Response to a question about IEPs

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The Facebook page for Spectrum Magazine included a question about the IEP process, and my response was far too long to post on their wall. I linked people here, so feel free to discuss what I have to say on either site.

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I have never been involved in an IEP process, which is too bad for a couple of reasons. The first is that I am autistic. I might have Asperger's or atypical autism or whatever; the diagnostic differences are less important to me than recognizing I'm on the spectrum. Even though I am only in my twenties, I am still too old to have been diagnosed in the US at the usual age of 5-7. I was also evaluated as gifted and talented, and in the state where I live IEPs are only provided to students with learning disabilities, and not to students who have very different ways of learning but still do well in school. So I never had my own IEP, though I would very much have liked to have had one (provided it did something useful), and I would have enjoyed being involved in the process--a practice that I wish more parents and schools would endorse.

I have also worked as a para-educator for autistic students, and in many cases I spent much more time with some students than did the teacher. However, paras are not invited to IEP meetings even when they are the primary educators. It seems to me that IEPs are more or less written by administrators, and teachers who are forced to function like administrators, so none of the right people are involved in the process. Many parents don't even go to the meetings, probably because they find it alienating or because the school won't schedule around their jobs. For parents with low income and no payed time off the latter is especially problematic.

Perhaps as a result of this, and perhaps as an artifact of how they're written, the IEPs are basically worthless documents that cost school districts tons of money and wasted effort to produce. All they really do is keep administrators and teachers busy so that they can't spend time providing real services to students, and so that the schools need to hire more administrators to cover their other jobs, thus sucking even more money of the system. As sad as it is, it really does seem that wasting money and hiring more administrators are the principle accomplishments of school administrations.

As a para, I was never told anything about what happened in IEP meetings or provided with a complete copy of an IEP, even though I would have loved to read them. I did have access to "IEPs at a glance", which basically just described facts that were already easily observable about the students' performance, provided standards that ranged from vague to meaningless, listed test scores without explaining what they meant, and employed so much jargon that little or nothing was communicated. The IEPs also tended to describe students' disabilities, but seldom had more than a single vague sentence about the students' strengths or how to help them learn.

I would say that the current IEP system, at least as it is applied in my district, is completely broken. It is a waste of time and money that serves principally to provide make-work for useless, overpaid administrators, and distracts teachers from the actual job of teaching. I just started my master's degree in education, so maybe I'll get to help fix this problem, but the issues run very deep within the system. The aforementioned professional parasites will likely do everything they can to prevent meaningful change.

Thank you. This is what I thought.

I asked to be a part of the process of writing the IEP and was dismissed. I asked that the paraprofessional who works most with my son be present at the IEP meeting this year (kindie) and she was, but had no opportunity to provide input and was not given a copy of the IEP once it was written.

So.... most of the time I take things into my own hands. Have conversations with teachers and professionals in halls or whenever I can get their attention AND I keep my family low income by working part-time so that I can be involved at the school as much as I can. Last year I offered to dust the classroom every week. The teacher loved it. By doing this I was able to be a fly-on-the-wall. I watched who interacted with my son, how and when. I got to know his classroom teacher really well. I gave her articles, books and insight about my kiddo. I was there so that when various teachers--art, physical ed., the librarian saw me they'd pass on tidbits about how T. was doing. I got to know the kids so I could see who T. liked and got to know that kid's parents to 1. cultivate a friendship and 2. make sure they weren't prejudiced about any differences AND I looked for any kids who are or have the predisposition to be predators.

Next year, I will personally hand all the para's a copy of T's I.E.P and I will get their emails so we can communicate.

I had his special ed. teacher/IEP coordinator start a weekly email between she and I and his teacher and the specialists. I did this when I realized how useless their daily checklist/communication notebook was. They asked my son to rate his day and say something he liked doing. WHY? I can ask him that. Stupid. I wanted the para's to be CC'd this email too, so they could add anything pertinent or get ahold of me if they wanted to tell me something or ask me something, but the special ed. teacher didn't want them on the email. WHY????????? Para's are doing high level teaching and getting none of the compensation or respect that they deserve.

I don't care about systems I care about reality. The reality is that we're supposed to be a team, but I have to throw myself into the game. At the last IEP meeting I can't tell you how many times I said, "I WANT TO BE A MEANINGFUL MEMBER OF THIS TEAM." The speech therapist heard me and accepted my input to use pictures from T's life (weekends) in their sessions and everybody thought that their efforts had finally born fruit. NO, people, pictures are a special interest and he felt comfortable because of the familiarity. I'm just glad that someone included me and that T was enjoying himself and the people working with him got to know him better.

Before I go on and on, my point is that a parent really HAS to be involved in their child's education, ESPECIALLY if they have an IEP.

Yes, we sacrifice, so that I'm available. It's worth it to me.

I try to be as kind, appreciative and respectful as I can at the same time that I'm IN THEIR FACES. If it sounds like I'm terribly combative, I'm really not. That would be counterproductive. I just know that noone cares about T as much as I do, and I know him best. AND the public schools are extremely underfunded and the people working with T don't necessarily get ANY training about autism, so it's my job to educate them as much as an NT can until T is old enough to speak for himself. When he's old enough and we're still in school he's coming to the IEP meeting whether anyone likes it or not.