Had sped. conference yesterday
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| Fri, 09-30-2005 - 7:43am |
It was a little hairy. Kyle's reg. ed teacher was defensive :( I got very upset with the psycologist, who's the team rep. She wants Kyle to have more pull out time so he can use the computer in the sped. room that has co-writer and write aloud on it. I said he needs to have those assistive tech programs available to him to use in the gen ed classroom. She said the district couldn't afford to have it on anymore than one computer. I'd like to have blown my top on that one. I told her the districts budget wasn't my conern and shouldn't have an impact on Kyle's educational placement. She continued to try and dance around that issue but I held my ground. So they are asking for a consult from the assistive tech. resource team and the autism resource team.
The other things happening are they hiring an aide for Kyle to work with him during math, reading, and recess. They moved his wilabarger brushing time to after PE (a difficult time of day for him). The teacher moved is desk away from the over head projector that was blowing hot air on him. Kyle will get the move-n-sit cushion he's supposed to have had. Apparently he doesn't have his study carrel either. I didn't know that at the time of the meeting. He's getting a slant board for his desk. They are switching his sped. teacher to one closer to his reg. ed room who also has more experience with kids with autism, less kids in her classroom, and low and behold the assitive tech writing program. A plan will be developed for Kyle to leave the room when he's feeling frustrated/overwhelmed. A reevaluation will be completed after the resource team recommendations have been recieved. Middle school next yr was one reason given for wanting the re-eval. I've heard from a sped. teacher in a different district that our middle school doesn't do any inclusion. So I'm really on gaurd and paranoid that they are going to try to move Kyle this yr to "prepare us for middle school". And you know its not that I'm against pull out or self contained classes. What I'm against is their suggesting it when they haven't tried the appropriate supports to see if he'll succeed in the gen ed setting first. I told them that when they suggeste more pull out time. Ok, I'm done :o)
Samantha

Good for you and Kyle for standing up to the district! Hope these accomidations all work out for him and he's able to continue on in the current setting.
Betsy