the school's social worker was out with a family ER so there was nothing to sign and I, the teacher consultant, and her will meet next Thursday to go over everything. I went to Kinko's yesterday morning and printed out a bunch of brochures, Educating the Child with Bipolar Disorder and handed a few out at the meeting and made sure I had enough for the teachers also.

I was not happy that there are some things they wouldn't let me change despite what the advocate said. Lord I so wish she could have been there with me. I found that I was having a hard time expressing myself. I think we did pretty good though. This year is a critical year for him and this time I came prepared. Lots of notes, printouts, and looked at his IEP folder and his cume.

I walked into the office the other day and asked to see his cume and she looked at me and said huh? His what? So I slowly explained I wanted to look at his school file, not the pretty one that you show the students and parents, I want to see everything you have on him. Teacher notes, complaints, opinions, the works. They wouldn't let me look at it alone, a secretary sat with me but she loves my son and was awesome and we talked quietly about all kinds of things regarding the teachers and kids. When I asked to see the IEP folder they said I was the first to ask for that. I was able to sit alone and they printed out a bunch of info that my son's mental health facility didn't give me yet gave to them. It has diagnosis in it that I was never made aware and all kinds of notes.

Now that I think about it they have to have another folder there because nowhere in there did I see a record of any of the incidences where he has gotten suspended in and out of school. Arguments with teachers. Krikey I am just now thinking of this. Any idea of where this would be kept anyone?

I can access that before next Thursday.

Anyway, thank you Lori for the help and the PM. I hope all is going well for you.


All of yous that helped get me through this part I so appreciate it. Now, can you help me get through the next school year LOL!!??

You would think it would have been in his file you looked at with the secretary. Sounds like your on the right path...I know how hard it is when you get in there sometimes your mind goes bland. Even if you have everything writen down! Hopefully they will have it like you want it when you go to sign the papers. Take care Lori

Ask to see his discipline file. 9.5 times out of 10 its kept in the cume folder, but I have had a few meetings where it was kept separately. (Sometimes called his behavior plan folder)

As for the things that they would not let you change, list them in letter format and ask for a detailed explanation (in writing) as to why they are objecting to them. This will usually put enough pressure on them to either grant the requests (as long as they are legal requests) or work with you on an alternative that you would feel comfortable agreeing with. And even if they wont budge, you have it in writing to show to a mediator should you need to go that route.

Why would the advocate not go with you?

There is also something about the discipline file not being part of the cume
file if I remember what my son's elementary teacher told me. He said, that
they keep it separate because they have the option to not show it to schools
or let it be part of his after high school years.

Don't quote me but I believe that was what he told me. I know that when
my oldest went from elementary to Jr/Sr high he really needed the way the principal handled his discipline to go to the new school. But because the old principal decided only to share that he could be a handful, but was a good kid. When he got in trouble it took a while for the new disciplinarian to learn
what worked. I had to train him fast.

Now I do have one other thing. On the things they would not include.

Write the list. Then go to the meeting and say we need to go over this
list one at a time again. I still am not in agreement to these facts,
I want to try and work out a compromise if you don't like my thoughts.

If they still wont budge and you chose to sign it like it is. You can
I believe do this.


Add a decending opinion to the IEP. And I definately would. That would
just be going back home and writing a letter saying.

I am writing a decending opinion to ___________ IEP for these matters.

THen state what you disagree with.

Then you have the ammunition if there are any problems, or you need to
try and change the IEP again this year.

And they should ask if anyone wants to put in a descending opinion,
if not just state you will be bring a descending opinion back to add to
the IEP.

Donna

Okay I will write this stuff down. I think tomorrow I will go back because I believe all the stuff I really wanted to see is in his discipline folder.

Really what I wanted was to find a different way for them to score for him, grade wise. District wise they score 40, 40, 20 with the 20 being the final exam. 20% of the final grade. Now that I think of it I am going to have them show me where it says that is how the district scores.

Last year he kept getting Es in a class then near the end when he really clamped down he brought his grade up to a D then got a C on the final yet still failed the class. I called the school and asked why and the principal redid the scoring and did the math for me and everything and said that is is because the final is only 20% of the grade. Quite frankly I think that is a farce. So basically the kids can have somebody else do their homework all year, use the books and stuff but when it comes to taking the test to see if they really learned anything then that score matters little. Seems ridiculous to me.

