IEP meeting in the summer

bumpuser511563

So in my gut I had a feeling the IEP was not perfect. I thought I was going crazy and that it was all in my head. I asked DH to look at it and he did not. I faxed 43 pages to a parent organization that assists in advocating parents last week. They said DS's IEP was contradicting throughout the IEP, BIP and 11 considerations.

I have had 7 IEP's within the school year at DS's preschool. Now we need an IEP meeting to correct DS's IEP. We want to meet with the IEP team before DS starts Kindergarten at the new elementary school. I have called the school district to speak to the SPED director to make it happen because everybody is out on vacation for summer. So now I have to wait for them to return my call.

Has anybody successfully managed to meet for an IEP in the summer?

It is sad because I was actually enjoying my break from the school and it is over because we need to fix the IEP.

TIA

CaptainSerious

I have had several IEP meetings in the summer, with varied success. My first question would be who would be able to participate in the summer. In our case, summer meetings are conducted with a "summer team" throughout the district. This means that the teachers and therapists that work with and know a child are likely not participants, leading to an inherently flawed IEP. If you meeting in September means that the people who are familiar with your son could participate and they would not be able to over the summer, I strongly recommend waiting. Otherwise, you may have a frustrating process and might have to meet again after school starts anyway.

ToastieSimons

DS1 is serviced at a private school (the district sent him there).  They have a policy that 30 days after the student starts initially they must review the IEP because the private school doesn't do the evaluations, the school district does, but they're the ones who are servicing the IEP.  

It fell during summer break.  It was such a pain.  They scheduled it at 9:30 in the morning at the DS1's schoo. when DS1 had to be at school at 12 meaning I would have to drive the 25 min back and forth like 6 times that day.  I called to ask for it to be changed.  They never contacted me.  I showed up and after about an hour our school case manager finally found a message saying I cancelled the meeting  I called left a message letting them know I managed to find child care only to sit at the school for an hour and a half to find out noone was coming.  3 weeks later I got a letter in the mail with a new meeting time.

Zero communication.  During the summer they only have 2 people working part time, one manager and one service coordinator.  They try to get all IEP's wrapped up by mid June and it's really hard to get a hold of someone in the summer.  I was so lucky DS1's birthday was early June so all my contacting was done in the winter and we had the IEP ready to go before school ended.

bumpuser511563

Some of the data that is missing is from the old preschool. The 11 considerations were done from the perspective of the preschool autism teacher. The BIP was designed by the IEP team from the preschool.

I am not sure I could get the new elementary school IEP team to fix it.

Someone from the school district has called me, I missed the call and I called them back. I will be calling this morning to speak to them.

bumpuser511563

I got a hold of the person I was suppose to speak to. The teachers are not contracted to work in the summer which is odd because last week they went to ASD training.

They said I could call an IEP meeting with the new IEP team and invite the old preschool teacher on August 7th, the first day teachers come back to work.

I have a feeling this preschool teacher is not going to like being called for an IEP for an ex-student.

hopecounts

Sailor Saturn said:

I got a hold of the person I was suppose to speak to. The teachers are not contracted to work in the summer which is odd because last week they went to ASD training.

They said I could call an IEP meeting with the new IEP team and invite the old preschool teacher on August 7th, the first day teachers come back to work.

I have a feeling this preschool teacher is not going to like being called for an IEP for an ex-student.

Teacher's are often required to get Continuing Education Credits/additional training but it is not something they are paid for and is separate from their school contract. They can technically meet these requirements during the year but are encouraged and realistically have to do them in the summer break. 
I imagine the training fell under that umbrella. Unlike an IEP meeting which would fall under their duties so the school can't technically require them to attend when they are off contract. 

MirandaHobbes

 

Sailor Saturn said:

I got a hold of the person I was suppose to speak to. The teachers are not contracted to work in the summer which is odd because last week they went to ASD training.

They said I could call an IEP meeting with the new IEP team and invite the old preschool teacher on August 7th, the first day teachers come back to work.

I have a feeling this preschool teacher is not going to like being called for an IEP for an ex-student.

Hopefully it'll be fine- they have to be used to this scenario. Things change. Last summer, the summer before kindergarten, I realized we needed to change DS' IEP to include special ed busing (because our original after school plans changed). I called and emailed every member of his old IEP team and everyone at his new school and not one person got back to me until staff came back to work, just 1 week before school started. When I finally got to speak with someone they assured me it was fine and "this happens" and they'd make sure to get it taken care of before school started, which they did.

heatherwhite1984

i am a teacher and attend meetings in the summer, even though i am unemployed.

was there a meeting with the new school and preschool before school got out? that is what should have happened - a transitional meeting. then another meeting should happen within 30 days of school starting with just the new school to see how things are going and if adjustments need to be made since lots of things can change over the summer.

and why 7 updated ieps over the one school year? goals should have been made to review at least annually. if additional evaluations were completed, then yes adding in those goals for new services.

is your child not receiving ESY services?

and its not just the teachers, the providers should be attending the meetings too - SLP, OT, PT, SDI, etc. are you receiving quarterly progress notes from providers?

best of luck!

bumpuser511563

We did have a transitional meeting. It was done wrong and was contradicting everything: IEP, BIP and 11 considerations of ASD.

There were 7 IEP's because the wording on the BIP was left to everyone's definition of when they would send DS home. There were other errors and we had to meet 3-4 of those times. New ASD teacher was reason for so many meetings. DS's placement was one IEP. There was one eval done for speech so we had to meet for an IEP. I think that was it. It was a fun year!

DS is not receiving ESY. The school said they saw no regression but no proof was shown.

Therapists need not be present if it has nothing to do with them like the BIP. Our PT did not show for every single IEP that had to do with the BIP. It pretty much wasted the other therapists time and eventually they stopped showing up. If the therapists show it is an intimidating tactic towards parents.

We did receive progress reports that were quarterly.

We plan to meet August 7th with the new teacher to re-do everything.

heatherwhite1984

best of luck! hopefully with a new school things won't be so crazy!