Pending CIEP meeting... Any advice?

[Anonymous]

I am the parent of a DC who will transition into a special ed program in Mo Co when he turns three in March. I am preparing for his upcoming Central IEP meeting, at which the school board will decide his fate in terms of program and school. I am a little concerned about this meeting because there seems to be a discrepancy in what I envision to be the best program for my son, and the one that the county seems to be targeting. Any advice from experienced parents regarding how to prepare for this meeting, what to expect, and how to best state my case would be truly appreciated. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Hire an advocate aka educational consultant. We are doing this for our DC who turns three later this year. I don't anticipate any problems at the meeting in terms of what I want for him but MoCo is out to serve itself, not you. You can do a search here for names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire an advocate aka educational consultant. We are doing this for our DC who turns three later this year. I don't anticipate any problems at the meeting in terms of what I want for him but MoCo is out to serve itself, not you. You can do a search here for names.

I hate to say it but I wish I had done this when my younger DS transitioned from EI to Child Find. We were working with one for my older DS but weren't having the problems with getting the younger one into the placement we thought appropriate like we were with my older one. A year later, we realized DS should have been getting a lot more than what he was. We brought our consultant in for his annual review and saw how much better it would have been had she been involved from the beginning.

[Anonymous]

10:39 again. This is may seem a little OT but I think it's relevant. Hiring a consultant/advocate is expensive and you may not get the right one the first time around. But, more and more, I've starting thinking of this whole IEP thing like the Olympics - we're the pentathletes. We have so many events to compete in (pull out/push in, ST, OT, PT, etc.) and as hard as we train, it's unlikely that we're going to be in competitve shape unless we have a coach - the education consultant/advocate. There is just so much to learn and the school has years of training and experience. I don't want to get creamed again - and I think I probably have one of the better schools!