Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional IEP Mtg - Dysgraphia/Writing Accomodations Help.

Is the principal the person who really drives the IEP process at your school? I'm just curious because at our school it was the SPED staff person who was *really* technically in charge, and she would have been the person that would have made the decision re whether or not another meeting needed to be held to make a change in wording of an accommodation. She also reported to a SPED chairperson in the district rather than only reporting to the principal, so I think the district chairperson helped to prevent situations like a principal acting on emotion from getting out of control or acting in a way that wasn't in the district's best interests. I'm just curious if you have a SPED staff person at your school, and if so do you think he/she has any kind of power over this decision, or do you think the principal is simply digging in and wielding his power and there's no changing his mind? If you have a reasonable SPED person, I might just drop in and talk to her or give her a call and ask if this small update to the IEP couldn't be handled via phone calls - we did that for a change in our ds' IEP and it worked fine! (Of course, we didn't have our principal acting as a roadblock).

I'd also ask your advocate what she recommends.

And... I'd do my best to simply ignore the fact the principal is digging his heels in and making mountains out of molehills. Respond to his email per mon's suggestions, and offer up the times *you* (and your advocate) are available to meet - make sure all of the times you suggest are workable times for both you and your advocate. Your principal can't insist that the meeting happen at 8.

I'd also only suggest dates after the next eval comes in, since it's 2 weeks away.

Hang in there - you're really doing a GREAT job of advocating - I'm sorry your principal is being such a bottle neck in the process!

polarbear

ps - don't know how your district is set up, but we also had a team member from our district office sit in on each of our IEP meetings to be sure that the school members followed district policy etc. I don't know for sure if this was routine in our district, or something that happened at our school because our school had been in trouble for violating the spirit and law of IDEA in the past... but if you have a person like that who is sitting in, you might also give them a call and ask if this is really something that warrants a meeting. My gut feeling is that if the SPED team members are ok with the change to the wording, they will be motivated and able to get the change through without a meeting - because I'm guessing that they have more meetings than they can fit into their days to begin with, and scheduling endless meetings over something that could easily be agreed to on the phone isn't high on their agenda, kwim?

The Special Ed director seems fine but she is never around (thoughh she is cc'd on some things). The Ass. Spec Ed Director is involved and I can not stand her. She is not friendly to special needs at all - she is often accusing me of "micromanaging DS" "enabling his disability" and "shortchanging" She does not like DS getting these accommodatiosn at all. But she also seems to not have much power - it seems the principal tells her what to say and do.

Re the 8am thing, that's part of the problem also. Principal said there is no way he is ever meeting again at any other time other than 8am! I don't understand how he can do that! How about even 9am or 9:30am - he said it takes the teachers away from instriuction and he can't do it and he require the teachers to be there after their union hours! So it has to be at 8am.

What a jerk.

I do have a phone call into the advocate and am waiting to hear from her.

In the meantime, I am thinking of responding with this:

"Another meeting on this may be a great idea! Thank you so much for suggesting it! I thought that at the last meeting I was asked to think more about the issue of what to do when DS seems to want to write more than permitted by the accommodation, talk it over with DS and report back to the IEP team. I have done that in my previous email. Now that I have had time to think about it and discuss it with some other professionals, etc., I feel much more prepared and do have more ideas about how to handle the accommodation in light of the IEP team's concerns expressed on Monday. I am also, however, also very comfortable (for now) with leaving the accommodation as it is. I was simply trying to make it all more flexible for you and the teachers given the concerns expressed by the teachers on Monday.

There is an additional consideration, DS just had a very in-depth evaluation yesterday (Occupational Therapy, Auditory and Auditory Processing, Dyslexia/Dysgraphia, etc) and I will get the report in approxmiately two weeks. Additionally, we have a neuropsychological evaluation coming up as well. So, I am thinking maybe we should just proceed with the current IEP and defer formally meeting again until after I get all of the results of these evaluations? Based on my discussions with the evaluator at yesterday's evaluation, I have a strong inclination that some sort of formal 'dyslexia/dysgraphia' diagnosis will be coming in the very near future. The evaluator said yesterday that the amount and the extent of DS's reversals in the tests she gave are certainly not "typical" given his age, intelligence and grade level and are definitely a cause for a great deal concern (finally some validation); therefore, much of the IEP will most likely need more tweaking and updating anyway once those evaluations are complete and we know the results.

