Did an MCPS support staff attend your IEP meeting?

[Anonymous]

In the past, our IEP meetings were attended by an MCPS SpeD support staff (I'm going to call her: Person A) from our cluster. She's very nice and made sure that my DC had the appropriate goals and support. However, in our periodic meeting last year, a different person came (Person B) instead. Unfortunately, she's confrontational and even tried to cut the service hours. I just found out that Person B will be attending our annual meeting later this month.
A couple of questions:
- Is an IEP meeting always attended by a support staff from the cluster? What's his/her role?
- Can I request Person A to attend the meeting instead (or better yet, not having any support staff from the district at all)?

[Anonymous]

I've had support staff attend some meetings but not others. When we first set up our IEP, there was some disagreement, confusion and a change in placement so we had the cluster supervisor and people from Central Office. Now things are more smooth, so school staff only.

You can request that the cluster supervisor attend, but I think it would be hard to exclude someone that the school thinks should be the0re.

[Anonymous]

I've only had a support staff when we have spoken about placement. Otherwise it has only been school staff.

I agree with PP that you can request the other come- but not make it an either/or. Just request that the one that you want be present at the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Is this person a cluster supervisor?

[Anonymous]

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/special-education/contact-us/clusters.aspx#Supervisors

[Anonymous]

SPED support staff doesn’t regularly attend meetings. They are required if placement is being discussed and in other circumstances they are just there to support the team in the process when invited. I would think you can ask for someone to attend but not request that another employee NOT attend. They don’t have an obligation to honor your request.

[Anonymous]

We’ve had a pupil personnel worker. Is that the same thing?

[Anonymous]

Not the same but if you there is some tension with the soon the district might send the PPW. She or he also sometimes comes for the initial meeting.

If you have huge tensions with the school staff and placement is an issue someone from the cluster will come. It can be the cluster supervisor or one of 1-2 people who work with her.

[Anonymous]

tension with the school

[Anonymous]

Not the same but if you there is some tension with the soon the district might send the PPW. She or he also sometimes comes for the initial meeting.

We always have a PPW at our meetings and there is no tension. We've always had agreement with regard to needs, classification, and services and supports.

As for MCPS support staff, we only once had one attend and she tried to get rid of the IEP. Fortunately, the entire team disagreed and would not be swayed to her side on it.