Jennie Bourgeois

A legal document that clearly specifies the services a student with disabilities should receive

• Developed through a team approach, working collaboratively together to determine the best possible accommodations for a student with disabilities.

• More than just a collection of documents and papers about the student.

• An important process that must be is just as important to appropriately follow as compiling the actual document.

• A communication tool and point of reference for parents, professionals and school officials

• A process that pulls together all interested parties working together for the benefit of a student with a disability

• A process that treats all individual involved as equals.

• A method for joint planning, problem solving and decision making.

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Be sure to have the students invite people to their IEP meeting by rewriting the sample letter in their own words. This can also be used as an opportunity to make sure that students know how to address an envelope.  The parent and staff attendance rate is amazing when they received these personalized invitations!

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• Write down your ideas about before the usual meeting time. Keep an ongoing list or notes to yourself between each IEP Meeting so that you can stay prepared. Write it down as the thought occurs to you so that you will remember it when the the time comes.

• Share your notes, information and observations with your private service providers. You can sign a form that allows the school providers and your private providers to communicate as well if you wish.

• Consider the future, aim high and leave room for reality. It’s great to want your child to achieve big things but often our kids are different at school than home and may have different needs as well.

• As a parent, never go to an IEP meeting alone. Always have either another family member or an advocate of your choice in attendance with you at all times.

• Choose to remain positive before, during and after the meeting.

• Choose to assume that everyone in the room has the best interest of student at hand and that everyone is doing the best job that they can.

• Depending on the age of the child, have them write or you write a letter addressed to the IEP team members. The child may include pictures telling the IEP team that show the IEP team who they are as an individual at home and at school, what they like to do, what their strengths are, and any other bits of information that they might like to share.

• In order to obtain services, there must be identified deficits and specific goals for those deficits established.

• When the school says that can’t provide a service or comply with a requested accommodation because it is against policy, politely ask them for a copy of the policy.

• Be prepared ahead of time and bring copies of any recent testing or other documentation from private sources regarding the student.

• Share thoughts and innovative ideas on how to work in tandem with all the IEP Team together.

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Here are some IEP informational videos that are available online.

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Check out this list of additional resources on disabilities, special education and the IEP process.

http://mbrightsblog.blogspot.com/

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By Raymond Castile
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:13 AM CDT

Julie Zatorski did not believe a learning disability could just disappear.

So she was baffled when a middle school removed her daughter, Melissa Zatorski, from a special education program last year and placed her in a regular seventh-grade classroom.

“They threw her in the shark tank,” said Zatorski, 51. “Her grades plummeted and her self-esteem went down.”

Melissa, 13, had an individualized education program (IEP) that called for basic math courses. The school took Melissa off her IEP after its own testing showed she no longer had learning disabilities, said Zatorski, of St. Peters.

She contacted Family Advocacy and Community Training (FACT), a nonprofit organization that supports people with developmental disabilities and mental illness. FACT’s advocacy program educates parents about their public school rights under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

FACT had already helped Zatorski with her son, Daniel, who has autism.

“It’s very intimidating to be a parent by yourself in a room full of school administrators,” Zatorski said. “They are sitting around, spouting jargon. It is almost like you need an interpreter. But FACT case workers can speak their language.”

Lynn Foust, FACT advocacy supervisor, took Melissa’s case. Foust collected the girl’s school files, reviewed her records, and met with school officials.

“I know the federal regulations in my sleep.” Foust said. “I know the IEP process. If they start using acronyms, I can tell the parent what they mean, what they are proposing, what they are refusing. I also teach the parent advocacy skills, so eventually they can advocate on their own.”

An independent test revealed Melissa still had multiple learning disabilities, but the school refused to accept the results, Zatorski said. Foust helped convince the school to retest Melissa. The school’s second test confirmed the independent test results. The school restored Melissa’s IEP and put her back in special education classes.

“It makes a big difference,” Zatorski said. “Her self-esteem has gone up. She is doing better on her grades.”

