IEP not taken seriously

[Kmoon]

Hello!

It’s been a month already since my 9 year old child has started school. My child has a learning disability, AdHd, and Autism. He is in a general ed classroom and receives speech and spends 30 minutes every morning in the Resource room. He has had a hard time with his homework. His teacher gives him about 2 english pages and 2 pages of math homework. In addition to that,  he has to read about 20 minutes daily and answer reading prompts. That’s just too much for my child. It’s a daily struggle to tackle the homework. We’re up to the point where my child has begun pulling his hair. By the way I just learned that if any child in the classroom doesn’t do their homework then the children loose their recess time.

Today I raised my concern to his 3rd grade teacher and asked him if he has read my child’s IEP. He blatantly told me, “I never read any IEPs. I first get the feel of the student and see if he has anything.” I was flabbergasted by his response. I immediately informed him about my son’s learning disability. He then had the audacity to tell me that maybe I should speak to the special ed teacher, so I can have my child move into his class. I was so distraught to hear that my child’s teacher doesn’t care about my child’s needs.

Please help me! What can I do on this situation. I know for a fact that I need to speak to the IEP coordinator at my child’s school.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Lisa Lightner]

Yikes! I would def follow up with an email, so that you can capture the incident in writing.

 

There are tips in here: https://adayinourshoes.com/school-not-following-iep/

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Yikes, is right!  Yes, if you had this conversation with the general education teacher verbally, you need to follow it up with an email stating "just to confirm our conversation on such-and-such date, in response to my inquiry regarding my son's IEP, you stated....  If you feel this is incorrect in any way, please respond to this email."  Include EVERYTHING he said - he doesn't read IEP's, you should maybe speak to the special education teacher about moving him to the spec ed room, etc.  Unfortunately, this could put you in a very awkward position with your child's classroom teacher, but it's probably necessary.  You might want to reach out to the principal about changing classrooms.  This sounds like the kind of teacher who is set is his ways and may not ever abide by the IEP document, and may dig in his heels even more when you start insisting that it be followed.

I agree that you should reach out to the IEP coordinator for the school (I would inform him/her of your conversation with the classroom teacher immediately and regardless of whether or not you receive a response to your email.)  Then I wouldn't let much time pass before you then follow up with an email to the school district's director of special education.  This was a very egregious statement made by the teacher and an immediate response and escalation is warranted.

I would suggest comparing the accommodations on your son's IEP with those listed on Lisa's website for learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism and make sure you have everything that applies to your son.  If not, reach out to the IEP team and request a meeting to get those added (they also could add them without having a meeting, but given the general education teacher's attitude toward IEP's, a meeting is probably a good idea for this reason, as well).

Specifically and from reading your post, I would suggest an accommodation for homework - "student should not spend more than 1 and1/2 times on homework than his peers" is a very common accommodation for all three of these disabilities.  With regard to math in particular, a modification of the homework can be written into the IEP that he only has to do even problems, as long as mastery of the topic is shown.  Is the reading he is required to do on the grade level that he is currently able to read?  He should not be asked to read a passage above his ability, unless he is given the accommodation of text-to-speech.  Also, I would want it added into his accommodation that recess cannot be taken away from him if he does spend the requisite amount of time on homework and still does not complete it - a student cannot be punished for something that is a result of a disability!  This should be brought up in the meeting, as well.

Just curious...  If you son has a learning disability, why is he not receiving services for this?  Do his scores show he needs these services in either math or reading; i.e., how far behind is he?

[JSD24]

This happens way too often.  You have 2 options with a teacher not following the IEP.  1st is to go up the chain of command - case manager & principal are the people to contact.  Having documentation of what the teacher said would probably be a good idea otherwise it's a he said/she said situation.  (There's a post with suggested wording ^.)  The other thing to do is file a state complaint.  I was told by my Pupil Services Director that there is no excuse for not following the IEP.  Too many teachers have the same attitude as this teacher & I'm not sure why.  I can see a teacher backing off on an accommodation when they feel it's not needed anymore but they shouldn't be ignoring it.

There are students with medical accommodations embedded into the IEP & this teacher is putting those students lives at risk should they end up in their class.