Ever heard this before? "It's an IEP Team Decision"... What does it really mean? When you are at your Child's IEP meeting, have you ever heard this said before? Yes parents are part of the IEP team, it's good when you speak up and provide your input, concerns and suggestions....but when it comes to having the document really say exactly what your input or your suggestions are, it's like a knockdown drag out fight to get the simplest of support or service actually written in. Even the SUPPORT & TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL piece of the document...egads those working closest to and with our Child, should be "required" to receive some training!...how do we parents ever know if teachers and para professionals have actually been trained? We never do! Where does it say specifically that they actually have to 'be trained' and by what date?...usually....this too shall become nothing on that IEP document...it's a legal document right?
I can not believe how the majority of IEP team members are usually on the 'opposing team' to what the parent is advocating for. There is no "IEP team decision"...it's a district wide decision many times ESPECIALLY when it comes to PLACEMENT of our Children with certain 'eligibilities' into a certain type of classroom environment!...only to hear repeated like it's the mantra 'they all chat' while brushing their teeth in the morning before going off to attend yet another one of 'those meetings' with one of 'those parents'....they get paid for attending these IEP 'team' meetings day in and day out! These meetings don't give them diarrhea like it does the mom's of those Children! Parents are STRESSED OUT and fighting hard to have their Child provided a good classroom with good supports to help them be successful! Parents know best, but are never really heard and often times their suggestions or concerns are not really 'taken into consideration'......usually shot down at every corner they turn...every real concern or support the parent suggest many times falls on deaf ears of the entire IEP team!
The majority of our 'school society', and that means teachers, principals and especially district administrators and staff, schoolboard members and Superintendents even....still do not really believe our Children with disabilities should be 'allowed' to be taught in a GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM with their friends that live in the same neighborhood! I am sickened by the uneducated and outdated way of thinking that so many running our schools have today in 2009!
They call themselves professionals and say it "at us" in a degrading sort of way...during our IEP meetings, as a way to talk down to parents! Because 'they have' this or that degree in Speech and Language Pathology ~ THEY ARE THE PROFESSIONALS!!! Of all people that should understand the most about fine motor delays in speech and language and communication....some of the so called 'most educated' from a BOOK...have NOT-A-CLUE what it means to provide a support or service to a Child that needs it the most! (They have been instructed from their 'higher ups' on what to say and provide!..do not go over!!! Everyone wants to keep their job and that paycheck coming in!) Most times the highest degreed IEP 'team members' are the very ones that have no idea what it's like to really help a Child be all they can be! Mainly because they don't believe certain individuals will ever really amount to much....they went to school to get that degree for?...for what? To deny the very support or service they could provide to help a young mind learn skills they struggle with, so they can be better at it in the long run..for life!
Why do people go for the Professional degrees they have, to work with Children with disabilities in the first place? IMHO: To make money OFF the delays and disabilities of the very students they don't 'really believe in'? I think our Children with Disabilities are a COMMODITY...seen only as a means to earn a living off of them! If this is not true to some degree...why are the professionals providing MINIMAL support across the board and only giving out a one size fits all service, no matter how hard it is to understand a person 'communicate' or 'write'.....needing OT-Occupational Therapy...or how funny they may walk because of certain genetic conditions...if they can stand up and walk and they ''can navigate the school campus''...what more do we want from those professionals during the school day?
I see too many IEP 'teams' act as though they haven't a clue about doing the right thing in providing WHAT THE CHILD NEEDS and only go by what 'they are instructed' to carry out by the end of that IEP 'team' meeting...us against them....who's gonna win.....well certainly not the Child!! Two opposing teams...certainly not all on the same team, but out to deny!!
It's been a stressful day of advocating for the rights a Child to be educated in a General Education Classroom today. Trying to secure the needed supports and services so the Child can be successful....I am up against 'the district'.....THE DISTRICT wants this student where they WANT THAT STUDENT and that's the bottom line! THEY WANT TO SEPARATE and put this Child in of 'those cluster classrooms' without ever once providing an opportunity or chance to attend a regular general education classroom with all the supports and services to be successful...why???...because for one..."it's an IEP Team Decision"!! and THE TEAM believe that Child "NEEDS" that type of most restrictive setting! Do they even care what the parent wants and knows their Child needs? NO THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT THE PARENT WANTS FOR THEIR CHILD!!.....The Professionals...THEY HAVEN'T A CLUE!!.....many times they aren't even a parent.....and of course they aren't raising a Child with Down syndrome or Autism or any number of unique learning challenges...how could they possible know what we know....we didn't get our EXPERT KNOWLEDGE from attending college....we shed our blood for these Children!!!
Our 'school society' is pushing our Children with Down syndrome especially, away and into SEPARATED and out of sight SPECIAL classrooms...usually in a portable or a back classroom, away away away from the general population! Oh let's not forget they will "INCLUDE THEM" during lunch and recess and specials!...might get lucky and get an entire 15 minutes of GEN.ED time during a REGULAR KINDERGARTEN CLASS CIRCLE TIME!...15 WHOLE MINUTES!!!....and that's ONLY if the Child BEHAVES for those 15 minutes!! Oh assuring the student would get ALL THE SUPPORT he needs!!...We should be grateful we have such caring and knowledgable professionals making Individual Education Plan Placement decisions for our Children! We are GRATEFUL!
I will wake up again tomorrow to fight the good fight all over again....certainly not making a regular paycheck doing it either! I am trying to contribute financially to our family expenses, but am I doing these 'advocacy fights' for the money....for the most part no! I work for FREE much of the time! I do this with a passion because I believe in the Children that need us the most! I believe in their futures and their abilities to do great and wonderful things...so I fight for them! They can't.....many times their parents can't.....but everyone is learning. I see myself as a coach to parents! I love what I do, I love the little kiddo's I am speaking up for, I believe in their futures and I believe in their RIGHTS TO AN EDUCATION! I am a parent to a Child with Down syndrome, all of my friends have a Child with Down syndrome or Autism or Prader Wili or CP or any number of things...these Children are NORMAL to me and my friends...they are our Children!
I hope...when it's all said and done at the end of the day, everyone that sits in on an IEP team meeting...that they can honestly say....they spoke up and supported the parents hopes and dreams for their Child. That they believed in that Child and did the right thing. What would you want if it was YOUR CHILD we were talking about? You would want the IEP team, to do the right thing! You would want your Child going to 'regular' classes....like everyone else!
I know more than anything, bottom line...everyone wants to keep their jobs and they have their instructions to carry out from their 'bosses'....it is so obvious that it's a district wide 'thing'....nothing is going to change unless those running the entire school district open their minds to 'doing the right thing'!!!
Elections for Schoolboard members when those come up....get to know who you will be voting for! Do we need schoolboard members that still call our Children MONGOLOIDS?! I think not!
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