Parents of Elementary Kids - How often do you observe?

coffee bean

This will be sort of a rambling post....sorry!

My daughters were in a SN pre-school program for 2 years in a different county that is very well known for special education and are now in kindergarten in a new county (we moved to be closer to family).  Although it has a good reputation, I know they don't have the funding that our old county has.  In the old county, they would have been in a fully co-taught environment (just for K), here they follow the "push in" model where the SPED teacher (and other therapists) comes to support my kids as needed on a daily basis.

Their first IEP meeting was about a month after starting and the girls are both doing very well.  One of my daughters has ASD and ADHD and the other is language delayed.  I personally feel like they have actually been thriving this year in many ways.  Anyway, I'm nervous the school is going to try and back down hours in our next IEP meeting in a couple weeks, because they "don't need the support".  For my one daughter that is language delayed, I can see that.  For my one with ASD, I fully know that she can access the curriculum of kindergarten, but she has a LOT of issues focusing and lots of issues socially with other kids.  

Anyway, even though I feel like they ARE progressing and the goal really IS to have kids not need SPED services in the long run, I still worry.  How often do you sit in on their class to observe what's going on and form your own opinion?  I spent one day just observing before the first session and I have attended various trips and parties.  I don't doubt the teachers are telling the truth about their strengths and experiences, I just worry there is some county mandate that they can't exceed X hours and that that drives some of the conversation.  It's so hard to know what to push for in all this.

So, how often do you observe the class?  What parts of the day do you think are most important to observe?

MirandaHobbes

Never. We've been in kindy 6 months. I think they would have allowed me to observe a classroom before we chose the school. I do get the idea they wouldn't be keen on me observing a classroom while DS was in it. They really strive for independence. I signed up to be the Room Parent in DS's kindy room so I could kindof keep an eye on things and his teacher was blunt that she didn't ask for a lot of parent involvement because the school has a history of over-zealous parents. So, while I think they would eventually allow me to observe a class if I complained loudly enough, I choose not to because I respect their position, and DS is already having a lot of problems working independently. My job is to stay on top of the day to day stuff and give as much info as I can during the IEP process. I haven't had any problems with them cutting service time, though.

MirandaHobbes

Yeah, what @auntie said. That's what I was trying to get at- if I had concerns, I'd send in one of our private therapists. Both our private OT and ST came to our kindy transition meetings. We did have a rocky start to the year, and I got the school psych involved to observe DS and do a functional behavior analysis, but to auntie's point, it's better to have a third party do this because the school psych is going to be pretty defensive of the teacher and the protocol already in place.

bumpuser511563

If I wanted to observe DS in school, I had to schedule in advance to set a date. This seemed like a stupid rule and an observation was much better when you 'popped a visit." All I wanted to do was peek through a window or door way and I was more than willing to sign in the front for a visitor pass.

The whole entire class has autism so even my presence would bother the students from their routine. I would be a distraction to the class. This part I respected and would not follow through with an observation.

A private professional that has any interest to observe is not welcomed in our school district because they want to protect the privacy of the rest of the class. This is not written anywhere in district policy and it should be written. The state of NM welcomes private professionals in schools.

coffee bean

MirandaHobbes said:

Yeah, what @auntie said. That's what I was trying to get at- if I had concerns, I'd send in one of our private therapists. Both our private OT and ST came to our kindy transition meetings. We did have a rocky start to the year, and I got the school psych involved to observe DS and do a functional behavior analysis, but to auntie's point, it's better to have a third party do this because the school psych is going to be pretty defensive of the teacher and the protocol already in place.

Interesting, this is a good point.  Maybe I'm being  a little pushy.  Regardless, I asked to sit in on one hour for each of the kids' classes sometime next week.  We'll see what they say.  They get practically no psych time, but that's an interesting use of that resource...

bumpuser511563

-auntie- said:

Sailor Saturn said:

A private professional that has any interest to observe is not welcomed in our school district because they want to protect the privacy of the rest of the class. This is not written anywhere in district policy and it should be written. 

Huh? Your district forbids professionals from observing because of HIPPA/privacy regs even thought these people are professionals? I'm not surprised they haven't written this down anywhere.

Yeah, umm, I'd be pulling the trigger on an IEE everytime I wanted information. They can't really deny this and I'd get to select the person and they'd pay. That's a win for me.

The state of NM welcomes private professionals in schools. 

My buddies in St. Paul are able to send people in, no problem. One has a son who is fully mainstreamed in high school and the other has one who is thriving in a self contained ABA classroom.

Yeah, Auntie, our district is the best district in the area and yet they don't follow the state.

It drives the autism parents from our autism society mad because the school district does not know how to handle our kids no matter how much school professionals receive district and out of town trainings. UNM assists with teaching the professionals once a month with all ASD classes. This is the main reason why many parents want to observe and have private professionals observe.