Your Kid's IEP - ready to go?

If you have a child in Special Education, the first day of school is right around the corner. Is your child's IEP up-to-date and ready to be implemented?

Many schools want to wait until school starts to refresh teachers on conditions and requirements of IEPs for their special ed students. Valuable time is lost by this delay.

Contact your child's special education department now and request a review and refresher of the accommodations in your child's IEP. Ask questions. Get answers. Get a clear understanding as to who is to do what, and when.

Don't settle for any assignment of some duty or task to "Team Member." "Team Member" means that no one is accountable. Somebody's name or title should be associated with every accommodation in the IEP.

How do I know this? Because I have seen "Team Member" in IEPs for too many years. And even though I have asked for an individual to be tasked with a duty, it doesn't happen because it is a school staff member who types up the IEP

A school/home notebook is a good way to maintain communications with teachers. Email is good, too. Too often the school/home notebook is an accommodation listed in the IEP that gets ignored very early in the school year. Don't let this happen.

If it is to go back and forth every day and the pattern changes after the first two weeks, clear it up - fast. Be specific in the IEP that it is be used daily. This is how you identify problems quickly and solve them while they are small (and economical).

There are many excellent resources for good school/home communications.

ATTN. Woodstock Special Ed Parents

You'll want to become aware of parent activity in School District 158 (Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood, Huntley, Union), where parents have banded together to address the services that their special education children are (not) getting. Somehow, in some way, they found one another and, through the power of numbers, they now have the attention of the school district administrators.

Three of the four key special education department administrators left District 158 recently. Is that merely a coincidence? Did they all end up in the same (new) school district?

What does District 200 do for parents of students in Special Education? Anything, except the direct education (we hope) of the students?

A few years ago District 200 started a support group for parents of students in Special Education called Parent-2oo-Parent. I think it lasted one year - maybe two. They kicked me out because I wasn't a "parent". No matter that I was the very involved ex-step-parent in the child's life. That was why I got kicked out; I was asking too many questions and informing other parents of the special education rights of their children.

In District 200 parents of special education students are pretty much kept isolated from one another. No support group exists. No education or training for parents of special education students is provided. No meetings of parents. So parents don't get a chance to meet one another and find out who is satisfied and who is not.

An IEP is supposed to be a "team" effort; a partnership, a collaboration, a working together by parents, teachers and staff for the benefit of the student.

The efforts of special education parents in District 158 should be a model for District 200. And it can be, IF enough parents show up and speak out.

Contact me at gusphilpot@aol.com and I shall build an email distribution list of parents in D200 for communication about special education services and programs that we'd like to have. Or just email me your suggestions. Better yet - post them right here as Comments for all to read.

District 200 will get a bunch of stimulus money. Let's see how they are supposed to spend it and how they do spend it.

I can tell you how quickly 12 years pass. The parents of younger students now in D200 Special Education should not have to fight all the same battles that those of us who have learned the rights of our children had to fight. Somewhere, there should be progress that stays in place.

Read the articles in local papers that followed Thursday night's meeting. Yes! Thursday night - the night before a holiday week-end!

www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/07/02/r_4rdpzzoxr8ynqcj1l7rclg/index.xml

www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=304531

ISBE helps SpecEd Parents

The new Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Parent's Guide explaining, in plain language, special education in Illinois has been published online. Hard copies are not yet available. Here is the link:

www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/html/parent_rights.htm

Every parent of a student in Special Education in an Illinois school should have this (and I haven't even read it yet).

Don't count on getting information about it from your school district. It may be as rare as a block of ice on a hot July day. A few years ago there was a terrific ten-page Memo issued by the Special Education Division of ISBE that outlined what school districts must do for students in Special Education. A strong suggestion in the Memo was that the Memo should be disseminated to all parents of students in Special Education.

Was it?

That Memo had to be one of the best-kept secrets in the State of Illinois. About nine months after it was published, I learned of it through a parent support group in Rockford. The District 200 Superintendent didn't know about it. I could understand that the Superintendent might not have known about it, but I have never believed that the Special Education Department didn't know about it. And even after I brought it to their attention, information about it was never distributed to the parents of the then-900 students in Special Education.

Why not? My answer is, it's better for parents to be kept in the dark about the full range of services to which their children in Special Education are entitled.

But that's changing. parents are learning what the schools must do.

The interesting part is, if schools did more of what they are supposed to do (by law), their costs would probably go down!

FASlink

FASlink? What is it? Fetal Alcohol Syndrome link.

If your child might be affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Effect, check out this website: www.faslink.org/

Having a hard time dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and other alphabet-soup disorders? The more you can learn, the better you will be able to deal with it - to keep yourself centered and as calm as possible, and not escalate your child's unwanted behaviors.

