Are we asking too much?

It is written in my son’s iep that the teachers will ‘assist student with maintaining appropriate contact with teachers for regular, missed or late assignments.’

It also says ‘use of a school/home assignment sheet.’ This is the planner that all middle school students here get the first week of school.

Son writes hw down, teacher signs that it is correctly written down, I sign that I saw it and it was completed.

We also use a lot of email, a hardship for his nearly 70 yr old soc. studies teacher, but the others do just fine with it.

I just had a teacher team meeting that included the sp.ed teacher, I called it so that we would all be on the same page, it’s just easier to see everybody at once than try and catch them one at a time.

My son is in all regular classes with sp.ed support and accommodations.

It doesn’t seem like it should be such a hard thing to ask even in the middle school setting. As far as the turning in homework thing, it has gotten better, I have told his teachers that they need to ask him specifically for his hw. On the other hand I have also told my son what a shame it is that he works so hard on the hw and doesn’t get credit. Like I said he’s gotten better. He is an 8th grader also, turned 13 last May.

Amy, sounds like you get more cooperation than we do. My son is in all regular classes with a study skills class for one period. Basically, all that happens in that class is that he gets most of his homework done.

The main teacher we are having trouble with refuses to ask the children for their homework and feels the same way about their planner. My son feels too anxious about being late to his next class and too embarrassed by having to take his planner to his teacher to follow through. Even the promise of a $10.00/week reward is not enough to outweigh the embarassment.

Guess we’ll just have to keep working on this…

I’ve worked with in special ed. in public and private non-profits for 8 years. Does the school send home progress reports? I have a problem with the school not notifying parents that their children are failing. Did you know this teacher, did she have a reputation for being tough? Did you check with your child as to whether he had homework, and did he lie? Was there extended periods of time where he didn’t bring home work, and didn’t that make you wonder? I think the teacher is probably an “old school” type of teacher that has likely been run over a few times by the special ed. process and doesn’t respect it much, which really does happen. I prefer the attitudes of new teachers as they come into the field, they’re much more aware of the issues in education today, but there are two valid points of view here.
You need to become more involved in your child’s education possibly. Now that you’ve had that problem, you can send regularly timed questions in to that teacher requesting current grade, how many assignments have been passed in, etc. Is he studying with you for tests? The teacher should respond well to your involvement, as long as you are willing to make your child responsible for the work he does, and you are willing to become an active participant in the education of your child. Believe it or not, there are parents out there, with and without children with special ed. identifications, who take the school and its teachers to task, though they’re not willing to get involved themselves in the education of their child.

Each teacher has their own philosophy and those philosophies can vary widely. One of the many things that can make school frustrating for students and parents alike is wending your way through all the inconsistencies. What’s fine with one teacher isn’t at all fine with the next.

You’re certainly not asking too much but whether you’ll ever get from this teacher what you’re asking for is another matter. An easier approach might be to find another student in his class who does get the homework written down each night and call that student at night.

I look forward as a teacher to the day when all teachers have websites. The modern world is websites - not blackboards or even whiteboards.

Amen! I like having the information right at my fingertips and not having to rely on the kids to write it down.

If your son has an IEP, specific teacher behaviors should be listed so there is no mistake about what responsibilities the TEACHER has in helping your child reach his full potential. If this is done, the teacher has no choice-it is the law. If this teacher then refuses to follow through with her job, get a lawyer or special education advocate who will act on your child’s behalf. Either way, it will be the first step in what will probably be a very long road to seeing that the school system fulfills its responsibility in educating your child.

Remember, you have the right to direct input into your child’s IEP process. If the school is fighting you, get help! Many teachers are reluctant to provide any accommodations to students, even if they have an IEP. Legally, they do not have a choice. I am a teacher and have two special needs children. I see both sides, and I can tell you that many teachers fight using accommodations for children who need them. Schools and school districts can lose federal funding if they do not comply with federal laws. Go to the following web sites to find out about the laws regarding IEPs and education:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/advocacy_intro.htm

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/iep.index.htm

http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM

http://www.reedmartin.com/strategiesvolumeone.html

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/holmes_tenways.html

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/iep_guidance.html

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/Products/IEP_Guide/

http://familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-3652-1,00.html

There are many more than this, and most of these have links to go to other sites. If you do not fight for your child, no one else will, either.

Good luck!

Go to the reply I posted to “Are we asking too much?”. You and your child have rights, but you have to be assertive FOR your child until he can do it for himself. Part of my daughter’s problem is that she is very easily embarrassed, as well. I find myself getting very angry at teachers for making her feel uncomfortable. Good luck with your son.

You are very right to insist that the IEP be followed. Too many parents try to be nice and forget that teachers who refuse to follow an IEP are in violation of federal law.
Fern Goldstein

You are definitely not asking too much. You are entitled by law for your child’s IEP to be followed.

Teachers need to understand that although 8th graders should be responsible for writing their assignments down, some students with learning disabilities and/or ADD are not able to execute this function. Perhaps you could have this teacher sit in on a meeting with the special education team and have them explain that the organizational and time management skills involved in writing down an assignment while trying to get packed up to leave the class and get to the next class on time are frequently overwhelming to the student with ADD and that this is a fundamental disability inherent in this disorder. That is why he is classified.

Insist that your child try to write down the assignments to help him learn the skills, but give him a specially designed assignment pad with some information prewritten and with check offs for typical or repeated assignments that you can do on the computer for him.

You might inquire about finding one person who can get the assignments during the day for your child and double check with him at the end of the day that everything was written down: a resource room teacher, aide, his case manager, or homeroom teacher. Having one person to check with is less embarassing and less demanding of already stressed organizational skills.

I teach 8th grade special education in a private school for LD students, and I have a son who had just this problem, so I know where you are coming from! I had my son’s 8th period teacher, who volunteered check his things at the end of the day, but I had to threaten to sue the district before they asked him to help.

Thank you everyone for your great advice and support.

We do have an IEP (and have had since 1st grade) and try to keep on top of things as much as possible. Most of my son’s teachers over the years have been very helpful and cooperative with his IEP’s, and his accommodations have generally been very few and have not cost his teachers much in the way of time and/or effort, i.e., being seated in the front of the class, etc.

Middle school has been trying in that my son is responsible for writing his own homework down in his planner for the classes whose teachers don’t have web sites. So far, the powers that be feel that his planner is the vehicle that should be used to monitor his asignments. The problem is, the planner has been used so often in the past for negative comments regarding his behavior and/or missing asignments (he didn’t have an IEP during 6th and 7th grade of middle school because he was at this school on a transfer, so he had two very difficult years) that he “forgets” to take the planner up to a teacher to be initialed. This is such as issue with him that even a substantial monitary reward is not enough to get him to do so.

Luckily, it is just one class whose teacher (the one I mentioned) does not have a web site and is not willing to ask him for his planner. We met individually with this teacher last week. She is still not willing to do much, but, today, we have our formal meeting to finalize his IEP so we have a chance to again ask for help in this area.