HELP - IEP (NEVER PARTICIPATED IN ONE BEFORE)

[ME & THE BOYS]

Hello there,

I hope you can help. My son has a learning disability (MID) and has never had an IEP before.

The school is asking for some info from me to help them aid putting together an IEP for him.

They ask for strenghts/areas of need. Interests, and GOALS AND TARGETS FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR.

Really he has very little strenghts that I can think of, but has alot of weaknesses.

I don't know what to put where they ask about GOALS/TARGETS FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR.

Any suggestions here on this question. I much could use your help for those of you who have gone thru the IEP thing before.

Thank you so very much.

 

[busywend]

I am going to send this over to Special Education - Sheil or Martie will have wonderful links for such a thing. I will leave a pointer in General so people know to answer you there.

 

[busywend]

OOPPSS!! You are way ahead of me and already posted in Special Education. I can not move it back because I am not a mod in Special Education. I will report to Sheila & Martie though. Sorry!!

 

[Sheila]

Has your child already gone through the school district's evaluation process?

BW, I'll send your cross-post to girlfriend.

 

[ME & THE BOYS]

Not exactly sure what you mean? His school did a full psychoeducational evaluation on him last year (late last year).

He has MID ( a huge learning disability).

I don't know what to suggest they place in this IEP and it is due from me tomorrow.

 

[Jessica mom of 2]

Hi, I hope i can be of some help. I have a daughter with an IEP and if you aren't sure what it is, 1st I will explain. The school districts do a very poor job of explaining an IEP.

It is a pack of papers with goals for your child to meet through out the year and by a certain date. There are a bunch of different goals depending on his needs and what areas he needs extra help in. They will track his progress and see if he is benefiting from the help. If not, they will make changes to address his problems in a different manner.

I read your signature info about you and your boys so I am guessing he is 7. My daughter is 7 as well with ADHD. I am going to give a few of her goals, not sure where your son is as far as academics.

Goals-

reading- sequence of events, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, blends, blending sounds, comprehension etc.

math- counting money, place value, word problems, basic math facts etc.

Functional skills- staying on task, completing classwork and homework, following directions, etc.

One thing they will more than likely mention is modifying his work. He will have less spelling words, less math work and/or extra time to finish his work in class. If he doesn't have a 504 accomadations, I would reccomend it. They will probably mention that if he doesn't have one.

I hope I have helped you! I know the 1st meeting I went to I was lost! No one explained anything to me. I said what in the world is an IEP meeting??? I was so confused and stressed about it and they could have reduced that stress with explaining what we would be doing and discussing.

Sometimes you have to be firm and stand your ground! Last year, they didn't want to comply with what I wanted for my child. (retention- staying back in 1st grade) They talked me into the fact that it would be best for her to move on. She went on and 2 weeks into school she was really having a hard time. I scheduled a meeting with her resource teacher/ and teacher and told them I wanted her back in 1st. Needless to say they seen that her moving on to 2nd wasn't such a wonderful idea and they said ok and had her in a first grade classroom they very next day.

Sorry I didn't mean to ramble, I just want you to know that your not alone and we have to stand up for our children because if parents don't, who will?

Good luck and keep us posted!
Jessica

 

[Sheila]

Thanks for the clarification.

As Jessica indicated, they are asking for parent input into the IEP, e.g., your opinion of what you think he needs, what needs to be targeted, etc. Ask for whatever you think will help difficult child academically and behavior plan wise.