We had yet another IEP meeting for Connor (that makes, um, 3 official IEP meetings, plus the MFE, ETR, and two "informal" meetings since March 
) We had several topics to discuss, but before I get into the details, here's my question:
Can I ask that a member of the team be replaced by someone else? I am finding that I really dislike the audiologist that our special education regional center has assigned to Connor, I'll go into details below, but I know there are other audiologists at the regional center, can I ask that we get a new one assigned to his IEP team? And if so, how do I go about doing that??
Here's how the meeting went:
1. He had a physical therapy eval a few weeks ago, and I got the report from that. He does qualify for physical therapy, although just barely. He's always been just on the cusp in gross motor skills, he will be slightly behind, qualify for therapy, then have a large jump and not qualify for a while, then he stagnates until he qualifies again, then a jump, etc. He was in and out of PT when he was in early intervention, and now he qualifies again. He showed a mild delay in locomotor skills, and noted decreased tone in his trunk and extremities. So when school starts again in the fall he'll get 75 minutes a month of PT at school.
2. I had intended on discussing the independent assessment that Ohio School for the Deaf conducted, but it seems that most members of the team had not read the stinking report yet!!!
I received the report on May 24th, and I faxed a copy to the school psychologist on May 25th (although she should have received her own mailed copy). When I requested this IEP meeting, I gave a list of topics I wanted to discuss, and this report was on my list. The school chose the time and day of the meeting, so silly me thought they'd have read the report. Guess not. The team agreed to read the report and consider the recommendations listed on the report and be ready to discuss it when the team reconvenes in August before the next school year. I said that I expect them to come prepared with a list of possible responses to the recommendations so we can all discuss which route to go with each one. We'll see how that goes.
3. ESY...Connor did not qualify for ESY. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't, and kind of irked that basically the reason he doesn't qualify is because they know that he's in private speech therapy, so they don't think that he's going to regress much over the summer. So basically since we are paying our own money to have him in private therapy, the school is now off the hook for providing him ESY services. What a convenient loop hole for them. It's not a big deal, I'm not going to push it, but the irony of it rubs me wrong.
4. So now the part that precipitated my question above. The audiologist was there with her report from her review of his records and her observation of him in the classroom. The gist of her report is that he doesn't meet the state definition of hearing impaired, which is true, but I'm fighting that at a state level because the state definition is more restrictive than IDEA's definition. That's a whole 'nother post. That part I'm fine with. But what I'm so upset about is she repeatedly was questioning our choice of using ASL with Connor. She also was questioning our involvement with the Deaf Community, at one point saying (this is an exact quote): "Connor is NOT deaf, you are doing him a disservice by calling him that and by associating with the culture so much." I said "he may not be medically deaf, but he is Deaf (cultural label) in that he relies on a visual communication for his expressive communication." She kept saying that his speech problems weren't related to his hearing (I agree that they aren't *fully* related to his hearing, but they are partially) but I kept saying "it doesn't matter WHY he uses ASL, only that the fact that he uses it means that he associates with the Deaf Community." She has an obvious bias against the Deaf Community and culture. She said numerous times "he has normal or near-normal auditory input, he's not DEAF" and I said "many deaf people wear aids and have near-normal auditory input, but they are still Deaf" [capital D means the culture label, lower case d means the medical label] I don't know what her block is, maybe it's a generational thing (she's in her 60s). She seems to think that it isn't possible to raise a child to be fully sim-com (simultaneous communication). And in all honesty, with his Apraxia, there's a chance he'll never be able to speak age-appropriately. It's possible, some kids do overcome Apraxia, but some don't. Some will show signs of it to some degree their whole lives. If Connor is one of those kids, then I will be forever thankful that he has ASL. I can't believe that anyone would call that a disservice to him. Frankly, I was offended by her.
SO...that was that. We'll meet again sometime in August and the fun will begin again.
) We had several topics to discuss, but before I get into the details, here's my question:Can I ask that a member of the team be replaced by someone else? I am finding that I really dislike the audiologist that our special education regional center has assigned to Connor, I'll go into details below, but I know there are other audiologists at the regional center, can I ask that we get a new one assigned to his IEP team? And if so, how do I go about doing that??
Here's how the meeting went:
1. He had a physical therapy eval a few weeks ago, and I got the report from that. He does qualify for physical therapy, although just barely. He's always been just on the cusp in gross motor skills, he will be slightly behind, qualify for therapy, then have a large jump and not qualify for a while, then he stagnates until he qualifies again, then a jump, etc. He was in and out of PT when he was in early intervention, and now he qualifies again. He showed a mild delay in locomotor skills, and noted decreased tone in his trunk and extremities. So when school starts again in the fall he'll get 75 minutes a month of PT at school.
2. I had intended on discussing the independent assessment that Ohio School for the Deaf conducted, but it seems that most members of the team had not read the stinking report yet!!!
I received the report on May 24th, and I faxed a copy to the school psychologist on May 25th (although she should have received her own mailed copy). When I requested this IEP meeting, I gave a list of topics I wanted to discuss, and this report was on my list. The school chose the time and day of the meeting, so silly me thought they'd have read the report. Guess not. The team agreed to read the report and consider the recommendations listed on the report and be ready to discuss it when the team reconvenes in August before the next school year. I said that I expect them to come prepared with a list of possible responses to the recommendations so we can all discuss which route to go with each one. We'll see how that goes.3. ESY...Connor did not qualify for ESY. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't, and kind of irked that basically the reason he doesn't qualify is because they know that he's in private speech therapy, so they don't think that he's going to regress much over the summer. So basically since we are paying our own money to have him in private therapy, the school is now off the hook for providing him ESY services. What a convenient loop hole for them. It's not a big deal, I'm not going to push it, but the irony of it rubs me wrong.
4. So now the part that precipitated my question above. The audiologist was there with her report from her review of his records and her observation of him in the classroom. The gist of her report is that he doesn't meet the state definition of hearing impaired, which is true, but I'm fighting that at a state level because the state definition is more restrictive than IDEA's definition. That's a whole 'nother post. That part I'm fine with. But what I'm so upset about is she repeatedly was questioning our choice of using ASL with Connor. She also was questioning our involvement with the Deaf Community, at one point saying (this is an exact quote): "Connor is NOT deaf, you are doing him a disservice by calling him that and by associating with the culture so much." I said "he may not be medically deaf, but he is Deaf (cultural label) in that he relies on a visual communication for his expressive communication." She kept saying that his speech problems weren't related to his hearing (I agree that they aren't *fully* related to his hearing, but they are partially) but I kept saying "it doesn't matter WHY he uses ASL, only that the fact that he uses it means that he associates with the Deaf Community." She has an obvious bias against the Deaf Community and culture. She said numerous times "he has normal or near-normal auditory input, he's not DEAF" and I said "many deaf people wear aids and have near-normal auditory input, but they are still Deaf" [capital D means the culture label, lower case d means the medical label] I don't know what her block is, maybe it's a generational thing (she's in her 60s). She seems to think that it isn't possible to raise a child to be fully sim-com (simultaneous communication). And in all honesty, with his Apraxia, there's a chance he'll never be able to speak age-appropriately. It's possible, some kids do overcome Apraxia, but some don't. Some will show signs of it to some degree their whole lives. If Connor is one of those kids, then I will be forever thankful that he has ASL. I can't believe that anyone would call that a disservice to him. Frankly, I was offended by her.
SO...that was that. We'll meet again sometime in August and the fun will begin again.
