IEP Saga Continued

Well, today I turned in the request for Mediation, which is apparently the next step when the IEP meeting fails, as well as paperwork for a Functional Behavior Analysis. In addition, I picked up my son's records that I had requested. At 15 cents per page, I only paid $4.80 and that meant some things had to be missing.

Going through the paperwork, I found all of his academic records. I found his suspension information. What I didn't find-besides my correct maiden name-was anything having to do with his special education needs: no principal's behavior plan which has been implemented, no refute of the suspension that we requested go into the files, no IEP, no testing evaluations which were conducted to determine IEP eligibility, no letter from my son's psychiatrist stating that he has autism. I do, however, have extra copies of his social security card and birth certificate, so it wasn't a total loss.

All correspondences with the principal go unanswered. My son was moved out of his regular classroom to get him away from a classmate, yet they have PE together. He has been left to fend for himself while educators turn a blind eye. To give her credit, my son's new classroom teacher has been super supportive and when I told her of my concerns, she arranged for him to take PE with another class. Still not an ideal situation, but we only have a few months left in this school and I am picking my battles. God knows, I have enough to pick from.

And you know what really makes me twitch? I am not confrontational. I am not anti-school. But situations, especially when our kids are involved turn us into warriors. So here I am: Xena, Warrior Mom. I'm sure the school considers me a different kind of mother, but I've quit worrying about their opinion of me. I'd rather be on their good side, but being nice didn't work. I haven't even gone into these meetings confrontational, believe it or not.

I can't figure out if our school thinks we are stupid or if they truly believe in the way they are doing things. I cannot see any way they are in compliance with IDEA. My mother always said I could argue both sides of any situation, but I've got nothing here. I cannot see any reason not to comply with federal guidelines for an IEP or to punish a child for acting autistically without any form of correction before extreme punishment. While we have a lot of people, including educators on local, state, and federal levels, indignant on our behalf; most have said we won't win a fight with the school system. I'm not worried, and I'm not quitting. No one who ever accomplished change on a massive scale had it easy. I'm not that ambitious; I'm only trying to change one school system, not the world...yet.