IEP madness.

Sorry I'm late on this one. This meeting exhausted me before it even happened. Joe says I over prepare. I say...there's no such thing. It lasted almost 4 long hours. Yes, you read right.

I got a call at 7:15a.m. the day of the meeting. It was Noah's teacher calling to cancel because the server was down. She said, "we're just going to have to reschedule." THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR????????????? No way. Nope. I told her I would not approve this and I wanted to see it happen today with or without computers. So it was delayed an hour and we had to do it the old fashioned way, with no electronics. Some weren't happy. Oh well. It happened and that's all that matters.

Some may not know what an IEP meeting is so I will enlighten you. Individual Education Plan. It's for any child that qualifies for it in the public school system. To qualify you need to have some sort of disability or challenge that requires support in the school system. It is a legal document; therefore, the school takes it very seriously as they do not want to deal with pesky lawsuits. But it is up to the IEP team (teacher, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, counselors, facilitators, principal/vice principal, psychologists and the parents, to name a few) to decide placement and goals for the child. So you see, my voice is one of many in that room. And the annual meeting is the big one. New goals, placement, support is put in place annually. Essentially, everything is reviewed and revised. That is the meeting we had yesterday.

I got a draft of the IEP a few days prior to the meeting. This made things easier as I knew what I was up against and was able to send my requests for changes to the goals ahead of time. We met in the middle on a few of them, but I got most of what I thought was appropriate for Noah. His academic and PT goals required very little revision. His speech, OT, social/emotional goals, however, needed to almost be rewritten. We spent almost three hours of the meeting hashing out these goals. It was exhausting, but worth it.

Just when I thought things weren't so bad, things started to get shaky. It was the last hour of the meeting and time to talk about the three most important things: Retention, General Education and Assistance in the classroom. I wasn't sure what to expect. My advocate was there in case I needed her, but I hoped I wouldn't. First up, Retention. Everyone agreed keeping him in Kindergarten would be best due to the transition to General Education. He would be very far behind socially in the first grade classroom. That takes me to Gen. Ed.-- they all agreed this would be best for him. But his IVE (Independent Varying Exceptionalities) teacher gave a speech that nearly brought me to tears. She said these kids are either going to go the route of "special diploma" or the route of "general education." She mentioned that once they start on a track of "special diploma" it gets increasingly difficult to catch up later. She said we would be doing Noah is disservice by placing him in a "special diploma" program. She kept saying "these kids (in IVE) are academically two years behind general education and Noah is a smart boy." She had no hesitation recommending him for 100% inclusion in the general education classroom. It was a proud moment for me. To know that someone else can see what I see in this boy, gosh... it put a lump in my throat.

So we all agreed on gen. ed. and retention. Now, we want to be sure he's successful. Noah still needs some physical assistance with certain fine motor activities. His grasp is weak and holding utensils can prove to be difficult for him. Not only that but sometimes he requires extra help or attention staying on task. With 20 children and only one teacher, I didn't want to risk it. I wanted assistance for him in the classroom. I did not want him pulled out for "resource" 30 minutes per day (he is already pulled out for OT, PT and Speech--I want every other moment with his peers-- NOT another pull-out). He needed someone there to help him when it was needed. period. They all agreed that he needed this, but when it came time to put it on paper every single one of them chickened out. They said "it wasn't possible" and "we can't do that" and "assistants are only assigned to teachers, not students"...blah, blah, blah is all I heard. My blood pressure was rising and thank god my advocate stepped in. She started stating the laws, regulations and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and although it was a small road block for them, the room kept insisting it couldn't happen. Joe and I sat quietly while Noah's advocate (AKA our strength and support) would not give up. They had said at one point, "that's not how we do things here in Pinellas County" (because my advocate works all over the state) and she replied that she didn't realize Pinellas County was above the law. Love that. She actually called the attorney in the middle of the meeting! She was strong and steadfast. And we left with the words we wanted on that paper. It was a huge weight off our shoulders.

I got the final draft today. I signed and it's done.

There will be one more meeting before school is out for the summer to discuss a speech evaluation and adding some articulation goals. I am a little nervous that at this meeting the facilitator (who was absent the other day due to illness -- I've never been so happy to hear someone was ill) will see what we did and demand us to change or remove it. It has to be a team decision, but I am just hoping it slides under the radar and speech is all that is discussed that day.

So when I am asked "how did it go" my reply is "it was tough, but it went well." We were prepared, we had an advocate (thank god), a sick facilitator (hooray!) and perhaps the stars were aligned for Noah that day. Either way, I'm a very thankful gal.