IEP Bootcamp

Yesterday morning was our IEP Bootcamp.  It was held at the ASAC (Autism Society-Acadiana Chapter) and our presenter was Mylinda Elliott from Families Helping Families in Lake Charles.  Mylinda has 5 children, all of whom have a learning disability of one kind or another and 2 of whom are autistic--one on the low end of the spectrum (and I think she's non-verbal) and the other on the high end of the spectrum with Aspergers.  Just from listening to her talk, and I had already had a conversation on the phone with her prior to the Bootcamp, you can tell she is a real go-getter who won't take nonsense from anyone.  She really knows her stuff and would be a wonderful advocate to work with...had she been from the Lafayette branch of Families Helping Families.  Of course, I can still contact her with any questions or concerns.  I haven't met the Lafayette advocate yet, but I can only hope she is as strong-willed as Mylinda!

We were a smallish group, which was good because the room we were in was, shall we say, quite cozy.  Let me tell you, I was shocked by the number of parents who came in saying they had children 8, 9 or 10 years old with a learning disability of some kind (Down's Syndrome, Autism, and one woman had a daughter who had benign tumors that grow all over her body, including on her brain, poor thing!) and they all said the same thing...we just go in and listen to what they tell us they're putting on our IEP and then sign it because we figure the school is doing the best for our child. !!!!!!!!!  Frankly, I was shocked.  Here were people whose children have always had IEPs and the parents have never been involved other than to sign their names to them!  And it wasn't as if they were satisfied...they all had quite serious concerns about what was going on.  And it took them 4, 5, 6 years to do something about it?  To learn more?

Maybe they've never heard of a little something called the World Wide Web or a library.

I really don't get it.  These are your children.  They need extra help in school because of a learning disability.  And you're just going to trust the school system to know your children inside out and backwards?  You're going to trust that the school system knows what your goals are for your child and his or her future?  You're going to trust that the school system is naturally going to live up to the No Child Left Behind slogan?  Well,  you're a hell of a lot more trusting than I am then!

And maybe for me part of it is a trust issue.  I don't trust that someone else is going to do their job unless someone is behind them, paying attention and holding them accountable.  I don't trust the school system to find out everything they should to know about my child's needs unless I tell them.  And I'm going to tell them in writing and hand it to the appropriate person myself, so I know they've received it.  I'll even request a meeting so we can go over it together if I feel it's necessary.  I don't trust that anyone whom I request to send in paperwork is going to do it when they say they will, so I'll do a follow-up to see if it's done and I'm going to request a copy for my own records.  We've yet to even reach the IEP stage and I already have 3 binders with our relevant info and paperwork.

Maybe the other part for me is the need to educate myself.  I want to know how the system works.  I want to know my rights as a parent and my child's right as a student.  I want to know what the school system is supposed to be doing, what they have to do by law, and what they can do to ensure even more help for us should we need it.

I don't think this is odd...I think this is being a responsible parent.  And while I did not think poorly of these parents who are just now trying to educate themselves and do better for their children, I will admit to feeling sorry for them and their kids.  From the stories they told, it sounded as if the school system was not playing by the book and was getting off with doing as little as possible for these kids.  It's a real shame and just further proof in my mind that I have to go in knowing my rights and having all my ducks in a row.

Anyway, back to the IEP Bootcamp.

Can I just say...Wow, what a crapload of info!  I felt overwhelmed by it before because I really knew nothing whatsoever about IEPs; and now I feel a little more educated, still overwhelmed and a little bit afraid.  It just seems as if there is so much I'm going to need to know, so much preparation to be made, a lot of parental rights I need to read up on, and a lot of follow-up and "babysitting" that will need to be done afterward.  I've gotten all worked up about it and we haven't even received word from the Parent Child Center yet that Emerson qualifies for help! LOL

We were given a whole binder of info that I've yet to read through, but it's going on my master list of things to look up and learn about.  Mylinda made references to several laws, agencies and terms that I wrote down to look up later.  She talked about so many ifs, ands, buts and how-tos in regards to this whole process that my head is still spinning.  Part of me feels like a bunch of random tidbits was thrown at us and we now have to go straighten them ll out and try to make sense of them.  There were enough of us that it was impossible for her to answer all the individual questions, and each time one was asked and we were put a little off-course by her brief explanations, I got more confused.  I'm the type of learner who needs everything put forth in a clear, concise way with time for questions after.  All the interruptions made it difficult for me, so I'm grateful for the binder because almost everything I'll need to know is in there.  I also learned that Families Helping Families has online workshops!  (I also found some online lectures from Dr. James Ball when I visited his site, so there's another source of info!)

It's beginning to look like I should take a week off of work just to get somewhat caught up on the learning I need to do!