Reply to Including Parents in IEP Meetings

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Reply to "Including Parents in IEP Meetings"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How many times would be acceptable for them to try to reschedule the meeting?  It usually involves getting multiple teachers and support staff together in the same room, so there are limited time slots where it is possible.

You can do it as a phone call if you can't be there in person.[/quote]

This is how I do scheduling in my job.  Before the formal invite, I would check with the people whom I am trying to schedule a meeting with.  The school has my contact information including email and cell phone.  I know the school team usually meets on Wednesday so just ask me to hold several Wednesdays on my calendar till the rest of the team can be confirmed.

Another issue is the delay in getting the invites out.  It usually takes me about 10 days to get the letter via certified mail.  I think it must sit in the office a few days because the stamp on the envelope is 3 days after the letter invite date.  I have offered to pick up the letters at school within 24 hours when ready so they would expedite the delivery and my response plus save $8 in postage.  As it is, I often do not get the legally minimal amount of parental notification when the meeting is.

One complicating factor is when parents have experts, advocates, or attorneys to attend as well.  These are professionals that have other clients and appointments.  [b]I'm sure the school would love for parents and children to be unrepresented at IEP meetings and they try to intimidate and force a meeting even when such tactics are uncalled for. [/b] In the real world, scheduling meetings takes time and coordination.  Parents have the right to bring in professionals that they think would be helpful and schools should be accommodating to everyone's schedules.

It is not rocket science - pick up the phone or email out to get a list of proposed times so parents can know the school's list of preferred times (more than one would be great) and parents can plan to fit into one of those options,[/quote]

This is so  not true.  As a teacher, I desperately want every single person who knows anything about a child in those meetings.  I promise you that the people I work with WANT your child to be successful--truly.

I have attended 20+ IEPs this year as the gen ed teacher in the room, and I assure you that [b]we do our best[/b] when it comes to scheduling. [b] I often end up having to find coverage for my class so I can attend (meaning that 25+ other kids go without a teacher so that one child can have 30 minutes of my undivided attention).  I'm sorry that you are not satisfied with the way your school is handling things.[/b]

As for the notification, that is handled by the central office (in FCPS at least).  We write up all the documentation at the school, then send it to the central office who ultimately sends it home to parents.  (Maybe they do something with the info first?  I don't know).  That's why it takes so long.  I agree that it should be electronicized (or whatever the word would be) at this point.[/quote]

Dear Teacher -- The way you characterize your participation in IEP meetings is a classic example of the stigma Special Ed students face.  Special Ed students are often characterized as unfairly taking time away from other children.  (You say, 25+ kids go without a teacher so that one child can have 30 minutes of my undivided attention).    In reality, the way that school ( a public good paid for by citizen taxes) is organized has the effect of not serving or underserving disabled students.  Your school could easily structure its workforce to enable you to participate AND have a fully qualified teacher cover your class, but, I'm sure that they would rather pay for more upper management, a higher superintendent salary, more BoE entertaining expenses, renovated football fields or whatever.   If you want to be mad at someone that YOU have to "find coverage" and your students "go without a teacher," then blame the administrative staff who staff and set up the system this way.

BTW, you are not supposed to "do your best" in scheduling a meeting; you are supposed to comply with the LAW, which provides a certain number of days to schedule a meeting and requires that school systems enable parents to participate as EQUAL IEP team members.

Finally, it is my experience that schools absolutely DO bully parents into not attending meetings or attending without their advocate.  My own school principal and I had a long running difference about whether and how my child would be coded for an IEP and what kind of service he would be provided.  When my advocate had an unexpected funeral to attend, the principal refused to reschedule the meeting and tried to bully me into attending without the advocate.  Thankfully, my advocate advised me to write the kind of letter advised by PPs above -- expressing my desire to attend, providing three alternative dates when the advocate and I could attend, and using my now-favorite closing phrase, "I hope that you will work collaboratively with me, so I do not have to resort to due process remedies."

In 24 hours, I had a new meeting date, without waiving the timeline.

Schools make it extremely difficult to schedule meetings.  I am ALWAYS told "well we only do these on X day and we are full up for the next month".  I have been pressed to waive timelines more than once.  (I never do, and I always get a meeting within the timeline, because IT'S THE LAW).

Schools also make it extremely difficult for parents to participate as equal IEP team members in other ways -- they refuse to allow parents to observe their kids in the classroom, they refuse to allow parents to observe a proposed placement, they refuse to tell parents what instructional program offerings are available in the system and what qualifications a child needs, they meet as a team without the parents to agree on steps prior to the IEP meeting, etc.

The ONLY time I have not experienced being jerked around scheduling meetings is when I finally broke down and hired an attorney.  In that scenario, the attorney enters his representation and the school staff must coordinate attorney to attorney to schedule the meeting (because it is considered unethical in the legal profession to talk directly to a client who is represented by counsel because that is considered an attempt to exert undue influence against a less knowledgeable person).

[/quote]

Wow.  I am in awe of you.  How long have you been dealing with the system?  Are you a lawyer?  This is just so well put.[/quote]

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