Thursday, March 12, 2015
The IEP Process
Yesterday, I was included on an S team meeting for one
of my students. This student is gifted but was diagnosed with dyslexia. Many
different people were present in the meeting such as the parents, the gen ed
teacher, the special education teacher, the RTI teacher, the school
psychologist, metro legal and a couple more. It was extremely interesting and
frustrating to be able to observe the meeting. Because of the RTI system in
place, it is essentially impossible for my student to be granted an IEP. She
would need to be moved down to tier 3 and be considered failing at that level
in order to be offered an IEP. However, my student is gifted in some areas and does
not belong in tier 3. But, she still does need services such as the Wilson reading
program in order to help her dyslexia. My classroom teacher explains that she
is frustrated and sad for the student because she does not know how to help
her. I understand that the school is unable to offer the student an IEP because
of legal issues, but there must be some other way to allow her to have access
to the services that she needs. The RTI process is supposed to identify
students with specific disabilities and learning needs. However, we already
know that this student has a serious problem and needs support. Because I am not a Special Education student, I feel that I have very little knowledge or background within this area of the IEP process. This situation especially, makes me want to learn more so that I can be knowledgable and updated in the future in my own classroom.
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Wow. That would be really frustrating to hear. I had a similar experience in an IEP meeting at my new placement. Now, anyone with SPED knowledge will know that I am clearly missing information, but this was my understanding of the issues during the meeting:
ReplyDeleteOne of my students has a very real emotional issue. Apparently she has bipolar disorder among other diagnoses. However, during the IEP meeting they were discussing how apparently she has a clinical diagnosis on the autism spectrum. However, the school staff clearly disagreed. They did not want to refute the clinical diagnosis, and recognized that that was not their place, but shared the opinion that through their experiences did not believe she was autistic. Rather, they hypothesized that she has a severe emotional disorder. They do not have the authority to diagnose her as clinically depressed, but did recognize a lot of the signs. They were frustrated that a lot of the accommodations they were supposed to make according to the government did not really fit her needs because of her clinical diagnosis on the autism spectrum, and that the accommodations needed were not really provided.
I would love to have more information about the technicalities and rules and procedures for IEPs, etc. The whole process was very confusing, and disheartening, to me as well.
I have seen upsetting effects of the complicated legal process for IEPs in my new placement as well. I have one student who is on the Autism spectrum as well. However, he is in an interesting situation this year. He moved to Nashville from Colorado in November or December, so he is new to the class and also to the MNPS system. Due to some technicality, though, he is not able to receive resources for his Autism in Nashville since his diagnosis was made in Colorado. So, currently at Hickman he is only receiving an hour (or 2 I can’t quite remember) of services a week for speech, but nothing else until he is tested again for Autism in Tennessee. His autism is not severe, but is pronounced. Regardless, it is upsetting to me that due to legal rules and having to put everything through “the system”, the state of Tennessee is not able to provide the services that he needs.
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