Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Is this the way it really works in your school, in your honest opinion? I know you obviously have the best interests of the child at heart, as do most of the teachers in our district--except in our district, they are expected to keep their mouths shut during the meetings. It is an absolutely adversarial process with parents on one side and "the district" on the other, and all district members are expected to toe the line of 'offer the most minimal services we can possibly get away with.' I had heard stories, and I was so sure that it wouldn't be that way with us, that we were going to work positively and constructively with them... but it turns out, no.
In our district, it is a given that you bring a legal advocate with you to every IEP meeting, unless you are a brand new parent and don't know any better yet.
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If parents know what they want and are assertive, they tend to get good results. In NYS parents have veto power over any placement. If the parents don't show up, which happens, the district has free rein. We are contractors for the district, so we don't have leverage outside of the detailed reports and testing. The teachers who get the children in the next placement, actually have substantial power at these meetings and work among themselves to try to divy up slots appropriately. One weakness I see is in one to one aide assignments. They are expensive and I think the district would rather a child be placed in a 12-1-1 than in an integrated room with an aide. Money is tight so any district feels pressure to give less. In that case, a teacher won't advocate to get a difficult child placed in their room if they fear that no aide will be available. If you have a good open meeting though, all the possibilities will be discussed. Our district tries to be flexible about 1/2 integration etc... if that is attractive to parents. By law there is a parent advocate at the meeting but some parents do as you mention and get legal counsel (none of mine yet). The new chair-person in our district has begun calling parents prior to the meeting to get a sense of what they feel the child needs. That way if her teachers feel the parents' wishes may not be reasonable/workable she can go into the meeting with an acceptable compromise. That happened with one of my kids last year. I've only been to one meeting that simply blew-up and everyone was caught off guard even yours truly. The parent later relented and accepted services.
This is only my experience and it is limited to CPSE transition. I don't know how it plays out later.