Guest guest Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 Dear Heidi,Yes, I can help. I've been at it a while. but know that even if you come up with the best IEP possible, you will still have to be diligent and demand accountability from your district. How close are you to Dallas. I ask because it would be so much easier to show you rather than try to tell you over the phone, so I would invite you out for a crash course in IEP writing and preparation. If you are far away, I will do my best to help you be a part of the process and come up with an appropriate IEP for your child.Haven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 17, 2010 Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 Haven is *absolutely, positively* correct in everything she said. It's pretty much (and more) of what slaw says. However....(laughs).....I do want to tell you how *amazingly* lucky you are. Most on this list (including myself) have gone through years of denial and "wait therapy" to get any service started. They denied DS's double AU\PDD diagnosis until the middle of First Grade and sporadically started Resource pull out at the end of First Grade. Each school I've taught at or DS has been in has delayed, delayed, delayed doing *anything* like that til after Kindergarten. I believe you said you're getting pull out three times a day for 45 min *and* an Aide???? WOW!!! I would've killed for an aide years ago...much less now that's he's in a medical crisis - I still can't get it. So....Haven's absolutely right....you should do all those things to ensure progress. And she's right...plug away and don't delay. *However* (and forgive me as I've just come from the ARD from Hell) count your blessings, ma'am. ~Crystal I can help. Your IEP's need to be SMART:that is, they need to be SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, USE ACTION WORDS, RELEVANT, AND TIME LIMITED.As a rule, annual goals need to be designed to be MASTERED within an ARD year's time. that is, if your annual ARD is in October, then all the annual goals set need to be mastered by the following October.Under the annual goals, there should be objectives written to reach the annual goal. These, too, need to be SMART. The more specific you are, the better.But as I have learned the hard way, the best IEP in the world is only as good as the people who implement and tract the IEP progress in a substantive and ethical way. My son's was not.First, I have learned to NEVER allow "observation" as a criterion for mastery. Using this criterion is an easy out for school districts. They will say they "observed" it, and then your child is sixteen and can't read. What you need is substantive proof. Require that they "track" progress in a concrete manner. Require testing of any and all objectives that are addressed in a six weeks. You want to "SEE" the progress or the lack thereof. In addition, another way you can track progress is request yearly standardized testing. The school will probably reject this, so what we did was we paid for yearly testing out of our own pocket, and it clearly shows the lack of progress in the public setting.The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and you will have to be diligent in your advocacy, which will generally not get you any appreciation from your school. They prefer you just accept whatever grades they choose to write down.Beginning NOW (yesterday would have been better) start keeping an educational notebook on your child, and include EVERYTHING having to do with school in the notebook in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Every time you have a conversation with a teacher, principal etc... keep a log and write down what was said. Date it and put it in the notebook. Keep all papers, quizzes, tests...EVERYTHING. For the papers, keep track of the grades and the objectives that were covered by the papers. I had to go back and look at it question by question to show that in many areas the grades were based on either NO proof or very little substantive evidence. Unfortunately in Texas, schools will create IEP's and then have led teachers to believe that they can do whatever they want and then just make up progress grades. This means your child is being denied FAPE, but you will have to keep the records to show this is happening.What do you want to change about your child's IEP? Let me know if I can help you further.Haven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 17, 2010 Report Share Posted September 17, 2010 Crystal,I sent a written ten-day notice to remove with intent to seek reimbursement. We spent four and a half hours in an ARD last October. Then the special ed director tried to bully and intimidate into signing the signature page before I was even given an opportunity to read the final document. I refused. Then after only about two months of the implementation of the new IEP, my son was receiving masterly level grades for his objectives on 33 of 39 objectives. Red Flag! I called the principal and requested a meeting because this couldn't be accurate. She called me back and said, " I tell you what, rather than us all have to meet, since he has mastered all these, why don't you just let me pencil in some new ones? " I told her that wouldn't be appropriate as my husband and I weren't convinced he had mastered anything. I save ALL my son's papers. The mastery level IEP grades continued throughout the year along with A/B report card grades. I researched over the summer, breaking down every paper question by question. what did I find? Very few and often NO evidence that the IEP was even introduced let alone mastered. Very few tests or quizzes -only spelling ones and one benchmark fro TAKS which came home ungraded. I had to grade it, and he got about 46% on both reading and math. Then on the real