Foust said she does not want to create an antagonistic relationship between parents and school officials.

“I need to strengthen the relationship between the school and the parent,” Foust said. “After the file is closed, that child still has to go to that school.”

Denise Gould, FACT executive director, said parents ultimately are their children’s best advocates. They just need help navigating the maze of school procedures and government regulations. FACT conducts workshops to teach parents about the special education process and trains them to communicate more effectively with educators, Gould said.

Audrey Yarbrough and Judy Young founded FACT in 1987. Yarbrough said she was frustrated with trying to obtain school services for her two sons with learning disabilities.

“I was hearing that my sons were not trying, not fitting in,” Yarbrough said. “I was told I was the only parent asking these kinds of questions at school.”

In 1984, Yarbrough started a support group for parents of children with learning disabilities.

“I thought starting a support group would verify whether I was crazy, or if other parents had the same issues,” she said.

In one year, the group grew from eight parents to more than 100. Two years later, the support group had evolved into FACT.

The organization employs 15 staff members. Three years ago, it moved into its current offices at 800 Friedens Road, suite 200, in St. Charles.

FACT also runs the Partnership with Families program in partnership with Crider Health Center. The program focuses on children in danger of being removed from their home and placed in foster care, residential homes or the juvenile justice system. FACT works to keep the families intact, sending “parent partners” to the families’ homes.

The FACT People First program teaches adults with developmental disabilities to impact their communities and push for change in state and federal laws.

“Everyone who works at FACT is the parent of a child with developmental disabilities or emotional disorders, so we have walked a mile in those shoes,” said Gould, 54.

Gould, of St. Peters, began her walk 25 years ago with the birth of her son, David Gould.

“We immediately knew something was wrong,” Denise Gould said. “He wouldn’t feed, wouldn’t suck. He would vomit 10 or 12 times a day. He spent his first 18 months in and out of the hospital.”

David’s symptoms puzzled doctors, who could offer no diagnosis besides “failure to thrive,” Gould said. It took four years for doctors to diagnose more specific conditions, including oral apraxia, an inability to coordinate oral muscle movements. David also had learning disabilities, Tourette syndrome and a seizure disorder. Functionally non-verbal, he communicated using sign language and computer devices.

“The doctor said we need to put him in an institution and get on with our lives,” Gould said. “We didn’t want to do that.”

Gould wanted David to attend public school with his neighborhood friends, children who understood him and looked out for him. But the school district wanted to place David in a special state school. Gould turned to FACT and Yarbrough for help.

“Audrey taught me strategies and how to use my voice in effective ways to communicate with schools,” Gould said. “She told me what David’s rights were and she went with me to the school. That made me feel empowered and supported. She was my guide.”

The school hired additional staff to work with David, keeping him in regular education classrooms. David graduated with the rest of his class in 2003. He now has a hotel job and lives on his own.

“He has a full life and many friends,” Gould said. “Now he can advocate for himself. That is the outcome of successful educators and advocacy.”

For more information, visit www.factmo.org or call 636-949-2425, ext. 256.

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Before writing goals, you need to understand the present levels of performance of the student.  The goals are written annual and assessment is required every three years.  After the initial assessment, the team has a fresh body of data to understand what is going on with the student and their deficits.  The goals should address the areas of deficit.   Goals address what you are trying to teach the student and accommodations are what are used to accomplish those goals.

All areas where services are needed need to have goals in those areas.  You need to state the deficits and the skills that need to be addressed for those deficits and what are the goals for those deficits.  Once the goals are determined, you then think about what services will be needed to accomplish those goals.   At the end of the year,  the team needs to evaluate the progress towards those goals and then determine  the goals for the upcoming year.

