OCR~Office of Civil Rights
Assistant Secretary ~ Catherine Ihamon
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2014/02/getting-to-know-assistant-secretary-for-civil-rights-catherine-lhamon/
Showing posts with label OCR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OCR. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Friday, August 9, 2013
We are experiencing the Civil Rights Movement of ADA & IDEA in 2013+.
Seems no matter which AGENCY in the State of Florida accepting Federal Funds...our children with Down syndrome are the ones being denied & discriminated at every level of government!!!
We are experiencing the Civil Rights Movement of ADA & IDEA in 2013 right now.
Every Agency needs to be held accountable for their Actions against people! The Discrimination & Segregation need to end!!
*This absolutely may very well be true in other States with any and all other persons with Disabilities.
Do you find this to be true? What State are you from?
I have a daughter with Down syndrome and I live in the State of Florida.
We are experiencing the Civil Rights Movement of ADA & IDEA in 2013 right now.
Every Agency needs to be held accountable for their Actions against people! The Discrimination & Segregation need to end!!
*This absolutely may very well be true in other States with any and all other persons with Disabilities.
Do you find this to be true? What State are you from?
I have a daughter with Down syndrome and I live in the State of Florida.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Educational Crimes against Students with Disabilities
My stomach is in knots today. It is devastating to know our Children with unique learning challenges (disabilities) are systematically targeted mainly for the $MONEY$ they bring into a School District. Children with Special Needs not being provided a World Class Education as districts advertise on their websites and often times the districts phone message while waiting on HOLD so often is a LIE for many Students today!
Those that draw a salary within the EDUCATIONAL BUSINESS today on all levels starting with our ESE Department District Administrators, Supervisors, Principals, School Psychologist and team leaders, school office staff and let's not forget the many Program Specialist on down to the School District Corporate Chain of commands from School Board Members the Public Voted them into their position to our Children's Teachers. These Educational Employees are the New CROOKS, THIEVES and LIARS known as the FAKE PEOPLE or the School District ROBOTS doing what they are instructed and told to do by someone in a higher position than them! It's a Dictatorship absolutely!! School District employees on all levels give you that oh so FAKE smile and canned conversation to make you believe they care. They may even say a friendly hello (like a cold dead fish!) and only give you the most minimal of small talk that avoids addressing any of the real issues of the day.
District Level Administrators and the school Principals are only interested in your Child's $ MATRIX $ MONEY $ FUNDING $ and how to USE IT for things other than Educating our Children.
EDUCATIONAL CRIMES on the backs of ESE Children that generate the $FUNDS$ into a school district. It's not about education anymore, it's about babysitting and stealing our Children's education, future goals and dreams. They all should be ashamed, it is so disgusting all the LIES & COVER-UP that goes on everyday in our Schools and the District!
Our Children are being raped of an Education!
How do so many School District Employees SLEEP-AT-NIGHT, when they do what they do on a daily basis as part of their JOB DUTIES? It has to create some sort of Criminal Mentality & Callousness towards people. How can so many school district staff employees systematically partake in daily EDUCATIONAL CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN as part of their daily job duties? It has to create A Stone Cold Heart in those people. How can so many Educational Employees do what they do to STUDENT after STUDENT, CHILD after CHILD, PARENT after PARENT and FAMILY after FAMILY?
I think it's important to inform the Public how the Broward School District Legal Department Lawyers & Due Process employees TAKE OVER & CONTROL Special Education for the Districts Ultimate AGENDA. What that AGENDA is exactly I'm not sure, but there most certainly is an AGENDA. The Legal 'team' stop good parents from helping their Child or Children from receiving a 'world class education' from this school district. The Legal Department feel they have the power to illegally REWRITE and REDO a student's IEP, especially when a Parent exercises their Procedural Safeguard and ends up FILING for a DUE PROCESS. This has happened to me personally.
This District is doing all they can to dumb down Student IEP goals and provide some students with a canned set of goals on IEP's, all with the very low grade level expectations. Sometimes the IEP goals are what the Student is already capable of doing, yet they push to get IEP goals written to be something that allows teachers and staff to bring down and dumb down ESE Students all around, starting with lower grade level IEP goals. It is disgusting what IEP teams are pushing & promoting at IEP meetings, daring parents to go ahead and FILE for a Due Process.
Stealing our Children's Education & Dreams for their Future is an EDUCATIONAL WHITE COLLAR CRIME! Educational Criminals should carry a FELONY CHARGE!
I have witnessed first hand the amount of LYING & HALF-TRUTHS turned into a complete lie, just to move on a School District's AGENDA and school Principal's AGENDA. I have experienced first hand blatant disregard, first of all for FEDERAL IDEA LAWS and more importantly disregarding Civil Rights of our Children.
