DawnL

Anyway, I have been trying to get Jeran's IEP hammered out for school, for kindergarten. You probably remember that I plan to homeschool him. But, he is already in the school system, because he's been taking speech there. I decided that I should at least TRY to give the school a chance, and see if they could meet the needs of Jeran. After all, if they step up and take his issues seriously, is it really fair to Jeran to just "skip it"?

It has not gone well so far. His original IEP meeting was scheduled for last Monday. Now, when I picked up his registration packet, in March, for Kindergarten, I approached the principal about his SPD. She didn't have time at that moment to talk, with all the people there, so she recommended I call to talk to Marcy, the school psychologist. I called the next day and left a message for Marcy, explaining I was calling at the request of the principal. She never called me back.

When I turned the registration packet in, I included 2 pages that throughly discussed his allergies, and 2 more pages that discussed his preschool experience, and why we withdrew him in February. THEN, the week before the IEP meeting, I brought in the OT evaluation, done by his OT at the hospital.

A week or so before the IEP, his speech teacher gave me the written invitation for the meeting, and scheduled to be there were his speech teacher, a general eduaction teacher (who always comes, to kinda entertain the kids), the principal, and another specialist, who was listed, but not named.

So, last Monday I showed up, and the only school people who showed up were the speech teacher and the general education teacher. NO ONE HAD LOOKED AT ANYTHING I HAD GIVEN THEM!!! Now, this wasn't the speech teacher's fault, but I was beyond mad!! We took the few minutes to go through the speech stuff, and I told her how I had never heard back from the school psychologist and how I had many things I needed added for Jeran's IEP for kindergarten.

The speech teacher went and grabbed Jeran's registration file. She didn't have a copy of the OT report (because she gave it to the right person, who wasn't at the meeting) but I had brought my original copy of the OT report. She also grabbed a school OT, to listen in on part of the meeting. I still dont know the woman's name.

They quickly read the stuff, and said they would see to it the right people saw it. The speech teacher gave me her IEP to sign, and, since it was accurate, for speech, I signed it.

The next day, I got a call from the school psychologist. She gave some lame-ass excuse as to how an intern had probably got my message and not relayed it. She listened a little to me, and then said how the few things I had suggested sounded totally doable. But, she said, rather than putting it in the IEP, the school would rather wait, see how he does in the first weeks of school, and THEN consider putting stuff into place. This did not sit well with me at all, and I told her so. I also told her one of the things that I INSIST on having written into his IEP was that Jeran should NEVER have his recess taken away. She paused, and I could tell that wasn't going to fly, but too bad! I also told her that I felt we should put things in place ahead of time for Jeran, rather than run around, putting fires out after the fact.

I was actually at the Space Needle with my kids when she called, and I told her we would continue this conversation the next day. When I called her the next afternoon, she read to me some things that she said were in the IEP. They were not in the IEP I had seen, and I told her that I needed to meet with everyone, so we could discuss things face to face.
She was also saying they would observe Jeran in his speech class. I told her that Jeran in a one on one environment is MUCH different then Jeran in a class full of people. Then, get this, she said, "Oh, well we have preschool classes. We can put him in one of those and observe him in there."

I COULD NOT BELIEVE SHE EVEN SUGGESTED THAT!

On Friday, I got a copy of an IEP for Jeran in the mail. It had all the same speech stuff in it, plus, the school psycho had added a few things in it. Without further discussion, without observation, and without calling his previous preschool, like I had suggested. The things she added listed some of his SPD issues, without saying SPD, and then went on to say Jeran has anger issues and is argumentative. Can you believe that? He is sooo NOT!

THEN, she added a paragraph about how last year, Jeran was "tested" for ADHD, and that he is showing symptoms of ADHD, and that they need to be on the lookout for that! So, she FINALLY pulled out her file on Jeran, did a negligeable amount of research on him, and added all the wrong things!

To complete the picture of horror, she marked the IEP as a final draft. AND SHE ADDED MY SIGNATURE FROM THE SPEECH IEP ON THE END, LIKE I HAD APPROVED HER CHANGES!!!

Can you tell that I am really, really mad now?

On Saturday, I printed off a simple letter, stating that I am requesting some changes to my son's IEP. Then, I sent it certified mail, to the principal of the school (who you will remember didn't bother to show up) and the superintendent of our school district.

Do you think that will get thier attention?