So many IEP's being held the last few weeks of school...I find it absolutely amazing that so many IEP meetings get scheduled at 'crunch time' just before the school year ends. I also it find it amazing how many of them are for our Children with Down syndrome....and my goodness what if parents are trying to be active participants in constructing their Child's IEP by making sure their PARENT INPUT is written into the 4 different domains! There must be a new push to try to make sure our parents words and concerns or issues are only allowed to be inserted in just the beginning section of the IEP document, the PARENT INPUT section. Where is it written to say that parents are NOT ALLOWED to provide anymore written words or parent input anywhere else on that wonderful IEP document?
This seems to be the new PUSH for our district here in Broward County that I have come across on a number of occassions...and that is to NOT ALLOW PARENTS the right to be active participants in creating the IEP document, throughout the entire document and that includes anywhere on the IEP document where needed!
So many of the pre-written up IEP DRAFTS have only the SCHOOL staff's side of the PLP=Present Level of Preformance of that child. I would think that the parents percpective would be a vital piece of information that the school would want to know about!...again...it seems our district is trying to do something that certainly does NOT MAKE SENSE...won't be the first time!
What is with that DRAFT too....being all set up and ready to go before our IEP meetings have ever been held? The supports and services all done...PLACEMENT DECISSIONS being done by...'who' ahead of the meeting?...hmmmm...this seems to be our school principals and our districts way of controlling our IEP meetings and placement decisions and certainly where and what type of supports our Children need. Is inclusion encouraged for our little kiddo's with Down syndrome....ABSOLUTLY NOT!!! Seems Broward County Schools would rather encourage parents to file for a Due Process instead of allowing parents to be active and involved decision makers for their Child's educational needs! I think this is about not wanting to have our Children in General education classrooms anymore! There seems to be a bigger push to exclude and segregate our Children from the General school population with their non-ESE classmates!
Parents, if you haven't attended a parent training near you, it's time to start educating yourselves on how to become a confident advocate for the things you believe in! If I hear that 'there is no funding' one more time..........is it ALL about funding or is about taking away what can be funded because there IS FUNDING for our Children?
The "I" seems to have been taken out of the Educational Plan more and more!!
Violin Saturday Mornings with Tarra Guerra SUZUKI Music
-
Saturday mornings with our Suzuki class by Tarra Guerra is part of our
weekend learning and FUN! Yes I said, FUN! Group lessons are FUN, being
with others...
Posts
2 comments:
Even the sorta educated parent (went to a few IEP seminars by the school board and WrightsLaw put on by the school board) gets bullied at those meetings. It was mentioned no less than 6 or 7 times that my daughter was not on grade level and that was the decision for not including her in gen ed. Hello how many other kids in the class are not on grade level?????? Lets take all them out too-- no you say why because they look like all the others but mine doesn't so she gets excluded. Sounds like 40 years ago to another portion of the population that was excluded based on looks!!!!!! Prejudice is prejudice no matter what they call it!!
...ask for a copy of the policy to which they are referring to when they tell you something like this...don't go by 'what they say'....turns out to be a lie! Request everything IN WRITING and certainly back everything up in writing yourself!
Post a Comment