It is time for parents of students that are daily being victimized by our Public School Districts Agenda's to NOT PROVIDE "A World Class Education" to our Students with Disabilities. Students and Families that have instead experienced many forms of EDUCATIONAL CRIMES that are systematically being done daily to our Children in Special Education need to band together. This goes for our General Education Students and Families as well, as they too NEED Special Education Services but are being delayed and denied evaluations or interventions that would help them be successful...in the CURRENT school year!
I have experienced first hand in Broward County Florida, just how much our Public School District on all levels, absolutely does not care about our (my) Children's Education.
Our school district is in the business of using our Children's Special Education $FUNDS$ to do any number of things on the School Boards AGENDA, and certainly not the AGENDA of Providing a World Class Education to ALL Students, as part of their Advertising campaign.
From the TOP DOWN, it is my personal experience that they are all EDUCATIONAL CRIMINALS (...and liars...) that should be slapped with FELONY CHARGES for GRAND THEFT many times over!!
What is allowed to continue to go on with our Children's Educational Funding Dollars also known as the ESE Students MATRIX FUNDING is DISGUSTING!
Parents of ESE Students in Broward County, it is time for ESE REFORM! A group of Parents in Broward County, Florida has recently formed a Grassroots group called;
ESE REFORM TASKFORCE S.FLORIDA.
Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/EseReformSFlorida
We are about ALL Students being provided a World Class Education.
Those that draw a salary within the EDUCATIONAL BUSINESS today on all levels starting with our ESE Department District Administrators, Supervisors, Principals, School Psychologist and team leaders, school office staff and let's not forget the many Program Specialist on down to the School District Corporate Chain of commands from School Board Members the Public Voted them into their position to our Children's Teachers. These Educational Employees are the New CROOKS, THIEVES and LIARS known as the FAKE PEOPLE or the School District ROBOTS doing what they are instructed and told to do by someone in a higher position than them! It's a Dictatorship absolutely!! School District employees on all levels give you that oh so FAKE smile and canned conversation to make you believe they care. They may even say a friendly hello (like a cold dead fish!) and only give you the most minimal of small talk that avoids addressing any of the real issues of the day.
District Level Administrators and the school Principals are only interested in your Child's $ MATRIX $ MONEY $ FUNDING $ and how to USE IT for things other than Educating our Children.
EDUCATIONAL CRIMES on the backs of ESE Children that generate the $FUNDS$ into a school district. It's not about education anymore, it's about babysitting and stealing our Children's education, future goals and dreams. They all should be ashamed, it is so disgusting all the LIES & COVER-UP that goes on everyday in our Schools and the District!
Our Children are being raped of an Education!
How do so many School District Employees SLEEP-AT-NIGHT, when they do what they do on a daily basis as part of their JOB DUTIES? It has to create some sort of Criminal Mentality & Callousness towards people. How can so many school district staff employees systematically partake in daily EDUCATIONAL CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN as part of their daily job duties? It has to create A Stone Cold Heart in those people. How can so many Educational Employees do what they do to STUDENT after STUDENT, CHILD after CHILD, PARENT after PARENT and FAMILY after FAMILY?
I think it's important to inform the Public how the Broward School District Legal Department Lawyers & Due Process employees TAKE OVER & CONTROL Special Education for the Districts Ultimate AGENDA. What that AGENDA is exactly I'm not sure, but there most certainly is an AGENDA. The Legal 'team' stop good parents from helping their Child or Children from receiving a 'world class education' from this school district. The Legal Department feel they have the power to illegally REWRITE and REDO a student's IEP, especially when a Parent exercises their Procedural Safeguard and ends up FILING for a DUE PROCESS. This has happened to me personally.
This District is doing all they can to dumb down Student IEP goals and provide some students with a canned set of goals on IEP's, all with the very low grade level expectations. Sometimes the IEP goals are what the Student is already capable of doing, yet they push to get IEP goals written to be something that allows teachers and staff to bring down and dumb down ESE Students all around, starting with lower grade level IEP goals. It is disgusting what IEP teams are pushing & promoting at IEP meetings, daring parents to go ahead and FILE for a Due Process.
Stealing our Children's Education & Dreams for their Future is an EDUCATIONAL WHITE COLLAR CRIME! Educational Criminals should carry a FELONY CHARGE!
I have witnessed first hand the amount of LYING & HALF-TRUTHS turned into a complete lie, just to move on a School District's AGENDA and school Principal's AGENDA. I have experienced first hand blatant disregard, first of all for FEDERAL IDEA LAWS and more importantly disregarding Civil Rights of our Children.
