The last IEP I attended was much "nicer" than previous meetings. The "team" was very positive about my daughter with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. She is doing "great" in all of her classes, she is a "superb" student, she is "well organized" and is "turning in her assignments on time". Her IQ total has climbed a whopping 23 points since she was first tested at age 6. She is incredibly pleasant to have in class, she is a leader, she is well liked by peers and staff alike! They all seem to believe that she is very talented, creative, and going to have great opportunities to excel at a University. All those quotations marks? Yes, they are actual quotes from the IEP notes page! So, maybe you, like me are wondering why she is in Special Education and why she needs an IEP.
Before I go any further. My oldest daughter is one of the hardest working kids you will ever find. Fortunately she doesn't have the aggressive tendencies of FASD that her brother who we also adopted has. She doesn't do all of her work but she does a lot, she often times forgets to turn in completed or near completed work though. She has a good strong work ethic and she has come so far, I am really proud of her. At the same time I am not the type of parent that thinks my kid can't do anything wrong. I know she needs extra help and I know that I have to keep on top of her or she will miss turning in (or maybe even doing) assignments, and she has never studied for a test without my bugging her to do it. She thinks she is smarter than she is - she thinks she is smarter than her dad and me (what 15 year old doesn't) and because of that she doesn't think she needs to study for tests. She can be a really pain around the house, but she behaves very well at school and at others' homes, typical for 15 years old I think. She is more like her non-disabled peers than she is different, I take heart in that fact!
She has good grades, a "B" average, with one "D" due to her general ed teacher not being informed of the accommodations he was to have been giving, so the first half of the semester really brought her grade down. Once she got the accommodations and I was on her to make sure she got every piece of work done and studied for all of her tests she squeaked through. But, my concern is, is she going to get those accommodations at a University? And, even though I would be paying for it, is anyone going to send me e-mails telling me that she is falling behind so I can light a fire under her? I don't think so.
Fortunately, the meeting had to be continued because others had to leave and I had to go pick up a child from another school. This was the best thing that could have happened! I took home all of the paperwork that I hadn't received ahead of time, I read over all the comments in the notes section of the IEP, "superb" (really?), I hadn't heard that comment but it sure did make the my daughter look good didn't it? And I got to think, something there is too little time to do in a meeting with many people talking at the same time. I find I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out who is trustworthy (sort of) in the meeting and who I need to be very leery of this time around. That is why I never sign an IEP at the meeting unless they offer to give every service I went in to ask for and even then, I usually want to read the fine print, and then I still often times look back the next year and wish I had objected to something I didn't object to!
Well, after checking my feelings about the meeting, looking over the paperwork, and spending a bit of time realizing that there was a reason for all of the insanity, I got to work. First, the reason for trying to make it seem like my daughter is the first kid in the special ed system at her school that should go to a University and major in a creative major is that they have everything to gain from making it seem she is super-girl! It will cost them a lot less in services and special classes if they can make her seem like the "Incredible Super Smarter Kid". So then I was able to get to the details. They weren't actually suggesting that she leave special ed, of course not, they get Federal funds if they can keep her in Special Ed and yet give her nothing over and above the regular special ed classes. So they want to keep her just disabled enough to need a few special ed classes but not disabled enough that she needs any services - even the ones they just started giving her last year! Here are a few of the things I found were in that paperwork and were to have been suggested at the meeting - since they included recommendations in the notes - written before hand since they knew what the recommendations would be even before the meeting (called predetermination).
They say she is organized - probably a lead in to not needing any more OT services! Just two weeks before she had received a progress report and in one class she had not turned in 8 assignments out of about 20! That does not signal organization to me! She had missed 4 assignments in another class and in another she was behind by only one assignment, but it was worth almost half of her grade so she was suddenly getting a "D" in that class too! She is in an English 9 class, but since it isn't called "language arts" her teachers determined that she did not need to work on the goal that was related to her language arts class! I think English 9 is a language arts class, and that isn't a big stretch.
