So our IEP is tomorrow

[spooko]

And I'm starting to get nervous. As far as I know it's just the usual yearly review situation, but given that he's going to start MS in the fall, I'm not sure if it'll actually be different or not. I know we are supposed to be meeting the new SN coordinator who does the MS stuff, and I believe they said we'll find out who his homeroom teacher will be. BUT, IDK if anything else will be covered or how I'm supposed to make sure he has the right accommodations/system/whatever if I don't really know how he's going to do there. Ugh.

And DS just mentioned to me yesterday that next year he won't need to check in with [SN coordinator he has now] and he won't need anyone to stay after him. He IS doing well right now, but he's certainly not entirely on point so we're not really ready to be done with an IEP. I don't want to undercut his self esteem on how he's doing and have him think we don't believe he's capable, though, either.

So many spiraling thoughts. Just needed to stick them somewhere here.

[mrsbuttinski]

Ah, the transition to middle school.

Random thoughts-

1. Did they do his triennial as part of the transition IEP? Many districts will tweak the scheduled assessment schedule so that the student has a fresh MFE ahead of writing the IEP that will be in effect in middle school.

We did DS's triennial in late 6th in anticipation of the transition. Two critical pieces that might apply to your DS (he's mostly dealing with ADHD, no?) would be executive function skills and social behavior.

BASC student reporting and Vineland (full) are great for this age in terms of teasing out subtle differences in bright kids who need supports or accommodations in mainstream.

2. What grade is he? And what sort of transition supports are offered to all the students?

DS's elementary uses a middle school model of team teaching in 6th. This gave us a pretty good idea of how DS would do once he transitioned to the middle school building and a house system. The district prepares the kids pretty well for the transition- they visit the building and tour, they have a field day with kids from the other feeder schools and they deliver lockers for the kids to practice on.

DS's IEP custodian visited the middle school several times to sort out which of her students would be in what level of classes for each subject area from self contained, resource. learning support, inclusion, academic, accelerated or honors.

3. There can be a huge step up in terms of expectations at middle school. In elementary, teachers get to know their core students well and will extend the benefit of the doubt/grade on effort or intention for a nice kid. This is much less likely in middle school where grades tend to be earned rather than given. Many kids who previously did well, will see a drop in their GPA.

Another piece is that kids who are used to basically one set of expectations will have to learn 7 or more. Unless they use a true MS model with teams of teachers coordinating their assignments, he'll need to step up his time and materials management skills to get everything expected of him completed.

4. What's in the IEP now? Supports? Services? Accommodations?

5. It sounds like he is bristling at the need for an IEP. TBH, that's no reason to make it go away. I have a friend whose son didn't want an IEP. She made it go away. Unfortunately, he's paying the price now- 5 years into a 2 year program with no end date in sight.

6. At this point, he should be participating in the IEP meeting. Maybe not stay for the whole thing, but he should put in an appearance and talk about how he sees his needs. At some point he'll need to become his own advocate; best to start earlier and ease him into it.

[mirandah]

Good luck, spooko ,! I'm very curious to hear how it goes today.

Have you communicated with the MS social worker/ASD teacher? In a perfect world I'd like a sit-down with both the MS MSW and someone familiar with DS on his elementary team. I've been stalking the middle school's weekly newsletter sniffing out programs and any references to the ASD program. It seems like there are a lot of opportunities for "homework help" and teacher open hours that I want to work into his accommodations.

[spooko]

1. Did they do his triennial as part of the transition IEP? Many districts will tweak the scheduled assessment schedule so that the student has a fresh MFE ahead of writing the IEP that will be in effect in middle school.

We did DS's triennial in late 6th in anticipation of the transition. Two critical pieces that might apply to your DS (he's mostly dealing with ADHD, no?) would be executive function skills and social behavior.

BASC student reporting and Vineland (full) are great for this age in terms of teasing out subtle differences in bright kids who need supports or accommodations in mainstream.

I believe he was last up for evaluation at the end of 2nd grade and we opted to forego it at that time. No one has mentioned anything about doing an evaluation this year, so I assume he’ll be up to do it again next year.

2. What grade is he? And what sort of transition supports are offered to all the students?

DS's elementary uses a middle school model of team teaching in 6th. This gave us a pretty good idea of how DS would do once he transitioned to the middle school building and a house system. The district prepares the kids pretty well for the transition- they visit the building and tour, they have a field day with kids from the other feeder schools and they deliver lockers for the kids to practice on.

DS's IEP custodian visited the middle school several times to sort out which of her students would be in what level of classes for each subject area from self contained, resource. learning support, inclusion, academic, accelerated or honors.

He’s in 4th, starting 5th for MS in the fall. I did email his teacher this morning to find out whether or not the whole grade goes over for a tour as part of the school year or not. If not (and maybe even if so), I will be sure to get him there this summer to get it sorted out.

At least he’s been in the building before for some summer school classes and wrestling practices, so it’s not COMPLETELY new.

