accommodations

All we really get is the At a Glance not the entire IEP. I am a TA in a classroom with a new class/semester and I am actually pulling my own Glance's as I was only given one for 1 student and there are 8 in this class.

Also I find in high school many students don't want or refuse some of the accomodations such as small group, read aloud etc etc because they are leaving the classroom and now they have been singled out as being "special ed".

One of the many reasons Inclusion was put into place was to not single out and segregate Gen Ed vs SPED students but high schoolers are not stupid they know what time it is when they enter a classroom with 2 teachers or 1 teacher and an assistant.

 

My district doesn't have a daily grade book. I can see how in your district you could tell parents to look at the grade book for grades (if you enter them when you grade them). But what if the parent doesn't have internet and no Smartphone. Do you want her calling you every afternoon or would you prefer choosing what works for you.

I'm not saying it is the best accommodation, but if it is really on the IEP, I can see reasons why a team may have put it on there whether you like it or not. In a push to turn it on the parent the parent presented a valid argument that without the right information (which can only come from the teachers) she can't do what they want her to do. If they pressed hard enough, they can't turn around after they insisted he NEEDS this to then turn around and claim he doesn't need it because they don't want to provide what will make it work. I'm not saying that it is completely over the top, but I am saying that there are ways that the school may have inadvertently put you into this spot.

 

No, the parent would not win that. The state would side with the school because it is impossible for the school to comply everyday because it requires the parent answering everyday. The state would not see a teacher having to continually call until the parent answers as appropriate. If the school had record of a call every day, the school would definitely prevail. Parents don't win very often in compliance cases unless it is an egregious violation such as IEPs not being handed out for weeks and not proof to show they were.

 

I understand why kids with IEPs don't want to be singled out. It is the attitudes that prevail about them that cause that more than the help they get. Heck, when you have educators calling the kids with IEP "special snowflakes", it doesn't bode well for the emotional well being of kids with disabilities and the desire to stand out and seek the help they need. If the adults call them names, just think of what their peers who are all about social pecking order think about them (well at least the ones that will stoop to the level of calling other names).

 

I guess I'm lucky. I write my students' IEPs. I don't even know if the parents read them but they've never questioned anything. One parent wanted her child to have an extra therapy session per week but I think that was it. We are also only required by the school to contact parents once per month. I will usually email them more often but I would not be penalized as long as I do it once per month.

 

The term "special snowflake" refers to any child, with or without special needs, who (or whose parent) demands special treatment due to their perfect and exceptional nature.

 

Heck, my friend even calls her own kid a special snowflake and he doesn't have disabilities. Just quirky lol

 

As a special ed teacher, I always gave my gen ed teachers an at a glance accommodations sheet for each student until the full accommodations page could be handed out. I only gave them the sheet with the students' goals/objectives and the accommodations page so 3 pages at the most. A full IEP document is at least 13 pages. I know teachers do not want all that paperwork when all they really need is 3 sheets worth. On the At a Glance page, I did put their disability.

We just learned in a training the other day that we are not required to give teachers the IEP document anymore, but must make it available to them either online or in the special education teachers room. I don't think this is a good idea and know that my district will still make it a policy that each teacher is given the goals page and the accommodations page.

Caesar~I always gave my foreign language teachers the language arts goals and accommodations. Those teacher adapted it any way they could.

 

And that makes it better.

I realize some use those terms for kids regardless of disabilities, but really, calling a kid a name because of behaviors of a parent.

So, I used "special snowflake" as the term, but it isn't as if other terms aren't used for kids with difficult behaviors due to their disabilities. Any time a "professional" is calling those they are in charge of names it is not a good thing. It is also a term I have heard used for special education students with behavior problems and it had nothing to do with the parent. Funny thing about slang language is that different areas use it different ways. Is there a "special snowflake" definition somewhere that everyone uses exactly the same?

 

Again, that makes it ok?

 

Are you equally offended at the term "helicopter parent" or "uninvolved parent"?

 

I find the accommodation about "seat closest to the door" really odd. In all of the gen ed classes in which I do inclusion support, by the door is just about the worst place you could put a kid who has trouble focusing. Then they can see and hear everything going on out in the halls.

