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). Continue reading
The assessment meeting finally took place this morning.
Now, setting aside that the rep from Early Learning included a FAPE meeting as part of the discussion on the “miss” of the 90 day rule, the meeting was essentially what we had expected – a discussion of the assessments that were ordered in December, coupled with placement discussions for next year and the decision on ESY services for this summer. Continue reading
“Together We Grow”, the program that the Monster is enrolled in at school, is a standard kindergarten for the purposes of the school system. They follow the regular curriculum, such as it is, and that includes homework.
Of course, the Monster had homework all last year, but this is different – it’s more in-depth now, longer, and tends to be something that entails more of a fight with him at certain points. Continue reading
As we’re preparing for next week’s assessment meeting, I’m still struck sometimes by the differences between the child we see at home and the one that his professionals see at the school.
Now, I think all kids are different in front of their parents as opposed to the school environment. I was probably more respectful of my teachers than I was of my parents growing up – there was, after all, a limit to what teachers were going to be willing to put up with as opposed to my parents who were kind of stuck with me. Likewise, I was certainly not as diligent about showing off what I knew at home versus at school, since I wasn’t being graded at home… Continue reading
On Thursday night, during the Autism Society of Baltimore/Chesapeake meeting, there was an interesting discussion about what a school is actually required to provide.
The conversation started with a parent discussing that her child – who is four – is showing an interest in writing, but the school system is asserting that they’re not required to provide OT to teach the child a proper tripod grip because that’s a “kindergarten” skill. The basic thrust, as the members of the panel asserted, is that the school is not required to pursue ‘advanced skills’, but to provide a ‘free and appropriate public education’ as they define it. Continue reading
As you can tell from my title, it was not a good meeting this morning.
So Baltimore City Public Schools were delayed by two hours this morning on account of the snow and ice left over from yesterday’s not-quite-a-storm. Expecting that this might wreak havoc with the meeting schedule – we had the IEP meeting at 9:30 today – I reached out to his teacher Ms. A, who in turn reached out to the interim IEP Chair to find out if we were actually going to meet today or if there’d be a rescheduling. Continue reading
Since the bus issue was resolved with the new route, we’ve really had few problems – the first day hiccups aside, and also disregarding bad weather, of course.
One of the things that happens when you go the route I go, though, is that you get a letter from the CEO of Schools afterwards. Continue reading
Today was the meeting with the IEP team to go over the triennial evaluations done on the Monster.
As I’d mentioned on Twitter, I was dreading today’s meeting. We’ve known about it for a month or so, and to be honest, we’re fairly sure also of where the evaluations are going to lead in terms of what the plans are for the future (or at least how it should guide his IEP goals for the next few years).
The problem is the evaluations themselves. Continue reading
Next week is a meeting with the IEP chair (or, rather, her surrogate, as she should be off on maternity leave) to discuss the Monster’s triennial assessments.
So far, we’ve only gotten the educational assessment, but I’m not terribly surprised. As long as I have time to read them before the meeting and formulate some responses, I’ll be satisfied. Continue reading
This has been a really bad winter, weather-wise.
Granted, we live far enough into the “South” that folks around here don’t seem to have a grasp on how to handle winter weather. Snow sends folks into a tizzy – even the threat of it is enough to send folks to loot the local supermarket. Continue reading