I did grow up in the district and attended this school so I know how MS used to operate as far as who teaches what, but I’ll have to verify it’s still done the same way.

As it is in our small town, there may be a handful of kids who transition over from the religious schools, but there shouldn’t be too many new faces for him as far as peers go.

3. There can be a huge step up in terms of expectations at middle school. In elementary, teachers get to know their core students well and will extend the benefit of the doubt/grade on effort or intention for a nice kid. This is much less likely in middle school where grades tend to be earned rather than given. Many kids who previously did well, will see a drop in their GPA.

Another piece is that kids who are used to basically one set of expectations will have to learn 7 or more. Unless they use a true MS model with teams of teachers coordinating their assignments, he'll need to step up his time and materials management skills to get everything expected of him completed.

The increase in expectations coupled with the less benefit of the doubt/more people to piss off is what scares me most about him going to the MS. It’s hard for me to accept that there really isn’t much I can do to smooth this all out for him other than continuing to remind him that there’s times where you just need to go along to get along with the nit-pickier teachers. It’s a life lesson that he’s getting a lot of practice with!

4. What's in the IEP now? Supports? Services? Accommodations?

Right now he has the option of a separate environment for tests (that he doesn’t use), the option to take a quick break to reset in the resource room or taking a lap around the school (seldom used but very beneficial when needed), and a behavior-reward chart that he doesn’t much care about but serves as a way to track his goal progress/attainment.

TBH, the majority of his support has come from excellent teachers who manage their classrooms extremely adeptly and who keep open lines of communication with me. This is a double edged sword because it either ends up being an excellent year with excellent teachers or a mediocre one at best. I’m unfamiliar with the 5th grade teachers for the most part, so FX that there are some great ones!

Are there other things to help his executive functioning (definitely the biggest challenge) that we should be considering?

5. It sounds like he is bristling at the need for an IEP. TBH, that's no reason to make it go away. I have a friend whose son didn't want an IEP. She made it go away. Unfortunately, he's paying the price now- 5 years into a 2 year program with no end date in sight.

I’m not sure if he’s really bristling at it so much as just really proud of himself for where he is right now and not really factoring in that he still has a long way to go. Kind of just can’t acknowledge what he’s missing because he doesn’t know he’s missing it. Fortunately, he’s chill enough that I don’t really expect a falling out or anything…more just trying to find a balance of showing him we see his hard work and how awesome it is and still keeping that bar held high so he gets where we need him to get.

6. At this point, he should be participating in the IEP meeting. Maybe not stay for the whole thing, but he should put in an appearance and talk about how he sees his needs. At some point he'll need to become his own advocate; best to start earlier and ease him into it.

He will be attending tonight. I already told him that he needs to be respectful at the meeting and that he’s welcome to participate in the conversation so long as he’s doing plenty of listening, too.

I appreciate the feedback and you’ve given me several things to jot down for clarification at the meeting!

[spooko]

Apr 10, 2017 9:29:27 GMT -5 mirandah said:

Good luck, spooko ,! I'm very curious to hear how it goes today.

Have you communicated with the MS social worker/ASD teacher? In a perfect world I'd like a sit-down with both the MS MSW and someone familiar with DS on his elementary team. I've been stalking the middle school's weekly newsletter sniffing out programs and any references to the ASD program. It seems like there are a lot of opportunities for "homework help" and teacher open hours that I want to work into his accommodations.

The MS SN professional is supposed to attend our IEP this afternoon, so hopefully we'll be able to get her the full scoop on DS today. I'll have to ask about what kind of school help programs are at the MS level. I know they have a homework-help detention of sorts but I'm fuzzy on the details.

[spooko]

Whew. I'm exhausted. It actually was pretty straightforward and easy, but I was so stressed all day that I'm wiped out.

Highlights:

DS' behavior goal will remain at the same attainment. Verbiage will change so that it reflects keeping his percentage across multiple classrooms now instead of basically only being in one class before. This will address basically be the middle ground to account for those changes in expectations by keeping it a "maintenance goal."

DS is killing it this year on his goal achievement, in no small part to the classroom teacher. Talked about how to best handle him and also that a lot of the good choices are coming FROM HIM at this point. That the SN coordinator has been pretty hands off.

Got some cliff notes on how things run at the MS. Apparently there will be a half-day field trip for him there in May, as well as a parent informational night. We can inquire more as questions arise from these experiences.

Was able to point out that loss of recess should be a last resort, especially given even more limited movement in MS. Was also able to point out that he needs a real fine balance between following through on actions having consequences while still allowing many opportunities to practice these skills as he makes mistakes and grows. Can't lock down on him for too long or he gives up but also needs to know that you aren't playing and won't just let things go because it's more work to enforce and he can wear you down.

Academics are stellar so no testing accommodations.

Will preserve 5 minute break daily, time TBD once he gets into the swing of things and they can determine where it'll be the most beneficial.

Think that was the big things, basically.