special education

[teachercop]

Ok. I need to vent.

I'm in charge of doing student support team meetings. SST. teachers meet as a team and talk about what works and what doesn't for failing students etc.

We had this kid on it. Parents attended meetings. Modifications included individual tutoring, preferential seating, guided notes. Enthusiastic about getting him help etc. We went through the steps, documentation, assessments etc. Parents were ok sending the file to special ed where a psychologist would meet with him and perform her own assessment. Did so. Processing problem.

At the IEP meeting, all they needed to qualify him for special ed. was a doctor's diagnosis of ADD. Dad didn't want to do that even though they wanted to push the file through to this point. Wasted six months of our time.

Dad looks at me and asks me what my plan is now to help their son.??!!! Basically, I told him that we've exhausted it.

Wow. thanks. I feel a lot better. :)

[iteachsocialstudies]

Good for you! Parents...urgh.

[TeacherRW]

Nice!! Don't ya just want to shake up some parents?? Perhaps now the parents will go ahead and consult with their doctor. It is frustrating at the least to work so hard to reach a child only to have a minor bump cause a major problem.

Vent away... any time!

[teacher333]

For some reason, it always seems to be the Dads who stop the process, as if it is fingerpointing at them, accusing them of causing their child to have some sort of difficulty in school. We had a similar scenario in our school and after many go rounds with the father, it finally came out he had been evaluated when he was in 3rd grade and some kids made fund of him going to Resource Center. They would rather see their child struggle than get them the help they need. If it was me, and the school wanted to provide smaller, more individualized instruction and tutoring, and provide study guides for test and extended time - I would go for it!!

Does the parent have the option instead of classifying him of just getting a 504 in which all they need is a diagnosis from a physician?