It is time for parents of students that are daily being victimized by our Public School Districts Agenda's to NOT PROVIDE "A World Class Education" to our Students with Disabilities. Students and Families that have instead experienced many forms of EDUCATIONAL CRIMES that are systematically being done daily to our Children in Special Education need to band together. This goes for our General Education Students and Families as well, as they too NEED Special Education Services but are being delayed and denied evaluations or interventions that would help them be successful...in the CURRENT school year!
I have experienced first hand in Broward County Florida, just how much our Public School District on all levels, absolutely does not care about our (my) Children's Education.
Our school district is in the business of using our Children's Special Education $FUNDS$ to do any number of things on the School Boards AGENDA, and certainly not the AGENDA of Providing a World Class Education to ALL Students, as part of their Advertising campaign.
From the TOP DOWN, it is my personal experience that they are all EDUCATIONAL CRIMINALS (...and liars...) that should be slapped with FELONY CHARGES for GRAND THEFT many times over!!
What is allowed to continue to go on with our Children's Educational Funding Dollars also known as the ESE Students MATRIX FUNDING is DISGUSTING!
Parents of ESE Students in Broward County, it is time for ESE REFORM! A group of Parents in Broward County, Florida has recently formed a Grassroots group called;
ESE REFORM TASKFORCE S.FLORIDA.
Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/EseReformSFlorida
We are about ALL Students being provided a World Class Education.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Mommie Prayer
Oh Dear Lord please forgive us involved & concerned Mommies for our having the thoughts we have towards those that PreJudge our Children's ABILITIES ....especially towards those in high positions! Forgive me Lord for I have sinned in thought. I pray a hedge of protection & grace around my Mommie friends raising & helping our beautiful children be successful and all they are meant to be.
AMEN
by Nancy Linley-Harris
Special Ed Parent & Child Advocate
August 23, 2012
AMEN
by Nancy Linley-Harris
Special Ed Parent & Child Advocate
August 23, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
24 min/ 8 sec IEP Hostile Take-Over ~ Broward ESE Dept. NONSENSE
Should I post my 24min/8sec iPhone recording of the Hostile take over of my daughter's 5/30/12 IEP on FB?
.....or post it here on my blog?
....just asking................
I'm having a tad bit-o-trouble here in Broward schools.
My daughter Mariah Elizabeth doesn't even know that bad people attend IEP meetings that don't care about her.....they call themselves PROFESSIONALS!
......I'll say!
.....this WAS a Professional job that's for sure!
.....or post it here on my blog?
....just asking................
I'm having a tad bit-o-trouble here in Broward schools.
My daughter Mariah Elizabeth doesn't even know that bad people attend IEP meetings that don't care about her.....they call themselves PROFESSIONALS!
......I'll say!
.....this WAS a Professional job that's for sure!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Broward County Public Schools ESE Department is NOT for our children!! ~ What has happened to Mariah's Individual Education Plan is PROOF!!
Mariah's ESE Wilson Reading Teacher and ESE Specialist and some STRANGER PROGRAM SPECIALIST all followed the leader of systematically DUMBING DOWN my daughters Individual Educational Plan! THIS IS WHY I DON'T BELIEVE IN ESE TEACHERS TEACHING MY DAUGHTER! THEY HAVE THE LOWEST EXPECTATIONS for children with disabilities ~ the very students they 'serve'. My ESE Specialist became a ROBOT like the rest of the ESE Department in Broward Schools.
My daughter has been LET DOWN from the very staff members that always 'claimed' they cared for Mariah's best interest.
*I know my CAPITAL WRITING is going to OFFEND some really WONDERFUL ESE TEACHERS and I'm sorry for that! I know there are plenty of ESE Teachers that are the BEST Teachers out there working their tails off doing a great job with our children with unique learning challenges ~ Mariah has received SES TUTORING from some really WONDERFUL ESE Certified Teachers.....but I am hurting here by the ESE Teachers/staff that I have had my daughter under their care and they have crapped on me and trampled on Mariah's freedom to continue working hard towards earning a REAL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA!!! I have every right to be ?FUMING MAD!!
Mariah has taken 4 FCAT's already!! What the heck is going on with so many school staff acting so UNFRIENDLY and COLD HEARTED LATELY? I know the new principal likes to CENSOR all my emails and not allow staff to email me back...that's ok...I can still write my emails and blogs!
If Mariah was being kicked by a group of adults would ANYONE STOP THEM? This is what is happening to her now! But it is all being done on her legal educational documents!
Mariah deserves YOUR HELP & SUPPORT!!
I will get to WHO IS BEHIND all this nonsense!
I need lots of prayers ~ as I fight for my daughter's quality education that I have fought so hard for thus far and don't intend to stop now.
