Today was the first day of school since Spring Break.  The Monster got onto his bus without any fuss this morning, and we’re grateful for that.  (We’ll see how grateful his teachers are.)

Today’s also the day that his regular IEP chair, Ms. R, returned, and so bright and early, I fired off a request to her for a team meeting to discuss the massively screwed-up Individualized Education Plan (MSIEP).

So what’s the difference?

Ms. R actually listens to us.  As soon as I reached out, she said she’d be happy to schedule the IEP Team Meeting at a time and date that are convenient for us, she’d send the note home ASAP, and did we want her to invite someone from Early Learning?

It’s night and day, really, from what we were going through while she was on her leave.

The only things that we really ran into, buzzsaw-wise, were that the person that my wife was recommended to involve is not going to attend (he deals with older kids, not kindergarteners) and that the IEP chair can’t invite folks from the implementing school (different school than this year).  Both of those are something we can deal with in the short and long terms, and the more important thing is the content.  We need to fix the issue about the Extended School Year services and do it pronto, so that we can get them ordered for him while he’s at camp.

There’s also the matter of making sure that the services for next year are appropriate – we’re concerned about the issue of throwing him into a less restrictive environment and aren’t quite sure that the verbiage regarding the placement intent is right, that he has the supports he needs at the new school, things like that.  We’re really not confident that such is how it was left.

But beyond that, it’s just a relief to have this return to a less contentious version of the process that we were going through.