and the School

[Guest guest]

Everyone on the list,

I have had my 3rd meeting on 's 2nd grade placement for next year. I

have one more and they keep pushing me out - I had to wait until April to

view this " Life Skills " class that they are recommending for my daughter -

now they want me to wait until May to have the meeting with the complete IEP

team to determine if she is to go into this class. My gut reaction was NO

WAY - but I kept an open mind and my gut was right.

should not be in this class - there are only 5 kids in this class, 3

of which have down syndrome, one is in a wheel chair and the other I can't

tell why she is in this class (except behavoir issues).

has mosaic down syndrome but that is not who she is, it is something

she has. She already knows 30 of the 40 kindergarten sight words and she

will know the rest by the end of the year In this class they were working

on reading but they are reading the 40 kindergarten sight words. These

kids are in both first and second grade - what they will be doing next year

I don't know.

knows more than this. She can read her spelling words - she can

also spell them but she has difficulties with writing so she uses magnet

letters to spell her words. She does not have a personal aide - she shares

an aide in the classroom and I think this is half the problem. I belive

that she needs an aide to keep her focused and on task and she will

accomplish more. She will be less disruptive to the class and she will

learn more. I will work with her more over the summer to increase her

writing. She needs to be in a classroom full of children with the teacher

at the front of the class teaching - she has not had that for 5 years - she

was in the IU for 3 years and she was always in small groups. Plus

is a copy cat - she will mimic the bad behavior she sees in this class -

they will be creating a behavior problem. She is currently in Learning

Support - but because they have 12 kids in learning support - I think they

are just trying to reduce this class size. (that is a lot of kids for LS -

ususally 6 - 9)

I think they are underestimating 's abilities because while she talks,

she does not speak often and you have to wait for her answers and in a

classroom - they don't wait. I don't want her pulled out of her class

because she does not speak to the same level that other first graders do.

Please, I need your help - I want to go into this meeting with enough

information and ammunition so they MUST give her an aide and put her back

into her class.

Darlene - mom to and