Hi guys,
Coming out of lurk mode for a moment to ask advice.
First of all, DS12 (anxiety, perfectionism, ASD, low self esteem) is doing somewhat better. Aside from an incident today (which I'll get to), he had gone several weeks without getting upset at school. He is slowly becoming less explosive, and is able to recover faster when he is having issues. He's doing better at explaining his side of the story rather than regressing to toddler behavior.
We've met with school personnel, including the top special ed person in the entire district, three times this school year. Each time we brought a significant list of very specific IEP violations - where school personnel clearly did not follow his IEP and it had a negative impact on his learning experience. This resulted in a re-write of the IEP provisions to clarify them, as well as reassurances that the IEP will be followed.
My wife and I have logged each IEP violation, and there continues to be about 2 a week. In spite of our sharing this information with the school, I just don't see them really pushing for any changes. While each individual teacher and staff person seems to want to do the right thing (except for 1-2 who are hopeless), DS12 slips between the cracks and no one takes responsibility for the continuing problems.
I have resigned myself to the idea that I'm just going to have to work with DS12 to make him more resilient, because the school is never going to commit to following the IEP. This is eventually how he needs to view the world anyway - I want him to self advocate and accept the occasional problem as not the end of the world. I just didn't think that we'd have to make that shift now, and I also was under the belief that the school would be able to follow a few simple rules.
In any case, that's that. Advice welcome of course.
Language arts. We have struggled all year with a curriculum that is rigid. The teachers have resisted accommodations. We finally got into a good working relationship with his main LA teacher, but she is out on maternity leave. The long term sub has different expectations, different grading criteria, does not respond to emails, and does not follow a very simple IEP provision - provide DS with WRITTEN instructions for every assignment. Often, my wife and I experience difficulty trying to decode his vague and ambiguous assignments (she has a masters in education and was a teacher, so you'd think it would at least make sense to her...)
Lately his grades have dropped from an A+ to a B+, coinciding when this sub came on board. We're very frustrated with this guy's drill and kill approach with emphasis on busywork and memorization. I'm questioning the educational value of the assignments. I'm also thinking of pulling DS from LA class for the rest of the year (6 weeks) because I think I could come up with better assignments.
To sum up, I've concluded that the school personnel have reached, their level of incompetence, they are not going to solve problems proactively, and the LA curriculum and this new sub are not benefiting my child.
Has anyone dealt with similar issues?