Too bad there are BAD PEOPLE with BAD INTENTIONS that work in our schools to make a paycheck only ~ working for the 6th largest school district in the Country! Teachers & Staff sitting in our IEP meetings saying they are the Professionals? Really....? Mariah's ESE teacher & ESE Specialist spit on my daughter's future educational dreams and expectations!!
...Mariah ~ I will make things right for you ~ I always do...I'm your mother!
The momma tiger is MAD!!
Broward County Public Schools ESE Department is NOT for our children!! The department head does not have the BEST INTEREST of our ESE Children as her highest concern ~ What has happened to Mariah's Individual Education Plan is PROOF there is a SYSTEMATIC WAY OF DUMBING DOWN THE IEP Process & our children's education ~ and sending in ESE Program Specialist to ARGUE RELENTLESSLY with good parents of wonderful children.....if they can get away with it!!...and they do plenty!!
I would like an INTERIM like I have been asking for since MARCH! When will Stephen Foster Elementary School give me a date for my interim IEP? THEY IGNORED setting up a meeting for me till 5/30/12 and then the ESE Department sent in ROBOTS to come sabotage and ARGUE!!
My daughter's Annual was not due till September 22nd, 2012. WHY WAS I BEING FORCED TO HAVE AN ANNUAL and not the IEP update Interim or end of the year IEP I have ALWAYS HAD EACH YEAR?
DISPICABLE & DISGUSTING!!
My daughter has been LET DOWN from the very staff members that always 'claimed' they cared for Mariah's best interest.
*I know my CAPITAL WRITING is going to OFFEND some really WONDERFUL ESE TEACHERS and I'm sorry for that! I know there are plenty of ESE Teachers that are the BEST Teachers out there working their tails off doing a great job with our children with unique learning challenges ~ Mariah has received SES TUTORING from some really WONDERFUL ESE Certified Teachers.....but I am hurting here by the ESE Teachers/staff that I have had my daughter under their care and they have crapped on me and trampled on Mariah's freedom to continue working hard towards earning a REAL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA!!! I have every right to be ?FUMING MAD!!
Mariah has taken 4 FCAT's already!! What the heck is going on with so many school staff acting so UNFRIENDLY and COLD HEARTED LATELY? I know the new principal likes to CENSOR all my emails and not allow staff to email me back...that's ok...I can still write my emails and blogs!
If Mariah was being kicked by a group of adults would ANYONE STOP THEM? This is what is happening to her now! But it is all being done on her legal educational documents!
Mariah deserves YOUR HELP & SUPPORT!!
I will get to WHO IS BEHIND all this nonsense!
I need lots of prayers ~ as I fight for my daughter's quality education that I have fought so hard for thus far and don't intend to stop now.
Too bad there are BAD PEOPLE with BAD INTENTIONS that work in our schools to make a paycheck only ~ working for the 6th largest school district in the Country! Teachers & Staff sitting in our IEP meetings saying they are the Professionals? Really....? Mariah's ESE teacher & ESE Specialist spit on my daughter's future educational dreams and expectations!!
...Mariah ~ I will make things right for you ~ I always do...I'm your mother!
The momma tiger is MAD!!
Broward County Public Schools ESE Department is NOT for our children!! The department head does not have the BEST INTEREST of our ESE Children as her highest concern ~ What has happened to Mariah's Individual Education Plan is PROOF there is a SYSTEMATIC WAY OF DUMBING DOWN THE IEP Process & our children's education ~ and sending in ESE Program Specialist to ARGUE RELENTLESSLY with good parents of wonderful children.....if they can get away with it!!...and they do plenty!!
I would like an INTERIM like I have been asking for since MARCH! When will Stephen Foster Elementary School give me a date for my interim IEP? THEY IGNORED setting up a meeting for me till 5/30/12 and then the ESE Department sent in ROBOTS to come sabotage and ARGUE!!
My daughter's Annual was not due till September 22nd, 2012. WHY WAS I BEING FORCED TO HAVE AN ANNUAL and not the IEP update Interim or end of the year IEP I have ALWAYS HAD EACH YEAR?
DISPICABLE & DISGUSTING!!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Annual IEP's left open in DRAFT form over the Summer?
How long can a DRAFT of an Annual IEP be left OPEN in the EzIEP system? If an IEP team in Broward has not set up enough time to hold an effective collaborative ANNUAL Transition into Kindergarten IEP for a student, especially a student with significant physical needs entering Kindergarten in the Fall ....does that mean the students IEP is just an "open" document in Draft form over the entire summer or does that mean the required Annual Date of completing the Annual IEP is now out of compliance? ....again...just askin.....any Special Ed lawyers out there? Please comment and let's open this for rich discussion.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
FORCED OUT OF THE IEP PROCESS TODAY!!!
