Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Question re IEP Modification/SDI

I need some IEP advice. Could I make an iep accommodation (or SDI or whatever) that DS's teacher can not call on him if he is not raising his hand? As I have already posted in this thread: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....istrict_Transfer_for_a_C.html#Post224780 , DS' math teacher is calling on him constantly and he chokes b/c he is embarrassed and simply has not processed the all the information (his words!) as he has very low processing speed.

She is targeting him every day by calling on him when his hand is not raised because she *thinks* he is not paying attention; so, she is exposing him to unwanted and, imo, degrading attention in order to manipulate/control him into “paying attention.” She is also, according to DS and the other students, putting him up as an example as "what happens to kids who do not pay attention."

He may or may not be paying attention but he is not disrupting the class. His grades are fine ... He usually process the instruction in time and when he is doing the homework , etc. There is a saying “If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” In this case, I say “if a child isn’t engaged by the way we teach, maybe we should teach in a way that will engage him.” Honestly, if she is really trouble by her perception that DS is not paying attention to her class, try teaching in an engaging way. I can guarantee if you are in engaging DS will be engaged. Shaming him and subjecting him to degrading attention is not going to engage, it’s going to have the opposite effect.

We have a meeting tomorrow about this and about a number of other problems I have with this teacher. It is only with the resource teacher, principal, bad math teacher and DH and I. So I am also wondering do I need to make it an IEP meeting?

You can update the IEP at any time and in this case, maybe you should. If you can establish that calling on DS prevents him from learning due to his disability (e.g., causing anxiety to worsen), then there is sufficient cause to put that in the IEP.

ITA with BSM re being able to call an IEP meeting at any time, but I wouldn't attempt to change the meeting tomorrow into an IEP meeting. Try to see if you can make headway with the issues in math class at this meeting, be sure to come out of the meeting with a plan (if one can be agreed upon), and then if that plan doesn't work and your ds continues to have stress and anxiety over how he's being treated in his math class, that's the time to call an IEP update meeting.

Re whether or not you can ask for an accommodation as you mentioned above, I'd pass that question on to your local advocate (I think you have an advocate?). You can absolutely have accommodations to address anxiety, but I think I'd want an advocate to advise me re how to phrase the specifics of the accommodation.

Good luck - let us know how the meeting goes.

polarbear

Thanks BSM and Polarbear!

BSM - I like how you worded that!


Our advocate office in this area closed. But, I did retain an attorney that specializes in this work about two years ago. It's how I finally got the school to really take us seriously. It's been wonderful since then, quite honestly. Until now. I did not need to contact our attorney all last year. But I still have her on retainer so I guess I should call her. I am pretty sure that when we had a lot of trouble before with DS's IEP, etc. and we had several meetings... someone asked in one of those meetings if we wanted something like that in DS's iep ... we decline at the time because it simply was not a problem back then and I do remember that particular teacher saying it was her policy to not call on students who did not raise their hand (she had a no calling on kids randomly policy basically)... Hmm actually I recorded all of those meetings .. I'll see if I can find it. I think I remember it being the District Director of Special Ed who inquired about/suggested it.