To everyone concerned: Last year, I realized my child was not getting the appropriate intervention. I had asked the early literacy specialist to share her knowledge of reading acquisition. She and the team had developed an appropriate IEP which was to start on 12/04. I had E-mailed a message requesting how the objectives were going on 1/13/05 and had gotten no response, so went in 1/19/05 and was told by learning support that she was finishing up other things first before starting IEP objectives. While I was there I viewed my child working out of a math workbook with a paraeducator who very rarely checked in on how she was doing. I checked the book to see if my child was putting in correct answers and saw she had made some mistakes. I asked my child where she started in the workbook for the day and I looked at previous pages and noticed errors from the beginning and thru the workbook. Later in the day I did notice that the paraeducator had taken the workbook and corrected the book up to where my child currently was. I want to make it clear that my child will not be able to learn if her mistakes are not shown to her and not self corrected. During the guided reading the paraeducator had my child read and gave her the whole word that she misread instead of having my child use her decoding skills and sound out the word. I viewed the paraeducator telling a student on the word giant that it had the two vowels go a walking rule ( in which the first one does the talking but not the second) which is not the case on that word. I want to also make it clear that my child will not learn to read if she just guesses or is told the words as she reads. My concerns are that the paraeducators are not adequately trained for what they are teaching. And that my child’s IEP is not being fully activated.
changed my message
Well, I had called the woman who had originally set up the IEP and she said she would call the learning support teacher and get the paraeducators into training for guided reading. So good, so far. The learning support teacher is asking for more time on getting herself set up on the new IEP which is understandable, but how much more time does she need? The IEP was finalized on 12/9/04, I was hoping my child would be back on the read naturally program as an easy fix after all it was on her old IEP as well - they just weren’t sure what level she should be on. The projected date on the IEP is 12/04. The law says that an IEP must be implemented as soon as possible following the meetings in which the IEP is developed. How much longer is as soon as possible? I had asked the learning support teachers reccomendation for having my child’s math work book corrected and her suggestion is to have my child use a calculator to check her own calculation answers. she could make a mark on the ones that were wrong and then go back and correct them page by page. My husband isn’t crazy on the idea thinking our child will use the calculator when she shouldn’t. And I still feel someone should still check her answers anyway to make sure she is getting concepts. Here is hoping that I made this a better school after all this effort, as there is not much school left for my child to reap benefits from it.
I might make a better response if I knew what the new IEP contained
I think that is the true ‘legal’ issue
Obviously the paraeducator has got you upset ;) but you dont want them to overfocus on that(next time Mom comes in, be sure teacher Betty works with her not paraeducator Susan)
If the IEP specified she was to decode words, then defeintely bring up the example of her being told the word.
If the IEP states her work is to be corrected on a daily basis with those corrections being gone over with her the following day, mention what you saw
Or….call another IEP and say your observation made you realize the goals needed to become more specific and add something like the above
But if what you saw isnt in conflict with the IEP as it is written……..i
LEGAL is what makes he impression IMO