Thursday, May 29, 2008

The IEP Process

If you don't know what an I.E.P is then you probably don't have a child with a disability. An I.E.P is a Individualized Education Plan. It is the guideline or plan that the school has to work through for the education of your son or daughter. Every child with a disability must have one.

Zion had his Kindergarten I.E.P. meeting today. I was surprised to see all the people there. We had his teacher and therapists from his preschool and all the new teachers and therapists, the process coordinator, his floor-time therapist and even the principle of his new school. I have never had a principle come to an I.E.P. before, I was pleasantly surprised.

We reviewed what the neuro-psychologist submitted on Zion and then what the scores were for the tests the school did. His IQ has increased to a 65. Which is still in the mildly retarded range. He has no clue about abstract thought though. He can not pull much random information out of his head without a choice or prompt. We will be working on this all summer.

The I.E.P. Consists of the schools plan on how Zion will be placed in Kindergarten and the amount of minutes he will get of special services: speech, occupational, and developmental. He will continue getting 60 minutes of speech. 30 Minutes of OT. He will also have his developmental therapist hopefully twice a week. He will be in special education class only 30 minutes out of the day. They have Zion starting out on his own in Kindergarten. He will not have a para (aide) working with him other than when he is in the special education classroom. This scares me to death. I can imagine Zion in a classroom and the teacher telling the children about math, or reading and Zion preoccupied with the faces of the other children: Or staring out the window. His preschool had five students in it, and three teachers. So he always had someone prompting him to work.

The team said that the I.E.P. was fluid, meaning that it can change if Zion does need extra services, but I am just worried that he will check out or regress before we get that accomplished. What if he gets too far behind and then needs a para. to help him catch up! It may be that my fear is totally unwarranted, Zion may do marvelous and this may be the step he has needed. I pray that this will be the case.

I guess we will see how it goes. Jason and I are excited to see if he flies in Kindergarten.

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