New school/New school year

[Shandawn]

Well, My DD started public school yesterday after 6 years of private school. The good news is she LOVES it (so far) and she has a super nice teacher!

The bad news is that I have so far gotten no-where with getting an IEP for her. The Director of Personnel Services is who I am supposed to be working with. I was optomistic when he called ME 2 weeks ago. he was supposed to attain her assessment records from her former school & then call me back to tell me where we go from there, but I have not heard from him, nor am I able to get in touch with him over the phone. I am mailing a letter requesting an IEP to him tomorrow "return reciept requested". UGH!! Is it always this hard with public schools??

On the upside, her teacher called me tonight (I sent a note in requesting a meeting just today) and is willing to help all she can. Shes even going to bring Shannon's math LD to the principals attention. The way she put it was "The more people in the bigger shoes that know these things, the faster Shannon will recieve help". They have a very advanced math program at this school, so right now that is my biggest concern.

So, any other advice?? Or anything else I should be doing that I haven't thought about?? I'd appreciate ANY & ALL advice/tips!
Thanks!

[Mayleng]

shandawn said:

Well, My DD started public school yesterday after 6 years of private school. The good news is she LOVES it (so far) and she has a super nice teacher!

That is good news.

The bad news is that I have so far gotten no-where with getting an IEP for her. The Director of Personnel Services is who I am supposed to be working with. I was optomistic when he called ME 2 weeks ago. he was supposed to attain her assessment records from her former school & then call me back to tell me where we go from there, but I have not heard from him, nor am I able to get in touch with him over the phone. I am mailing a letter requesting an IEP to him tomorrow "return reciept requested". UGH!! Is it always this hard with public schools??

Yes, it is hard getting help in some public schools.

On the upside, her teacher called me tonight (I sent a note in requesting a meeting just today) and is willing to help all she can. Shes even going to bring Shannon's math LD to the principals attention. The way she put it was "The more people in the bigger shoes that know these things, the faster Shannon will recieve help". They have a very advanced math program at this school, so right now that is my biggest concern.

So, any other advice?? Or anything else I should be doing that I haven't thought about?? I'd appreciate ANY & ALL advice/tips!
Thanks!

At least the teacher is on your side, that is good news. You need to document every request, every phone conversation (confirm what they told you over the phone, and what you told them). Document, Document, Document. You did the right thing by requesting an IEP, however, they will want to do an evaluation before giving an IEP. So you should request an Academic evaluation from them. Here are some sample letters and also information about your rights. You have to surf the site and learn.

www.listen-up.org/rights/rights.htm#comp

www.concordspedpac.org/RequestEval.htm

Goodluck.

[Shandawn]

Well, today the director of special education called me. After a short conversation she told me she was not the person supposed to have called me but she would give my DDs file to the correct person! Actually, I already knew who I was supposed to be talking to; I'm guessing the teacher expressed her concerns & DD's file just got handed to the wrong person. I'm thinking perhaps an advocate would help things along but I have no idea who to call to get one!I'm off work tomorrow so I willbe making a lot of calls.

Meanwhile, DD is already crying over her math homework & forgetting books at school. I told her now that she rides a bus home I will not see her book bag in time to check she has everything. But being responsible for bringing all her work home is going to take some time. AW, this is gonna be a LONG year, I can tell~!