The lies the school tells you at IEP meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you have a chance to review the IEP prior to the meeting? If so, you should have questioned that statement on the PLOP.

I called them on their shit in the damn meeting. I wanted to hear their excuses.

Now, they can answer to the state.

You sweet thing - how naive you still are! What makes you think they aren't going to lie to the state? That's what the PSL did. Flat out lied. I filed an appeal and provided the contemporaneous notes our advocate took. DENIED! Of course, I wasn't expecting them to find in our favor because I'm jaded. But, our advocate said that just filing the complaint was a black mark against the school's principal and the PSL. I cling to that thought. Of course, now that I've been through the process once, I'll be much better at it the next time. FCPS is molding me into the parent-advocate that I am.

I'm sorry you're going through something similar. We first brought in an advocate for my youngest when he was in FCPS's special ed preschool. The teacher indicated he'd mastered his goals when we knew damn well he hadn't (and it was blantantly obvious). We asked for a speech eval and provided private assessments from his private SLP and his dev ped who had diagnosed a language/communication disorder. You can imagine how stunned we were when the school SLP only observed him for articulation issues. The teacher hadn't provided the school SLP any of the reports we provided and told the school SLP our concern was about his articulation. WTF? I didn't file the state complaint until 4 years later after something even more egregious.

Oh, I imagine they will lie to the state. But the thing is, I've filed jointly with several other parents who have similar concerns. And we're getting private testing done as well to doublecheck their testing.

[Anonymous]

I certainly don't support teachers falsifying reports. But unfortunately what is asked of teachers who care about their kids is impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I certainly don't support teachers falsifying reports. But unfortunately what is asked of teachers who care about their kids is impossible.

It is a challenging job. Lots of jobs are challenging, and the teachers in my state are paid incredibly well.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way for parents to band together and put an open spotlight on the IEP process to try to effect real change. We were outright lied to at our meeting and on forms about the meeting. I documented the entire thing in great detail and asked for the form to be corrected. I was never supplied a corrected form, but did receive email acknowledgement and thanks for my notes. Somehow, I'm certain that they never read hose notes, or they might have objected.

And there must be some way to disqualify MCPS psychologist who doesn't actually read neuropsych reports. After the first go-round, I hired an advocate and the psych is well known for not looking at any materials provided to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I certainly don't support teachers falsifying reports. But unfortunately what is asked of teachers who care about their kids is impossible.

Start your own thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I certainly don't support teachers falsifying reports. But unfortunately what is asked of teachers who care about their kids is impossible.

This is 20:39. If it were impossible, the IEP 'team' would not have agreed to it. However, there may be insufficient resources to implement the IEP. That's a different issue which the school must address - and not by lying.

I get how difficult a job this is for educators. They didn't get into teaching for the paperwork. Yet, the administrators are all former educators who should better appreciate the challenges their front line teachers face. I've got 2 kids with IEPs and every meeting we have, I can't help but think how much money has been wasted because of them. I know how much the IEEs cost because we paid for them out of pocket up front. We used to have at least 3 meetings for each kid of at least 2 hours each. The salaries of the central office staff who would come to these meetings, the costs to respond to my state complaint and appeal, the costs of subs to cover the teachers' classes while we were in those meetings, etc. In the end, we got what we asked for because it was the minimum our kids needed. Had they agreed to it when the need was first documented by THEM, all these costs could have been avoided and services wouldn't have had to be provided for so long because deficits would have been remediated earlier. I've got one kid who didn't get to grade level in math until 8th grade. He hadn't been at grade level since kindergarten, never passed an SOL and had been in a self contained math class 1st-7th grade. Yet, he was above grade level in language arts/social studies and at grade level in everything else. Had we not battled as long and hard as we did, they would have kept passing him along from grade to grade until he hit high school. Then, we would have had to pay for him to take the SOL remediation classes in order to pass the math SOL. Who knows how many times he would have had to re-take the SOL to pass with a minimum score. It would have been far less costly - financially and emotionally - to have remediated this in the middle elementary school years. The data was all there but FCPS chose to continue to do what it was doing because he was 'making progress'. That 'progress' was to slow for him to ever catch up but it met their bar. It was only through the state complaint that we got FCPS to do what they should have done years before. With the more intensive instruction, DS caught up in 2 years. The difference is amazing. It was an issue of 'possibility', it was a resource issue.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious-- what kind of intensive instruction made the difference? Pull-out math classes?