For reading, the only goal is for increasing fluency. Okay, fluency is nice, it is important, but what good does it do to increase her reading fluency if she isn't understanding what she is reading? Her comprehension is at fifth grade level, but they want her to read faster at the ninth grade level, even her Language Arts (oops, English) teacher said that increasing fluency will come from reading things that are below her actual reading level so the whole thing seems to make no sense.
One goal was written that she will "complete ---- at 80% 4 out of 5 times". So 4 out of 5 times is already 80% and then 80% of 80% is actually 64%, is "D" level work an appropriate goal? I don't think so. My daughter may do her best and end up doing 64% but that should not be the GOAL!
Another suggested goal was for her to complete a resume that is 80% correct. Is a resume that 80% correct okay? I say keep having her do that task until it is 100% correct.
She has auditory processing disorder so she has been given a listening device that helps her to focus on what is said and screen out background noise. She has been forgetting to use it but they have objected to a goal for that. A simple "------ will wear her listening device 90% of the time" seems easy enough, but they don't want that. Okay, why?
Everyone admitted that my daughter sounds very young for her age yet the SLP denies hearing her speak in anything other than a perfectly appropriate voice. Funny how in a room full of people the only person who doesn't hear how young she sounds is the person who is supposed to help her with her speech. And really, try getting anyone to take you seriously when you sound like you are in early elementary school.
Goals were written with a baseline that says "student had difficulty with --------- in her triannual evaluation". So even if she regresses by next year we won't know that because we don't know what she can do now.
These are the kinds of things that we need to go over privately, away from the IEP team, when we can think. The goals drive the services so goals need to be good. We should to be able to recognize the kid they are talking about in their evaluations and in the notes. If they say our kid can cut normally we should ask them to cut in front of us so we can see if they really can cut. We can't test everything, but there are many things we can test. I know my daughter behaves better away from home than at home - I probably did too, but she should not be unrecognizable.
"Nice" is just a way to act, and it probably fools a lot of us into believing that they really care, but the two are very different, and the best IEP teams are made up of people who will tell you the truth. Talking about your child's strengths is "nice" but talking about their weaknesses and and how to help your child overcome them is what makes an IEP meeting helpful.
Before I go any further. My oldest daughter is one of the hardest working kids you will ever find. Fortunately she doesn't have the aggressive tendencies of FASD that her brother who we also adopted has. She doesn't do all of her work but she does a lot, she often times forgets to turn in completed or near completed work though. She has a good strong work ethic and she has come so far, I am really proud of her. At the same time I am not the type of parent that thinks my kid can't do anything wrong. I know she needs extra help and I know that I have to keep on top of her or she will miss turning in (or maybe even doing) assignments, and she has never studied for a test without my bugging her to do it. She thinks she is smarter than she is - she thinks she is smarter than her dad and me (what 15 year old doesn't) and because of that she doesn't think she needs to study for tests. She can be a really pain around the house, but she behaves very well at school and at others' homes, typical for 15 years old I think. She is more like her non-disabled peers than she is different, I take heart in that fact!
She has good grades, a "B" average, with one "D" due to her general ed teacher not being informed of the accommodations he was to have been giving, so the first half of the semester really brought her grade down. Once she got the accommodations and I was on her to make sure she got every piece of work done and studied for all of her tests she squeaked through. But, my concern is, is she going to get those accommodations at a University? And, even though I would be paying for it, is anyone going to send me e-mails telling me that she is falling behind so I can light a fire under her? I don't think so.
Fortunately, the meeting had to be continued because others had to leave and I had to go pick up a child from another school. This was the best thing that could have happened! I took home all of the paperwork that I hadn't received ahead of time, I read over all the comments in the notes section of the IEP, "superb" (really?), I hadn't heard that comment but it sure did make the my daughter look good didn't it? And I got to think, something there is too little time to do in a meeting with many people talking at the same time. I find I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out who is trustworthy (sort of) in the meeting and who I need to be very leery of this time around. That is why I never sign an IEP at the meeting unless they offer to give every service I went in to ask for and even then, I usually want to read the fine print, and then I still often times look back the next year and wish I had objected to something I didn't object to!