When I write an accommodation dealing with preferential seating, I usually word it so it says something to the effect of "student will be seated where distractions are fewest." That way it's flexible and can be applied to a variety of classroom setups. And it also recognizes that there's no truly "distraction free" seating arrangement.

 

My school/district is very good about not only giving teachers full IEPs for each IEP student they have (usually by mid-Septemeber); but, if an IEP is updated for any reason, they make sure to give us a new copy. This is mostly because over the last decade or so, my district has been sued and lawsuits have been threatened over not properly servicing IEP students. As a result, there are district officials who audit a school's SPED department once every year or two and do "pop up" checks to ensure that teachers have copies of their students' IEP.

That being said, it's all a front to CYA. Often, the actual accomodations and modifications are not fully carried out because this part of the IEP process is not checked/investigated unless a parent brings up concerns.

 

I am offended by any derogatory names. Yes. Uninvolved is not necessarily a derogatory name because it describes a real action. People are not helicopters but they can be uninvolved.

Regardless, calling someone a name because of the action of others or calling any student a name is not professional.

Do you condone calling students names even if is behind their backs? Are you not offended by the unprofessionalism of it all?

Would you like parents getting together calling you names because of actions of an admin? Do you appreciate parents calling you names in general? While they should behave civilly, they are not being paid as professionals to do so. They aren't asking to be called professionals.

 

I can see that in a very specific case where a student feels trapped or claustrophobic due to OCD or anxiety. I agree, it is the most distracting seat in the room.

 

I suspect that a seat near the door would be meant for a student with something like PTSD or severe anxiety or claustrophobia than for issues focusing, but I could be wrong.

 

I'm not all that put off by the phrase "special snowflake". I think that it is just another term to describe one specific type of student/parent. Sorry.

 

Ah, that would make a lot of sense. I wasn't even thinking about that- I guess so far I haven't had a student with that kind of seating need!

 

It's been the norm for us to get our accomadation pages soon but two grading periods have passed before getting the 504 pages.

 

It shouldn't be the responsibility of the special education teacher to hand out the IEP to everyone working with the child. I like that my district has an online system. The IEP is available to everyone working with the child automatically. It is their responsibility to view the IEP. If they have questions, want clarifications or suggestions on working with the child then they can approach the special education team.

 

I think that's acceptable to say in your situation, since you've said that everyone has access to the IEP. In my school, however, only sped teachers and admin have access to the online system (and, technically, we're not supposed to consider the online IEP the official copy anyway - only the hard copy in the file is official). So, it really is the responsibility of the sped teacher/case manager to get the IEP to all other teachers who work with the student.

 

I guess I'm not really understanding how and why daily communication with a parent is considered an accommodation for a student... I get why a parent might request that, and I can even see how it could help a student. What I'm not getting though is how it helps a student to be successful in the classroom, which is what accommodations are designed to do. It just doesn't seem to me like something that should go in the IEP. It sounds more like a casual agreement a parent and school might make.

Maybe it's just not something my school does, and, therefore, I'm just not used to it. I just can't imagine ever seeing communication with a parent as an accommodation in an IEP.

 

It's the case manager's responsibility to get the IEP out to all educationally relevant individuals, not the sped teacher.

Let's say a student has severe executive functioning issues - it would help the parent to stay on top of their child's homework and project situation, so nothing major would creep up on them and they'd have to complete it or study for it the night before.

In most cases, the team would come up with an accommodation (for HS/MS) like "Teachers will email [Sped Teacher/Resource Room Teacher/Some special ed teacher the student is familiar with] assignments every day. Student must bring planner at end of day to [FAMILIAR TEACHER] to have it checked."

Then the familiar teacher would check to make sure the student has everything needed for the assignment, etc.

Or the district could provide the related service of providing organizational skills/executive functioning remediation - this is usually provided by a SLP, an OT, or sometimes a special education teacher (In the case of the latter, it usually involves the teacher helping the student come up with an semi-ironclad, usually color-coded, organization system)

 

In our district special education teachers are case managers. So, special education teachers do hand out IEPs.

 

I don't see why it should be. Imagine if the teacher had to do this for every special ed kid. The teacher would never be able to leave before 5pm most days.

 

We are the case managers here too. I have to give copies of everything because gen ed teachers don't have access to our online IEP system.