The Monster’s IEP meeting is on Tuesday. Yesterday’s meeting with his advocate was very effective – it’s always nice having someone who isn’t directly involved like we are to have a second-set of eyes on the paperwork, more so to look at things that really are quite out of whack.
The problem comes with the sheer quantity of things that have to be provided.
Maryland’s interesting with regards to the IEP process, since they require (by law, since 2010) that the school provide us with copies of every single document/assessment to be discussed at said IEP meeting at least five (5) business days in advance of said meeting. (The law does not require that it be physically mailed – it simply specifies that they must get ‘an accessible version’ to us.) For some strange reason, we thought it meant five real days – it’s been ages since we read the parents’ rights pamphlet we were given several times at the beginning – which would have been Thursday.
Five business days, therefore, was Tuesday. I suppose one could argue Wednesday if one counted next Tuesday as one of the days… but that’s all really subjective.
We received the draft IEP on Wednesday morning. I received the SLP’s assessment this morning at 3 AM by email. There’s been no sign of the OT’s report.
Basically, from where I stand, this means (to me) that only the draft IEP is able to be discussed during the meeting. None of the other reports from their end are admissible. Our separate outside SLP evaluation, which they will remind us is not binding on them, was supplied to them well before the deadline, and therefore can be discussed as well.
I’m finishing up drafting an email to the coordinator to inform her of my stance (as gently as I can). I’m going to be interested to see what they say.
I think it’s going to be an interesting and contentious meeting…