ACline

So I submitted a letter asking to have my daughter evaluated for special education and related services, and got confirmation that they received my request. I got an email this morning from the school psychologist saying the first step is for her to have a phone call with me going over my concerns or what I might specifically be looking for before they do an evaluation. Is this normal? I'm kind of concerned because I don't do great with phone calls it's hard for me to keep track of exact questions asked and answered and make sure i know for sure how I word my responses. I'm in PA.

Okay so you think they want to bring a supervisor because the teacher probably doesn't have the authority to agree to any major changes that I'm saying need to happen? I could understand that. I was thinking they was Ted to bring the supervisors to tell me the legalese of why they aren't required to do what I'm asking or something along those lines! Yes, he IS in a self contained classroom, has been since kindergarten last year. It's pretty awful. They send him to specials and lunch and recess with Gen Ed and an advanced reader skills group with a few kids from his grade Gen Ed.. But he has never been allowed to go to any content time in Gen Ed. All they do in his classroom is show cards repetitively "what is it" "seagull". It's insulting. I understand autism comes in all forms but the other 4 kids in his room don't speak hardly at all and the one who does has a few words and a communication app on an iPad. They let him go to computer class with Gen Ed but then they give him an iPad and he does math games on it while the other kids learn to type etc. He knows how to use a damn computer. It kills me. His speech therapist said in the SAME draft iep that he no longer has any language or articulation needs and she wants to cut her hours to just a couple a month to check in. Sounds like a kid who is a good candidate for vb mapp all day right? Lol thanks for the response I feel a bit better.

Hi, so I have a 7 year old in 1st grade. His annual iep meeting was supposed to be on Thursday. They sent me a form for parent concerns, but it wasn't enough room so I took the questions and wrote my own letter answering all of their questions plus adding my own input. The morning of the meeting I sent an email to his teacher and asked if she could add my letter to the proposed iep and provide copies with my letter included to all team members to have at the meeting. About an hour later I got an email back that said in light of my letter they were canceling the meeting and would reschedule maybe sometime this week, and that she was going to need to have special education supervisors present for the meeting. I don't even know what to make of this. Do I need to be worried or something? Do I need to bring some kind of support or advocate or something? I didn't feel like I needed to, I felt informed enough that I was able to advocate sufficiently on my own but I don't know why she's saying she needs supervisors present now. Any opinions are welcome. We are in PA by the way. Here's my letter. I crossed out identifying info.

My son is in kindergarten in PA. It's only half day kindergarten. He's in full time autistic support class. I thought the iep meeting went surprisingly well and they put in his IEP all the things I was hoping that they would. In general, they've been very supportive of my concerns and his needs. When school started, I already had him working with an agency that provides tss 1:1. So as soon as school started the bht went to school with him, and also goes to daycare with him after school. I'm sure this was helpful to the school. Recently he had started going to general education class for part of the day with his 1:1 with him. Now, the 1:1 that is coming from the outside agency has a schedule change and isn't able to be there 3 days /week for am kindergarten times. His teacher emailed me last night because she doesn't have any other staff that would be able to take him to general education classes on those days and she wanted to know did I want her to try to send him without a 1:1? I asked my son and he was pretty clear he isn't going to that class alone. So I told her no. My question is... I do realize it's the school's responsibility to provide the 1:1 and that just because the outside agency isn't available doesn't excuse the school. I get that. But at what point should i make it an issue? Should I try to wait it out a little? It's sad that he can't go to general education those days now but I'd rather he not go than go and be terrified. How long should I wait to make it a big deal?