Monday, August 29, 2011

Goodbye MESD - Hello PPS

I cannot help but compare at this point, view O's entry into Kindie through an Isaac-lens. Early intervention was cake. Now the real challenges start.

I don't know how well MESD prepared Isaac for Kindergarten and PPS. Yes, he did well in EI. But it in no way helped him to manage being in the typical classroom at Sabin. The unstructured free time (recess, lunch), were fraught with anxiety. He could not keep up with the social aspects of his peers (he had, and still has, a speech impediment as well as a communication process delay), the simple act of cut-and-paste projects would bring him to tears (let's just say scissors were not his friend), and when the academics really kicked in after Winter Holidays, all of this underlying anxiety increased his delay and we lost the second half of kindergarten. And trust me, this aint your mama's kindergarten. They are learning things I didn't learn until first grade.

So as Olivia entered MESD, I was not expecting a lot. Olivia started EI a year and a half younger then Isaac did. Isaac was a 3.5 when he was diagnosed, O was two. She received home services until she was 3, then started in an EI classroom. It was a lovely and supportive environment, filled with staff that truly cared about her and her progress. And she has made progress.

But MESD did not prepare her for Kindie either. Not because of the EI staff - MESD is just not working, and the EI staff is so strapped and spread so thin, all they can offer is the outline of an education, with limited content. But this time, I am not deluded that it has. I insisted on a CB class to start with and we are slowing things way down so she can adjust (you can "insist" on things if your family has had a horrid PPS experience by the way. Very limited resistance when you mention things such as Pioneer, police, EMT, and expulsion hearing in regards to your first grader).

So here we go.

7 comments:

  1. My kid is also entering kindergarten. I thought things were looking good but last week I had a very discouraging phone call with Assistant Director for Special Ed Mary Pearson and now things are not looking so good. I think I need to call an emergency IEP meeting before school starts. Any advice? The guy who coordinated our first IEP meeting last summer is now gone (his position has been eliminated), I don't even know who to ask to schedule a meeting. Any advice? --Tatiana

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  2. We have worked with Mary before, and I hate to suggest being difficult, but she does respond to the squeaky wheel. I emailed her last week at 11:30 pm, and received a response by 8:00 am the next morning because I have been squeaky in the past. Was it Robert Cantwell that helped your before? I have the contact info for the person that took over his work load. Call that IEP, you have every right to. Email me at kbishop03@yahoo if you want a more private forum. Do you mind if I ask what happened?

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  3. Mary Pearson is very much a "school" team player, not a parent team player. I'm assuming you worked with Carl Smith, who was very much a "parent" team player, which is probably why his position was eliminated. Stand your ground is all I have to say!!

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  4. I can see that in regards to Mary. I do believe that she responds to me because I am a serious pain in the *ss. A role I do not relish - each confrontation leaves me with a racing heart and sweaty brow. And agreed! Insist, bug them to death! Get that meeting!

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  5. Thank you for the encouragement. We did get the IEP meeting scheduled for Wednesday, 9/7--two days before the start of kindergarten. I basically wrote a letter addressed to 3 people at the school (teacher, SLP, learning center teacher) and got to talk to the SLP, and then we rearranged the assessment schedule and scheduled the meeting. I also had a run-around with the feeding team and now they'll include me in the feeding training on the first day of kindergarten. So far I have found dealing with Chapman staff easier than dealing with Mary Pearson. We'll see how the meeting on Wednesday goes. The person we dealt with before was Jared Hayes at Chapman and he seemed reasonable and responsive. At our IEP meeting last June we agreed on an aide at least at the beginning, in great part to address safety (tendency to walk away) issues since Chapman recess is in a middle of a public park but Mary made it sound like it was not written in the IEP and "adult support" meant "additional attention from the general ed teacher". Chapman SLP assures us there will be dedicated aide, hopefully we'll confirm that on Wednesday. I am really anxious to meet the teacher, I hope she is good and wants to work with us. That's what upset me so much about Mary--she made it sound like parents did not matter, as long as we signed the IEP paper stating we were present at the meeting, then all legal requirement were satisfied and we were out of the picture. So frustrating! Thanks for listening and for advice, Tatiana

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  6. Mary Pearson did the whole "adult support" thing with us meaning the teacher too, and I had a big surprise when I called a meeting to say that my son's IEP wasn't being followed...problem was it was because it said adult support, so they didn't HAVE to have the para exactly when they said they would and they didn't. That's what more or less ended my son's gen ed experience--the way they weasel out of things. It was a learning experience and don't let mine go to waste--don't trust anything they say. Be a constant squeaky wheel before things go downhill.

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  7. Ah, the joy. I am wondering of late if the reason why everyone at PPS is more responsive to my "insisting" has less to do with my brilliant advocacy skills (ha!), and more to do with avoiding a lawsuit. Were things so mishandled with Isaac and Roseway Heights that someone higher up told them just to just agree with me and avoid any litigious urges I might have? One minute they are telling me that she is in a mainstream class without a para and when I said I wasnt comfortable with that, they let me choose a coveted CB class with no resistance? And so many other families are battling over far less in services?

    And if this is the case, a lot of my suggestions might be worthless. Hmm. Memories fade and time will tell.

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