What is with BROWARD ESE DEPARTMENT and pushing their agenda to do what is now being called, "BEST PRACTICES" ~ not a real policy in writing anywhere.....but a 'suggested best practice' ~ if your child's ANNUAL IEP is November 1st or before Nov. 1st, it is suggested...oops I mean it is being FORCED on you that you WILL HAVE TO HAVE AN ANNUAL IEP in May before your child matriculates into the next school level, as my daughter Mariah is going on into the 6th grade to Middle School!
.......but what about the fact in writing that I have been REQUESTING AN INTERiM IEP since like March maybe even late Feb~ yes in many written emails to several of my need and my request to have an interim....all fell on deaf ears or wasn't considered because there was never a RESPONSE to my requesting an interim. With no communication pertaining to when a meeting time would be scheduled ~ NOW TODAY I am all set to have my much awaited interim iep meeting......I have waited long enough! With 5 1/2 school days left of this school year ~ I was all set to have a good meeting with her IEP Team! The time for me to have my meeting today was very accommodating to have it start at 9AM and run till 3PM if we needed. Unheard of by today's standard's, since several of my friends now are only being allowed 30 minutes to an hour to hold their IEP meetings! It was going to be a good day...all was good this morning.
The classroom/meeting room was PERFECT ~ absolutely perfectly set up to be able to work together as a collaborative TEAM! The student desks and chairs were set up in a perfect SEMI-CIRCLE with the projection ready for viewing the electronic Ez-IEP on the white board on the wall. Mariah's IEP TEAM was all sitting around waiting for me to arrive, all nice and relaxed and waiting as I walked in. Just how LONG HAD THEY ALL BEEN SITTING THERE?? Were they sitting there PRE-Discussing anything about my meeting BEFORE I arrived? I wonder as this also seems to be common practice here in Broward, where parents are always the last ones to enter the meeting. I walked in with my 2 advocates, we picked chairs to sit in and I quickly set up my laptop and recorder, pulling out all my paperwork & notes ready to start the meeting. Wait a minute.....I had advocates with me! Why? ~ I AM THE ADVOCATE!
Why did I bring 2 advocates with me today?
...because we all need to take an advocate now and again. Today I didn't want any funny-funny stuff being pulled on me alone, especially with my daughter moving on into middle school. I wanted to make sure Mariah's IEP document stayed SOLID as I felt it was. Mariah's IEP is a darn good one, a well written IEP today, which expires the end of September. This is another reason why I like to set up an interim IEP at the end of every school year to prepare and plan for the first few months of the upcoming new school year, with all new teachers. To me that is the 'best practice' that I have always done over the years.
This morning what happened to me should never have happened...to me or to anyone! ....and it's a 'best practice' thing? Best Practice for WHO? Certainly not for me and or for my daughter's benefit!
I am sickened that a Program Specialist or a "compliance specialist" as they are now sometimes called here in Broward County and even the ESE Specialist, how these people are so quick to suggest and basically force you to FILE for a Due Process Hearing ~ if you don't like what is being done at that moment in our IEP meetings, this is the push! This seems to be our districts quick-fix and the answer to doing things THEIR WAY!! Well heck, Broward public schools has some pretty pricey lawyers don't ya think?? .....and this is all done in the BEST INTEREST of my daughter ~ really??!
FORCING ME to agree that this particular IEP meeting was now going to be Mariah's ANNUAL IEP is how the ESE employee side of Mariah's IEP was going to PUSH ME into moving ahead with this meeting. This was mostly coming from a program specialist that I don't think she even knows what color my daughters eyes are or how long her hair is now! ~ How dare all the ESE EMPLOYEES in attendance of this meeting force and make my daughters teacher-of-the-year and therapists be forced to have to SIT & WATCH and be now be part of AIR GETTING SO THICK like a DARK STORM CLOUD coming over all of us! All done with such a strong sense of, don't know what words to use here to describe the feeling in the air........certainly nothing but W R O N G going on!!! It was all very wrong indeed~!! This was not what I was hoping to accomplish today at my daughter's meeting!
