Update:
We had an IEP meeting yesterday. The person from the district who controls the password and who blocked access to the iPad for anything but Dragon Dictation said she was doing it to "protect" DD. "And I will do it again!"
In her opinion she did not think anything should be loaded onto the iPad out of fear that DD might get frustrated if they loaded apps that didn't work for her. Never mind that there was a 27 page AT evaluation done last year, never mind that it included 7 pages of recommendations (2 pages of them suggested apps for the iPad!), never mind that she lost an entire year because the district dragged its feet getting the AT in place. No, it might be frustrating for DD if some of the apps didn't work for her so it was better to have the iPad sit on the shelf of her classroom for 3 weeks while she wrote everything by hand, had people read aloud to her like a pre-schooler and could only do her math when she was able to access her teacher's desk top computer to get to the necessary programs. Yeah, that's a much better scenario for her. At one point she said something about this being the first time they ever had to load apps onto an iPad so they had to figure out how to do it. Don't even get me started on how that could even be possible...
I exploded during the meeting. I am so beyond done with the people in this district I just cannot contain myself anymore. THEY chose this school for out of district placement and now they won't get out of the way to let them do the job. I just don't get it. I really, truly don't.
So the new AT consultant finally visited the school this week and will be working with them so that DD can finally have apps up and running. Still no audio books (and no explanation as to how blocking those "protected" her...) but I made my rather strong case about the need to get those up and running ASAP.
We requested another IEP meeting in three weeks to look at the implementation of the AT services. I am thinking seriously of buying an iPad for home use so the school can provide her whatever they want regardless of what the district allows in school. I am still trying to figure out how to do that and not have the district balk and claim that we have accepted responsibility for all AT and then pull her OT training on it. At this point I put nothing past this district.
After the meeting I was told by consultant and DD's psych separately that neither will take any more cases involving kids in our district. These people are "impossible" and "incompetent". Both also made comments about the mental stability of the person in the district who took these actions. I really thought out of district placement would get them out of our lives but alas that's not the case. I wish I could relocate to another district but it has been explained to me that would cost DD another year of services and she can't afford that so we are stuck.
head... meet brick wall... [repeat]