As we all know, anyone can call an IEP meeting and I certainly respect your right to do so. I have no problem meeting - after all, DS is my child and I will whatever I need to do to ensure he has access to his education and is properly accommodated. Therefore, of course, I would be more than happy to check with my advocate and my husband and get back to you on some dates and times. It is my understanding that IEP meeting times have to be workable times for both my advocate, my husband and myself so I apologize that I can not guarantee that we will be able to accommodate you request for an 8:00 am meeting but we will do our best and I am sure we can come up with some workable alternative times that are good for ALL of us, if an 8;00 am time is not possible.

If after discussing this email with the rest of the team, you find that a formal meeting is unnecessary, you are certainly welcome to cancel it and address this one concern that I was asked to think over and reported in my email. Or, you are welcome to cancel your request for a formal meeting and leave the accommodation as it is. I am fine with either. I am almost positive we will be meeting again, probably more than once, before the start of next year to revisit the issue of this particular accommodation. Otherwise, I certainly look forward to meeting with all of you again to bnrainstorm and discuss! Let me know how you wish to proceed.

Sincerely,"

Hmmmm, interestingly, the Special Ed Dir was not cc'd on any of this just the assistant special ed director. I will start including the Special Ed Dir as she for the district not just this elementary school so, like you say polarbear, she may put a bit of a check on the principal's power and emotion. I don't know really what she is like but I am thinking she may provide some needed 'objectivity' to this situation.

This should be a template letter - spot on a perfect blend of being assertive and acommodating!

Thank you MON !!!!! This board is wonderful, thank you everyone! Gonna draft that and send to advocate for approval and thoughts but I agreee that it's perfect!

I honestly do not think they would even understand this accommodation. I also think it is way too vague for them and it lends itself to quickly becoming a situation where DS starts writing more and more, etc.

It seems to need to be spelled out very, very clearly for them ... otherwise it becomes "well, he seems fine" and less and less scribing is provided. And the accommodation becomes "when he asks if he seems fatigued"

I cc'd in the Special Ed director on our email back and forth and I do believe I detect a change a tone in Mr. Principal's last email. I am thinking maybe Spec. Ed. director is a bit higher than principal since she is SpecED Dir of the district and perhaps he became more conscious of his tone. He still wants to meet and that's fine. If we are meeting then I feel like we should be prepared to have a good in-depth discussion about this, so I am outlining 'brainstorming ideas' and my concerns now so we can have a really good discussion. It could be yet another really good meeting for us. And why not... might as well take advantage of getting everyone together to have a really good back and forth on getting this accommodation hammered out. But I still can not guarantee a 8am meeting time as I do want my advocate to be there and he is the one insisting that every time I send an email discussing or tweaking the iep we MUST MEET so....

So, just yesterday another example of teachers and paras, etc. not being educated about DS's IEP, disability, etc. DS's gym teacher is now teaching them "health" this semester. Btw, gym teacher is a super guy, very good with and to DS and lovely to me (so far anyway...) Now that he is teaching "health" writing is involved in the class. DS had to ask for help with writing yesterday. DS said gym teacher was surprised and confused by DS's request and asked DS if he gets this sort of help form other teachers. DS said yes but gym teacher decided to make sure and put the question to the class, "Does DS get help with writing routinely and form Mrs. Homeroom teacher?" I mean, really?? And then they (principal and rest of IEP team) balk at my concern that the paras and other staff working with DS are not educated properly about DS's disability!

