You are wrong on every count here. I AM aware of the PLOP. I got the draft IEP late Friday for our Wed. IEP meeting. I didn't get a chance to sit down with it until that Sunday. And then I was pretty flabbergasted to read that my son's reading level was exponentially higher than it was just about two weeks earlier, when the teacher told me that he was at the reading level he'd been at all year -- and that she had just done the testing, and had it verified by another teacher. But that was before they realized we had filed a state complaint. It would have done me little good to bring it up before the IEP meeting. I wanted to bring it up with 6 witnesses in the room, including my advocate, and have it on tape. (The meeting was recorded at their request.) The "class size" is actually a self-contained classroom that has kids from very high functioning to ones who are severely impacted. Teachers have found the mix so unnerving and unmanageable that they have already gone through 4 teachers in that self-contained class this year. And why do parents "beg" for inclusion, as you so derisively put it? Well, my son's gen ed classes are the only ones where he's getting an actual education of grade level content. And while he has support, he's getting As and Bs in the class. |
Your experience is clearly limited. It's been the teachers who have been pushing for my kids to be in the general ed classroom because, as OP indicated above, the needs/levels of the other kids in the self contained classroom are too different from my kids. It's difficult to meet their needs. My issue is that in order to access the curricula in the general ed classroom, my kids need support in the general ed classroom. It's a pretty shitty choice: 1) remain in a classroom where you can access the curricula but not be taught grade level content or 2) be in a classroom where grade level content is taught but you can't understand it. Which would you suggest for your child? |
| I think it's the other way around. Most parents I know want more time in self-contained classes but can't get it and their children are thrown into gen ed with no support. |
Exactly! You are spot on. |