I had an IEP meeting this morning for high schooler. They broke so many IDEA regulations that I’m now fuming with myself for not speaking up.
First of all the annual IEP date was passed they scheduled an IEP meeting in Dec. with two days notice. I responding that this date was inconvenient and that I needed seven days notice of a meeting. They sent me a form to sign that I requested that the IEP be extented which I replied that I could not sign as I didn’t ask for them to extend the IEP. This part I feel good about how I handled it.
I was notified of meeting via a note in advance. Two days ago I get the same notice of meeting I returned with the meeting date and time changed. I show up at the meeting and a different person is there as administrator and there is no classroom teacher present. I then find out that they tested my son without asking me to sign an assessment form or notify me that they ware doing testing. There are other compliance issues that I’m owning up to at the moment.
Why do they put is in this position? They break the law and then we’re suppose to be nice an co-operative and maintain a good relationship with them because they are serving our child.
I’m thinking of writing a letter thanking them the good things at occurred the meeting and then state that I am really concerned that they are breaking the state and federal regulations and list the issues. I would then suggest that they have staff in-service training so that they remedy this situation and maybe some suggestion of where they can get this training.
Ok, you can still do something about it. First you want to clearly write out what you feel was illegal and use a copy of your rights to do so. If you don’t have a copy, get one. Send it certified to the principle and the head of the special education department. You want to get yourself an advocate. Your state board of education may be able to help you out there if you call. Just say you feel that some laws may (say may) have been broken and you want to talk to an advocate in your area. There are people trained to do that. Include in your letter you will be looking into geting an advocate and possibly taking legal action. You may never have to do it, the threat is enough to send people flying. Whatever happens, whatever conversation you have, write it down. Phone conversations, I pass you in the store conversations, all of it. You may not be the only one they did this to. An advocate will help you know how to approach it and help you decide what action is best for you.