Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Wondering if I should reject IEP

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When they say 3 times a month do they mean 3 times evenly spaced or could it be 3 times in one week then nothing for the rest of the month?

I think organizational skills help will be useless unless it is daily at first...then maybe it coul be faded to weekly...but what good would twice a month do? If you only needed twice a month you are already doing pretty okay in that department not just starting out on an IEP.

I would say OT and speech needs to be 1 time weekly not three times a month.....and they need to have a way to make up if the ST or OT is out...and a way to make up if the scheduled day is Monday or Friday and is a planned Holiday.

I would want ....assignments will be modified without penalty for fine motor output by substituting various alternative responses such as but not limited to: oral responding, using a scribe, recording voice, typing, AT, etc.

...assignments may be reduced if heavy fine motor output required....ie writing spelling words once and not 5times each, filling in a single missing letter, using spelling city online to practice words or reduced number of math problems to show mastery without penalty.

...no penalty for additional time needed on assignments (this is important later on in school about 4th grade or so doesn't hurt to get it in now).

...notes to be copied off the board provided to the student (also something that hits harder around 4th grade)

This is a draft IEP, right? Unless you've had the IEP meeting, this isn't the final form for you to endorse or not. Go into the meeting with your concerns about what they've laid out, and ask them to justify how they see each of the services will lead your DS to achieving his goals.

In IEP meetings, we've changed goals, added goals, altered services and accommodations. Often, these have come about not by me stating what I think the services ought to be, but by stating my concerns grounded in quantitative data on social and academic measures.

What I did when I was presented with a weak IEP is I re-wrote the IEP. It took some time but I practically wrote my son's entire IEP... I have found you can not count on the school, they will put forth the bare minimum. The school gave me push back but I had the mindset that I had the final say - this was my child and the school works for me sort-of-thing. I also had advice from here and I knew what I was including was not unreasonable.

Be picky! This is your child, this is your child's education and he is entitled to access to his education... no one is going to advocate for him - no one ... you are the only voice he has!

None of their therapies seem to be setup to happen nearly often enough to be of any use at all. 3 times a month for 20 minutes? What the heck good is that for anything?

Not knowing your child's situation I may be way off here so please take this with a grain of salt...

This proposal sounds to me like a "letter of the law" situation where your district is offering services with the assumption that you have no idea what should/could be provided. As I have said before on these boards I have come to realize that most districts take advantage of the inexperience and naiveté of parents entering these situations for the first time. There is a steep learning curve for parents but the districts have all been through this many, many times. They set up a scenario that meets the letter of the law, maybe, but not necessarily that meets the needs of the child. Most parents are inexperienced, naïve and intimidated enough to just accept what the district offers. Sadly it seems that many districts count on this dynamic.

That being said I suppose it may be possible for the speech 3x per month for 20 minutes to help depending on what his issues are. But organization skills for 20 minutes 2x per month? I have no idea what that will do for him. The same for OT 3x per month for 20 minutes. It really doesn't matter that "the OT doesn't have a lot of time." That's not your problem and certainly not your son's problem. Sorry if I sound jaded but... well... I am.

2 years ago I started requesting intervention for math. I was offered "consultation" by the spec ed teacher which did nothing. After about 6 months I finally got it added to the IEP as a pull out service. The spec ed teacher, who I really like and respect, wrote it as being for 12 sessions "because, frankly, that's all the time I have in my schedule." That is totally inappropriate and everyone I have mentioned it to has actually winced in pain at the idea that she said that out loud. They are obligated to provide the level of service the child needs in order to access his education. It is not up to the child to minimize his needs according to what the district wants to make available. And by the way 2 years later math had become my DD's biggest area of deficiency. That probably would not have happened if she had gotten appropriate intervention back in first grade when the issues first arose.

YMMV but if it were me I would not accept this IEP. You are not being too picky - you are advocating for what your child needs. HTH.

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I still think if you NEED organizational help twice a month sounds like someone who is fading help not someone just starting out getting help. My son needs daily help to learn new routines and strategies at the beginning broken down into simple steps and then once he gets it, I fade helping with just periodic check ups and reteach or teach new strategies if the first ones didn't work...then I move on to the next weak executive functioning/organizational area.

Services are not standard, but driven by need. (And theoretically not by when the provider happens to be available.) The IEP team is supposed to look at the data collected through the evaluation process, identify the needs of the child, then write measurable IEP goals, and THEN craft a set of services that will allow the child to meet those goals. Discussion of services should come at the end of that process, after it's clear what's reasonable and needed to attain the goals.

Of course, if the evaluation was shoddy or incomplete, or the team wasn't honest in making measurable goals for the IEP, the decision about services can be made poorly.

FWIW of all the services we have had at school, special ed support was the most flexible, and the one we got the most mileage out of. They can deploy that time toward organizational skills, classroom behavior, practically anything your child needs, as long as it is in support of the IEP goals. This was a lifesaver for us.


We had a school speech therapist who was actually making things worse and we ended up just declining services. But I only felt OK doing that because we had very comprehensive help outside of school that was allowing DS to progress. I would probably not turn down school services if you have nothing better to replace them with. (The only exception: if the person is so bad they are doing harm.)


You are wise to plan for future needs. The writing demands go up a lot in 2nd grade and still more in 3rd. And coloring lasts... forever, it seems, but at least well into middle school.

DeeDee

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