I recently learned that we can submit a written request for a copy of the IEP 2 days prior to the meeting, but they don’t automatically do it. I had actually called that IEP meeting, in other words it wasn’t his usual annual one, specifically to talk about the aide thing and they knew this ahead of time. But unbeknownst to me, they knew ahead of time they weren’t going to offer it and had a lot of other stuff collected to show me.

All year long all we hear is how well Kirby is doing – his IEPs show constant improvement and meeting his goals. He does not have a problem with bad behaviors, he occasionally melts down if he gets hurt or someone pushes him or something like that but does his school work and does it well, has never once missed a spelling word (he already knows all of the sight words for 2nd grade) and always gets good “grades”. Every written evaluation from his teachers and therapists have been very positive.

But in the 1 month period between me calling an IEP meeting and the actual meeting itself they gathered “data” to show me “how poorly he is doing”. This is what they used to try to break me down. During the 1 month prior, they had one of the special day class teachers stay with him while he was in mainstream classtime specifically to record all behaviors for the purpose of collecting ammunition against me for the IEP meeting.  The stuff they came up with was he *gasp* didn’t raise his hand 1 time on such-and-such date before answering a question! The horror! One other time he needed an extra reminder for XYZ on such-and-such date. It was JUNK. And now that I think about it, it’s in his IEP to provide me with that data every week and I haven’t seen it once since then. BECAUSE THEY DON’T DO IT ANYMORE, they only did it for the IEP!

And yet EVERY single other IEP, conference, back to school, after-class chat, she tells us how he had a great day, knows so much for his grade level, is doing great.

In just what we’ve requested so far they can tell we’ve been doing our homework and we got the draft of the IEP the other day and it already has more info in it than it ever has because they know we’re more educated about it now. But it also means they’re going to come prepared with as much “ammunition” against Kirby and us as well.

I DO agree that he should be in SDC for reading and probably writing, however he is already going to the general ed class for all the other subjects (at THEIR suggestion): social studies, math, and “language arts”, whatever that is. That leaves recess and a couple of fluff things that he’s in SDC for. So why not have him in SDC and then pulled out for reading/writing is what I want to know. He is being shuffled back and forth every half hour or hour which I think is ridiculous.