X's IEP: My Work Is Done

Today I knew the IEP meeting was at 11 am. I was dressed in my professional best (shoes, even). I introduced myself, including my credentials. I had my graphs, a list of the information the school was suppose to bring to the meeting, and the relevant law dog eared in my WrightsLaw book.


X has appropriate reading goals, research-based reading interventions, and Extended School Year written into his IEP. They will be evaluating X's word retrieval speed and doing an FBA.


Last night, my son smacked X and gave GB the middle finger. I read the riot act to my son. I told him he would only have supervised  visitation with GB. I also told him if CPS took X away, I would be going to court to take X back to New York. I know I don't need one more kid, but J has had a vasectomy and there will be no more children from him.


I get to leave tomorrow and drive the 17 hours back to New York.

X's IEP- The Interim

At X's IEP Monday, one thing we accomplished was the initiation of a communication log. Tuesday, X came home with his communication log. It said, " Behavior was out of control today". No details. Hard to deal with.

X is busy writing a letter of apology and I am working on justifying an Individual Behavior Assessment.

Hope's CSE: Surrealistic

Hope CSE followed directly after GB's. Ms. VY Teacher started by saying, "She is SNEAKY! We now see every behavior her parents have  told us about. The World's Longest Honeymoon is over".


I don't really remember much else, but I would like to share a few of this years IEP goals with you:

Hope will reduce in class avoidance behaviors, such as unnecessary pencil sharpening, daydreaming, doodling, walking around, from 15 to 5 times a day.

Hope will reduce lying behaviors from 6 to 1 times per day.

Hope will reduce stealing behaviors from 5 to 1 times a day.

I have never seen IEP goals like these before. Academically, she is still reading on a kindergarten level. Her math skill are slightly higher.

In thirty years of fostering and adopting ED teenagers, I have never seen an IEP that resembles this one.

At the end of the meeting, Mrs. Director of Special Education suggested that we meet again in September to update  "Miss Sticky Fingers IEP". Her words, not mine.

Therapy Update

On Tuesday, I spent 25 minutes talking with the girls therapist without either of them present. The therapist was pleased with how well grounded in reality GB is at this time. The therapist prescribed TLC when GB starts to get overwhelmed and suggested I never leave GB alone with Hope (Duh).


Hope is struggling and while the therapist was pleased Hope and I will get bonding time this weekend, she is more interested in how Hope reacts when it is just me and nobody to triangulate. We see the psychiatrist Monday and the therapist and I are both confident that the Abilify, while helping, does not keep Hope stable enough that we can work on her issues.


Besides the door alarm, we now have a lock box for all medication.

The girls both have CSE meetings on Monday afternoon. GB's should be quick and easy. Hope's will probably not come up with an appropriate IEP and will have to be tabled. Reading up on Wrightlaw's Smart IEP goals.

Huh?

Hope's Annual Review is Monday, January 9th. This is the meeting that writes her IEP and determines her placement for September, 2012. Hope has been struggling so much the last month, I can't even begin to wrap my mind around what she will need next week, much less eight months from now.

The CSE and Our Bottom Line

Today the girls quarterly Program Review CSE meeting finally took place. We made my before Thanksgiving deadline. Hope was my primary concern this time. My will-not-accept-no-as-an-answer position on Hope was she needed to receive more speech. They gave us more speech.


GB's meeting was a pleasure. They were able to explain to me all of the details for her current reading program and which person is accountable for each piece of it. The reading specialist, who is the new member of the team, said she thought that GB would mainstream into third grade beautifully. I didn't have to say anything as the rest of GB's team told the reading specialist that GB couldn't function in a classroom with that many  people. Everybody  commented on the big difference they have seen in GB the last 4 weeks. I took notes, and nodded at each person. Mr. Teacher told the rest of the committee about the medication change and his opinion that getting GB off Invega and Risperdal had a lot to do with it. Her current IEP did not have her social goals well spelled out. The committee took the time to spell them out and assign responsibility for overseeing them. We will meet again the end of January.