It is federally required that goals be written in objective and quantifiable terms in order to be measurable.  For example, stating a student will “demonstrate understanding of language concepts” is not a measurable goal.  It needs to state what exact task the student is to perform or demonstrate and how mastery will be determined.   The goals should not be vague or unclear.  Also, avoid the use of minimum, maximum, some, few, etc.  There needs to be language that is not arbitrary or subject to interpretation.  The language should not contain unknown variables or guesses to evaluate the goal.

The purpose of the goal is to move the student forward from their present level of performance.  Some goals may be deliberately written to keep the expectations of the teachers or for the students low for accountability purposes.  Estimates are not measurements.  In addition, observations are not measurements.  There needs to be data sheets and specific data collection.  Comments and additional information should supplement the data, not replace it.

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IDEA is a federal law and each state determines how they will implement the laws.

An initial assessment does not necessarily mean the first evaluation for the student.  It is the assessment to determine if they are eligible for special education despite how many prior assessments have been done.    This is different from re-evaluation and triennial evaluation.  Re-evaluation is any evaluation done after they are initially assessed.  All assessments are to inform the IEP team.  The team needs a rich body of data to evaluate.

Initial assessments also determine their present level of performance in order to establish the annual goals.    An assessment plan must be provided to the parents if the student is determined eligible for special education.    Referrals for assessment can be made by a professional or the parents directly.  Once referral has been made and assessment has be done, LEA cannot take more than 60 days to write the report and issue the data.  Minnesota has reduced this to 30 days under their state laws.

Initial assessment must be comprehensive enough for IEP team to determine what services should entail.   All areas of disability for the student needs to be assessed appropriately.  The quality of any evaluation is important but the initial evaluation is essential.

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Parents need to stick to the facts and treat all communications as if it were a business transaction rather than it being personal.  If emotions are high, parents can write everything down instead of trying to verbalize the emotionally charged information.  In writing you have more time to think about your words carefully and the response you get back will also tend to be well thought out and carefully worded as well.  Emotional investments of parents of children with special needs are often very great and it is understandable that emotions may run high at times.

Emotional reactions may also involve people other than just the parents including teachers and related service providers.  They are directly involved with the educational impact of the child.  There is usually a lot going on behind the scenes that many parents do not understand that is outside of the control of the teacher or service provider.  Many time policies and politics may affect what is taking place and prevent them from doing what they want to do.  Also, many times teachers are often not properly trained to provide the services and resources that they are being required to provide.  Teachers and administrators need to leave their personal emotions outside of the IEP meeting.  When parents bring in a professional advocate, teachers or administrators may view that as being challenged or adversarial.  Attitudes and emotions can be affected when this occurs.  Ethical conduct needs to occur regardless by the professionals in the IEP meeting.

Administrators can also become passionate about the issues involved with special education needs and services.  Often times administrators are most concerned with cost concerns of providing the necessary services.  Administrators need to figure out how they will paid for the required services rather than whether they will be in compliance or not.     Administrators have to walk a fine line and this can sometimes be misinterpreted by the parents or advocates in an IEP meeting.  There are many times behind the scenes actions taking place that the parents are not aware about.

Parents can feel powerless in the situation and see their children suffering and teachers can feel caught in the middle as well as the administrators feeling stuck between providing services and balancing their budget.  Administrators personal opinions can influence the eventual outcome.  Everyone needs to understand the pressures and perspectives of all members on the IEP team to have better insight into different positions and opposing views.

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Is the amount of service hours being provided to achieve the goals?   If a child needs assistance in writing, then a goal needs to be stated in the IEP to that goal before more Occupational Therapist hours can be provided to achieve those goals.  Remember goals drive services.  First determine goals, then determine the services to meet those goals.

Each type of service needs to state the frequency, location and duration of the services.  Each type of intervention needs to be addressed separately in the IEP including services being provided within a group or on an individual basis.    You have to know what to accomplish before you can determine which placement for the services would be the least restrictive environment for those services to be provided.

The staff and resources must be changed if necessary to deliver the required services.  At no time can a lack of staff or resources be an acceptable reason for not providing services that are outlined in the IEP.

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