Somebody please put my mind at ease--IEP question

[Anonymous]

DC is at a new school with an IEP that was completely redone last summer at the school he was exiting. He just came home with a meeting notice. As far as I know there have been no problems and I have been in contact with school staff. WTH would they be wanting to convene a meeting less than 8 weeks into school? That's not enough time to acclimate to a new program. Of course I sent emails to the school but now I'm going to worry all night.

[Anonymous]

They probably need to update the IEP since he switched schools. Was it a different school system?

[Anonymous]

As the PP suggested, they may need to do an IEP in their system if he changed counties. Even if he transferred within a county, sometimes the hours don't come out just right as kids are switching between schools or grades and things need to be tweeked a bit. Easy for me to say, but I really would not worry.

[Anonymous]

This is pretty typical when you switch schools, even in the same school system. They they tell you how great things are going. And then they start slashing the service hours.

[Anonymous]

Is he coming into a requalifying year? It's hard to say what's going on. When my son changed schools last year, a few months in, I was invited to a meeting and the purpose was to end the IEP. (It was not a requalifying year - he had just requalified six months earlier). Honestly, I was ok with the decision since at this point he needs accommodations but nothing that requires staff hours and he has done fine. But, the purpose of the meeting was a total surprise and if I would have wanted to keep the IEP, I would have felt at a terrible disadvantage since I was blindsided and had no chance to prepare.

[Anonymous]

As others have said this could easily just be a standard 30 day review. It could be more of course, but it's fairly standard in a school switch to do a 30 day review to discuss (potentially update/revise/change).

[Anonymous]

This is the OP. Reps from the current school attended the last IEP meeting--this is in the same cluster of MCPS. I have not heard of a 30 day review--there was definitely nothing like that in the original document.

[Anonymous]

Also, to follow up, my thinking about the school so far has been generally positive so this is either routine and nobody thought to mention it or (my fear) I'm being blindsided (and they want to downgrade my kid to a non-degree track).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, to follow up, my thinking about the school so far has been generally positive so this is either routine and nobody thought to mention it or (my fear) I'm being blindsided (and they want to downgrade my kid to a non-degree track).

Why don't you ask the teacher why the meeting is being called

[Anonymous]

They can call as many meetings as they want, but you don't have to sign anything. I wonder if they didn't get the staffing they thought they would and they want to fit your kid's services into the staffing model they have?

[Anonymous]

A 30 day review is a standard requirement when there is a change in placement, regardless of how the child is doing. Often times, even if a child is doing well and benefiting from the supports they receive, there are little tweaks that need to be made when a child changes placement. For example, a child might have 20 minutes of recess support written into their IEP, but have moved into a school with 30 minutes of recess a day. Or they have small group speech specified, but the school doesn't have a peer who is a good match so they request switch to 1:1 speech. Or the school sits kids at tables, and the child has an IEP that specifies "preferential seating in the first row".

Sometimes, if an IEP is close to being done, the team will review it early, so that they can do the annual review and the 30 day review at the same time, and restart the clock. If that was happening you would probably know.

Of course, there are also times when the transition to a new school is going poorly, and the IEP needs to be overhauled, but that doesn't sound like it's the case.

I wouldn't worry, and look forward to the opportunity to establish relationships with the team.

[Anonymous]

The courteous thing for the school to do would have been to call you, tell you they felt like an IEP meeting is needed for XYZ reason, and what dates in the next few weeks are convenient for you.
They didn't do that.
You are right to worry. Either they are incredibly rude and condescending, or something is up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A 30 day review is a standard requirement when there is a change in placement, regardless of how the child is doing. Often times, even if a child is doing well and benefiting from the supports they receive, there are little tweaks that need to be made when a child changes placement. For example, a child might have 20 minutes of recess support written into their IEP, but have moved into a school with 30 minutes of recess a day. Or they have small group speech specified, but the school doesn't have a peer who is a good match so they request switch to 1:1 speech. Or the school sits kids at tables, and the child has an IEP that specifies "preferential seating in the first row".

Sometimes, if an IEP is close to being done, the team will review it early, so that they can do the annual review and the 30 day review at the same time, and restart the clock. If that was happening you would probably know.

Of course, there are also times when the transition to a new school is going poorly, and the IEP needs to be overhauled, but that doesn't sound like it's the case.

I wouldn't worry, and look forward to the opportunity to establish relationships with the team.

Helpful but it also sounds like you work for mcps.

[Anonymous]

OP, any update?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A 30 day review is a standard requirement when there is a change in placement, regardless of how the child is doing. Often times, even if a child is doing well and benefiting from the supports they receive, there are little tweaks that need to be made when a child changes placement. For example, a child might have 20 minutes of recess support written into their IEP, but have moved into a school with 30 minutes of recess a day. Or they have small group speech specified, but the school doesn't have a peer who is a good match so they request switch to 1:1 speech. Or the school sits kids at tables, and the child has an IEP that specifies "preferential seating in the first row".

Sometimes, if an IEP is close to being done, the team will review it early, so that they can do the annual review and the 30 day review at the same time, and restart the clock. If that was happening you would probably know.

Of course, there are also times when the transition to a new school is going poorly, and the IEP needs to be overhauled, but that doesn't sound like it's the case.

I wouldn't worry, and look forward to the opportunity to establish relationships with the team.

Helpful but it also sounds like you work for mcps.

I don't, I work for another school district. 30 day reviews are not specific to MCPS.