Hope's meeting was not a pleasure. While Ms Very Young Teacher was reporting on the difficulties Hope has been having, the speech teacher interrupted several times to say that Hope's emotional and behavioral difficulties were responsible for Hope's difficulties making herself understood. The speech teacher also asked about mainstreaming as Hope had been mainstreamed last year. Ms. VY Teacher said Hope was starting to be comfortable enough in her class that her problems were easily apparent and she would not recommend mainstreaming until Hope developed more appropriate coping mechanisms. The therapist strongly supported her position. We spoke about the ongoing battle over home work. It was decided that we would set a timer and tell Hope she had 30 minutes to complete her homework. When the timer goes off, homework will go into her book bag. Anything not complete or incorrect will be completed at school the morning during the class' free time. The therapist also suggested using the timer at dinner. Set it for thirty minutes and when the timer goes off, her dinner is over and the plate removed. I agreed to try it. The speech teacher reported that Hope was not progressing as fast as she should because she was a "slow starter" and for the first 10-12 minutes of every session it was as if Hope had never had speech before. Since the sessions are only 30 minutes long, that mean the first 1/3 of every session is nonproductive by the speech teacher's own report. The speech teacher did not see the need to increase Hope's speech sessions because she only tests with a moderate articulation disorder. The rest of the committee used her words (and my analysis) to justify increasing her speech. If I still do not see progress by the next meeting, I am going to request that either Hope be moved to GB's speech therapist, or an outside, independent evaluation be done. Hopefully, speech 3 x a week will be enough to make some progress. I let the CSE know that Hope is being weaned off the Risperdal, with no replacement med in sight, so I expect things to get more difficult.

We are now free to enjoy the holidays. Our next scheduled battle meeting for both girls is the end of January, 2012.

Circular Reasoning

I had a meeting with the Director of Special Education today. GB was suppose to receive reading instruction in a small group of three students, every day, taught by a special education teacher who is also certified in reading. Since there was only three students, the Director did not feel an aide was necessary. However, the three student reading group only happened twice a week. The rest of the week, GB was doing vocabulary, spelling and writing in a third grade class with no support. We did not know it, GB's special ed teacher did not know it, and the Director of Special education said she did not know it  Why? Because nobody at the school was in charge of monitoring GB's reading program and there was no aide to report back to the teacher.. For the next four weeks, the Director of Special Education will be monitoring GB's reading program. At that point, I have a CSE meeting set up to rip her IEP to shreds and redo it, line by line. And round and round we go.

Hope's CSE

We had a CSE for Hope this morning. It was the first one for Hope without Mrs. V.S. Chairperson. Everybody was prepared with the materials needed. The speech therapist went over the speech eval done on Hope over the summer. She provided detailed information and well formulated goals for Hope's IEP. Hope teacher discussed where Hope was in the process of learning to read and said right now, Hope requires her one on one involvement to read. Nobody at the meeting seemed aware of district standards to be promoted to first grade. Mrs. Director will find out before we meet again.

I have 6 week programs reviews scheduled for both girls, back to back. I can't believe how smoothly this year is progressing. Not at all the black sinkhole of energy it was last year. Thank you, God! I really appreciate it!

Forced Patience

I received a call from the Director of Special Education late yesterday afternoon. Due to more flooding, schools will closed today and tomorrow. GB's CSE meeting is 9 AM Monday. So I will take my patience panties out and wait. On the brighter side, I now have four extra days to come up with my list of things I want for GB.

My mother always said patience was something you develop. The older I get, the less I seem to have. Oh well.

First Day of School

Hope and GB were up early for the bus this morning, both excited school was starting. Hope was a little grumpy, as she took a long time to fall asleep last night. We had no meltdowns, which is a good start to the year. I spent two hours at the school, as GB still does not have a placement. For now, I am keeping her in last years class. The Director of Special Ed thinks that both I and the teacher will forget about the debacle at the end of the summer. She is mistaken. Irene may have sidetracked me, but the appropriate school placement is critical. And by the end of the week, I will have one.

Taking Care of My Girls or Fighting With the District

I met with the Director of Special Education this afternoon. I brought these notes with me.

Transportation
    
     Problem

    current aide is assigned one on one with another child
    both my children said she touched my eight year old autistic daughter
    aide got off the bus and went 50+ feet up my driveway to tell me she didn’t touch  no kid
    my daughter is afraid to ride the bus with this aide.

