You: “When you ask me to leave my son unattended while waiting for his speech class to start, I feel uneasy because he tends to wander off when he’s on his own and I’m afraid he will get hurt while he is unsupervised. I also feel like his specific problems and needs are not being taken as seriously as I would like them to be. I want you to assign an aide to be with him at all times, so that he is not left alone, and I can feel reassured that someone is watching out for his well-being at all times while he is at school.”

If the principal or teacher or whoever tries to tell you they don’t have the resources to do this, just repeat, repeat, repeat – “When you ask me to leave him alone, I feel like….” and so on. If they tell you they never leave him alone, produce a diary so that you can back up your observations with facts, i.e., “8/28, arrived at gym at 7:59. Speech teacher arrived at 8:14. 8/29, arrived at gym at 7:55, teacher’s aide arrived at 8:04. 8/30, arrived at gym at 8:02. Teacher’s aide arrived at 10:13,” or whatever.

And DON’T be afraid to take this up to the next level at the district headquarters, or whatever. The school is REQUIRED by law to provide an equitable education for your child – if they can’t do it, they are obligated to find someone who can….

Hope this helps – good luck!

If you want success for your child in school, call another IEP meeting and discuss the supports that your son had last year to the supports that he appears to have this year. For example, the district does not have to supply you with the teachers lessons plans however you could say something like: Clayton really response positively to having visual supports to help him anticipate what will be happening throughout the day. Can we set up a visual schedule for him so he can anticipate what activities will be happening and when he needs to attend therapy? This would help you get a copy of daily happenings. Dependong on the program that your child is in, the teacher will send this home to the parents within 4-6 weeks of school starting.

An IEP does not state when a child should get speech. The IEP can only say the number of hours per week. However, the SLP from the previous year could have written in the present level that Clayton appeared to be more proactive and engaging in the AM before he became interested in other activities in the classroom. This would indicate to the speech therapist that he is a good child to start the day off with.

Therapist typically do not work for the first two weeks of the school year directly with the students. I would check with the case manager on the district procedures. Typically the therapist have the first week to observe, test and develop their schedules. If you didn’t indicate that you were there to observe a session with your child, she would have had no clue you were there to see her. I am sure if you had indicated that you were there to observe a speech session, she would have done one of two things: one told you that she wasn’t hold sessions this week they would start on such and such date or the second option would have indicated that your son wasn’t on the schedule for therapy for that day.

You can request a daily communication log book be sent home. Typically districts will agree to have the teacher write daily. Depending on your child he might be able to handle filling out a picture support log sheet which would indicate what he did during the day. The adults would give additional information.

As far as a new meeting, if you are happy with the services written in the iep than a new meeting is not necessary. You could request a parent conference witht he team and discuss your concerns. Explain how you don’t feel the goals are being addressed properly and approach it as what can WE do as a team. This way you are not placing blame, but instead being an active partcipant. I know as a parent you want what is best for your child, but if you go in accusing then the school will write you off as the crazy parent. I know that is not right, but they are just people too. They all want whats best for your child. Work together not aginst each other. Now, if things do not improve after the meeting then I would get an advocate and see what you can do.

Find a local special needs parenting group. It takes dilligence and persistence to get what you want from public schools…They can help you get an advocate to help you….