Well we started the meeting with our corrections to the previous minutes. ALL of them. They said that the minutes were meant to be a summary not a verbatim recording. I countered with "Yes, but we will not accept that you accurately record the district's position on each of these issues but choose not to include the parents input. This is important because at some point what happens during this meeting may become part of an official proceeding. We need to be sure the record is accurate and not simply whatever the district chooses to present." Yeah - that set the tone for the meeting.
I remained calm and respectful but called the teacher on everything. After a 30 minute discussion (which was a follow up on the 20 minute or so discussion that we had at the end of the last IEP meeting) about how to word the accommodation that DD should be excluded from "near or distance copying" the teacher pulled out a sample worksheet that she called "fill in the blank" to ask how much writing DD could be allowed to do on something like that. After talking about percentages and number of words I finally got to look at the page. It had a word bank on top - it was not fill in the blank - it was actually a near point copying task. EXACTLY what we had already spent an inordinate amount of time discussing. I used this as an opportunity to reiterate about the pattern of on-going IEP violations, DD's right to have access to the full curriculum not a watered down version, that her 99%+ scores were not consistent with a child who would be unable to complete 2nd grade work if she was properly accommodated, etc. I have to admit I was a bulldog. A respectful bulldog but a bulldog nonetheless.
At the end of the meeting the district decided to authorize 4 more evaluations and convert her part time para to a full time para. We did not request any of this - it is their effort to try to meet her needs. Yes Val they are spending a lot of money on our DD. We had been picking up some of the cost initially but once the principal decided to violate her IEP and started take actions to intentionally antagonize her anxiety we decided to hold the district accountable. If DD needs a service and is entitled to it they provide it. It would be illegal not to. Frankly we believe that when all is said and done it will be less expensive for them to pay for the out of district placement we want than to try to duct tape together this hodgepodge of expensive services. That is the reality.
I wish DD didn't need any of these services. If it weren't for the disabilities we would be paying out of pocket for private school tuition to have her in the educational setting we want for her. The district stopped us from doing that at the time she was identified. They were the ones who pointed out her need for services and insisted that she had to be enrolled at a public school to get them. I didn't make the rules but I am playing by them.
