hi
As I wrote to you before my dd is being revaluated this year and I am afraid they will test her out. Our meeting with the team is set for Oct. 31st. I have read many posts here and would like to know if everyone feels like the schools are out to get them? Do most of you tape your me
etings. Why do these people work these jobs if they cant help anyway?
It so frustrating to think that even in our schools money is the bottom line. Thanks DJ
Re: Taping meetings
Hi,
How did your meeting go?
I found your message a little late to give my two cents worth, sorry.
I just attended and recorded an IEP meeting for my son. While I don’t want to appear hostile to the people providing services for my child; I do want them to be motivated to keep everything above board.
In California, it seems the school has a dual responsibility; protect the funds and provide the service.
If you recorded your meeting, terrific….If not, I hope you took good notes.
Good luck,
Kristin
Re: Taping meetings
It’s more likely to be perceived as hostile when, I’m afraid, there’s reason to be defensive. If it’s done honestly with the approach that you want to be able to review it later, it’s less threatening and in fact can keep folks on task and professional. However, I wouldn’t do it unless I had a reason to believe that it would be helpful.
P’raps you’ve been reading osme of the posts over in Schwabbie land where yes, a poster or two certainly seems to think all schools are conspiring to save their dollars and put them into that football fund. Yes, I know it *does* happen … but don’t assume it is. As Janis said, the big caseloads and basic lack of education in actually doing what they’re supposed to do is a far more common cause.
Unfortunately, taping a meeting doesn’t fix the latter at all.
DJ,
I am fairly critical of school remediation for learning disorders, but I’ll have to tell you after teaching for more than 20 years in special ed. in four states, never did I feel that school personnel were out to get parents. The main aspect where money is the bottom line is that they will fight one child getting “Cadillac” services when the funding is basically on a “Chevy” level.
Most of the problems are due to two things: ignorance and heavy caseloads. Rarely are special ed. teachers trained in the specialized methods such as for dyslexic children, and even if they are, they may have several children in a group with varying needs, so none of their needs are directly met on a consistent basis.
I have come to expect that children will rarely get remediation at school, but I do expect cooperation with accommodations. It is almost always best to get one-on-one remediation outside of school.
The team had to meet and determine if new testing was necessary for the re-evaluation. Parents should definitely opt out of repeat IQ testing in most cases because the WISC-IV is generally scoring lower than the WISC III for LD kids. This makes the discrepancy between IQ and achievement very hard to get. (The new IDEA revisions will not require the discrepancy, but some states may retain this metod of determining eligibility.
Taping an IEP meeting is seen as being a little on the hostile side and may not be the best decision in many cases. I think you do have to notify the school in advance in some states if you plan to tape a meeting. They may also tape it if you do. It would really be better to have someone else knowledgable about your child and his learning needs attend the meeting with you. They can take notes and advise you, if necessary.
Janis