Special Needs
ToastieSimons
member
IEP question
ToastieSimons
member
DS1 is up for his 30 day IEP review at his school. 2 days ago we received a letter that they scheduled it for tuesday July 23 at the same time as DS2's IFSP meeting.
Today is the deadline to respond if we are going to attend or not. I'm trying to reschedule the meeting. I have called multiple offices at the board of ed and left multiple messages. No one has called me back.
What are my rights? Can I get the meeting rescheduled during the summer or am I SOL and have to have DH take off to go to one of the meetings?
To my boys: I will love you for you Not for what you have done or what you will become I will love you for you I will give you the love The love that you never knew
This discussion has been closed.
Re: IEP question
It's a 30 day review because the IEP was written by the school district, but he attends a private school with different therapists who didn't do their own eval. It's to review the goals and frequency of services to check their appropriateness, etc. The school district made all their IEP goals educational but the private school works on things outside of educational need and will proabably add things to his IEP (like standing on a stool to wash his hands after toileting, or in his case, diaper changes).
The EI lady was NASTY! This is his yearly review and NJ wants them to have another eval done by a different OT, PT and DI than his usual therapists. One OT called and gave me times all during DS1's school day (I drive and pick him up and it's 30 min away) and when I said I couldn't make those times she had a different OT call me. She gave me one day and time and when I said I couldn't make it, she got nasty with me that I HAVE to. It has to be done by a certain time, etc. I rearranged our whole schedule for this, I just get frustrated when they have the case notes that says both my children are disabled and yet they seem to think I'm exaggerating how busy we are.
Have you talked to your service coordinator? Maybe they could assist in explaining to the therapist/scheduling person who will be completing the annual evaluation what your availability actually is. They shouldn't be pushing you into a time that is really difficult for you; EI is supposed to be based on a family schedule & family routines (within reason, of course). Do you the know exact date your annual IFSP is actually up? It is true that the annual evaluation needs to occur prior to the annual IFSP meeting, but they should be scheduling it weeks if not a month in advance so there is time to fit everything in. I'd try explaining things to your service coordinator (unless she was the nasty one...i hope not!)
First BFP 5/29/13 : )
Our service coordinator is kind of useless. This isn't even an IFSP meeting. Apparently, NJ has had issues with yearly IFSP reviews and not having new evaluations and I guess they're having issues with their therapists. So it's just an OT eval, which my kid has significant delays. He'll qualify. Our OT said they've had issues with some of the therapists not actually assessing children and just continuing with the same reccomendations despite actually needing to increase or decrease services.
Our annual is Sept 28. And this OT is giving me flak that July 23 is like a make it or break it date.
I think I'll see if my mom can just supervise the IFSP eval. It's not a meeting and I'm not concerned about them taking away services. If anything she may request an increase in services. However, I really want to be there for IEP meeting. I have met so many people in the school it's hard to remember who all of DS1's team is. and this will be the first IEP meeting at his new school instead of at our local board of ed.
I'm a service coordinator in NJ and it really sounds like this is his annual BDI evaluation if he already has an OT working with him now. Otherwise there is no need for an OT to evaluate him. The annual can be done by anyone; a PT, OT, ST, or special educator. An annual BDI is now required for all kids and it is the same testing tool used during the initial evaluation. I'm sorry your coordinator is useless because they should have discussed this with you. This is what it sounds like to me but I'm just trying to help and I could be wrong to!
In my County, a parent must be present at evaluations to give their consent for it. But it may be permitted in other counties. Honestly, I'm not sure why the OT is acting like it has to be completed by July 23rd. I would ask someone and probably just request a new day/time. They'll have to figure it out!
First BFP 5/29/13 : )