[Pibe-division] Options on intital IEP--and advice onbeginninghigh need

[Carrie Gilmer]

Dear Toni,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I have been a parent/child
advocate for about ten years; my own blind child is a freshman at the U of
MN Minneapolis this fall. The parent contacted me for the first time last
Wednesday and on Thursday I attended the first meeting at the school-it was
essentially an introductory meeting for myself and the school. There is much
to learn about the child yet, and little to go by so far to evaluate him on.
He appears to be at least average intelligence. I am not concerned for the
evaluation from either the school or how I can help the parent get good
information on his capabilities over the next month. My concern is for the
30 days during the evaluation period.

 

This child appears to have no Braille experience ( and possibly no actual
reading experience even in his native language) and is essentially newly
blind. His background appears to be uneducated properly overall for a nearly
twelve year old-that is it does not appear he could read fluently in his
home language and his math may be little more than counting. The district is
offering full ESL classes and will have a Mandarin interpreter for all
evals. 

 

I am interested in what you term Newcomers classes-and a newcomer team. Is
this a specific to special education Newcomer class and team? Could you be
more specific on how this was set up and operates-and under what authority,
I mean are direct service hours by special ed given and some kind of 30 day
short term IEP written? I am guessing due to your geographic location you
may have regular newcomers in upper grades( higher than k-3). This district
has some as all do, but it is not usual at all for this district and this
child in particular with the combination of poor to little prior education,
no records, total blindness, and life trauma due to severe facial burns and
complete loss of birth family and then non-english speaking, is something
they have never had experience with before. 

 

 I have never had to advocate for an interim IEP before an initial before so
I am looking for some experience and actual practice.  As I said the
district did not appear to be aware of any ability on their part to provide
DIRECT special education support  or any special education instruction
before fully evaluating and writing an initial IEP. I am aware of what to
put in as far as goals and the writing of such a thing-I mean I know what he
needs to become oriented and engaged in a basic way the first month as well
as accommodations-but I was not sure how to/what to use in arguments and
convincing that interim IEP's "worked" or are proper under the law or what
other teachers have done in advocating to administrators an individual IEP
for a child whose individuality is fairly unknown. 

 

The district appeared willing to send in partial para support-but not
necessarily a para that had experience with a blind child ("someone to lead
him around so he would not get lost" was their words), and was willing to
have a general ed or homebound (medically fragile) general ed teacher come
to the home and spend time with him, they only offered (and after
questioning) that they could have the Teacher of blind students "talk" with
the ESL or general ed teacher...this seems wholly inadequate for a good
first 30 days for this child to become engaged. I have a call into my
state's dept of ed. special ed director and they returned my call yesterday
but I was at work, I anticipate talking with them today. 

 

 Thanks,

 

Carrie Gilmer, President

Minnesota Organization of Parents of Blind Children

A Division of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota

Home Phone: 763-784-8590

carrie.gilmer at gmail.com

 

  _____  

From: pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Toni_Anderson at sbcss.k12.ca.us
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 5:20 PM
To: pibe-division at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Options on intital IEP--and advice
onbeginninghigh need

 

I had a very bright Korean child who was well versed in Korean braille who
we successfully integrated into a Sixth Grade class with strong VI Itinerant
support.  He didn't go into the elementary VI-SDC because they were too
young and he needed peers.  He learned English very fast and won the Braille
Challenge two years later.

 

Your situation is different.  Does your district offer Newcomer classes.
Your student needs to improve his English, as we don't do well in Mandarin
braille!  Until your student becomes more proficient in braille, he could
use a tape recorder to record his answers and buddy up with a sighted
student who could read him the questions.  Has this student been assessed by
the Newcomer team?  Is he smart enough to enter even Newcomer classes?  It
isn't the job of the VI Itinerant to determine intelligence, though we
provide input.  We knew my Korean student was bright because he was a
talented pianist.  He also had excellent tracking skills when reading Korean
braille though I had no idea what he was saying.  He was enjoying reading.

 

Good luck!

 

Toni Anderson

VI-SDC, Dona Merced Elem.

10333 Palo Alto Drive

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

(909) 941-8869

 

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