PARENT INVOLVEMENT ~ I CARE ABOUT MY CHILD'S EDUCATION!

PARENT INVOLVEMENT has become more like a cat & mouse game of "EMAIL TAG" with teachers and the District ESE Department!!! Not what I had in mind for being an "involved parent" this year for my daughter's first year in Middle School at all! 

If my child is not what a teacher 'went to school to teach'.....then maybe some teachers chose the wrong profession! I thought teachers went into the teaching profession to TEACH? Diversity is the real world, students are not all the same, just as teachers are not all the same. Students do not all learn the same either. If everyone was the same, how boring would our world be then? 

I just want to know what my child did in school that day and when she comes home with nothing to show what she did in most or all of her 7 classes that day....well, that CONCERNS ME GREATLY!! I am an involved and concerned parent everyday, not just when I feel like it!

Some teachers do a fabulous job of sending home and providing actual classwork my child did while in their classrooms that day. There are some teachers that have made it perfectly clear they are not enjoying having my child in their class and have also made it perfectly clear they are not wanting my PARENT INVOLVEMENT as well......I would love to say to those teachers; GET OVER IT!! 

I am an INVOLVED PARENT with my child's education everyday! Studies show when parents are involved, the student does better in school. My child is a GOOD STUDENT and I am a GOOD PARENT by being and staying involved and on top of my child's daily school work is me being INVOLVED IN MY CHILD'S EDUCATION!

How is your school year going so far? 

Here are just a few snippets of what I found on the internet pertaining why it's important and good that PARENTS are INVOLVED with their child's Education.

"It's not the only factor, but studies show that at every socioeconomic level, children with involved parents perform better in school."

"Involved doesn't just mean helping out with bake sales. Engaged parents make sure that their children don't miss school unnecessarily and that they arrive on time. They read with them, help them master their alphabet and math facts, and essentially back up what the teacher's doing when the student is home." 

"It starts with school leaders making it a point to seek out parents, to treat them as respected partners in their children's education, and if necessary, groom some of them to recruit their peers. It can't just be lip service. Everyone from principal to teachers to kitchen staff must go the extra mile and find clever ways to encourage and reward involvement."
http://www.cleveland.com/bernstein/index.ssf/2012/11/parental_involvement_in_educat.html

What Every Parent Should Know

"Researchers have been studying the effects parent attitudes and actions have on their children's academic success for more than 30 years. The results have been consistent. Anne Henderson and Nancy Berla summed it up in their book A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement, which reviewed the existing research: "When parents are involved in their children's education at home, they do better in school. And when parents are involved in school, children go farther in school and the schools they go to are better."
http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/399-involvement-matters-what-to-tell-parents

Differences between an online public school and homeschool ~ K12.com

Differences between an online public school and homeschool

Many people assume that because online learning is done at home, it is homeschooling. But it’s not.  Online public schools are provided by school districts, charter schools, and state education agencies that are part of our public education system. They give every child in a state access to a high quality public school in a home based learning environment.

Here are six important differences between an Online Public School and Homeschooling. Click here for complete BLOG POST by K12.com

www.K12.com

"NEW ESE THINGS" ~ Can District ESE Departments really do these?

My post today is to inform and educate ESE PARENTS and the Public on things.....today it's about a few of the "NEW ESE THINGS" that are of great concern to me....and should be a concern to others as well!!

Excerpt taken from:
Exceptional Student Education
ESE Advisory Council
Report to DAC - District Advisory Council
October 10th, 2012

To read the entire report click on this link:
http://www.browardadvisory.org/agendas-minutes
Look at the top of the list for: 
121114 DAC Nov Agenda Packet.pdf

The Advisory is currently examining the changes in the IEP documentaion: namely closing out the IEP goals prior to the meeting of the Annual IEP, elimination of signatures on the IEP document, elimination of the names of participants at the IEP, the elimination of the Title "Advocate": on the IEP document. Titles of participants still appear on the IEP. ESE parents have expressed concerns that these changes do not help the collaborative process between the parents and the schools and that the general population of ESE parents were not 
informed of these changes.

The ESE Parent Exit Survey has been drafted by the Advisory Committee is currently being reviewed by the Department of Research and Evaluation for future distribution to ESE parents at the end of their child's IEP. Data will be examined to review any areas of the IEP process that may need improvement or reform.

.....I'm just curious WILL THE ESE PARENTS be "manning this EXIT Survey?" Will it be anonymous? 

