Inky - I've long be up front with my kids and included them with decisions that affected them, and whenever possible I made them a part of the decision. So thank you for this link - it was a very good read.
I hadn't considered bringing my son to the IEP, but I've already talked to him about all of the results and about the decisions we are going to make at the meeting so that I could get his feedback about what he wanted. He said that he is comfortable with the work in class, is getting better every day with his reading and writing, and so he is happy with the decision to not be pulled out for special ed for those subjects anymore. He said that if OT might help him learn to remember how to tie (we practice it every stinkin' day, but he can never remember the sequencing of which loop goes where), he'd like to continue. Otherwise, he is ready to move on and practice his areas of need at home. He pointed out that two years ago, we wasted money on swimming lessons because he couldn't understand how to do the strokes and then this summer the lessons went much better - he turned into an excellent swimming who can lap the pool several times from someone who couldn't even dog paddle. So his thinking is that the part of his brain that is needed for riding a bike or tying his shoes may kick in with a little more time the way swimming did. I like his logic, whether he's right or not.
I came across this today via Aimee Yermish's blog and was wondering if you considered including your son at his IEP meeting? You have my sympathies too.
http://www.ncld.org/at-school/your-...why-my-son-attended-his-own-iep-meetingsAs his parent, I felt that Jay needed to attend every IEP meeting. If he was going to understand what was happening in his education, he had to be part of the process. I couldn't imagine a successful IEP without his buy-in. He had a far better understanding of what was really going on because he was in the classroom.
At one of his IEP meetings, the staff asserted that Jay had made so much progress that he no longer needed an IEP, and that he should be found ineligible for special education services. They were basing this partly on a recent 6th grade standardized test score. There wasn't much logic to their argument.
P.S. I read the rest of Aimee's blog entry on this subject and wanted to give you the link:
http://davincilearning.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/meetings-the-final-frontier/
