Our next IEP with Charleston County Schools came after we had come to a semi-agreement with regards to transportation. The Charles Webb Center had moved to its new site and a school in that district had a special education program which Ben could attend and be transported to Charles Webb afterward. So let me get this right. They were not able to transport him after school to a program out of our district, but they were able to transport him to a school out of our district so he could be transported to the same after
school program. Whatever!
Prior to the IEP Dennis and I attended a workshop to help us prepare for the
process. We truly wanted to understand why we got so much resistance to almost everything we requested. I found some handwritten notes I had made during the workshop:
- Be Kind. This is probably one of the most important recommendations that was made to us; that admittedly we did not always follow. Our frustrations got the best of us at times. Trust me the old adage “you catch more flies with honey” is true.
- Make it clear that you want to deviate from computer generated goals. I’ve mentioned before that we were met on more than one occasion with a team who showed up with a pre-generated IEP. Dennis and I contacted them in advance and asked that all recommended goals be sent to us so we could consult with our teachers and therapists
- Assistive Technology – Make sure both forms are checked. Both communications system and writing system.
- Make sure speech therapist has experience with alternative forms of communication.
When time came for the IEP, we had made notes on all the goals being proposed by the school teachers and therapists. We had added our own and expressed concerns over ones that we felt were not appropriate or attainable. We really felt that we had covered all of our bases
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To further our case we felt that it was important that everyone in the room remember exactly why we were there. What better way than to set a picture of our adorable boy right in the middle of the table.
How could anyone resist this face?
Since we had discussed the goals in advance, the meeting went smoothly until we got to the specifics on what services would be provided and for how long. We suspected that this would be a problem because the county school board was facing a budgetary crisis and was systematically eliminating their ranks of staff therapists. Our fears were confirmed when they gave us times.
Speech – 50min.wk
Occupational Therapy – 30 min/ bi-weekly. 15 min/month consult
Physical Therapy – 30 min/ week. 30 min/ month consult
In addition; no assistive technology or augmentative communication devices were checked as necessary!
We could see how they could argue that physical therapy was so low because they needed to see an educational benefit to any services provided. However, speech and occupational therapy were of their very essence educational. This was such an important part of Ben’s development.
Then came the LRE Worksheet (Least Restrictive Environment). The extent to which they were willing to mainstream Ben with non-delayed students would be as follows:
With regular Kindergarten class – 40 min/wk
Assemblies with 5 year olds – 50 min / wk
Library – 1 x/wk
Recess
Total mainstream average 2 hours / week
The reason there was not more time with regular class was stated on the form:
“In order to meet Bennet’s needs, time would be taken away from peers in large group setting.”
Did I mention we are talking about Kindergarten? In later years in elementary school in Hanover County when there was a more structured educational environment he was able to be mainstreamed much more than this!
The school administrators would not budge on the times and we once again refused to sign the IEP. When we mentioned our concerns; that they were not in compliance with the LRE provisions of the law, their response was that while it might be true, we would need to sue them to get the results that we wanted.
We did however agree to another meeting for further discussion and agreed to enroll Ben in school. This whole attitude was particularly frustrating because of a major controversy that was playing out in Charleston which we felt was contributing to Charleston County’s budgetary problems and the diminishing ranks of school therapists. Charleston County had just built a massive administration building housed on a very expensive piece of real estate in downtown Charleston. It was so extravagant that it was quickly dubbed “The Taj Mahal”. We were disgusted at the thought of the layoffs and kids having to attend classrooms housed in trailers while twelve million dollars was being spent on a building to house administrators.
Next up Ben’s first day of school and more headaches for us…