IEP meeting question

[rhyanen]

Ok, well I had to request an IEP meeting for my son already. He's been having some major social issues mostly pertaining to bullying and rude, manipulative kids.:mad: I am also not so sure his teacher is the right fit for him. What are they thinking putting an autistic child into a first year teacher's class? She has absolutely no idea how to handle IEPs and special needs kids. (Long story.)

Anyway, my main question is...how long does the school have to set up an IEP meeting once I request one? I sent a letter to his teacher last week, and still have not heard back.

Last year, when I requested an IEP meeting, they sent me a prior written notice with a meeting date within 2 days. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Amy

[matika]

5 or 6 weeks if I remember correctly, but do like me, don't expect nothing, call them and ask, show up at their desk, etc, etc.

I pay surprise visits at the school often, just to check and see what's going on, if the school sounds peacefull and quiet, my kids are having a good day, if i get there and there is chaos, it just about has one of my kids involved in the dilema.

I remember when I first found out about Rachel having autism, we got the dx, i melted and cried my eyes out, then the lady told me, you are going to be your daughter BEST advocate, no one will be able to do that as good as you can.

At that moment I had no clue what she ment, I was in shock, now, I very much know what she ment, and she was right,, become an advocate for your child, don't expect anyone to get to what they need to get to in a timely manner. Make a word document and logg by date, time, where, when, why and who, especially when you trying to get appointments and meetings set up.

I don't have to do that with my kids at the school, because they are very good at following through with meetings and dates, and the special Ed coordinator is a heck of an awsome guy, he really cares for this kids, and he is an advocate within the school for all the kids under him, he gets an AAAAA from me.

Well anyways that is besides the point. Call them Amy, ask to talk to who ever is suppose to be setting that meeting,, when they say he/she will call back, ask when can you expect that to happen, and say ok well if he don't call by __________ you fill in the blank,, I call back by _______________ again, you decide, but don't give it more then a day,, if you call back and they yet take another message,, next thing is, show up at the school first thing in the morning, if the bus comes to pick up your child home, call and say you will take him in this morning only and not to stop for him, and tada, show up lol, soon they will prefer getting back to you by phone lol,, and be patient too, evaluate things, if someone has been out sick, or they trying to set up a gazillion ofther IEP's be patient,, be best to be in their GOOD side then in their bad, we are all humans after all.
I say call tomorrow and just check, make sure they did get the note and didn't got lost in the transit of hand to hand.

best of luck

mati

[milivica]

When you request an emergency IEP, they have 10 working days until the meeting needs to happen.

Dear so and so,
We request an emergency IEP for (first and last name)

Thank you,
Parent's names

[peglem]

If this is a new teacher she probably has no idea that there even is a timeline. Request your meeting through the office and in writing. First year teachers are OVERWHELMED just trying to stay on top of the regular things.

[milivica]

Just want to mention, the very best teacher Vince ever had, was a first year teacher. Not that she knew so much about autism, she didn't. But she was excellent at listening to what I knew about my son, very easy to speak to.

[peglem]

Just so I'm not misunderstood, she may be a wonderful teacher, listener, whatever- but as far as knowing procedures and particular technicals- she probably doesn't, even if she has been informed of them. I'm telling you, first year of teaching is exciting, but there's just soooo much to deal with, that experience will teach you. I don't think she's necessarily going to NOT serve you- just doesn't know how the sped IEP thing works yet. (Regular ed room, right?) She's been trained almost exclusively to teach regular ed.

[Mother's Heart]

the iep request should've been made to the IEP team casemanager rather than to the reg ed teacher (unless she is the casemanager as well) and a copy sent to the Director of SPED. And yes, if you request a meeting other than the regular annual review they have ten days to do it. You can go on line and get a copy of IDEA to check out the timelines. Time to get familiar with the law so they don't leave you hanging either out of ignorance or negligence or plain trying to manipulate you. If you show you know what is required of them they usually will begin to toe the line and you won't have to be the one to keep up with procedures. It's their job.

request the meeting in writing, and since you've gotten no response you should make a follow-up call, or better yet, a follow up note asking about it. Who knows? it's possible either your letter or their reply was lost in transit and one or the other of you is waiting for the other to reply to a letter that hasn't been received. If I had a serious issue I requested it in writing with return receipt requested. That freaked them out however and they brought in the big guns to deal with it. Which was fine...it was a big deal and they were in trouble.

When we dealt with major bullying I went through the regular channels of contacting the principal and counselor, since the school supposedly had a big program to prevent bullying but when we all met to deal with it the IEP team members were there and so were the teachers of the classrooms where the worst bullying was occurring.

I hope this makes sense. time for bed I suppose.

[Keggy]

You should get comfy with your state regs as well. I recall it being 30 days from the time a written request was made, thats for a review..... the request going to the cse director. Emergency is another thing... don't just ask for an emergency cse... and quite frankly most problems can be resolved without a cse.

Teachers are being dually certified these days.... so just because she is regular ed dosn't mean she isn't certified SE.

[rhyanen]

Thank you everyone for your replies. What makes it even more complicated is that the elementary school he went to last year, has been split into two. A new building was erected, and half of the students meet in that building, and the other half meets in the portables that were previously there. So they had to add new staff, new principals, etc, etc, and I don't even know who his sped case manager is. I do know that he still gets speech therapy with the same woman from last year. Maybe contacting her would be our best bet.

There were over 1700 students at his school last year, so that's why they had to split it. It is really growing here on our side of town at a very accelerated rate. Makes it more complicated. Then the fact that our state has the worst public schools of all the states combined doesn't help.:(

I have to admit though, last year, things went very smoothly with the IEP team. He did very well both socially and academically. Seems this year everyone is so disorganized. I can partly understand why, but at the same time, I don't want to see bad things happening at school and progress being lost.

Amy

[tgrimes]

WoWWW. 1700 in one elementary school, that is huge.