.

Barb