who polices the IEP makers?

[ChocolateNewOrleans]

I know, I know, I am required by law, to follow IEP's with the looming threat of my teaching certificate, job, and personal liability as possible actions. However, who polices the IEP makers to make sure that the accomodations are warranted and not just some "anti-fail" accom designed to make the SPED teacher look good.

I have run into SPED teachers that think if a SPED kid fails my class, THEY fail the class. Have you ever heard of the term "helicopter parents" the ones that hover over their kids edu and whine and complain if their kid gets a bad grade because they didn't study? Well, I think of some SPED teachers as "Helicopter teachers" in the sense that they constantly question on why I flunked a kid. First, I don't give grades, I record grades, I didn't flunk the kid, they flunked themselves.

But more and more helicopter Sped teachers are making IEPs that say stuff like...

-must retest as many times as needed until the desired grade is achieved.

Like I have UNLIMITED TIME in which to make sure the 50 (out of 125 kids I have) can retest any/all of the 20 tests we take in a year, infinite number of times. Heck, eventually, they can GUESS correct enough.

My all time favorite one was...
-must provide writing utensil and paper to student everyday.

What am I, this kid's flippin parent??? There is only one student I provide pencil and paper to, and that's because she has my last name (my kid)

How long until IEP's are written to say

-Student must be given replacement assignment if a failing grade is achieved on original assignment (translation - kid isn't allowed to receive a failing mark)

-Multiple choice tests must have 3 of the 4 choices removed from choice list
example - the capital of Georgia is________.
a. (choice removed)
b. Atlanta
c. (choice removed)
d. (choice removed)


I know some are rolling their eyes at me right now thinking "that would never happen" but let me point out, 20 years ago, how many kids were allowed to retake a test the did bad on? Now, even regular ed kids think that they are entitled to unlimited retests.

[Boxcar]

I was under the impression that "regular" teachers were supposed to be part IEP reviews too. That is what teaming is about, no?

I can understand if a special ed. teacher wants to clarify what went wrong in order to help pinpoint a area that needs to be address. I cannot, however, believe how IEPs could be written like that. Well, I can believe it. I just am horrified. The IEP is becoming part of the "too much of a good thing" cliche.

This type of wording is seriously harmful to strides that have been made in special education, not to mention seriously harming the student.

I know that the IEPs I've seen for young children say things like "Child will hold pencil in pincer grasp within three months." or "Child will put on coat by himself." or "Child will name letters of her name." THe accomadations included were things like "Single unit instructions will be given." or "Child will wear a weighted vest." or "Child will be given longer time to transition." That is how an IEP should be. Of course, the younger the child is, the easier it can be to create a good IEP or IFSP.

I hear what you're saying. Sometimes I just get so disappointed in the systems. Instead of supporting the child, they can be powerful obstacles...

Other times I really like what I see and am very happy...

Sigh.

[upnorthteacher]

I know what you mean. I currently have a student whose IEP reads, "Not counted off for spelling errors" I teach spelling! What is the point of having this student participate in these lessons and take spelling and writing tests, if the spelling doesn't get evaluated? One SPED teacher at our middle school got angry when a student failed math, basically for not turning in work. She told the regular ed. math teacher to change the grade and not count the missing assignments. When he refused, she said that she was going to change the IEP, so he would have to. As important as special education is, we need to be very careful about IEPs not enabling students.

[ChocolateNewOrleans]

I have had some toe to toe encounters with some SPED teachers (and remember, I was a SPED teacher once upon a time, so I have seen it from both perspectives). It was about the "provide writing utensil to student"

I went nuts when I inherited that IEP. I would never have signed off on that if I was the reg ed teacher in that meeting. Trouble is, SPED teachers sort of bully newer teachers into signing off sometimes.

Anyways, I was told that I HAD to provide the pencil or I would lose my job... so I started to, at the end of the class period. I provided it the last 5 minutes with instructions, "here's your pencil for tomorrow, please bring it"

The SPED teacher went nuts. "that's not what I meant"

I replied that it wasn't clear as to WHEN she wanted me to, so I had to interpret it myself, and I interpreted it as "the end of class"

So therefore, I followed the IEP, to the letter of the law, screw the intent.

The young man eventually moved out of state later that year so I never had to sit in on the IEP renewal where I had planned to say that this particular accom should be removed.

SPED teacher said that she was going to reword it to say "at the beginning" when we renewed the IEP in March, I told her I was not going to sign it. A standoff was about to come, but we didn't have to since the kid moving made it a moot point.

[Boxcar]

I suppose one way a regular teacher can back himself/herself up is to bring in documents that "prove" his/her point. Like I can talk about developmentally appropriate practices based on NAEYC. That is because I can look at the child's developmental age and use that as a basis.

I don't know about the upper grades though. Can you do anything like that over there?