Well, after checking my feelings about the meeting, looking over the paperwork, and spending a bit of time realizing that there was a reason for all of the insanity, I got to work. First, the reason for trying to make it seem like my daughter is the first kid in the special ed system at her school that should go to a University and major in a creative major is that they have everything to gain from making it seem she is super-girl! It will cost them a lot less in services and special classes if they can make her seem like the "Incredible Super Smarter Kid". So then I was able to get to the details. They weren't actually suggesting that she leave special ed, of course not, they get Federal funds if they can keep her in Special Ed and yet give her nothing over and above the regular special ed classes. So they want to keep her just disabled enough to need a few special ed classes but not disabled enough that she needs any services - even the ones they just started giving her last year! Here are a few of the things I found were in that paperwork and were to have been suggested at the meeting - since they included recommendations in the notes - written before hand since they knew what the recommendations would be even before the meeting (called predetermination).
They say she is organized - probably a lead in to not needing any more OT services! Just two weeks before she had received a progress report and in one class she had not turned in 8 assignments out of about 20! That does not signal organization to me! She had missed 4 assignments in another class and in another she was behind by only one assignment, but it was worth almost half of her grade so she was suddenly getting a "D" in that class too! She is in an English 9 class, but since it isn't called "language arts" her teachers determined that she did not need to work on the goal that was related to her language arts class! I think English 9 is a language arts class, and that isn't a big stretch.
For reading, the only goal is for increasing fluency. Okay, fluency is nice, it is important, but what good does it do to increase her reading fluency if she isn't understanding what she is reading? Her comprehension is at fifth grade level, but they want her to read faster at the ninth grade level, even her Language Arts (oops, English) teacher said that increasing fluency will come from reading things that are below her actual reading level so the whole thing seems to make no sense.
One goal was written that she will "complete ---- at 80% 4 out of 5 times". So 4 out of 5 times is already 80% and then 80% of 80% is actually 64%, is "D" level work an appropriate goal? I don't think so. My daughter may do her best and end up doing 64% but that should not be the GOAL!
Another suggested goal was for her to complete a resume that is 80% correct. Is a resume that 80% correct okay? I say keep having her do that task until it is 100% correct.
She has auditory processing disorder so she has been given a listening device that helps her to focus on what is said and screen out background noise. She has been forgetting to use it but they have objected to a goal for that. A simple "------ will wear her listening device 90% of the time" seems easy enough, but they don't want that. Okay, why?
Everyone admitted that my daughter sounds very young for her age yet the SLP denies hearing her speak in anything other than a perfectly appropriate voice. Funny how in a room full of people the only person who doesn't hear how young she sounds is the person who is supposed to help her with her speech. And really, try getting anyone to take you seriously when you sound like you are in early elementary school.
Goals were written with a baseline that says "student had difficulty with --------- in her triannual evaluation". So even if she regresses by next year we won't know that because we don't know what she can do now.
These are the kinds of things that we need to go over privately, away from the IEP team, when we can think. The goals drive the services so goals need to be good. We should to be able to recognize the kid they are talking about in their evaluations and in the notes. If they say our kid can cut normally we should ask them to cut in front of us so we can see if they really can cut. We can't test everything, but there are many things we can test. I know my daughter behaves better away from home than at home - I probably did too, but she should not be unrecognizable.
"Nice" is just a way to act, and it probably fools a lot of us into believing that they really care, but the two are very different, and the best IEP teams are made up of people who will tell you the truth. Talking about your child's strengths is "nice" but talking about their weaknesses and and how to help your child overcome them is what makes an IEP meeting helpful.
As the proverb says, "A flattering tongue works ruin."
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