TAKS-M he failed both. Interesting for a child who had " mastered " 33 of 39 objectives in a little over two months, don't you think? The principal was asked at ARD (on tape, of course) if it were true that his IEP grades were inaccurate. she said, " That's right, they are not accurate. " then went on to inform me that the main teacher, his resource teacher, was no longer in resource but had been moved to science and would be my son's science teacher! She made up grades and is STILL allowed to teach?? This blows my mind. Anyway, we withdrew our son from the school --sent the letter, signed him out etc... NOW they are saying that we have to have another ARD??? They are saying it is because we didn't finish the last ARD. I thought we were very clear at the last ARD that we were removing our son from this school. My son's lawyer thinks they are trying to find a way to say our son is truant. Any ideas as to why they would say we need another ARD? We've been home schooling for almost two weeks now and we just got the call a couple of days ago. Very odd. In the less than two weeks we have home schooled, our son has finally learned to tie his own shoe laces, figure perimeter of regular and irregular polygons, write a short paragraph on a topic, successfully identify greater than and less than, spell some tough words like " photosynthesis " (not the kindergarten crap words they give him), make a simple breakfast or lunch for himself (with supervision), identify and demonstrate six yoga positions, fill in math fact families, and demonstrate C,D, and E major chords on the piano and demonstrate the C major scale on the piano. The last one is still in progress. We have also started our citizenship curricula. He is also starting to learn how to play tether ball. In addition he is finally getting appropriate speech, OT, and PT where I actually get written feedback on progress. He is also getting RPM tutoring in reading, math, and writing, and that is going very well. His most difficult area is reading comprehension, so I just ordered some more resources for that.I REALLY don't want to see these people again. I feel sick when I think of how they have cheated him out of an education for so many years! I do not trust these people at all, and I am wondering what is up. I ran into a parent who is friends with a lot of people up there (small town you know), and I explained what they had done (making up IEP grades), and she says, " Well, if he can't do the work, then he can't do the work. What do you expect them to do? " (Well, I damn well expected them to tell the truth on a federally mandated document!). So rather than explode at the discrimination in her attitude, I said, " I expected them to try before making that judgment, and I certainly expected them not to lie about progress. " It is this whole attitude that these schools are assuming our children can't learn because they don't know how to teach them, so they are blaming the kids with ASD! I am so sick of people equating a child with ASD to " unteachable and unable to learn " ! they just think they are the " R " word, and this is so discriminatory! Their hypocrisy knows no bounds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 18, 2010 Report Share Posted September 18, 2010 I think the best way is trials. Have them report progress in a fraction --how many correct out of how many attempted. Don't let them use percentages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 19, 2010 Report Share Posted September 19, 2010 Hi, It depends on the target behavior. So, for example, if the objective is " ny will expressively identify the letters of the alphabet " then you most likely will want a count of the opportunities presented and a count of the " correct " trials. [Also, you need to sure to define " correct. " Frequently IEPs state that the child will, for example, 'identify [xxx] with no more than 2 prompts.' Thus, even a prompted response is counted as correct. And so the child may be fully prompt dependent, and still show " progress. " and " mastery " .] You should also try to have the mastery criteria state that the student shows " correct responses " within a certain time frame, so that " mastery " is not shown if the student emits " 3 correct responses " , with 1 in October, 1 in January, and the last in May. Other means of collecting data can include recording the various dimensions of behavior, including frequency, rate, duration, latency, and topography. As to ease, a lot depends on the situation in which you find yourself teaching. In more controlled situations, it is pretty easy to use paper, pen and hash marks. Other options include using colored counting tokens, moving rubber bands from one wrist to another, pebbles moved from one pocket to another. (You can get pretty creative using what's available in the given environment.) Then commit the results to paper when you get back to the class. HTH - > > What is the easiest and most accurate way for resource teachers to keep data? Trials? > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > Re: IEP > > Crystal, > > I sent a written ten-day notice to remove with intent to seek > reimbursement. We spent four and a half hours in an ARD last October. Then > the special ed director tried to bully and intimidate into signing the > signature page before I was even given an opportunity to read the final > document. I refused. > > Then after only about two months of the implementation of the new IEP, my > son was receiving masterly level grades for his objectives on 33 of 39 > objectives. Red Flag! I called the principal and requested a meeting > because this couldn't be accurate. She called me back and said, " I tell you > what, rather than us all have to meet, since he has mastered all these, why > don't you just let me