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Hi - I had this concern in one of my posts under the thread "IEP Meeting Tomorrow" bt I am starting a new thread specifically to solicit advice for this concern because the more I think about it the more bothered I am bothered by it:

My other slight concern is that the IEP says in part "consider alternate forms of assessment such as oral response, consider reducing the number of responses required, monitor the need for a scribe..." I mentioned my concern about the wording of this at the meeting. I am a bit uncomfortable that it is too vague. I am thinking I would want something more concrete because how does one measure "consider?" It feels like I can't "make" them allow DS to respond orally, all that they can be 'made' to do is "consider" that. YKIM? Of course, they were very nice about it and said (paraphasing) 'oh it's a balance - these are something we need to sort of make decisions about on the fly.... like we gave DS a test the other day we decided to see if could d the writing instead of orally and he did great but if he seemed fatigued we would step in and change the mode of output either scribe for him or let him answer orally.... they said something about needing to find the balance between "not enabling but supporting" (which kind-of made me cringe even though I do see ther point.) They asked me to "trust them." (They also apologized for our bad experience last year - last year's school is in the district but a different school. That school psych was at this meeting as well as the new school psych). In their defense, they have been doing this ("considering" and "finding the balance") this entire month - DS reports that when he gets tired the teacher/aid does scribe for him and allows him to give oral answers. So far, DS is super happy and all is well - what they are doing is going very well. So, they do seem to be finding the balance and doing a good job of that. However, the vague wording concerns me. What are people's thoughts and advice on this?

Oh and I haven't signed yet. I told them we weren't ready to sign I wanted to look over the report and think on it more. Why sign before you have to! It's always a good idea to take some to think before signing anything, imo.

The way we finally decided to word it in my son's IEP is, "the following accommodations will be provided as needed (i.e. parent, child or teacher determine that the accommodation is needed)". We wanted the teacher to have the ability to use whatever accommodation for which a need had arisen without providing the accommodation constantly so that he could do everything within his abilities and be challenged to grow.

The wording also meant that when it was needed, as deemed by me, my child, or the special Ed chair, the teacher had to provide it whether they felt it necessary or not,

Oh I like this better ! Thanks!

Here such language that leaves wiggle-room is not permitted: whether the accommodation is to be used or not is supposed to be spelled out very specifically.

I see pros and cons to leaving some flexibility in the document. Things have tightened up here since the state board of ed. had to crack down, more than once...

DeeDee

I haven't used it myself (we don't have an IEP), but I've seen "fade with success" recommended here somewhere as wording - the idea being that you can fade out using this accommodation, but only if the child remains successful at the task.

I would be very uncomfortable with the way it's worded now. You might have a teacher who is doing the "right" thing now, but what about next year? What happens when a sub is in the classroom? What happens in a pull-out classroom?

I also am not sure I'm comfortable with the teacher deciding when, even when it's being done as you've outlined. This is just my take on it, so take it with a grain of salt... but fwiw... for my ds with dysgraphia, letting him use handwriting for an extended written response until he gets tired would cause a negative impact on the rest of his school day. I also think that putting the burden on the student in any way to ask for an accommodation isn't fair and runs the risk the accommodation won't be given. Although your IEP doesn't state "student must ask" your ds is somewhat being put into that position - if he gets tired while writing and a teacher doesn't notice, he has to ask for his accommodation.

I think that one thing that may be happening with your IEP is that it's the first time your ds has had an IEP, so the "monitor" language means the school staff is trying to figure out exactly what they need to provide. BUT - if you feel your ds needs an accommodation and shouldn't need to go through a trial period of figuring out whether or not he needs it, I'd request it.

I think what I'd do in your situation (since you haven't signed the IEP yet) is to write up the list of accommodations as you'd like to see it written (you could pass it by us here if you wanted to :)). If you have any written report from a private eval that lists needs for accommodations I'd include a copy of it with your list. If the school comes back and says they need to assess what your ds needs, point out to them that they have already done the assessment in the classroom and he needs accommodation .....

Is there another team meeting scheduled to finalize the IEP or are you just supposed to sign it to finalize it? If you feel like you need another meeting, you can call one.

I also forgot - have you consulted with an advocate? Is there any local group you can ask to have someone review the IEP doc? DeeDee mentioned that the type of wiggle-room included in your doc is not permitted in her school district; it's not supposed to be permitted here either, but we found in consulting our advocate service that our school was not paying good attention to what they were supposed to be doing in putting togethe the document - we had what was considered a "weak" IEP in terms of goals. Having that outside-the-school review of the document was helpful.

Did they give your ds accommodations for state testing?

Overall it sounds like your meeting went well - congrats!

polarbear

Totally agree. These are all of my concerns as well. And I plan to rewrite up the list of accommodations as I'd like to see it written. I will pass it by here to get feedback and opinions.

There is not another team meeting scheduled to finalize the IEP. I am just supposed to sign it to finalize it. However, as of now I plan to email the team with how I want these accomodations re-worded. Once I decide how I want them re-worded I was planning on not signing until it is in writing the way I want it.

As for state accomdations. There is a section called "Local Assessments" It reads exactly the same as the accomodations for the same as the vague accomodations in the Program Modifications and SDI (Specifically Designed Instruction) section. It says:

"Student will participate in local assessments with the following accomodations;
- schedule extended time, provide opportunities for breaks and movement, chunk into smaller segements, monitor the need for a scribe, consider alternate forms of assessment such as oral response, consider reducting the number of responses required"

Again, it is the "...monitor the need for a scribe, consider alternate forms of assessment such as oral response, consider reducting the number of responses required" that gives me concern. This is how these accomodatiosn are worded in the SDI seciotn and this "local assessments" section and I believe local assessments are referring to "state testing", right? I DEFINITELY want more specific, more enforceable accomodatiosn for state testing - I assume this refers to testing for the gifted screening but not sure. It seems from the wording they will defnitely give more time, give breaks and chunk it into smaller segements but he is incredibly slow and nervous at writing.

My DS is very very oral - no problems there. I really like how specific this is... I am going to try and write up something like this, "For any assignment of more than ____________, DS will have access to [to a scribe and/or oral response] for ." Just got to figure what a good cutoff is at this point - I am not really sure.

Okay so I worked on re-wording. I am going to run it by you all and would love some feedback.

The orginal accommodation under "Participation in State and Local Assessments" in IEP as written by the school reads:
"Student will participate in local assessments with the following accommodations: Schedule extended time, provide opportunities for breaks and movement, chunk into smaller segments, monitor the need for a scribe, consider alternate forms of assessment such as oral response, consider reducing the number of responses required."

I re-worded it to this:
Student will participate in local assessments with the following accommodations:
-Schedule extended time (at least time and a half), provide opportunities for breaks and movement, chunk into smaller segments, use test formats with reduced written output formats (e.g. multiple choice, matching) to accommodate for slow writing fluency, provide a scribe or provide oral response as an alternate forms of assessment for any assessment that may require written answers of more than___________words.


I am just stuck on the number of words. I got a lot of great information and advice from reading this blog: http://bitsofwisdomforall.com/category/writing-2/ It's very helpful.

Any help/advice/feedback would greatly appreciated! Thanks to you all!

Sounds good. I try to think of it from Ds' point of view too so he doesn't get stuck with a requirement he doesn't like.



http://www.cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/AccommodationsManual.pdf

The link above is to the accommodations manual. Scribes and oral and extra time are pretty standard, and the schools seem very willing to do anything for those state tests. You can use that as leverage for classroom accommodations since accommodations are supposed to be used in the classroom in order to be used on tests.