District Meeting

Noah's advocate had a meeting with the district, head of ESE (exceptional student education) today. She called the meeting because there are a number of cases in Pinellas County where an aide is assigned to an ESE student and that aid is not being used appropriately. Noah's case is not different. He can't even participate on the PE field because his aid is always chasing another student. In the classroom, she appears to be a class assistant. Although I love his teacher, I am constantly disappointed in how "Noah's aide" is being utilized. Not to mention that it's not following his IEP. So this was the first step in making some noise. She met with the district and this is what she said in her email to me after the meeting:

Well, I wanted to let you know that our conversation with the district was today and although I don’t think it was completely horrible, I do think they have a different perspective on how the 1-1 aide should work. However, I do believe the district and/or she is trying to get them to tighten up their IEP’s so that they are more detailed.

This is how she explained it to us --- Noah was assigned the aide, the aide is to work with Noah, under the supervision of the teacher. The teacher is suppose to help in guiding her and instructing her but if she is being used for other things than there is a problem and it is probably being abused. When I mentioned that she had to chase after other kids, then she indicated that things were not being implemented correctly, but they are still hell bent on saying that it is assigned to the classroom for that student. What she thinks and wants them to do is document the amount of time the aide needs to be w/ Noah… and I indicated that this was not in his IEP. She seems to think that they should be doing that in the present levels of performance.

We explained that we had a number of cases and she wanted names so she could address the issues directly. Are you ok w/ me forwarding Noah’s name to her.

They say they assign the aides to directly help the student, if they document the time that the aide is suppose to be with the student then I think you will be ok.

Let me know your thoughts.

Well, this is step one. Like she said, not horrible. But still not quite right (or legal). So I am anxious to receive that phone call. If more push back or no change, then I go over her head and finally, the media. I am determined to make this change!!

More to come...