Fight the Power!

I was going to write something more uplifting today, but…

Well, between the comments here and on our local Autism Parents group on Facebook, there was the question of what can be done to “Fight the Man”, as it were.  So, in the interest of offering up some tips that we either already knew or learned in the most recent process: Continue reading

Reflections On The Process

And even with the outcome of the Monster’s IEP process for SY 2015-2016, I’m still very upset.

Look, the fact that it took this much fighting to get to this point, when there is so much evidence of the fact that he’s needed more help all along, tells me that the system is absolutely, positively broken.  The law requires that students with disabilities get a “Free and Appropriate Public Education” (FAPE), and according to national standards, Maryland is “meeting requirements”.  But there’s something that’s missed in the midst of all of this – the Monster is only getting the help he needs because my wife and I dug our heels in and fought. Continue reading

This Year’s Finish Line

IEPAnd now, the explanation for why I’ve been so quiet.

Two months ago, I last posted about the IEP process (see IEP Year Four) and where it had gotten to… and then I promptly got very, very quiet about the process.  Yes, other things happened in the meantime – my wife and I went on vacation, and then I went off to curling trials, but my posting hadn’t come back up to normal frequency.

That’s because things went absolutely sideways after our last IEP meeting. Continue reading

Yes, But Where Has All The Posting Gone?

Just thought I’d pop my head up here for a moment.

Many of you are probably wondering why I’ve suddenly gone so very, very dark in my posting – not that I was posting a lot of late before the last few weeks.

We’re in the midst of trying to get the Monster’s IEP straightened out before the new school year begins in about five weeks.  (Yes, you read that right.  We’re still in the middle of the IEP process, with school starting on August 31st.  The Monster’s last IEP expired in March.)  Couple that with a ton of work-based stuff for me, and it’s just been a little hectic for me to think about how to best censor myself so I’m not saying things I shouldn’t as we’re preparing for the IEP meetings.

promise I’ll have something meaningful/deep to write later this week, after the Monster’s latest IEP meeting on Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, to all my fellow special-needs parents out there – keep fighting the good fight.

IEP Year Four

Today was the second meeting for next year’s IEP.

As any special-needs parent can tell you, any IEP meeting tends to be stressful – the goal of an IEP is to ensure that your child has the necessary supports to learn, and the supports and therapies that go into the document govern where your child is going to go to school in the coming year.

And the one thing that was apparent, coming into this year’s IEP review, is that Mount Washington is not the right placement for the Monster. Continue reading

How Was Your Day?

IEPThis is based on a conversation I was having on Twitter last night with another parent of a child with Autism.

The Monster’s only partially verbal – he can communicate his basic needs (“Eat!”, “Drink!”, “Go to sleep!”) but he’s not very good at a narrative of what’s going on in his life.  In some ways, I’d joke it’s like living with a teenager a couple of years early (“How was your day?” “Fine.” “What did you learn at school today?” “Nothing.”), but without the ability to really get useful information from follow-up questions.

One of the most useful things that we had added to the Monster’s IEP is a communication requirement. Continue reading

To the Rest of My Child’s IEP Team

IEPIt’s the end of another school year, and here we are, going over the Monster’s IEP yet again, evaluating which goals he succeeded at meeting, which ones he made progress on, and which ones are abject failures.

I know it’s really hard to squeeze out time to make these meetings work.  He’s one child out of twenty-five in his general education class, and heaven knows how many other schools his specialists get to during the day.  His IEP chairperson’s time is split between two different schools, and the meeting protocols require having an administrator and school psychologist present as well.  Further, someone from the central office has to come as an education/placement consultant, and since we’re discussing changing placement next year, there’s also the problem of having someone from that program at the meeting…

And being part of an IEP team can be a very thankless job. Continue reading

To Be Implemented on Mars

IEPSomewhere along the way, I heard someone tell me that an IEP (an “individualized education plan” for anyone new to special-needs speak) should be written so that it could be “implemented by Martians” – that someone who had not ever met the child in question could pick up the document, read through it and, assuming they can read English, implement the goals and required supports.

The Monster has had an IEP for three school years now, and the current IEP expired about a week or so ago.  So it’s time, as you can imagine, for us to review and update the IEP for the 2015-2016 school year.

Yeah…

Continue reading

Once More With Feeling

Yet another IEP meeting today.

This was the circle-back after we’d requested the evaluation to see if the Monster was eligible for a one-on-one aide, what Baltimore City calls a TAS – temporary adult support (with emphasis on ‘temporary’).  Basically, this meeting started off with a person-by-person recitation of how the Monster has to be constantly redirected in class, to the point that they’re not sure that he’s learning anything at the moment. Continue reading

Math Matters

This evening, part of my task was to get the Monster’s homework done.

I don’t know how much the Monster really gets the basic concepts of math in the abstract.  He does, certainly, recognize numbers and can read out a ‘math sentence’ (what most of us recognize as an equation) to the point where he’s required to fill in the answer.  But he’s not making the mental jump to do the problems in his head. Continue reading