Rebecca and I had the MOST wonderful meeting yesterday with her school! Since Rebecca qualifies for Special Ed and has an active IEP (Individual Education Plan), the charter school Rebecca is signed up through is required to follow that IEP. Therefore, they set up a meeting for yesterday. We met with her Independent Study (IS) teacher, the principal of the school, the head of the resource department, and Rebecca's new resource teacher. One word to describe this meeting was WOW!!!
First let me tell you about Rebecca's IEP meeting at her previous school. I met with her teacher, principal, school counselor, resource lead, and in some cases reading specialist. THEY discussed Rebecca's weaknesses and ways to help her. As a parent, I am considered a part of the IEP team, but basically my job was to agree with and sign THEIR plan. Any ideas I came up with were usually shot down due to budget restraints or lack of resources. I was told to try my ideas at home. For example, I felt Rebecca would benefit from OT (occupational therapy). They did not so it was never put down in the plan. I thought Rebecca should have her tests read to her. They said that reading was all part of the evaluation process. I thought she should have her text books on tape. They said they didn't have them. THEY were the experts on what Rebecca needed, and I didn't know any better because I had never been involved in an IEP meeting before. I thought they were doing their best to accommodate to Rebecca's needs. The end result was that Rebecca would be pulled from class 3 times a week and be put in resource with other kids with special needs. Those kids were all boys from other grades and most spent a lot of time misbehaving which took time away from learning. Her IEP also listed that her classroom teacher could make appropriate accommodations in class. Her teachers were ALWAYS great and they did their best to follow accommodations we came up with together, but with a class of 30 something students, I totally understand how the accommodations were not met all of the time.
The minute our meeting started yesterday, my jaw dropped to the floor. The first thing they did was turn to Rebecca and ask her to tell them about herself. They wanted to know her strengths and weaknesses as she knew them. Then, they asked me my opinion. I am now the expert on Rebecca, not them! At that point, they told me that they would be meeting with Rebecca once a week for 1:1 instruction. They all looked at me and said "what do you want?". I was speechless! Rebecca will now be getting OT as well as help in reading, spelling and writing. They are even going to work on math with her even though she has never been tested for math disabilities (even though she struggles). They accepted her diagnosis of dyslexia and dysgraphia and those who didn't know much about it were open to hearing about it and plan to learn more rather than give me excuses.
I left the meeting with a big lump in my throat. The hour I had just spent with them was THE most productive school meeting we have had for Rebecca in 5 years!!! I should have done this years ago. I've been thinking about it since 2nd grade, but always wanted to give the school that one more chance. Our system works fine with the average students. But not for the struggling students. It's really sad that public schools can't do more. I really think home school is the BEST thing for Rebecca. We made the right decision for sure.