pencil in some new ones? " I told her that wouldn't be > appropriate as my husband and I weren't convinced he had mastered anything. > > I save ALL my son's papers. The mastery level IEP grades continued > throughout the year along with A/B report card grades. I researched over > the summer, breaking down every paper question by question. what did I > find? Very few and often NO evidence that the IEP was even introduced let > alone mastered. Very few tests or quizzes -only spelling ones and one > benchmark fro TAKS which came home ungraded. I had to grade it, and he got > about 46% on both reading and math. Then on the real TAKS-M he failed > both. Interesting for a child who had " mastered " 33 of 39 objectives in a > little over two months, don't you think? > > The principal was asked at ARD (on tape, of course) if it were true that his > IEP grades were inaccurate. she said, " That's right, they are not > accurate. " then went on to inform me that the main teacher, his resource > teacher, was no longer in resource but had been moved to science and would > be my son's science teacher! She made up grades and is STILL allowed to > teach?? This blows my mind. > > Anyway, we withdrew our son from the school --sent the letter, signed him > out etc... NOW they are saying that we have to have another ARD??? They are > saying it is because we didn't finish the last ARD. I thought we were very > clear at the last ARD that we were removing our son from this school. My > son's lawyer thinks they are trying to find a way to say our son is truant. > Any ideas as to why they would say we need another ARD? We've been home > schooling for almost two weeks now and we just got the call a couple of > days ago. Very odd. > > In the less than two weeks we have home schooled, our son has finally > learned to tie his own shoe laces, figure perimeter of regular and irregular > polygons, write a short paragraph on a topic, successfully identify greater > than and less than, spell some tough words like " photosynthesis " (not the > kindergarten crap words they give him), make a simple breakfast or lunch for > himself (with supervision), identify and demonstrate six yoga positions, > fill in math fact families, and demonstrate C,D, and E major chords on the > piano and demonstrate the C major scale on the piano. The last one is still > in progress. We have also started our citizenship curricula. He is also > starting to learn how to play tether ball. In addition he is finally > getting appropriate speech, OT, and PT where I actually get written feedback > on progress. > > He is also getting RPM tutoring in reading, math, and writing, and that is > going very well. His most difficult area is reading comprehension, so I > just ordered some more resources for that. > > I REALLY don't want to see these people again. I feel sick when I think of > how they have cheated him out of an education for so many years! > > I do not trust these people at all, and I am wondering what is up. > > I ran into a parent who is friends with a lot of people up there (small town > you know), and I explained what they had done (making up IEP grades), and > she says, " Well, if he can't do the work, then he can't do the work. What > do you expect them to do? " (Well, I damn well expected them to tell the > truth on a federally mandated document!). > > So rather than explode at the discrimination in her attitude, I said, " I > expected them to try before making that judgment, and I certainly expected > them not to lie about progress. " It is this whole attitude that these > schools are assuming our children can't learn because they don't know how to > teach them, so they are blaming the kids with ASD! I am so sick of people > equating a child with ASD to " unteachable and unable to learn " ! they just > think they are the " R " word, and this is so discriminatory! > > Their hypocrisy knows no bounds! > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 19, 2010 Report Share Posted September 19, 2010 This is how we got them to word it on my son's IEP: Level of mastery: " 10 consecutive cold probe trials over an IEP year. " A cold probe trial meaning the first trial in the morning. The goal was always " independent " never at a prompt level. The data would fluctuate as his prompt level would fluctuate each day. The data would show their teaching is what I told them. I said if we were having a problem achieving a goal, then we looked at the teaching data. I have forms that I can send that my school district agreed to use. In the end, they were only accomplishing 50% or less of the goals because the teacher did not have the right training and created prompt dependence AGAIN after we got prompt dependence out of his repertoire. They wouldn't allow me to bring someone in at my own cost to train their teacher. And I pulled out my son this August. He is going somewhere much better right now. I cannot say more because of legal things pending. But I'd be glad to show you the forms if you'd like them. Just email me privately. Hilda From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy [mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of rmryan19 Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 11:10 AM To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Subject: Re: IEP Hi, It depends on the target behavior. So, for example, if the objective is " ny will expressively identify the letters of the alphabet " then you most likely will want a count of the opportunities presented and a count of the " correct " trials. [Also, you need to sure to define " correct. " Frequently IEPs state that the child will, for example, 'identify [xxx] with no more than 2 prompts.' Thus, even a prompted response is counted as correct. And so the child may be fully prompt dependent, and