Homework is not my son's strong point because by the time he gets home he is emotionally and mentally exhausted, homework is really that last thing he wants to spend a couple of hours on so I wanted to see if there were different ways we could either do the scoring or different methods or styles the teachers could come up with as opposed to just sitting and home and doing 15 to 20 problems or reading 2 chapters and answering 10 questions at the end.

I don't know what or how to get that across and that is a big thing I needed the advocate for. She couldn't come because their funding is so low that out of the 6 or so major counties they only have one person for each and they are stretched so thin that no one was available. So she tried to talk me through it. I still feel like they got what they wanted though I did get his testing out of English 1 and we have an option of doing some testing out of some others.

Hi,

It is possible that the district really does have a 40 40 20 rule.
But they can break their own stupid rule whenever they want.

Also, I think I read somewhere (brain / memory fog) about a parent who got an adjustment on the homework.
Making adjustments about the homework on an IEP sounds like something they could do.

But I am not up on the rules -- just a former hs teacher.

Most likely, the school officials are not telling you the truth.
Trust your gut. When your gut feels better, you will have the right IEP.

Sorry, I am not more specific. I really wish I could offer more concrete help. He sounds like he is suffering so much.

It is the nature of the schools to try to treat every student the same. It's not natural for them to try to do individual plans. They don't "get it" -- even the officials with specialized training in IEPs.

Have you requested / insisted that the school test your son with a psychologist?

Mari




A possibly useful web site if you have not seen it yet.
http://www.wrightslaw.com
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/Crisis.html

http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com/help/seas.htm

Yep, it can be done. One of my four is allowed extra time on the homework, and has the option of typing it instead of writing it, and the second of my four has lessoned assignments. (She does 50% of any given "homework" assignment - and the teacher has the option of selecting the problems to be completed.)

I think that is the best quote I've ever heard. That needs to be on the wall of my office!

For one thing you can remind them that the word IEP

Stands for Individualized Educational Plan, which means that every
students plan is written for him/her so if in the case of your son you believe
he need less/more homework, a different grading scale/say pass or fail,
instead of grades, or the 40, 20, 20, then this is something they need to
consider and then work out a compromise.
That isn't exactly a good example but I am not coming up with a better
one.

And in like the case of my son, but we need to remember he is not on
the diploma route. He gets things at his level, and lots of reduced homework,
also he does not do lots of the harder vocabulary and things that would
fustrate him and really ruin his school experience.
But he does get it in a listening form, he just doesn't have to write it.

Hopefully that makes sense, I don't want it to sound like he doesn't learn.

Donna

Well I have to say that the meeting I had with the social worker blew me away. She has always been at the other meetings but there was always a bunch of us there and everyone was in a hurry so I have never really had a chance to talk to her one on one.

But first this is what is in the IEP

Extended time on classroom and homework assignments
Extended time on tests and quizzes.
He may use the academic lab to complete assignments and take tests and quizzes. (this has been changed to his benefit because this was that little bitty room with other students. Now they let him go down to the special services office where they have empty meeting rooms and he can sit quietly and do his work.)
He will have access to the same room to cool down if he becomes upset.
Extended assessment time within reason.
Frequent or appropriate supervised breaks.
Reduction in the length of some assignments within reasonable limits that still enable him to understand the classroom assignment.

That is in the written IEP. After the social worker and I had talked while my son was gone to lunch and I explained all of his health problems and getting his meds right and the possibility of GAD being an added or new diagnosis she suggests cutting his day right in half! So that he is not under too much stress!!! I was blown away. My son came in just then and said no because then he would fall too far behind credit wise. She started asking him what it is about school that affects him, how it affects him, the whole nine yards. Then we talked about the possibility of maybe just doing a partial day and then 2 online classes at home. There are a couple of people we have to coordinate for this and we are going to wait for the end of first term to see how he does.

I really couldn't believe how really caring and accommodating this woman was. She is always on campus so she will be having regular meetings with my son also. The whole dang school knows him and likes him so that works out well too.

As for the discipline folder it is not a folder but in the computer lol. I called the principal and asked him point blank where are all the complaints and infractions that my son has earned. I didn't see any and he kept asking me "you mean this year" well hell not this school season but yeah last spring if you want to get technical about this year. So he finally told me and hemmed and hawed and said I could always have access to it. Sheesh!! Like pulling teeth lol.

So far so good. All teachers have been contacted and will be getting their syllabus to me, even got a class book and some crappy done homework today for a second chance.

Now you will have to read my next thread on my son's breakdown.

The IEP, and all things are great. And I loved your son's response
to the suggestion of cutting the day in half. Cutto's to him.

He was advocating very well for himself.

DOnna