[Chef Dave]

I think IEP writers are in league with some of the writers of state standards. I think the problem is that having been away from the classroom for so many years, some of these writers are a bit divorced from reality.

They write about what should be (in an ideal world) without regards to what actually is or could be given the realities of today's classrooms.

To some extent they remind me of the people who came up with the concept of elementary student portfolios. Is this a nice idea for alternative assessment? Absolutely. Is it practical to have mini-conferences with each student in your class throughout the week? I never had time to do so. There was simply too much on my instructional plate and time was in short supply.

In an ideal world, it would be nice if college professors, building administrators, district office people including superintendents and curriculum directors, and writers of state standards could all rotate back into a classroom for once every five years.

Perhaps this would help keep them grounded in reality.

Ah well ...

[smithmt]

OK, being newly in a school where the object now is to aide the student with the state test, I think that some of the IEP paper-workers (in Texas we called them Facilitators) are only worried about the test (TAKS, respectively) But when I was in Texas at my district, the WHOLE POINT of the IEP was to get them out of SpEd! we worked to catch them up with their reading difficulties, memory of materials, etc. not enable them now to fail later. Chef, your right, it's our job to remind them of what the purpose is. Going to the writing utensil contention... I would have put the student on an improvement plan. starting day one, full modification, by the end of the first grading period, he/she should only get one writing utensil loan 3 times a week. By the end of the semester, he better have it every day. I would even let him buy a package of Pens/Pencils and LEAVE it in my room if he/she wanted to. but at any rate, the start of the spring semester, they shouldn't need the modification and it should be removed from the IEP.

[Boxcar]

I like the idea of a graduated plan that gets the student where he/she needs to be. That is how it should work...

[ChocolateNewOrleans]

and that would have been better, but who polices the policy makers?

Why is it that a teacher can write an IEP that they don't have to comply with (as this was a 5th grader going into middleschool situation)?

[smithmt]

whoa! no, the HAVE to comply with the IEP... it's the IDEAL of removing them from SpEd. the policing agency is the state. Your district may very well have the notion, that if we modify the heck out of the child, then that child has a better chance of passing The Test (whatever they call it there) I know that that is the mentality here in SD. I know this is crippling to the child's development, but the school is worried more about The Test.
-Matt

[ChocolateNewOrleans]

I agree, it's simply to make sure that they pass the class and can't fail. It's like some SPED teachers think that if johnny fails, they fail, or that it looks bad on them.

[avid reader]

In my district our IEP's are policed by many people. We have the state who audits a certain percantage at random, and the Board of Education also has access. There is also a Chairperson at each meeting who would never allow such things in our IEP's. After our CSE meetings it is also reviewed by a person who finalizes the document and she is trained by the state and if it is not right then we get called on it.

It doesn't sound like anyone is policing your IEP's.

[TookieWilliam]

how do you know your 'police' is actually being held to any standard other than his own. What if he decided that making a policy like was mentioned, was ok?

I understand the frustration concerning IEPs. We had a girl that had an IEP that stated that she could leave class whenever she wanted to fart. And we had all those same people in our IEP meeting that you mentioned avid.

One thing I've noticed in my area, annual contracted/first year teachers are usually the ones who are called to sit in on IEP meetings for SPED kids. The SPED teacher and counselors all apply pressure to just sign off on whatever goal is decided upon.

Vet teachers tend to speak out against ridiculous goals that can not be applied in a real classroom situation. How many IEP's do you have that say student must sit in front of the class? I know, in 1st period (my heavy load of SPED kids in mainstream), I have 15 IEP's and all 15 have that accomodation on their IEP. Do you know how many front row seats I have in my room? Less than 15. So how am I to apply that unrealistic accomodation?

Writing an IEP that says that the student be allowed to retake a new test as many times as needed may work when you have a class of 10 kids. But when you have a teacher that has 30 kids, grading 150 students work, being forced to make up a new test for 15 kids, a total of 20 times each, you begin to see the problem. Until an IEP can accomodate a teacher with a 25th hour of the day and an 8th day of the week, I will continue to fight stupid accomodations designed solely to prevent a lazy kid from failing

[Torrance]

The IEP "police" do not create their own standard, or standards. They abide by the federal laws of IDEA. Your individual state also has its own laws which are usually very similar to the federal ones. Non-compliance results in fines and loss of money. If Choc NO has a problem with these laws he should maybe take it up with his congress people and senators when the next reauthorization time comes around.

[smithmt]

Torrance (and any new members reading this), my advice is to add TookieWilliam, ChoclateNewOrleans, and Chef_Dave (note the underscore) to your block list. They are the three known pseudonyms for a disgruntled individual whom we all ignore. Welcome back to the forums, I hope you have more time to enjoin our discussions.

-Matt