Renee, what happened with the email
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| Wed, 03-21-2007 - 12:53am |
your dh sent?
I keep on thinking about this part of it about homework, as I have been fighting the school system on this. I think this is great, as my own son struggles... and now my younger one struggles.
Homework is funny item when it comes to public education. Nowhere in the federal and state laws does it state homework as having any standards. The word "homework" exists NO SINGLE place in the California State Education Code. By definition, "homework" is supposed to be what the student can do at the independent level, and is thus a purely discretionary item between teacher and parent. Even the NCCSE acknowledges homework is completely negotiable between parent and teacher.
Anyway just curious....
P.S..... Homework is evil, evil I tell ya! lol. It should be abolished! lol
Lainie

Well, this is a funny thing.
See here is what happened. We got an email back from the director of special ed which basically agreed with DH.
"I do not know what information was exchanged prior to this email, but I
will give my opinion, and current research, on the subject of homework.
Several leading researchers conclude that homework has no benefit to a
student. In many cases it is a negative experience. However, we persist
in giving it out since teachers teach the way they were taught. The
district has a committee putting together a current homework standard so
we can get some sort of uniformity in the classes. "
Later that day I got an email from the teacher saying they were modifying homework by cutting spelling like I asked. YEAH right? Well sort of.
Now 2 weeks later it is obvious the teacher is NOT grasping the big picture of what I was trying to get at. Spelling is out, but she came home last night with a HUGE pile of homework. Strategies we had discussed in the past such as breaking assignments down are not being done or are minimally being done. It isn't that I think that cutting spelling was the total answer to cait's homework difficulties. We have to modify, adjust, develop strategies, break down assignments, etc so she can be independent.
Oh well. I will just bang my head into the wall a bit more. It is getting a nice indent there.
Renee
Edited 3/21/2007 3:33 pm ET by rbear4
I just have to chime in....
YAY for the director of spec ed!!!!! I think I like this man.
~Candes
omg! Renee, those were actually modifications written into Warren's IEP for the past 3 years, almost word for word! Last year when he was failing language arts and his teacher said "well, he's not turning in his assignments, his paper was due this week and I can't change his grade because of the district standards" I said, "oh, well I thought that an IEP was written to be followed. all his teachers and the spec ed director signed t" suddenly Warren was given an extra week to do the assignment and suddenly the resource teacher actually helped him w/ the stuff he'd missed. I wish I didn't have to 'threaten' but it did get results. our SD has had their hand slapped many times for not following IEPs but unless you call them on it they will try to slide by (last year 3 of Warren's academic teachers hadn't even read the whole IEP until I asked them to make some changes in how they were handling things in class.)
middle school and high school are so much harder when it comes to special ed.
Betsy
'I just have to chime in....
YAY for the director of spec ed!!!!! I think I like this man. "
LOL, don't. Trust me. He is not worth it. he just knew DH was right and decided to agree to save face and make the point to the teacher to do the modifications. I have basically already beaten them once at a due process. I am sure he doesn't want to do this again.
He was specifically the one who decided to take me to due process rather than to provide an independent or decent assessment. I showed them my excell graphs of why I was requesting and they ran like pups with tails between their legs.
Renee
OMG that teacher is so THICK!!!
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
I want some lads.... can I borrow them? I think I might need them for my meeting with the school tomorrow to decide assessment.
I'm pretty worried as everytime I talk to the principle talking about this sst or cst (can't remember) meeting she says things like "I don't know if we can help him with services" or I don't know if he qualify's..... He might go to a different school to get these services....
Oh man, why wouldn't he qualify??? I mean so far he only has traits of Aspergers, (getting a second opinion with Stanford) but I do have the tests that say he scored in the mentally retarded area with both Dysgraphia and Visual processing... And he has a mood disorder (doc wanted to say bi-polar but I felt uncomfortable, since I am not quite sure its bi-polar).
What about his thought disorder, which I do believe he has but I'm confused......
I did call an advocate place in Fresno, but they haven't called me back....
Anyway, you all give me luck, the appt is at 9:30 tomorrow. Everyone hummmm with their hands and arms out, legs crossed and thinking of white light okay? LOLOLOLOL. If your religous prayers wouldn't hurt either lol
Lainie
Good Luck Lanine++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I really wish you had an advocate going with you.
Samantha, with her arms and legs crossed, thinking of white light.