[blindkid] Rough Draft IEP
DrV
icdx at earthlink.net
Fri Oct 30 06:39:15 UTC 2009
A few more thoughts.
My experience has been that "case managers" come & go after a year or 2 or
3. They are usually just Special Ed trained & few truly have experience or
understand blindness issues.
Those that have blindness/VI experience, often have misperceptions.
I think that the functionally the true "case manager" role is fulfilled by
the parents.
Everyone has their own approach to IEPs.
We always ask for proposed goals ahead of time, try to meet & speak with
each of the service providers ahead of time to get of sense of where they
are coming from, & when our kids were younger, both of us would take time to
go in & observe each class or specific service (ie O&M, OT, PT) a week or so
before the IEP meeting. That allowed us to informally touch bases, showed
our interest & allowed us to speak from experience.
We still prepare a formal handout of "parent comments & concerns" for each
IEP Meeting where we list out our short & long-term goals, any ongoing
medical issues, outside activities, issues in each subject or service area,
any specific goals we want worked on. We include a picture on the first page
& the last few pages are pictures of our son doing various activities. The
pictures make it real & I think tap into the emotional bonding sense you
want to create in the IEP team, & also importantly show what we the
parents/family unit are doing. We pick pictures in which they are happily
enjoying the activities & choose ones that show them doing both everyday
normal things & things that challenge their perceptions of what our child is
capable of doing if the appropriate high expectation is there. We have found
that the pictures serve as great ice-breakers & spur pre-meeting
conversation that changes the mood in a good positive cooperative way.
Everyone looks forward to the pictures at this point.
We insist that our handout be included & numbered as part of the formal IEP
meeting documents. Each handout finishes with the phrase "Please record in
the IEP Team Meeting Comments section that this 'X' page parent-provided
Parent Comments & Concerns Document is to be included in its entirety as
part of the official numbered IEP meeting document."
I follow this up by emailing a PDF of the entire handout so that it can be
uploaded into the electronic IEP system.
The following year's teachers may look at the file. I think the pictures
draw them in & help remove some of the potential anxiety because they
immediately see an image of a happy kid excitedly doing normal or even
challenging activities. This already challenges preconceptions of what a
blind child is capable of before the teacher starts to work with out kids.
Again, just a few thoughts.
Sincerely,
Eric V
----- Original Message -----
From: "mark feliz" <felizfamily5 at msn.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 19:22
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Rough Draft IEP
> Hello,
>
> First of all your child's case manager and you should be in constant
> contact so that you know what will be written prior to the meeting.
> Secondly, after I discuss with the parent I write a "draft" IEP. The team
> will review the "draft" IEP. during the meeting. Any team agreed upon
> modifications/changes can be made after the meeting and sent home.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "L" <lburns24 at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:45 PM
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Rough Draft IEP
>
>> Absolutely you can!
>>
>> Sent from my iPod
>>
>> On Oct 29, 2009, at 8:30 PM, vicki magee <maxi93bradon at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> Can you ask to look at the rough draft IEP prior to the final meeting,
>> to see what the school district is proposing.
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindkid:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/lburns24%40yahoo.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindkid:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/felizfamily5%40msn.com
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/icdx%40earthlink.net
More information about the BlindKid
mailing list