Good IEP meeting
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| Mon, 06-05-2006 - 8:12pm |
How bout some good news from me for once.
Had an IEP meeting for Mike to plan for next year. I love his teacher and I am loving his mainstream teacher for next year. The mainstream teacher (Mrs. W.) was Cait's 5th grade teacher and I know her well. She is also the teacher rep on the PTA and I volunteered in her class last year.
Anyway, Mike will start his day in the SDC for just 5 or 10 minutes until all the kids are in classes and settled in (Mike goes into his SDC early and reads. Currently he doesn't have to deal with the lines and crowds of the regular classes). Then he will join the mainstream class for about 3 hours and have it be the entirity of the language arts program until recess. Then he will return to his SDC class for Math and the remainder of the day. We will reconvene after 6 weeks and have his triennial IEP as well as review progress and decide whether to add mainstream math, stay the same or cut back.
We talked about ideas of where he may go in middle school as well.
Lastly, his teacher had an awesome sheet put together all about Mike to give to the mainstream teacher all about what works for him, what stresses him out, etc.
Renee


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That's great news and it looks like has a good team of people on his side. Congrats!
Teresa
Renee,
That is awesome. news It sound like you have a food team and they are really willing to work with you and be flexible for Mike.
I am going to C&P your paragraph about writing up a 'tip" sheet for the mainstream teacher and e-mail it to Peter's teacher...
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Renee, I am glad to hear that!
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That sounds like a really good plan. Great teachers make all the difference.
Glad to hear the good news.
Samantha
I want a food team too!
Actually this one went about as I had expected and possibly better. I have often bragged here how highly I think of Mike's teacher. I even had an article I once wrote about her and Mike's aide that I submitted to a special ed version of the Chicken Soup books. Turned it in too late I think though. Never did hear from them. At any rate that article made the teacher, principal and others cry because it was the truth. This woman is a truly gifted teacher and an angel.
The better part was how detailed she made the behavior plan and how I was actually impressed with the new autism specialist. She has regained my respect when I was not thrilled with her at first.
I am not thrilled with the idea of Mike going to another SDC in middle school, but the teacher is very like his current one and I like her alot so it is a possibility. Especially if they mainstream for academics as he can handle it. It is a much smaller mainstream campus than the one Cait is at so it may work.
Renee
Renee
Yippie! that sounds great! I'm glad you have a good team for him for next year! 5th grade should be a good year before going on to the madhouse of middleschool.
Betsy
LOL.
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Finally some good news for you.....it's about time. It sounds like you do have a good (or food) team in place......congrats!!
Christie
Just curious.....about the autism specialist.....what type of resume does this person have? Curious on the training and background.
Ya know, I can tell you more specifically about my DH's resume (he is an aut specialist in a huge district) if you like. But I think it varies from district to district what they are looking for. He has a masters in intensive special needs and we both worked for the New England Center for Children for a number of years then lead educators for a home ABA program. The difference between he and I is that I stopped going for my masters when Cait was born and I stopped working 6 years ago to be SAHM. It was pretty silly going out to teach autistics when I had my own at home.
I know someone specialized enough in autism is hard to come by so often districts will take the best they can get. When my DH was hired 7 years ago they actually hired him from cross country and had been looking for someone for a few years but didn't have any good applicants.
It is getting better now. They have a number of AUT specialists in his district and it seems they have to hire new ones yearly. It is getting now where they do have a larger pool to choose from as more people are trained in autism as there gets to be more and more kids with autism but still it is hard to find good folks.
Our home district (not the one DH works for) supposidly specializes in autism (we had the inside scoop moving here). Many of the districts in our SELPA of 14 districts will specialize in something and the other districts will send thier kids there. Then they can pool resources. So a neighboring district has the deaf adn hard of hearing kids, etc. Still the district programs and specialists I have felt have been less than stellar. We have had 6 autism specialists during our time here (4-5 years) and most don't even show up the amount of times listed on the IEP. Then when they did they all were trained in early childhood, TEACCH and classic autism and had no clue what to do with school age AS kids.
They have changed thier program some now and it has improved. In the past the autism specialists were the preschool special day class teachers. They would teach 1/2 the week and consult the other. They would be partnered with someone who did the other half of the week. Now they have folks hired where thier case load is just elementary or middle school or high school.
The current autism specialist for Mike has a similar background to DH though I don't think as many years. She has a masters and extensive training and experience from a program back east. I think it was TEACCH in N. Carolina but I am not sure. Something like that. I drilled ehr the first day I talked to her.
There are autism masters programs (my DH is an advisor and intern supervisor for one at San Diego State). There are masters in ABA programs as well as Board Certified Behavior Analyst programs. They are rare though. Most autism specialists are going to be teachers or psychologists who have had extensive training or work with kids with autism through a variety of programs that specialize in kids with autism like autism schools, etc.
That was TMI wasn't it, lol.
Renee
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