Tuesday, May 18th 2010
Well, today was PART 3 of Taylor’s IEP. Taylor’s Teacher of Record scheduled the meeting in the afternoon this time to allow all of the team members to be in attendance (i.e: all related services (Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, Nurse, Transition Specialist), Special Ed Teacher, Gen Ed Teacher, School District Representative) …however, that means that I only had an hour to be able to meet…since it was during my lunch hour. I left my last school and darted over to Taylor’s High School and ran in that meeting as fast as I could. I had an Advocate attend with me…so I had someone there who also knew the mine and Taylor’s rights to assist me.
During these times is when I wish we had a meeting like this on film to help others understand how imperative these IEP meetings are for a child’s successful future. Developing an IEP is not something that should be rushed through. Especially this one! This is the IEP before Taylor turns 18, she will be a Senior in High School next year and currently there is no plan in place for what her future will be. Don’t they get it?! Other 17 year olds start making plans for their future at this time…why not my 17 year old? Regardless, of what I believe or anyone else believes Taylor is capable and a future is inevitable…time moves forward…we can’t stop that. It is just up to us to determine how great we believe Taylor’s can be…and I believe she is made for something great!!
Well, without going into every single detail of that hour (and there are a lot of details) we only were able to cover a small portion of the actual IEP. I knew this going in..and had made it very clear. When I sat down, I communicated that I only had an hour today plus I had previously communicated this through email about the time constraint. When my time was up…I advised the team I had to leave. Due to me running out of time, I had made it clear that I wanted to be present for the entire IEP. The Special Ed Facilitator (he was currently leading the meeting) then raised his voice and said , “OK, well if you have to leave, then the rest of the team will finish the IEP and you can review it.” What? Why would you have a meeting about my child when I’m not there? Why would someone want to plan for her future without one of the most important team member’s input??…Me!!! When I objected, and this is the critical piont…he pushed to ignore my stand and attempted to continue the meeting. He started saying that legally it had to be done and they must finish. He completely ignored my request. This made me think…Does he care about Taylor’s life? This is her life and we want to just skip right through it?
It was so bad that the other teachers started defending my position. Thank-you to those other team members!!! I’m sure that parents in my positon without the training would have caved in and lost their effort to be present. This is what concerns and angers me. Others can mess with me and my children…because God gave me the tools to fight for my children’s rights. I have those gifts, and I will use them. In the end…it will all work out…I will do my all to make sure of it. However, other parents weren’t given the knowledge in IEPs, Education, & Advocacy in order to do so. The IEP process can be so overwhelming for me and I have a Masters Degree to know all this stuff! Can you imagine how overwhelming it may be for others who aren’t familiar with the process? Think of how many parents may have been bullied by this same teacher? AND who is ultimately affected in the long run? The child! They are the ones who get left behind!!! I have got to find a way to make a difference with this. Not sure how to educate others…but I guess this is a start.
I made my stand and as a team we all agreed and rescheduled Taylor’s IEP (Part 4) for next Tuesday morning. I’ll keep you posted!
Until Next Time,
E
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