The School Decision

Monday, 20 August 2012

My big 3rd grader ... looking so grown up!

 I just realized I never followed up with what we decided for Kayla's school placement.

We agreed she would be going to the 3rd grade.
We agreed her placement is the GE classroom with resource room support.
We made the decision to transfer her to her neighborhood school.

It wasn't easy making the decision to transfer schools. She's had some continuity being at the other school for 2 years and knowing the layout, administrators, and students. However, I feel strongly that she should be at her neighborhood school because that is the school she would go to if she didn't have a disability.

There are still a few details to work out in her IEP. I thought we finalized it at that last marathon third meeting at the end of the school year, but an IEP is never really finalized, is it? It's reviewed annually but a meeting can always be called at any time to make adjustments to it.

Over the summer I've thought of some things we should add to her IEP and feel that we need to have a meeting shortly after the school year starts with her new team anyway. No one from this new school was at her previous IEP meeting so they don't know quite where we are coming from as her parents. I think it'll be good for us all to sit down and go over things as a new team.

The other big decision that came along with changing schools is transportation. Her bus pick up time is about 1/2 hr earlier than it was last year -which is nice! (6:18 was so early!) This also means that she will now be riding the 'regular' bus. I have mixed feelings about that, but hopefully it goes well! The school is literally only 5 minutes away, of course it's a little longer when on the bus (I don't know if there are any more stops after ours) but she won't be on the bus for very long, so I think it'll be doable. 

Last week was "Meet the Teacher" night and it went well. The teacher was very welcoming and opened to having Kayla in her classroom. She didn't seem unsure or concerned even though she's never had a child with Down syndrome (or with the same types of challenges Kayla will bring to her classroom) before ... this is only her 2nd year of teaching. She reassured me it was all ok and will work out. So excited for this year but also a bit nervous. I don't want Kayla to get lost in the system, because this is not how this district typically does things and I'm worried that they just won't know how to successfully include Kayla, but I'm hoping we can all work together and make it happen.

Today was the first day of school and Kayla was ready and excited to be going back to school. On Sunday I said to her, "Do you know what tomorrow is?" and without missing a beat and with a big smile on her face she said, "My new school!" I'm so glad she seems to handle these transitions with a grain of salt!

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School Decisions

Monday, 28 May 2012

If you have a school-age child with special needs then you know what this time of year typically represents - the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting. I have to say, these meetings can be down right exhausting.




We are getting ready to have our 3rd meeting regarding Kayla's placement for the next school year.



A brief background on how school has looked for Kayla the past 2 years. She is zoned for school A. When we attended our first meeting there we were told that "School B is the school kids with mild mental disabilities attend when School A is their home school, because not all schools in the district have the program for students with mild mental disabilities."

That shouldn't be how students are placed; they shouldn't be grouped together based on their disability level and then have it pre-determined where they will attend school because of the 'program' they are being placed in. IDEA states that students with disabilities should be placed in a general education classroom in the school they would attend if they didn't have a disability, with supports, accommodations, and modifications to the maximum extent possible.

We voiced our desires for having Kayla attend School A, but for reasons I'm not getting in to for this post (long story) she goes to School B.


In 1st grade she went to the general ed (GE) classroom for most of her subjects except for language arts (special ed/self-contained room) - which is a pretty good chunk of time. Her time being included in GE classes was a little more than half her day. For her IEP last year (2nd grade) it was recommended that she have language arts and math in the sped room. I wasn't totally on board with that, but by the end of the meeting relented while stating my goal was to have her gradually be in the GE class for more and more time.

Based on the change to having math in the sped room this made her time in GE classrooms less than 40% of her day, something that bothered me, but, yes I agreed to, because maybe it was best for Kayla. You don't know what works until you try it.


For the last 2 months it was agreed to have Kayla go to the GE classroom for 30 min during their phonic/spelling time (she's had no spelling in the 1st/2nd grade sped room - they don't work on that until they go to the 3rd-5th sped room). Since going to the GE room she's now been exposed to, and working on the STEPS program like her typical peers are doing. She learned to identify 14 of 24 sounds from the 'green' set. Spelling has been a bit of a struggle, but she has learned to spell a few words (palace, penny, button as an example) but she's able to differentiate between the correct and incorrect spelling of the words on her list. She's also able to read the words on her spelling list now - words she wasn't exposed to, or learning to read, in the sped room.

I've tried it this way for 2 years and now I would like some change. We're requesting her LRE (Least Restrictive Placement) be the GE classrooms. I read studies (like the one I posted about here) showing that kids with disabilities who are taught with their typically-developing peers in the GE classroom do better overall on math and reading tests. I hear examples from so many other families across the country who have their child in GE classroom with accommodations and modifications and it's working successfully.


I'm not denying special education services because that's exactly what special education is - a service, not a place. I'm just asking for those services to take place in the GE classroom with collaboration between sped/GE teachers and therapists. I'm not opposed to ANY pull out services at all, I would agree to having some extra help in math and reading in a resource room like the rest of the student body has access to. 


It was suggested if we want to put her in GE classes full-time, as her LRE, that it might be better to repeat 2nd grade and do it that way. I can understand, to a certain point, the pros of doing it that way ... but I'm not convinced that's the best thing to do at this time. Kayla is probably not going to 'catch up' to typical peers on grade level, but that isn't the point to having her in GE classes. The point is to have access to the general education curriculum alongside her peers ... something she didn't have access to in the sped room.


