You’ll have to forgive me for obsessing over the IEP situation. This is only our second IEP so I still don’t know what normal is but our advocate assures us that this is a very surreal situation and she’s written hundreds so I believe her, lol.
When we wrote our first IEP the team chair tried to shoehorn us into a substantially separate classroom. We toured several and we could not picture Monkey in any one of them. His level of functioning was far above the kids in the rooms we were shown. We worked very hard to convince the chair that Monkey could succeed in an integrated classroom and we were successful. His EI team were very strong advocates and were convinced he would be successful. We recognized that it was not going to be easy. The team worked very hard to write an IEP that provided the support he would need to meet the goals we had set for him. The goals were challenging.
Monkey was not given the supports that he was supposed to receive and yet he met all of his goals for last year. Isn’t that amazing? It amazes me! To think that he had no sensory support for the entire year, was placed in a very busy, fully integrated classroom and he STILL met all of his goals.
So, given that they fully admit he was not given the supports he was entitled to, that they admit that he could benefit from additional supports, that they acknowledge that he met all of the goals that were set for him, that he is in the least restrictive environment…tell me how do you say the best option is to change his classroom to a more restrictive one?
Are we nuts to think that they should provide the supports he was entitled to under his IEP, that they should provide the supports that they believe would further improve his skill acquistion and that they should do this in the classroom that he is familiar with and has already proven successful in? Are we?
Here’s another one for you, are they nuts to tell us that changing the classroom to more restrictive for a year and then (possibly) changing it BACK to the classroom he’s in right now is really the best option given the fact that they are concerned that changing schools (our idea) would cause regression? Why should we work to keep him in a school that is less than ideal if we’re changing everything else (schedule, peers, staff) about his day?
ARRGH!
You are not crazy. You know your son better than anyone else. I feel for you. I want to drive up there and kick some IEP butt. I’m glad you have an advocate on your side.
Erika is right. You are far from crazy. Stay strong. You know what your baby needs. Go with your gut!
What I don’t understand is what exactly is their reasoning for a more restrictive classroom???
The company line is that “Yes, he made great progress, just think how much more progress he could make somewhere else!”
Our point is “Yes, he made great progress, just think how much more progress he could make if you provided appropriate sensory supports!”
They’re totally overlooking the FX. They’re trying to use the solution they would suggest for any other child and it just does not fit. Until they acknowledge the role hyper-arousal is playing here we’re stuck in the mud.
The hyper-arousal isn’t caused by anything in his current classroom. It’s biological. It will be there in ANY classroom so putting him in a sub separate class is not going to resolve it. I dunno, it seems so simple to me. I don’t see why they can’t wrap their heads around it.