Annual Meeting, Facilitaion, ETR - So Confused!

[Laura]

My son's annual meeting is coming up and it will be facilitated. I'm totally confused about some things that are going on...

We had a meeting prior to Christmas and the school team agreed to evaluate my son for OT services. We are concerned because my son seems to get overwhelmed at school and is frequenlty putting his head down. He doesn't participate and/or complete work in several classes. I received a draft IEP and it contains a summary of what was done by the OT. She interviewed my son's case manager, reviewed information from an IEE, and gave my son an Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile. As I understand it, the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile is a self questionairre about responses to certain sensory events. I don't think any classroom observations were done. Although I was provided a draft IEP with a summary, I have not seen an ETR regarding the OT evaluation.

• Was my son truly evaluated for OT services? Should I recieve an ETR? 

We will have my son's outside providers at this meeting, specifically his psychologist and his private SLP. We are paying out of pocket for these individuals to come to this meeting. One of my son's case managers will not be attending the meeting. I feel like she's a key person that should be at the meeting and that she would benefit from the input from our outside providers. I'm totally confused as to why the school would agree to schedule a facilitated meeting knowing key personnel will not be present.

• What would the facilitator think of this? Or, does it matter if key personnel are not present? Please help me make sense of this.

Also, the school had me fill out an online form in preparation for this meeting. There was a section on strengths, and I listed many of his strengths and interests. None of them are included in the profile on the draft IEP. The school team did include some other statements related to transition planning in the IEP. But, my son's strengths are not listed. There are about 6 things listed in his strengths. We're going to bring this up at the meeting. I'm just really confused (and really kind of sad) as to why they wouldn't include this information, especially since they asked for it. Ultimately, I feel like no one on his school team really cares about getting to know him.

 

[Laura]

Another strange thing on my son's draft is the last ETR date. He received his first IEP last year and we received an ETR around that time. Pretty quickly we knew something wasn't right and an IEE was done. Based on the IEE report, his category was changed to Autism and we received an ETR. This was back in June. On the draft IEP, the original ETR date is shown. It may be just a sloppy error and they may have forgotten to change the ETR date on the IEP.  But, it's making me question whether they actually changed his category. For most of this school year, I have felt that the school team doesn't really see my son's behavior as autistic behavior. I'm wondering if part of that is due to the ETR not being shared or something.

I guess I'm just confused on all of this.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Laura
forgot to add something

[Jenna]

I would first ask for a copy of the current ETR so you could thoroughly review it for accuracy. ETRs are required every three years. A new ETR does not have to be written each time a new evaluation is performed. However, the evaluations must be done by qualified individuals following their profession's standards, and, evaluations also must be performed with fidelity to the test maker's instructions.

Ask that the facilitated meeting time be moved to a time in which the appropriate school staff (such as the case manager) could attend. I'd talk with your private providers and see if you can find 3 times that would work for them to attend an IEP meeting, and let the district and the facilitator know those dates/times, and ask if those dates would work for them. To help control your costs in cases of long IEP meetings covering several different areas that may not be relevant to your private providers, it's OK for them to attend only part of the meeting. Holding meetings via Zoom is also more economical than paying travel expenses. 

Bring up your concern that the team didn't list his strengths. There's usually a checkbox on the IEP for the team to mark that they've considered the strengths of the child. Don't let them check that box until they have. You can ask that your parent letter of concern be included, in its entirety, in the parent input section. 

[Laura]

Also, is it typical for the facilitator to request a teleconference with us before the facilitated meeting?

 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

I am a facilitator for the state of Missouri, and we are trained and told to reach out to both the school district and the parents via phone before the IEP meeting to gather facts and points of concerns and disagreements.  We also ask for copies of the current IEP, evaluation, and draft IEP.

As far as what a facilitator would think about one of the case managers not being there, neutral facilitators are usually not allowed to point out anything that a school district is doing "wrong."  But if you bring this up with the facilitator in your teleconference, it would give him/her an opening to broach the matter with the school district in terms of it being a parent concern.

[Laura]

Thank you so much!

Our meeting is this coming week. I think it will all go fine but I'm really nervous about it.  I feel like it's an opportunity to resolve a lot of issues and I don't want to miss anything. The school team was really resistant to most of my concerns until after I met with the superintendent and then a BOE member right before Christmas. They have become a lot more collaborative, especially after my meeting with the BOE member.  But, there is a lot of distrust on my end. It sounds like this process may be really helpful.