     Attempted remedies

    Contacted bus company who said my kid was a “fibber”
    Contacted school principal
    Contacted Director of Special Education
    Contacted Ass. Superintendent: after being given two weeks to deal with  difficulty, said he was unable to help and I should “do what I have to do”

     Immediate acceptable remedies

    Aide replaced on bus
    children moved to different route

     Systemic Remedy

    Every adult who comes in contact with my child, including bus drivers and aides, needs to be provided  with training, by professional trainers, on Fetal  Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

 

CSE Chairperson, Mrs. Very Stupid Chairperson

       Problem

    Does not follow NYS Regulations
    Presents inaccurate information as fact
    Presents her opinion as fact (ex, my daughter is not developmentally disabled, Bipolar is the diagnosis of the decade)
    Decisions are determined before CSE meeting
    Has a multiple year history of trying to deny my child her FAPE


      Attempted remedies

     Have tried working with the Director of Special Education  to work around Mrs. V. S. Chairperson. Takes many weeks and concerted effort to get my  concerns even addressed. In the mean time, my children are denied necessary services

     Immediate Acceptable Remedies

    Director of Special Education to act as Chairperson for both of my children, effective immediately.

   Systemic Remedy

   Mrs. V.S. Chairperson needs to either be trained on the regulations governing a CSE and how to run a CSE meeting or she needs to be replaced as Chairperson of CSE.


The meeting lasted 15 minutes. The Director of Special Ed agreed to chair my girls meetings. She also agreed to add individual speech to the 2 groups Hope gets weekly. She suggested that  she ride with my girls and try to solve the problem. If that doesn't work, she suggested adding an aide just for my girls to make sure there were no further problems. I didn't even have to hire a lawyer.

Persistance Pays Off!

Today was my grandson's, X, CSE. After two years and a half dozen meetings, it finally happened. X was deemed eligible for special education services. We had visited this before, but my son kept leaving the meetings with nothing and refused to teleconference me in. In dealing with adult special needs children, a lot of the same methods work. You need to know what you want, articulate it clearly, be persistent, and not take your eye off your ultimate goal. You also need to recognize when you have leverage and be willing to use it.

Shortly after Christmas, my son started talking about us visiting Michigan for Easter. I told him it was possible, but I needed to see my grandson classified for special ed and I needed to monitor the process to satisfy myself that everything was in order. Every time he asked, that was the response he got. When his wife asked about Easter, that was the response she got. Two weeks ago X's CSE was scheduled for today. Last weekend, I received a copy of the evaluations to be used for this meeting. Last night, I received a copy of the proposed IEP. This morning, at 7 am, I was teleconferenced in.

I only stuck my two cents in twice. On the Connor Scale (a frequently used, norm-referenced, behavior  checklist), Aggression was very elevated. Yet on the IEP, where they list areas taken into consideration for this IEP, Behavioral Interventions wasn't checked. I asked for an explanation. They told me that X was not a behavior problem. I did not bother pointing out all the physical things he had done, such as kicking the teacher and pinching little girl's butts, but rather asked how he scored so high in aggression on the Connor's scale. They had no answer. I insisted that it be put in his IEP that any behavioral problems will automatically invoke a Behavior Assessment Plan.

The district ended up offering 8 30 minute periods of resource support a week to X. This isn't going to cut it,  but they have a benchmark in place for the end of the year. They say X will have mastered 60 of the 110 sight words required by the end of first grade. When that doesn't happen, the committee can be reconvened to examine why this benchmark wasn't met.

I told the kids to sign it. At least he is classified. We can get it on the right services later.

So I will be in Michigan for Easter!

GB's Annual Review 2011

Today was GB's Annual Review. I brought my big girl's panties with me and a determination to keep the meeting civil, regardless of what Mrs. Very Stupid Chairperson did.

Usually, in CSE meetings in our district, parents start out by saying what they want. I was very non-committal and said I wanted to hear everybody else first. Mr. Teacher went first and said his class was a very good fit for GB's needs. He also said that besides recommending that she stay in his class, he would like to have her for the six week summer program. We agreed that as long as he was teaching it, so that she wouldn't have to adjust to a new teacher for six weeks, we would agree to it.

