IEP Goal Changes - Very Concerned

October 16, 2011

Hi all- my 12 year old son is in 6th grade this year. New school, new

experience with it being middle school and not elementary. This is the first

all-autistic middle school class in our district so everything is new to

everyone. I am concerned because I got a call a few weeks ago from his teacher

saying they wanted to change my son's IEP goals to be more " middle school

appropriate " . The teacher also mentioned that they would be adding goals to

make use of the fantastic kitchen and washer/dryer they have in the classroom so

that daily living skills would be addressed as well. I was very excited about

this and thought it sounded great. The teacher set up a 30 minute one-on-three

meeting with myself, lead teacher and the 2 aides. However, the message I got

at this meeting was totally different than what was discussed over the phone. I

was told my son's goals are too difficult for him to obtain and there are too

many of them. I disagree with that! She showed me this book they use to track

progress on his goals called a " VB-something " book and showed me that it would

take " forever " for him to reach this such-and-such goal because he hasn't

mastered the lower goals yet. She also changed her story to say they couldn't

put daily living skills goals in his IEP because " her hands are tied " (???)

However " they do all kinds of daily living skills with the boys every day...

it's just not in the IEP. " (??!!) I didn't have time to question her because

there was another parent coming in right after me and I was ushered out the

door. They now want to have his ARD on November 11th to make all these changes

to his goals and I am extremely concerned. His teacher last year did a

fantastic job of creating his goals last year and she put a lot of time and

effort into it. I don't know what to do and am trying to learn my rights as fast

as I can. I am worried they are trying to make it easier on the teacher to show

" progress " and in the mean time maybe cutting back on my son's education and

since it's the first for this class, feel they are trying to set a precedence.

I'm also worried that they are downgrading his goals because perhaps in their

eyes, " he hasn't mastered these yet, so he never will. " Any suggestions/ideas

would be most welcome.

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