Excerpt taken from:
Report to School Board Meeting
ESE Advisory Council Meetings
School Board of Broward County
November 7th, 2012
K.C.Wright Building, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Parents have expressed great concerns and disagreed with the changes to the IEP that was put into place without proper notification to our ESE parents. 

These changes include the following:

a.) Elimination of any IEP team discussion with the parent concerning the mastery of goals, unless the parent "requests" such a discussion for a given goal at their Annual IEP. Parents will not be afforded the opportunity at the Annual IEP to review current data that supports any decision concerning the mastery or revision of goals on the previous IEP.
b.) Elimination of names and signatures of attendees at the IEP's
c.) Elimination of the title "Advocate" as a category for an invited person to the IEP.

While these changes may be legal, the question to ask is will it promote collaboration between a school and a parent when such changes only create further questions of school accountability. 

Click here for direct link to website with this public information. Click this link to the District Advisory Council aka DAC website for Broward Schools, click her to read the entire report click:

http://www.browardadvisory.org/agendas-minutes

Look at the top of the list for:

12114 DAC Nov Agenda Packet.pdf

Are these ESE Parental Concerns something that the general population really even cares about? Probably not. Unless you are an ESE Parent on the receiving end of some of these "NEW ESE THINGS" that are being presented at the ESE Advisory Council and reported about at the District School Board meetings, these "NEW ESE THINGS" can and do go quietly UNNOTICED by the General Population of "parents & school board members".!! UNLESS as I said, you are an ESE Parent or Student on the receiving end of some of these NEW & IMPROVED way that the "NEW ESE THINGS" are being done here in our school district.

Just wanted to inform and educate the general population that the "NEW ESE THINGS" that are NOW taking place. I believe this is all WRONG anyway you look at it!!

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Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Elia calling for dismissals after drowning of Riverview student

TAMPA -- Two aides should be fired and the principal and assistant principal should be removed from their positions at Rodgers Middle School in the aftermath of the drowning of a special-needs student.

..."That's if Superintendent MaryEllen Elia has her way. She will recommend to the Hillsborough County School Board next week that Principal Sharon Tumicki and Assistant Principal Shawn Livingston be dismissed from their jobs at the Riverview school...."

Jenny's death is one of two that has rocked the exceptional education department of the school district.

Last January, Isabella Herrera, a second-grader with a neuromuscular disorder, died a day after having a medical issue on a school bus on the way home. Neither the driver nor the aide called 911 as she turned blue and stopped breathing.

The school district is in the midst of an examination of many of its policies and procedures in the Exceptional Student Education department, and the former director of the ESE area sought a transfer to another department.

rshaw@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7999
http://tbo.ly/VPaWfM

Click here to be directed to the FULL ARTICLE: http://www2.tbo.com/news/education-news/2013/jan/09/3/aides-expected-to-be-disciplined-in-death-of-girl-ar-602048/

Click here for another article to this story: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/nov/01/drowned-riverview-girls-mom-blames-school-ar-550529/          
The mother of an 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome who drowned last week after walking out of a crowded school gym said teachers and aides are to blame for her daughter's death.

"I think it was negligence from them for not offering (extra) care for children with special needs," said Elizabeth Rosas, the mother of Jennifer "Jenny" Caballero. "If they had had more care for my daughter, this would have never happened."

She wants investigators to find out exactly what happened at Rodgers Middle School in Riverview on the afternoon of Oct. 22.

"I want everything to be cleared up," Rosas said. "I want justice. I don't want the same thing that happened to my daughter to happen to another child because of poor care."

Jenny was in a gymnasium at Rodgers Middle School in Riverview on Oct. 22 when a student alerted teachers that the girl had slipped out of the gym.


An overall review of the ESE department also is under way.

Hillsborough school board members criticize Wieland's transfer

Click link here for full story. 
http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2013/jan/08/3/memeto1-school-administrator-transfer-criticized-b-ar-600796/

Wieland, who had been the general director of exceptional-student education, requested a transfer last month after her department was rocked by the deaths of two special-needs students and the arrests of two district employees on child-abuse charges.

Reading the comments listed after each of these articles is GREAT READING as well. Comments that could be true of any school district!!!

I wonder how this is affecting all the FLORIDA Districts "ESE Departments" and their "Policies".....hmmm I wonder if this will HELP the entire STATE and our ESE Education! Particularly for the Disability Specific TRAININGS of the Unique Aides or Para Professionals or whatever job title used for the person working the closest to our person needing 'assistance'. 

We can only HOPE it does!!!