My basic model is: "my child reports to me that..., help me understand what's happening..."
This is perfect and it's also an opportunity to make the accommodation more specific. For example, many times in my situation, when an accommodation wasn't being given, I would say something like Geofizz suggests and the teacher response would often be something like "well he didn't ask for [the accommodation]" which would turn into a productive (although many times unpleasant) discussion of why DS shouldn't need to ask for his accommodation and ultimately resulting a stronger more specifically worded accommodation put in the iep/504 so teachers know exactly, what, how, how often, why and when and accommodation is to be used. Another famous teacher response was often "I didn't notice fatigue," which would lead to me educating everyone on why we don't wait for a teacher to notice fatigue before giving an accommodation and again result in more specific wording so the teacher knows when exactly to give the accommodation. The wording needs to be VERY specific because what I have found if there is any wiggle room the teacher will use that to not give the accommodation. YKWIM?
Agree--
but there is a more pro-social way of
stating what you want (and what is, ultimately, RIGHT) here--
Oh, I think that the teacher has plenty to worry about without having to determine minute-by-minute when the accommodation is appropriate and when it isn't needed. Why don't we make it so that {name} doesn't have to spend instructional time making that determination?
Because, see, THEN, it's about you and the rest of the team thinking about the teacher's valuable time, and about not wanting to TAKE more time from, you know, his/her ability to run the classroom effectively. This way you aren't asking the teacher to operate outside of his or her scope of practice, either. After all, teachers are not doctors or physical therapists or anything else.
Let them TEACH! (Hurray!)
(Heheheheh... yeah, this is a bit manipulative, but it works. And you never come off looking like "that horrible controlling parent" for bringing it up this way.) You're just trying to...
simplify... things. Which may even be true, in some ways-- though that probably requires the kind of big picture look at the situation that some classroom teachers are not very good at. Ultimately, giving a child an necessary accommodation saves EVERYONE in that classroom time and preserves a better instructional setting for all children.
I often like to set this up with "Oh, wow-- I'm really sympathetic to your plight here-- I can see how having to {think it over, make a determination, argue with my child, etc. etc. etc.} is really time-consuming for you. Hmm... how could we make it so that you don't spend all that time... hmm..."
That way you come off as one of the more reasonable and sympathetic/empathetic people in the room. If you can pull it off, it works like a charm.