I came prepared to update & make sure things would be in place to run smoothly for her starting in the Fall at her new Middle school. She was accepted in a MAGNET PROGRAM!! The S.T.E.M. Magnet Program!!!! I came prepared to be part of meeting I had been requesting since March - I documented all over the signed PPF that I was NOT agreeing to this meeting being an ANNUAL as had been 'suggested' - guess our district makes up their own "best practices" aka Broward made-up rules (no written policies have ever been provided when I asked) - my school ESE Specialist - Mariah's wonderful Wilson Reading ESE Teacher - and a District ESE "WIND-UP ROBOT" speaking to me like she had a scratch in the CD or like a broken record repeating the same sentences in her monotone voice. She was SENT and sitting there only to strong-arm and BULLY me at my meeting! Sitting there only to force me to agree and turn it into an ANNUAL IEP. Everyone knew in all of my previous emails that I had always been requesting and wanting to hold an interim meeting, since March! What was the BIG DEAL ~ Why now was there this PUSH TO FORCE this meeting to be an ANNUAL IEP? I felt Mariah's IEP was still good to go. She was still working on some pretty solid academic goals that still I felt needed to be carried over into Middle school.
There was no one in attendance from her Middle school, to provide input or information pertaining to the magnet program curriculum. The S.T.E.M. Director from the Middle school was going to be stepping into the meeting a little later.
How can one person that doesn't even KNOW MY DAUGHTER put such spin & create such a negative force on how a meeting WILL NOW MOVE FORWARD and GO? I announced that I wanted to STOP the meeting! I stood up and started gathering all my things ~ She stated, "THEY WILL STILL GO AHEAD WITHOUT ME!" She sounded like a broken record with no emotions to what she was creating all by herself like a ROBOT with a skip in the recording! Really??!! How is this in the BEST INTEREST for my daughter's education and for Mariah going into a new Middle School? WHO or where was this person getting her ORDERS FROM?
This is not how I saw my daughter's interim IEP meeting going this morning when I woke up after so little sleep preparing for a productive meeting for Mariah's educational supports for next year in Middle school.
This was to be Mariah's LAST IEP Team meeting at Stephen Foster Elementary ~ going to this same school since she was 4 years old! She will be 14 years old in September. Thanks for my "going away meeting" I have anticipated for way too long! ~ I have a gut-feeling that this has to do with the new principal in some way. Considering he enjoyed censoring each and everyone of my emails this entire school year! Yes ~ I said ALL of my emails were censored by my school principal this year. Can't wait to see what MESS this will bring!
Thanks for the end-of-the-year PaRtY!! Stephen Foster Elementary School has been good to my daughter! Most of Mariah's teachers were awesome and workable and wonderful to work & talk with and really cared that Mariah was successfully educated and gained higher level skills! There have been a few teachers that certainly have alot to be desired in the stand-off attitude towards me over the years. Some teachers just don't have it in them to work collaboratively with involved, concerned parents like me. But for the most part Mariah has always had WONDERFUL TEACHERS THAT CARED ABOUT MARIAH LEARNING & worked collaboratively with me.
Stephen Foster Elementary has served my daughter well ~ never dreamed or thought her final IEP meeting would be like this one. A total SLAP IN THE FACE to me as her parent and her advocate for her education! I was FORCED OUT OF MY DAUGHTER'S Interim IEP today! They carried on and 'said' they would go ahead and turn it into an ANNUAL IEP without me, if I left! I'm so sorry collaboration didn't take place today and my school didn't want to provide me an opportunity to take a look at the supports and services my girl will be needing on her first day of 6th grade in the Fall! Oh well at least this IEP document wasn't out of compliance because of the 'date' of the annual being held past the annual date.........this time! Her next required annual review will occur on or before: September 22nd, 2012. Mariah still needed time to work on and master some pretty solid IEP goals I had in her document.
I am not a happy camper today! Should I be? Would you be?
Mariah ~ things will be OK ~ you watch things will be OK once your mom fills out a few papers ~ it's like making a phone call.........to the police!
I can not sit back and pretend all is well with how I was treated and forced 'to file' as it was suggested I do from the program specialist this morning. I will not be filing a DUE PROCESS.
Those that are unfamiliar with the IEP process or what just happened to me today at my IEP meeting or what the heck I am upset and unhappy about.......it's about my CIVIL RIGHTS! It's about Mariah and what will be best for her as she leaves her elementary school and goes on into Middle School into the S.T.E.M. Magnet Program in the Fall.
*This is not a reflection on how grateful I am to Mariah's many teachers over the years and therapists that have helped Mariah get to where she is academically today. I'm just sorry we all are now part of what seems like the systematic nonsense and ESE Parent bullying that I have seen happen at many many IEP meetings here in Broward!! What WAS that? ~ What was it that happened so quickly this morning???......grrrrhhh!!!
NOT HAPPY WITH THE "SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICE" IDEA or "the recourse I can take if I'm not agreeing" to 'THE IEP TEAM DECISION!!
I WANT MY DAUGHTER'S INTERIM IEP TO BE A "START OVER" or a "CANCEL ERASE".....can we do that?
NOPE~!!
"THEY HELD THE IEP WITHOUT ME!!!"