Apparently, however, this all went fine, Gym Teacher was lovely about it and not shaming (at least DS didn't feel weird or shamed) and DS was fine with it all. And the class was all like "yup, DS gets help with writing." Gym then said "Okay no problem, then" and helped him. But this really could have gone very badly. I don't want to get gym teacher in trouble at all so I probably won't bring it up...but really!

Well, I talked to the advocate and she told me to ask him if other in "specials" he is getting his accommodations because she said if the PE/health teacher doesn't know there is a high chance none of the specials teachers were given the IEP. I actually didn't think this case. As it turns out she is right, I asked DS about his other specials classes. He teared up and said there is a ton of writing library classroom and he never gets any accommodations there. He shared that he has been afraid to ask for his accommodation because the library classroom teacher is "very unpleasant" and he is "afraid she will not believe him or will make fun of him" (I know this teacher b/c I volunteer at the school and she is mean).

So, advocate says we have to send a email/correspondence clearly documenting this. I did so without emotion or threats just a please be advised" and just a 'please give specials teachers IEP and talk with them asap' email but I am so upset. It specifically says in the IEP these people need to know. This is exactly what I have been complaining about - paras, teachers and staff that work daily with my son do not know he has an iep and what his accommodations are... No wonder he started breaking down in January - the writing in all of the classes really started picking up then. I am upset. I really thought this school was better than this.

We got into a big brew-ha-ha over this sort of thing at the last IEP (based on the fact that paras were clearly not properly informed and educated about DS's accommodations) and they acted like I being 'that difficult mother.' I wanted to maybe have paras in the IEP meetings - they said "no" not really sure why. We ended up saying there would semester meetings with paras by the teacher (not DH and I) re ds's accommodations.

What the heck do we need to d oto make sure all of DS's specials and paras know what DS needs? I don't get their names or emails in the beginning of the year otherwise I would just email them myself!

Did I mention how upset I am? No wonder DS was starting to deteriorate.

That's infuriating and unacceptable that they aren't taking the issue more seriously. Shy of having your son carry a dossier of documentation just in case, I don't see any channels you haven't pursued to get the staff at the school singing from the same hymn book.

Thanks MON and Aquinas. MON, sounds like you have really 'been there, done that' with this stuff. Amazing you got 'in trouble' for being informative - it actually helps them to be protected if everyone knows what they need to know and do!

I'll have to be even more pushy about it in the future, I guess. I actually had this concern in the beginning of the year and clearly verbalized it on a number of occasions. The teacher assured me she would share everything with the specials teachers and paras when I asked for the names and contact info of each specials teachers. This year is his first year but we (parents) are not even given the name of each specials teacher (there is a directory but if I don't the name...) Anyway, I asked again about this at our 1st IEP meeting at the end of September (back then I was specifically concerned about the specials teachers) and again asked for names and contact info. I was assured again that each specials teacher and para would be informed. A mandate that all staff is to be informed about DS's IEP and accommodations was placed in the IEP to appease me. So, this is yet ANOTHER violation of the IEP. At the last IEP meeting I got more insistent about having paras at the meeting (as well as other teachers such as special teachers) - this time I was met with great resistance and again an assurance that everyone is informed. {They also basically said DS was lying about what the para said to him. Things got heated. The advocate pointed out DS has no reason to lie and principal said 1st graders are known not to be accurate with their accounts of what happened to which I responded employees are know to purposely lie to cover their butts. But I digress}
At that point I really thought the specials teachers were informed and that there were not any real problems there. I had no idea things were getting this bad for DS in specials. So DS was getting no accommodations in specials and he had a para putting him down for needing accommodations . And they wondered why he was "irritable" and I love their solution, which was "I know! He needs social skills class!" I think the lot of them need socials skills classes!

I'll have to look at how to call an IEp meeting and formally put the request of the attendance of paras and specials teachers in my next IEP request. If they refuse (which based on the reactions I have gotten in previous similar requests is most likely) and this crap happens again I guess that is just more fuel. But I really don't want problems. I want DS to stay in this school and be happy and properly and appropriately educated. I mean, c'mon some of this stuff is not that hard or complicated.