It's all so overwhelming to think about. These seem to be the choices/decisions we have to make:

- Repeat 2nd grade with LRE being GE classrooms
- Continue to 3rd grade with going to a 2nd grade math class
- Continue to 3rd grade with getting some resource help for math and language arts (how much time is TBD)
- Then there is the possible discussion of transferring schools and having her at her home school

My other issue with her not being at her home school is if she continues at School B for 1st-5th grades she will not be at the same middle school as those kids will go to - because they will be zoned for a completely different middle school than the one she would be zoned for. So she would go to a middle school where she doesn't know any of the kids.

It's a common refrain to hear "You're the parent, you know what's best for your child." and "You'll make the best/right decision for your child because you know her best." But I'm finding that difficult to believe. I don't feel like I've made the best decisions over the last two years and in fact feel like I've failed her in my lack of adequate advocating skills.

And how can you truly know what the right decision is to make, especially when there are more than one paths to chose from? You can't know what is the right decision because you can't go back and see what it would be like if you had chosen something else. I thought I did right by her on last year's IEP, but at the end of this school year I don't feel like I did make the right choices.


And what I want for this school year might not end up being the right choice either, but Kayla deserves to be given a chance at an education in the GE classroom. She deserves a chance to have the right supports and services to make it successful. Maybe it won't work out for her. Maybe she really does need a self-contained room for the core subjects, but it's successful for so many other students, and we won't know until we give it a try.

So many colleges are now offering students with disabilities a chance and those colleges are fully inclusive. From what I've read about most programs to date - none offer a chance at going to college with the understanding that the students with disabilities will be educated in a self-contained room in college. So how can we be expected to prepare our children with disabilities for the possibility of going to college - and expect them to succeed there - if they aren't being prepared for it during the elementary, middle, and high school years? How can I expect her to make the jump from self-contained rooms throughout her school years, to a fully inclusive college experience?

I'm not saying it's going to be easy, change usually isn't, especially in a district that doesn't typically do things this way, but change can be a good thing too.

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Assistive Technology

Friday, 20 April 2012

I'm going through one of those 'if I only knew then what I know now' moments.

I understand the basic concept of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) as it pertains to Kayla and school. I understood what it was for, how they (mostly) work, who attends them, what we do in the meetings, what is discussed in the IEP. I've skimmed over info from Wrightslaw and have attended a workshop or two. However, it still wasn't enough. I haven't been proactive enough. I haven't researched enough. And I feel like I have failed Kayla, to some degree, where school is concerned.

Trying to make some changes now to rectify that.

I am reading the book Wrightslaw: All About IEPs and finding so much useful information. The topic on Assistive Technology has been particularly interesting.

Up until now I thought of assistive technology (AT) as (mostly) something children used to communicate with - ie if they couldn't speak, or didn't have enough speech intelligibility. Kayla talks. A lot. I think most of it is understandable, especially in context. So ... I never thought much about AT for her. But AT is defined as 'any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability."

Then there was the piece on the Henderson Inclusion school that I blogged about. In it they show a 2nd grade student's comprehension of a story he'd read writing longhand. He wrote 2 short sentences. He has trouble with spelling and handwriting. His response wasn't a 2nd grade benchmark. But then he showed his comprehension of another story by using a computer. He uses a text reader and a word-prompting software to help him produce something more on grade level. Hearing that I thought how much Kayla could use something like that. Reading and writing are laborious for her. It seems to take 'forever' for her to get through reading a short site-word book. I think she actually needs books with NO pictures because she stops after reading 2 or 3 words, looks around the picture, has to be prompted to go back to reading the sentence. I think by the time she finishes the sentence, she's forgot what she's even read.

So, back to the section on AT I've been reading. I've discovered it encompasses all sorts of tools that can help a child be successful in school, but more importantly, help the student access the general education curriculum.

- AT helps children use their strengths to compensate or 'work around' weaknesses caused by the disability.
- Law requires schools use AT devices and services to maximize accessibility for children with disabilities.
- Instead of the child becoming dependent on parents, teachers, and peers for help with schoolwork, AT helps the child be more confident and independent.

Here is an abbreviated list of when AT is appropriate:
- allows a child to perform functions that can't be achieved by other means
- increases the child's endurance or ability to complete tasks that are too laborious to be attempted on a routine basis
- allows the child to concentrate on learning, not mechanical tasks
- provides greater access to the general education curriculum
- allows the child to participate in the least restrictive environment

In case there is some concern that using an AT device (such as a calculator) is a crutch here is the answer to that in the book, "If a child needs assistive technology to have access to the general curriculum and benefit from education, it is not a crutch. A child may depend on a device to perform, not allowing a child to use the device will prevent the child from learning and receiving an appropriate education. If you need glasses to read should you be forbidden from using glasses to read?"

So now I've begun scoping the internet for websites that give examples of AT and how they're used. This one seems to have a lot of great information.

I've also requested that Kayla have an AT evaluation; I think there are tools out there that can help her go so much further in her education.
"For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible." Dr. Katherine Seelman

 

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