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I just saw that he was in pull-out classes. What was added to ensure his math remediation?

[Anonymous]

My favorites are "totally caught up" and "no more evidence of delays." And it SUCKS because your heart wants it to be true but your mind knows it's not. And SO many parents come on here thrilled to death they've been told this, and you look like the balloon-popping asshole to inform them that that is the opposite of good news really, it's your school fleecing you and tricking you into your child losing services by your own hand.

[Anonymous]

Even though schools show you drafts before the meeting, it's usually only days before the meeting. And, the school tells you that "we'll talk about it at the meeting." Then, at the meeting, the teacher is usually very quiet while their boss takes over leading the meeting. The administrator has only seen the child in very limited observations and usually under-recommends services.

The IEP "team" treated me like a nuisance to the implementation of the plan that they all had previously agreed upon in the pre-meeting I wasn't invited to.

I participated in this dog and pony show for pre-k4 and K then left public school. While we struggle to pay for private, I felt like my child's self-esteem was suffering and he was hating school bc he didn't have the appropriate supports. The school was dismissive of all my evidence and arguments.

I hope in my heart that Governor Hogan passes school choice in MD. If the schools and teachers are doing such a great job, they shouldn't be threatened by giving families the choice between public or private with their tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Remember, you never need to sign an IEP at the meeting. If you disagree with it, or need more time to consider it, tell the team that you want to look it over for a while and are not able to sign it at the meeting. Then take it to your consultant, send it to your sister who is a special ed teacher, etc. I've had many parents later ask to make specific changes to an IEP -- add accommodations, question goals or present levels, etc. -- and I am happy to make those changes. A parent should only sign an IEP that he or she agrees with. I always tell parents at the IEP meetings that THEY are the most important members of the IEP team as they know their child best. And by the way, I always lead the meeting (the special ed teacher). Who are the administrators who lead your meetings? I find that strange.

If you don't sign an IEP, the current IEP remains in force.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would someone making a teacher's salary face this? No wonder all the good special educators are leaving the field.

Most kids with an IEP are not special Ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would someone making a teacher's salary face this? No wonder all the good special educators are leaving the field.

Most kids with an IEP are not special Ed.

Can you elaborate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember, you never need to sign an IEP at the meeting. If you disagree with it, or need more time to consider it, tell the team that you want to look it over for a while and are not able to sign it at the meeting. Then take it to your consultant, send it to your sister who is a special ed teacher, etc. I've had many parents later ask to make specific changes to an IEP -- add accommodations, question goals or present levels, etc. -- and I am happy to make those changes. A parent should only sign an IEP that he or she agrees with. I always tell parents at the IEP meetings that THEY are the most important members of the IEP team as they know their child best. And by the way, I always lead the meeting (the special ed teacher). Who are the administrators who lead your meetings? I find that strange.

If you don't sign an IEP, the current IEP remains in force.

I'm OP. We must be in different states. Only the initial IEP needs to be signed. After that the institute them without your signagure -- you only sign to show that you came to the meeting.

And we have IEP facilitators who run the meeting. Before that, in elementary school, it was the social worker. The special ed teacher in many ways was a minor player at most of our past IEP meetings.

I'm done accommodating these people's incompetence. I have an advocate at the meetings, and state and federal civil rights complaints in the pipeline. Several parents have come together to file a joint complaint, in fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you have a chance to review the IEP prior to the meeting? If so, you should have questioned that statement on the PLOP.

I called them on their shit in the damn meeting. I wanted to hear their excuses.

Now, they can answer to the state.

With you attitude and mouth, you should be expelled.

Let me guess; you don't have a special needs child.