....and FORCED me to agree to make it her ANNUAL IEP, which I didn't think was needed at all! She has a well written IEP with solid goals that still need to be worked on.
........and I'm very much involved with my daughter's education and I'm a Special Ed Advocate for others & for my daughter especially! Have to be!
.............
.............................
..................
.............................
THANKS!
.......but what about the fact in writing that I have been REQUESTING AN INTERiM IEP since like March maybe even late Feb~ yes in many written emails to several of my need and my request to have an interim....all fell on deaf ears or wasn't considered because there was never a RESPONSE to my requesting an interim. With no communication pertaining to when a meeting time would be scheduled ~ NOW TODAY I am all set to have my much awaited interim iep meeting......I have waited long enough! With 5 1/2 school days left of this school year ~ I was all set to have a good meeting with her IEP Team! The time for me to have my meeting today was very accommodating to have it start at 9AM and run till 3PM if we needed. Unheard of by today's standard's, since several of my friends now are only being allowed 30 minutes to an hour to hold their IEP meetings! It was going to be a good day...all was good this morning.
The classroom/meeting room was PERFECT ~ absolutely perfectly set up to be able to work together as a collaborative TEAM! The student desks and chairs were set up in a perfect SEMI-CIRCLE with the projection ready for viewing the electronic Ez-IEP on the white board on the wall. Mariah's IEP TEAM was all sitting around waiting for me to arrive, all nice and relaxed and waiting as I walked in. Just how LONG HAD THEY ALL BEEN SITTING THERE?? Were they sitting there PRE-Discussing anything about my meeting BEFORE I arrived? I wonder as this also seems to be common practice here in Broward, where parents are always the last ones to enter the meeting. I walked in with my 2 advocates, we picked chairs to sit in and I quickly set up my laptop and recorder, pulling out all my paperwork & notes ready to start the meeting. Wait a minute.....I had advocates with me! Why? ~ I AM THE ADVOCATE!
Why did I bring 2 advocates with me today?
...because we all need to take an advocate now and again. Today I didn't want any funny-funny stuff being pulled on me alone, especially with my daughter moving on into middle school. I wanted to make sure Mariah's IEP document stayed SOLID as I felt it was. Mariah's IEP is a darn good one, a well written IEP today, which expires the end of September. This is another reason why I like to set up an interim IEP at the end of every school year to prepare and plan for the first few months of the upcoming new school year, with all new teachers. To me that is the 'best practice' that I have always done over the years.
This morning what happened to me should never have happened...to me or to anyone! ....and it's a 'best practice' thing? Best Practice for WHO? Certainly not for me and or for my daughter's benefit!
I am sickened that a Program Specialist or a "compliance specialist" as they are now sometimes called here in Broward County and even the ESE Specialist, how these people are so quick to suggest and basically force you to FILE for a Due Process Hearing ~ if you don't like what is being done at that moment in our IEP meetings, this is the push! This seems to be our districts quick-fix and the answer to doing things THEIR WAY!! Well heck, Broward public schools has some pretty pricey lawyers don't ya think?? .....and this is all done in the BEST INTEREST of my daughter ~ really??!
FORCING ME to agree that this particular IEP meeting was now going to be Mariah's ANNUAL IEP is how the ESE employee side of Mariah's IEP was going to PUSH ME into moving ahead with this meeting. This was mostly coming from a program specialist that I don't think she even knows what color my daughters eyes are or how long her hair is now! ~ How dare all the ESE EMPLOYEES in attendance of this meeting force and make my daughters teacher-of-the-year and therapists be forced to have to SIT & WATCH and be now be part of AIR GETTING SO THICK like a DARK STORM CLOUD coming over all of us! All done with such a strong sense of, don't know what words to use here to describe the feeling in the air........certainly nothing but W R O N G going on!!! It was all very wrong indeed~!! This was not what I was hoping to accomplish today at my daughter's meeting!
I came prepared to update & make sure things would be in place to run smoothly for her starting in the Fall at her new Middle school. She was accepted in a MAGNET PROGRAM!! The S.T.E.M. Magnet Program!!!! I came prepared to be part of meeting I had been requesting since March - I documented all over the signed PPF that I was NOT agreeing to this meeting being an ANNUAL as had been 'suggested' - guess our district makes up their own "best practices" aka Broward made-up rules (no written policies have ever been provided when I asked) - my school ESE Specialist - Mariah's wonderful Wilson Reading ESE Teacher - and a District ESE "WIND-UP ROBOT" speaking to me like she had a scratch in the CD or like a broken record repeating the same sentences in her monotone voice. She was SENT and sitting there only to strong-arm and BULLY me at my meeting! Sitting there only to force me to agree and turn it into an ANNUAL IEP. Everyone knew in all of my previous emails that I had always been requesting and wanting to hold an interim meeting, since March! What was the BIG DEAL ~ Why now was there this PUSH TO FORCE this meeting to be an ANNUAL IEP? I felt Mariah's IEP was still good to go. She was still working on some pretty solid academic goals that still I felt needed to be carried over into Middle school.
