I stopped by here this morning because I wanted to send you good wishes on your way to your meeting - I'll be thinking of you! It sounds like you have a wonderful resource in your school psych - I'm glad she'll be at the meeting today
And glad the rest of what will most likely be your IEP eligibility team will also be there - it sounds very positive for a good start for the journey ahead
I think my "goal" for this meeting is to first get their impressions of how things are going, second be sure he isn't disciplined for disabilities and third to discuss meeting the learning needs he was found to have (by the school) that have not yet been addressed. It will be hard to stay to point.
These are great goals - and they will most likely be ongoing goals, as it's not going to be possible to get everything resolved and in order in one 20 minute meeting. Do your best to redirect the conversation back to what needs to be discussed today. It helped me to rehearse in my head a bit before meetings like this - to try to anticipate what arguments or questions about a diagnosis the staff might have and how I would answer. It also helped me to have a *very* brief one-line-few-words well-rehearsed calm comeback to throw out whenever one of the school staff questioned the need for accommodations etc - my go-tos, depending on what was said by the staff, were statements such as "Are you questioning the diagnosis of a well-respected credentialed professional?", "We aren't here to talk about the other students, we are here to put together a plan for ds", "because DS can not rely on handwriting to show his knowledge"... simple brief statements that went a long way to diffusing the tendency of a group conversation to wander off track. I would rehearse them in my head on the drive to the school so that I was able to say them calmly and without emotion even if the meeting turned sour to the point I wanted to leap on the table and scream
I think everything will be fine today. You're well-prepared with an understanding of your ds' challenges, and you're a strong advocate.
Let us know how everything goes!
polarbear
ps - after the meeting is over, type up a brief summary of everything that you understand was discussed and agreed upon and send it to everyone on the team, asking if there is anything that you've missed or anything that needs to be clarified.
