We just had his IEP meeting earlier this week.
Can I ask why you're having an IEP meeting now, in the middle of the school year? Were you drafting next year's IEP, was the original IEP written in January so this is your one year renewal meeting (our district always did these late in the 2nd semester, which is possibly why I'm confused lol!), or did one of the team members call an IEP update meeting?
I didn't notice to ask about this during the meeting, but the document seemed to say he was only getting services out of the classroom now, not "push in" services, and I didn't remember getting any notification about that change.
Do you have an advocate or is there any type of non-profit in your area that provides legal consults to people with disabilities? We have two groups in our area which will consult with parents at no charge, and the disability law group in particular loves looking at things like this. I'd want to show the copy of the IEP that *you* have and the copy that you were given at this meeting.
She told me that she hadn't received any information about him getting "push in" services, and that she didn't see it in last year's IEP. So that caused me to actually pull the old IEP and send it to her, pointing out the difference, when I discovered that not only did she change the type of services unilaterally and without notice, but she dropped one session without telling me.
So is the IEP document she was showing you a *draft* of the new IEP the team needs to write for next year? If that's the case, I can totally envision a situation where the school staff drafts up fewer services than the child needs.
They can't change the IEP that's in place without holding a team meeting to agree on the decision. They can, however, draft the renewal of the IEP for the next year, with whatever they want to put on it (or leave off). NOTE - I am not saying they can write it up however they want to, but if they have called a team meeting and they come into the meeting with an *idea* such as reduce services to one hour, based on their observations/data/etc, then they can draft up the IEP written they way they want it to sound, and it's up to you as the parent advocating to be sure all the services and accommodations your ds needs are included. The IEP is a *group* decision.
He used to get 3 half-hours of "push in" services and one of "pull out" services, plus one half-hour of SLP time. He's been getting 3 half-hours of pull-out services since September, and they're bumping it down to 2 now.
You can request that the school staff log the time they provide each service each session, and have the team give you an accounting of time (extent and how it was spent) at the end of each grading period (a handy tip I learned from our local non-profit disability law group).
But you all will understand that I am also mad.
I *totally* understand being mad about this!
Gotta run - hang in there!
polarbear
