Hi, my son is 7 years old. He is in special education classroom. I believe he will benefit more if he is in general education with a paraprofessional but the school says he is not ready yet. His IEP meeting is in June. I don’t know how to communicate this to school. What is the criteria for him to join general Ed? He is verbal, potty trained and no big behavior at school. Please help.
Answer:
We have to understand the as much as we think we have an idea of what the perfect placement is, the district has to serve the needs of many. I use to get frustrated with this because it felt like Juliann was a square peg they were trying to force into a round hole, but as I learned through the years, the district has a set amount of types of classrooms/placements based on the amount of children they need to service and where their needs fall. The district is ALWAYS looking to offer your child the least restrictive placement they will thrive in. That is their agenda.
Now you have this idea in your mind he would thrive in a general education classroom with a 1:1, however in most cases, this is not one of the "standard" placements a district would typically offer. They want to see him be able to be in a general education classroom with no support as the 1:1 could be a distraction to the other kids.
So what is the compromise? That is what the discussion needs to be focused on when you have the meeting and preferably before hand so when everyone walks into the conference room there are no surprises, no gear ups for battle, etc.
The question I would ask .. Is there a placement more like general education that will challenge your son but still provide him the education the district is required to provide?
In our district this type of classroom was called an inclusion class. It was a class room with about 25 students and 7 of those students had IEPs. The class was co-taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The whole class had to finish curriculum and no one knew which children had the IEPs.
Now a good question to answer for yourself is why do you feel he needs a 1:1, they may have this classroom but feel he's not ready if he needs more support. OR do you feel he needs the 1:1 and why? AND if either is the case, lets work together in the program to practice instructional control at home which would carry over to school.
We have an IEP Module apart of the Champions for Our Children Masterclass, but here is the link to the training video:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/592246282?h=3c772c2495&dnt=1&app_id=122963
Let me know your thoughts and can post them and followup questions here.
We have to understand the as much as we think we have an idea of what the perfect placement is, the district has to serve the needs of many. I use to get frustrated with this because it felt like Juliann was a square peg they were trying to force into a round hole, but as I learned through the years, the district has a set amount of types of classrooms/placements based on the amount of children they need to service and where their needs fall. The district is ALWAYS looking to offer your child the least restrictive placement they will thrive in. That is their agenda.
Now you have this idea in your mind he would thrive in a general education classroom with a 1:1, however in most cases, this is not one of the “standard” placements a district would typically offer. They want to see him be able to be in a general education classroom with no support as the 1:1 could be a distraction to the other kids.
So what is the compromise? That is what the discussion needs to be focused on when you have the meeting and preferably before hand so when everyone walks into the conference room there are no surprises, no gear ups for battle, etc.
The question I would ask .. Is there a placement more like general education that will challenge your son but still provide him the education the district is required to provide?
In our district this type of classroom was called an inclusion class. It was a class room with about 25 students and 7 of those students had IEPs. The class was co-taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The whole class had to finish curriculum and no one knew which children had the IEPs.
Now a good question to answer for yourself is why do you feel he needs a 1:1, they may have this classroom but feel he’s not ready if he needs more support. OR do you feel he needs the 1:1 and why? AND if either is the case, lets work together in the program to practice instructional control at home which would carry over to school.
We have an IEP Module apart of the Champions for Our Children Masterclass, but here is the link to the training video:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/592246282?h=3c772c2495&dnt=1&app_id=122963
Let me know your thoughts and can post them and followup questions here.
So I believe he can do better in an inclusion classroom. All other kids in his class are less verbal and he picks behaviors from his peers. I will talk to about the placement in IEP meeting. Let’s see what they say. Thank you!
Amazing! Let me know what they say… this is a big step for him mama! We got your back. xoxo
Thanks. I was going through the link you posted above. So the section where they are talking about julianna s measurable social emotional and behavioural goals, point number 7,8,9,10, is same as my son. But they never mentioned that on IEP. how can I bring this up? And say he needs support here? Like I don’t know how to communicate with the team.
The best way to do this, is to have a pre-meeting so to speak, you can even put it in writing via email. Ask, Can we add these goals officially on the IEP. etc. Ideally you want the official meeting to be as anticlimatic as possible. No surprises as best as possible.
Ok great! Thanks. I’ll email the teacher and will keep you posted.
Go get em Mama!