My son has had an IEP since the end of second grade. I’ve been in at least 8 IEP meetings, they have all gone fairly well and all of my expectations have been met usually with no problems. Until this week. My son is now in 4th grade, he has been diagnosed with a Language based learning disability this diagnosis was made through lengthy evaluations at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital….we had the diagnosis by the end of 2nd grade. His 3rd grade special ed teacher was awesome, she wasn’t afraid to try new things to reach him. He’s very smart but keeps a lot of his knowledge locked up in his head which is common with this LD. We accomplished so much last year I couldn’t have been more pleased. Fast forward to this year. I had heard the new special ed teachers name and had heard a lot of good things from others whose children had had her and how great she was. I was hopeful for another great year. Until “meet the teacher night”. She came across very arrogant, and disinterested. That was just meet the teacher night, which afterwards I had a very bad feeling….very bad. Something just didn’t seem right. The came the IEP meeting with everyone, and again she was arrogant. She show’d up late 10 min, felt it was someone elses responsibility to write the IEP (last years teacher), bulked at almost everything we discussed as a strategy that worked for Perry last year. Argued with me on a few different points. Was completely disrespectful to last year teacher. She was way unprofessional and kept making snide remarks under her breath to last years teacher….WHAT THE? It was so horrible I requested my son to not be in her class the next day. She may very well be a great teacher, but I think she’s falling from grace, and I don’t want my kid to be in her class to see it happen.
Now they want a meeting with me, her, and the 2 principles to discuss her behavior and my feelings. Their goal is to keep him in the class as she’s the only special ed language/reading teacher for the 4th grade in that school. My gut and my heart as well as a big ole dose of God still wants him out. Good news is he’s oblivious and doesn’t seem any worse for the wear. Hopefully someone read to the end and has some advice. I am working on taking an advocate with me, which I’ve never done before.
Re: Teacher Difficulties
Wow! I AM a elementary special education (LD) teacher and I am completely appalled at what I am reading! Adaptations, modifications and making sure students are successful is our business! As a teacher, I definitely would never treat a parent in such an unprofessional manner and as a parent, I would never accept such treatment from a teacher. Nobody knows your child’s educational needs better than you do! I would closely monitor the situation if you can’t get him moved.
Where I teach, we don’t assign SE teachers by grade level, so I often have the same students year after year. Which is nice as I can just pick up where I left off. The IEP is a working legal document. Things can not be changed or taken out if you don’t agree with the changes. You may also call an interim IEP meeting at any time for any reason. I once had 6 IEP meetings for 1 student. It happens.
Verbal check-outs, going over assignment notebooks, and yes…even checking backpacks are something we do routinely with our students. They just “don’t get it” with one reminder. My son is ADHD and in 8th grade. His teachers review his assignment notebook with at the end of the day, no questions asked.
I can certainly relate! I recently had an IEP meeting at my son’s new school (who is 17 and has yet to have a good year in high school, now I’m trying a private school) that went horribly.
I have to agree with you and encourage you to trust your instincts about this. That is what I am doing. In our meeting, the teachers seemed to think learning disabilities could be overcome with a good attitude and a lot of extra effort. My wonderful son sat there looking a little disengaged and a few of the five adults kept looking at him searchingly and saying, “Luke, YOU are in the driver’s seat!” as if teachers couldn’t possibly be to blame for not meeting his needs and his general frustration with schools was unwarranted. And, AS IF he hadn’t been working twice as hard as most other students for years!! The worst part was I suggested that at the conclusion of his school day, he have a verbal “checkout” with someone to help him process what he was responsible for that evening’s homework. Luke has ADD and central auditory processing disorder, which means that one-on-one communication is the most effective. The resource teacher, who should have been the most educated, ridiculed my idea in front of the whole group and laughed as she said, “Luke, do you want me to check your backpack every day?!” I clarified that I did not mean that; I meant that he needed a verbal checkout. Not one person in the room in the room saw my point and they giggled about it. Obviously, they think I baby him. I felt like walking out the door at that moment.
The next day, I marched over to my college, where I am a social work major senior, and I spoke with the chairperson of the Psych department, who was a school psychologist for many years. He essentially told me that teachers, generally, know very little about learning disabilities. There seems to be a discrepancy between what the testing says he can do and what he can actually do, so I am perpetually faced with staff who over-challenge him. It’s not real impressive when the mother is telling the staff that her kid can do less than they think he can! I just don’t think they understand his particular learning issues and they keep imposing their own expectations on him, which is extremely damaging to his self-esteem.
Well, I totally rambled on. Let us know what happens at your wonderful meeting. One thing that has always helped me is to remember that YOU are the expert on your kid and if you think this teacher and he are a poor fit based on actual observations, then fight for him to be with someone else. My son is 17 and I feel that I have done almost everything I could to advocate for him, but one regret I have is not insisting on requiring the people who work with him closest to meet MY expectations, because I always thought they were the experts. Good luck!