Share this information with your child's teachers. Make sure they understand what is causing your child's behaviors. Don't accept "lip service" from them. If they don't "get" it, see that they do.

See that the proper Behavior Intervention Plan is in place. Many BIPs only make the problems worse - because of the Plan itself (which may not even be a plan) and the way in which it is implemented.

Watch this site for developing information on important parent support groups. Teachers and staff must understand why a child might be behaving in a certain way, in order to understand how to deal with it.

Chicago Abilities Expo - June 25-27

A national expo for persons with disabilities (and their familes and caregivers) will be held this Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Schaumburg.

Admission is free. For complete information, go to www.abilitiesexpo.com/chicago/index.html

Day One: Focused for professional therapists and healthcare workers who will attend dynamic educational seminars (earning CEU's to comply with their professional requirements) and a relaxed, informal networking reception at the end of the day.

Day Two:Focused for adult consumers and those with age-related fitness issues. This day will feature sessions about intimacy for people with disabilities, fashion and cooking shows, workshops on caring for a growing population and much more.

Day Three: Focused for families with sessions and activities for the entire family from kids to grandparents and those in between. Families come to Abilities Expo for a well-rounded experience that is both informative and fun.

Saturday's family day will be 10:00AM-5:00PM. Location? Schaumburg Convention Center, which is located on the east side of Meacham Road, north of the Illinois Tollway, south of Algonquin Road (Route 62). For those with GPSs, just plug in 1551 North Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL 60173.

For advocacy information, be sure to attend Myra Christian's presentation at 2:00PM on Saturday, "Preparing for your child's future as an independent adult." Myra is with the Family Resource Center on Disabilities (FRCD). I met Myra in about 1997, and FRCD gave me a good start on my path of educational advocacy.

For information about FRCD and its programs and services, visit http://www.frcd.org/

Special Ed Group in Algonquin

Algonquin School District 158 is really stepping up to the plate this summer and is forming a Parent Advisory Committee for parents of students with special needs. And it appears that this group is being designed to actually use their minds, brains and voices and offer information and opinions TO the school district. Bravo!

I received the following emailed announcement of the first meeting:

"District 158 will host an organizational meeting July 2nd for its first Special Needs Parent Advisory Committee.The purpose of the committee is to allow parents of special needs children the opportunity to provide information, guidance, advice and support to the special services department.

"The committee also would assist in planning and coordinating activities aimed toward effective parental involvement, assist in improving public relations through community and business representatives and advise staff on specific program areas.

"All parents of special needs children in the district are invited to attend the meeting, which is from 6 to 7:30pm in Room 180 of the District 158 Administrative Office, 650 Academic Drive in Algonquin.

"The tentative agenda includes a discussion of strengths and concerns of the district's special education program, as well as goals for the year.

"For information, call Associate Superintendent Terry Awrey at (847) 659-6131."

Three cheers to District 158. It sounds like this program could be a model for every school district in McHenry County!

This article will also be posted on www.woodstockadvocate.com

IFF Conference, Springfield, June 27

The Illinois Federation of Families will hold a one-day conference in Springfield on Saturday, June 27.

Springfield, you say? That's 200 miles from here. Well, don't stop reading yet. The conference topic is "Parenting Youth With Emotional Challenges: Effective Interventions".

This is really great. I received the notice today. Early Bird Registration (until May 22) was $15 for parents, family members and caregivers. (Today is June 12!). Registration deadline is Monday, June 15, and the full rate is only $25 for parents, family members and caregivers. Sorry for the late notice. But don't let a little thing like a June 15 "deadline" keep you from going. Push a little (you probably won't have to push much) and just say, "I just heard about it."

For information or answers to your questions, contact
Cindy Sheppard: 630-661-0314 cshep@sbcglobal.net
or
Sue Gordon: 815-814-3893 s.gordon3@comcast.net

I was hoping to find the conference brochure online, but apparently it is not (yet). Don't bother to go to the website for IFF or call the phone number on the website. Or, if you do, don't get bugged if you don't find what you are looking for. Call either Cynthia or Sue at the numbers above.

There is a great room rate at the conference hotel - $70.00 single or double (of course, that rate was only good until June 5. So re-set the date on your calendar watch, and then call the Holiday Inn Express Crown Plaza at 217.529.7777 and try to twist their arms for this rate, unless you want a four-hour drive before and after the conference).

Dr. Mary McKay will be the keynote speaker. You can read all about her when the website link is working. If you can't wait, send me an email (gus@specialkids-specialparents.info), and I'll forward the email I received that has a link to the conference brochure (which I can't move from .pdf to this website).