Mrs. Speech Therapist was next. She recommended adding  an additional speech therapy to work on scripts to help GB organize her thoughts when trying to communicate specific ideas. She also recommended making the social groups part of GB's IEP. Way to go, Mrs. Speech Therapist!

Mrs. OT (Occupational Therapist) went next. She had a two page report that documented how GB's disabilities affect her learning in a class room environment. She also documented delays greater than 1 SD in fine motor skills, manual dexterity, and motor planning. She added an additional OT session to GB's IEP. Mrs. OT rocks.

Mrs. SW (Social Worker) went next. She said GB was starting to open up and she would like to take advantage of this by adding a session. Thank you, Mrs. SW.

Great stuff and I hadn't even opened my mouth yet. Then came my turn. I want door to door busing. I refused to agree to anything else. The Dad played good cop to my bad cop. I had lots of support from everybody but Mrs. Very Stupid Chairperson. She said it was illegal and kept repeating herself over and over. I refused to sign off, the Dad encouraged her to contact the bus company. I think I will call a lawyer tomorrow and get educated about the special ed transportation law.

All in all, a good start.

Hope's Program Review and Annual Review

God IS good!  I have not been to a more productive CSE meeting in a very long time. We agreed on behavioral standards and enforcing consequences in the same manner.  My testing and Ms. VY Teacher's testing came up with essentially the same results. Ms VY Teacher agreed with what we wanted at every step. Hope will be going to summer school with district transportation, and the same social worker and teacher.

In September, Hope will again be in Kindergarten, in an 1:8:2 class, with only K and 1st grade children in it. Mrs. VY Teacher will be her teacher again. I think this is good, as we will not have to waste time with a honeymoon period again. We had the daily communication log written into the IEP, as well as quarterly Program Reviews.

Hope can now count up to five objects in a group independently. She still can't tell you there are two cookies on her plate unless she counts them, and if there are more then five objects in a group, she loses her one-to-on correspondence. She recognizes 20 upper case letters, 16 lower case letters, and knows the sound 5 letters make. Hope needs to copy or trace letters; she can't write them from memory, not even her name. She can not recognize the first sound in a word, unless the word is Hope. She does not hear rhyming sounds. But there is lots of time between now and September.

We really weren't interested in her academics this year, and maybe she will be ready in September to start the Kindergarten Curriculum.

V.S. Chairperson

Yesterday I received the following email in response to my request to have a program review for Hope.

Dear GB's Mom,

I am currently doing annual review meetings all day, every day. I can not do a program review.  It is  possible that Hope's annual review will be soon because I know that I have at least one day with  Ms. V.Y. Teacher coming up fairly soon.

Very Stupid Chairperson, PhD

I answered her email this morning and blind copied (thanks to The Dad, I know how to do this now) Mrs. Director of Special Education.


Dear  Very Stupid,

While it is obvious that deciding a kindergartner's placement for 8 months from now (note: we are still in the month of January) is an urgent matter, my concerns about my child's placement as of this moment are just going to have to be fit in. I know that you do not believe that Reactive Attachment Disorder exists, but that is currently irrelevant. An excellent psychiatrist, who works for the Country Renown Childrens Home, has completed a psychiatric examination on Hope and that is the diagnoses we were given. This psychiatrist says Hope is triangulating everyone she comes in contact with. You may not understand how triangulation works, but that is also OK. I am very willing to help the committee rewrite her IEP, so that it both meets legal requirements and Hope's needs. If this really can't be fit in your schedule now, I will be filing a claim of IEP insufficiency with NYSED  in the beginning of the week. The lawyer we used for GB is currently available to assure Hope gets a FAPE. I hope somebody has time to consider this matter over the weekend.

Sincerely,

GB's Mom,  Doctoral Candidate


Less than 15 minutes after I sent this email, I received a call from Mrs Director of Special Education. She asked specific questions about my concerns and requested I not do anything until she had a chance to investigate. She is suppose to call me back Tuesday.  I will wait and see.