still show " progress. " and " mastery " .] You should also try to have the mastery criteria state that the student shows " correct responses " within a certain time frame, so that " mastery " is not shown if the student emits " 3 correct responses " , with 1 in October, 1 in January, and the last in May. Other means of collecting data can include recording the various dimensions of behavior, including frequency, rate, duration, latency, and topography. As to ease, a lot depends on the situation in which you find yourself teaching. In more controlled situations, it is pretty easy to use paper, pen and hash marks. Other options include using colored counting tokens, moving rubber bands from one wrist to another, pebbles moved from one pocket to another. (You can get pretty creative using what's available in the given environment.) Then commit the results to paper when you get back to the class. HTH - > > What is the easiest and most accurate way for resource teachers to keep data? Trials? > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > Re: IEP > > Crystal, > > I sent a written ten-day notice to remove with intent to seek > reimbursement. We spent four and a half hours in an ARD last October. Then > the special ed director tried to bully and intimidate into signing the > signature page before I was even given an opportunity to read the final > document. I refused. > > Then after only about two months of the implementation of the new IEP, my > son was receiving masterly level grades for his objectives on 33 of 39 > objectives. Red Flag! I called the principal and requested a meeting > because this couldn't be accurate. She called me back and said, " I tell you > what, rather than us all have to meet, since he has mastered all these, why > don't you just let me pencil in some new ones? " I told her that wouldn't be > appropriate as my husband and I weren't convinced he had mastered anything. > > I save ALL my son's papers. The mastery level IEP grades continued > throughout the year along with A/B report card grades. I researched over > the summer, breaking down every paper question by question. what did I > find? Very few and often NO evidence that the IEP was even introduced let > alone mastered. Very few tests or quizzes -only spelling ones and one > benchmark fro TAKS which came home ungraded. I had to grade it, and he got > about 46% on both reading and math. Then on the real TAKS-M he failed > both. Interesting for a child who had " mastered " 33 of 39 objectives in a > little over two months, don't you think? > > The principal was asked at ARD (on tape, of course) if it were true that his > IEP grades were inaccurate. she said, " That's right, they are not > accurate. " then went on to inform me that the main teacher, his resource > teacher, was no longer in resource but had been moved to science and would > be my son's science teacher! She made up grades and is STILL allowed to > teach?? This blows my mind. > > Anyway, we withdrew our son from the school --sent the letter, signed him > out etc... NOW they are saying that we have to have another ARD??? They are > saying it is because we didn't finish the last ARD. I thought we were very > clear at the last ARD that we were removing our son from this school. My > son's lawyer thinks they are trying to find a way to say our son is truant. > Any ideas as to why they would say we need another ARD? We've been home > schooling for almost two weeks now and we just got the call a couple of > days ago. Very odd. > > In the less than two weeks we have home schooled, our son has finally > learned to tie his own shoe laces, figure perimeter of regular and irregular > polygons, write a short paragraph on a topic, successfully identify greater > than and less than, spell some tough words like " photosynthesis " (not the > kindergarten crap words they give him), make a simple breakfast or lunch for > himself (with supervision), identify and demonstrate six yoga positions, > fill in math fact families, and demonstrate C,D, and E major chords on the > piano and demonstrate the C major scale on the piano. The last one is still > in progress. We have also started our citizenship curricula. He is also > starting to learn how to play tether ball. In addition he is finally > getting appropriate speech, OT, and PT where I actually get written feedback > on progress. > > He is also getting RPM tutoring in reading, math, and writing, and that is > going very well. His most difficult area is reading comprehension, so I > just ordered some more resources for that. > > I REALLY don't want to see these people again. I feel sick when I think of > how they have cheated him out of an education for so many years! > > I do not trust these people at all, and I am wondering what is up. > > I ran into a parent who is friends with a lot of people up there (small town > you know), and I explained what they had done (making up IEP grades), and > she says, " Well, if he can't do the work, then he can't do the work. What > do you expect them to do? " (Well, I damn well expected them to tell the > truth on a federally mandated document!). > > So rather than explode at the discrimination in her attitude, I said, " I > expected them to try before making that judgment, and I certainly expected > them not to lie about progress. " It is this whole attitude that these > schools are assuming our children can't learn because they don't know how to > teach them, so they are blaming the kids with ASD! I am so sick of people > equating a child with ASD to " unteachable and unable to learn " ! they just > think they are the " R " word, and this is so discriminatory! > > Their hypocrisy knows no bounds! > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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