It's IEP Time!

It's time for Brycen's IEP for this year and it's scheduled for tomorrow afternoon!  As some of you recall that followed our blog a year ago, we were not happy going into or leaving Brycen's IEP last year.  Though the "I" in IEP is supposed to stand for "Individualized", we sure didn't feel like it was that way.  It felt like the old school district was lumping him into a group of other kids with ASD's that had went before him and the graphs and rubric showed that.  The new "goals" were to be implemented starting that August when the new year started (they denied him extended year because he supposedly did not meet the qualifications).  Lucky for him and us, we found out in mid-August that we were being moved for Mike's job so thankfully he was only in the room for about a month before we officially moved.
 
Since starting at the new school, things seem so much more organized and focused on what he specifically needs and not what kids have been there before him.  This school/teacher has sent multiple papers home over the year asking our input before conferences and before the IEP about what we feel is going right, what we feel needs to be worked on, etc.  We have been made to feel like our input as the parent is actually valuable!!  We go into this IEP at the new school tomorrow with no reservations.  I always feel a little sick to my stomach before these types of things and any other parent with a special needs child can empathize with that.  I still feel that way with this meeting, but it is not nearly as strong as I felt last year!

For those who have never been to an IEP meeting for a child receiving special education services, here is a rundown of who will all be present:  us, his current teacher, his kindergarten general education teacher, his kindergarten special education teacher, his occupational therapist for school, his speech-language pathologist for school, educational consultant from AEA, and the principal.  It takes this many people to plan for his special education services for the next year!
 
Our goals for the coming year for him will of course be focused on communication and socialization.  We are also wanting an associate with him at all times to help with hygiene, transitions, etc.  The teacher uses our input to put together ideas of goals/rubric/graphs after assessing his progress over the last year on the current goals.  We do not have to agree to the goals written (though I'm pretty sure we won't have any issues this year) and can ask for changes to be made.  We can also ask for an addendum IEP at any time during the year though we have not felt that need since moving to this school.  IEP's are legal documents and the school must follow them.  There are special rights that children with IEP's and their parents have though luckily I have not had to research this too much yet because of how confident I am with this school district.
 
On the emotional side, IEP's are not fun because you once again see on paper just how far behind your child is from his peers and how he needs specific goals to work on besides the general education goals that every child in kindergarten has.  I know it's never going to be easy seeing and reading all of this about Brycen:(  I don't think anyone goes through pregnancy and birth with the hope that they will get to be the parents on the other side of the table at an IEP.  But it's something that God chose for us to go through and we know having an IEP sets out a plan for Brycen for his educational years to help him make the most progress possible with the most support he qualifies for, so with that in mind, we will go into the IEP knowing that this is the best for Brycen and knowing that he has a wonderful group of people sitting all around that table!

Here is a fun poem that talks about IEP's that some of you may have read already, but it helps lighten the mood around times like this!
http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/ieps.html