As Fosterparent has made clear, having an IEP is only part of the management process; you also have to ensure that the IEP is well-written and designed to actually help, and also to make sure it is implemented. It needs to be monitored, you as parent need to keep your wits about you to make sure it is working properly.
Example - currently, difficult child 3's placement is brilliant because he is primarily working form home. However, he still has a Learning Plan drawn up by the school's Special Education teacher in consultation with me and the class teachers. It's been working a bit better this last term but we had a quick meeting (just me and the Special Education teacher) which we set up at a moment's notice when difficult child 3 & I were at school for two days this week. Otherwise, communicartion with us is over the phone or email. But it was time to review the progress of the plan - so instead of me replying to her email, we sat and talked. As a result of that talk, she is modifying the plan and adapting some of the areas which just aren't working. Why aren't they working? Perhaps because we're trying to get difficult child 3 to do something he just can't do yet, in a way that doesn't work for him. So we're trying to find a different way to do things, to try to find what will help him stay focussed on his work more effectively.
The school for difficult child 3 is brilliant, incredibly supportive, because we're mostly at home there are no behaviour issues (and even when he attends face-to-face lessons, the teachers totally ignore any apparent insolence, they recognise it's the social inappropriateness and not rudeness). I've seen these teachers with some really difficult kids who are in behaviour placements and even THOSE kids are treated with encouragemetn and respect, wven where the kids are openly rude and inappropriate.
But despite the school being as good as this - the Learning Plan still needs to be tweaked, pulled apart in some areas and rewritten.
So if a Learning Plan or IEP is NOT working or not being implemented as it should be, then call another meeting to deal with this. The purpose of the whole process is to ensure that YOUR child is not being disadvantaged in access to education. If your child has a shorter fuse than other kids, if your child is subject to abuse/bullying by other kids, if your child simply can't behave appropriately because he/she hasn't the capacity to learn social skills the same way as other kids - THIS can be addressed (should be addressed) in the IEP, as well as ways the teachers can present the work to better support the child's specific way of learning.
Even the best schools need to have these processes constantly scrutinised. And a dud school may try to act as if "we've done the process now, so go away and let us do what we would have done in the first place."
The IEP also gives you legal recourse, if the school fails to comply with what you all agreed on. There has to be a paper trail and your approval needs to be sought at a number of steps along the way.
The most important thing to remember - YOU are the expert and final approver, because of your position and esxperience with your child. While this means you have to respond as professionally as possible (despite you not being a professional) you are entitled to be treated with respect by the school and also treated as the expert in your child; but you must treat YOURSELF with this same respect, for your knowledge and experience. So inform yourself, educate yourself that little bit more and value your own contribution into your child's educational process.
That is Lesson 1 in becoming a Warrior Parent.
Marg
