Replies

In my son's first grade year he was completely mainstreamed with an aide. The class size was huge, so we moved him for second grade to a program where he was partially mainstreamed and partially in the Special Ed room in a program for autistic kids. Well, that was a mess but only because Oklahoma City Public Schools was running it. Partial mainstreaming could have worked very well. The idea was that he was supposed to do most of his work with his regular class, but have the special ed room to retreat to when he was overstimulated. What actually happened was that the special ed room was there when the TEACHER got overstimulated. And the special ed teacher had only one aide of the four she was supposed to have, and some of those kids were BIG and not potty trained. Many of them nonverbal, most lowfunctioning--and my son was sent there to be babysat way too much. But if he hadn't taken such a spurt in developmental ability about then, we would still probably be dependant on OKC for his education. As it is, we pay $575/month tuition for three kids, grades 6, 3, and 1, and count it a REAL bargain.

You can have an IEP written to serve your son's needs. Funding isn't something they can cite as a reason not to give him what he needs. They are required to give him a free, appropriate public education, including summer programs if that's what he needs. If you don't like what's in the IEP you don't have to sign it, and you can demand that they change it--if they won't, demand a due process hearing, and you can bring a lawyer or anyone you want to any of these meetings, including doctors etc who can support your statements about what he needs. They are not allowed to reject a kid unless they can prove he does not fit one of the diagnostic criterias. If he's autistic, he fits, if he's visually or hearing impaired he fits, etc.

If you're not satisfied with your son's current IEP you can request another meeting and they have to do it. They can keep writing IEPs till they get something that will do what your son needs.

There is probably a local organization that can recommend help with forming the IEP goals and resources your son needs. If you're trying to get them to pay private tuition for him, you will run into many, many stone walls. We didn't even try that. We're paying it ourselves for many reasons.

Hope this helps. You have to be a panther-parent, which is hard for some of us who have more reserved natures. Sometimes they want meek little parents who will rubberstamp their programs, and sit back and tolerate the programs not even being implemented right.

You can have an IEP written to serve your son's needs. Funding isn't something they can cite as a reason not to give him what he needs. They are required to give him a free, appropriate public education, including summer programs if that's what he needs. If you don't like what's in the IEP you don't have to sign it, and you can demand that they change it--if they won't, demand a due process hearing, and you can bring a lawyer or anyone you want to any of these meetings, including doctors etc who can support your statements about what he needs. They are not allowed to reject a kid unless they can prove he does not fit one of the diagnostic criterias. If he's autistic, he fits, if he's visually or hearing impaired he fits, etc. If you're not satisfied with your son's current IEP you can request another meeting and they have to do it. They can keep writing IEPs till they get something that will do what your son needs. There is probably a local organization that can recommend help with forming the IEP goals and resources your son needs. If you're trying to get them to pay private tuition for him, you will run into many, many stone walls. We didn't even try that. We're paying it ourselves for many reasons.

Firstly, thanks for the correction on the gender for my daughter:) Secondly, we've already had to call an emergency meeting to fix the problems in my first IFSP (it's called IFSP not IEP for children under the aged 3, I'm sure you know this, just clarifying for anyone else to avoid any confusion), I had a pitbull of a parent advocate sit in via phone conference for the meeting which lasted 3 hours. Noone initially told me I was entitled to more then the measly 2 hours they offered in the beginning, which comes as no suprise. Now we are in the midst of starting an ABA in home program in my home through EI with me funding a small portion of it (NJ apparently has a different definition in mind of "free and appropriate and I have to pay 10% of what I am over the poverty level in order to recieve more then 2 hours of services, YES this is an absolutely legit law). Anyway, my point is, I am fully aware of how the state works on these issues and thankfully have a good parent advocate to help guide me. It's unfortunate that this is a "learn as you go" journey, as I would have never signed the first IFSP if I knew then what I know now.