There was no one in attendance from her Middle school, to provide input or information pertaining to the magnet program curriculum. The S.T.E.M. Director from the Middle school was going to be stepping into the meeting a little later.
How can one person that doesn't even KNOW MY DAUGHTER put such spin & create such a negative force on how a meeting WILL NOW MOVE FORWARD and GO? I announced that I wanted to STOP the meeting! I stood up and started gathering all my things ~ She stated, "THEY WILL STILL GO AHEAD WITHOUT ME!" She sounded like a broken record with no emotions to what she was creating all by herself like a ROBOT with a skip in the recording! Really??!! How is this in the BEST INTEREST for my daughter's education and for Mariah going into a new Middle School? WHO or where was this person getting her ORDERS FROM?
This is not how I saw my daughter's interim IEP meeting going this morning when I woke up after so little sleep preparing for a productive meeting for Mariah's educational supports for next year in Middle school.
This was to be Mariah's LAST IEP Team meeting at Stephen Foster Elementary ~ going to this same school since she was 4 years old! She will be 14 years old in September. Thanks for my "going away meeting" I have anticipated for way too long! ~ I have a gut-feeling that this has to do with the new principal in some way. Considering he enjoyed censoring each and everyone of my emails this entire school year! Yes ~ I said ALL of my emails were censored by my school principal this year. Can't wait to see what MESS this will bring!
Thanks for the end-of-the-year PaRtY!! Stephen Foster Elementary School has been good to my daughter! Most of Mariah's teachers were awesome and workable and wonderful to work & talk with and really cared that Mariah was successfully educated and gained higher level skills! There have been a few teachers that certainly have alot to be desired in the stand-off attitude towards me over the years. Some teachers just don't have it in them to work collaboratively with involved, concerned parents like me. But for the most part Mariah has always had WONDERFUL TEACHERS THAT CARED ABOUT MARIAH LEARNING & worked collaboratively with me.
Stephen Foster Elementary has served my daughter well ~ never dreamed or thought her final IEP meeting would be like this one. A total SLAP IN THE FACE to me as her parent and her advocate for her education! I was FORCED OUT OF MY DAUGHTER'S Interim IEP today! They carried on and 'said' they would go ahead and turn it into an ANNUAL IEP without me, if I left! I'm so sorry collaboration didn't take place today and my school didn't want to provide me an opportunity to take a look at the supports and services my girl will be needing on her first day of 6th grade in the Fall! Oh well at least this IEP document wasn't out of compliance because of the 'date' of the annual being held past the annual date.........this time! Her next required annual review will occur on or before: September 22nd, 2012. Mariah still needed time to work on and master some pretty solid IEP goals I had in her document.
I am not a happy camper today! Should I be? Would you be?
Mariah ~ things will be OK ~ you watch things will be OK once your mom fills out a few papers ~ it's like making a phone call.........to the police!
I can not sit back and pretend all is well with how I was treated and forced 'to file' as it was suggested I do from the program specialist this morning. I will not be filing a DUE PROCESS.
Those that are unfamiliar with the IEP process or what just happened to me today at my IEP meeting or what the heck I am upset and unhappy about.......it's about my CIVIL RIGHTS! It's about Mariah and what will be best for her as she leaves her elementary school and goes on into Middle School into the S.T.E.M. Magnet Program in the Fall.
*This is not a reflection on how grateful I am to Mariah's many teachers over the years and therapists that have helped Mariah get to where she is academically today. I'm just sorry we all are now part of what seems like the systematic nonsense and ESE Parent bullying that I have seen happen at many many IEP meetings here in Broward!! What WAS that? ~ What was it that happened so quickly this morning???......grrrrhhh!!!
NOT HAPPY WITH THE "SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICE" IDEA or "the recourse I can take if I'm not agreeing" to 'THE IEP TEAM DECISION!!
I WANT MY DAUGHTER'S INTERIM IEP TO BE A "START OVER" or a "CANCEL ERASE".....can we do that?
NOPE~!!
"THEY HELD THE IEP WITHOUT ME!!!"
....and FORCED me to agree to make it her ANNUAL IEP, which I didn't think was needed at all! She has a well written IEP with solid goals that still need to be worked on.
........and I'm very much involved with my daughter's education and I'm a Special Ed Advocate for others & for my daughter especially! Have to be!
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THANKS!
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