SAMPLE Strengths & Needs for IEP... and School Safety Pl

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And now i want to know weather my child can be safe with home tutors

So I printed off all of these lists and brought them into the school when we met with the Special Education teacher and the classroom teacher. I highlighted some that were most pertinent to my son, and then yesterday he came home with his IEP. For strengths it said: Math. For needs it said: proximity to the teacher at times, a quiet environment to write tests.

That's it.

Big sigh.

And the struggle continues...

I'm not a parent... But... I had a psychoeducational assesment done at a Children's Hospital, and it came back that I have NLD and possible AS that my psychologist is looking further into. I have an IEP at school. One of the teachers made it for me by using my psychoeducational assesment to help him. Before that I still had an IEP that mostly fit my needs as according to my previous diagnosis of ADHD. I live in Canada and I know that here parents legally have to sign an IEP for it to be classified as okay for the school to use. If you think something is wrong or things should be added or taken away legally you have that right to tell them that and have accomidations and goals changed and added and taken away. Good luck.

I wanted to address the bolded part in this quote, but to be fair I put it in it's proper context (don't want you to feel beat up on Rhonda)

Though you have a very valid and reasonable point, I just wanted to add that some kids, not just kids with ASD, can go through very real depressions. As parents we may be focused on the end goal - their future - but as kids they are swallowed up with the day-to-day life they're stuck in. If school is dreaded, their whole life can seem horrible.

If your child has been communicating to you for years or months that school is horrible, and changes are happening extremely slowly or not at all, and they then mention things like 'killing themselves', you, as a parent, NEED to take that seriously and act.

I know everyone's "supposed" to go to school. But if school is making my kid suicidal then I'll be damed if I'll send him there! And no, the world won't bend to my kids special needs, but he's not an adult yet - I am still 'all supreme ruler' of his life and my main job as a parent is to protect him and keep him alive.

No matter how it turns out, he will know I am his mother and I love him more than I love our current societies 'expectations'.

So understand that some parents are in a different position. Their children may be prone to depression or going to school with a particularly cruel bunch of midgets. In such a case, taking your child out of that school could be a lifesaving thing.

(1st suicide attempt, age 13)

First, a question. How do you recommend that the goals be assessed? Any special tips for helping with severe anxiety due to fear of breaking unknown mystery rules? My 17 year old HS sophmore is recovering from recent suicide attempt due to anxiety and depression.igree with Vivienne that if school is he'll you have to take immediate action to fix things.

Now for the rant. We write the IEP and the Resource room teacher chucks it. Same thing happened last year. The day my son went to the hospital for suicidal thoughts, his RR teacher said she was still getting to know him - 4 months into school year! When she e
wiled me to say she'd left his homework in the counseling center she said," I hope you and yours are looking forward to a happy holiday!" my son was still inthe hospital!

I am not an expert because middle school was a dream. But I'm planning on lurking in that RRoom as much as possible. That's all I can think of. Spence doesn't want to be home schooled.

Only other advice is to contact the teachers directly and not depend on RR teacher. They're much more receptive - they all love Spencer because he's so concientious - really to a fault.

The plan sounds great, if you can get the school to stick to it. My daughter is 16, was only diagnosed with ASD 4 years ago and we are still having trouble with her school. I had 4 phone calls today, telling me how bad her behaiviour is - she is hitting other kids, cursing, walking away...... She does have a very specific IEP as well as a Paraprofessional and I am at my wits end. Her counselor suggested today thet "the school might be to large for her", meaning - we dont want to deal with the issues.
I guess hear we go - another fight on my hand.

My son is in private school that accepts no government funding so no IEP or 504. Newly diagnosed about 2 months ago. Do have book I ordered School Success for Kids with Aspergers Syndrome. Loaded with IEP info and how to write one, get advocate etc. It's by Stephan M. Silverman Ph.D & Rich Weinfeld. Again I am very new to this. My son will be in 3rd grade next year, but more I hear and read the more I am thinking I will home school. Hope book helps if you haven't heard of it.

My son has a special education IEP, with modifications, he has a assistant that follows him from class to class. He takes tests by someone reading the tests to him while he marks the correct answers. If he does well in homework helpers, he gets computer time. He does well in Science, and can read, but has problems with comprehension. He hates keyboarding, but loves computers.

Where would you put this on the IEP? I'm especially a bit mystified since it is the school system -- at least here in Massachusetts -- that ultimately writes the document, with the parent's options being to accept or reject the document in full or accept a portion and reject a portion. and go onto round 2 of negotiation.

FWIW, the two IEPs we've gone through thus far have been oriented to specifics, not generalities, but since my son is not yet in Kindergarten that may account for that. But I'm quite skeptical about some of the items listed, e.g.:

Who decides this? How is it decided? Heck, how is the term "personal potential" defined? I have a vague sense that unless you're willing to shell out serious money for a series of evaluations by a psychologist or neuropsychologist that the school system may or may not accept, you're stuck with whatever licensed stooge the school system is using when determining this sort of thing.

I could do the same thing for a few other of the items listed, but I think you see where I'm headed: It is not that I disagree with a thing you're saying in an ideal sense, just that my experience going eyeball to eyeball with our school system when the IEPs have been developed leaves me doubtful that very much of this would find its way into one. Perhaps my personal experience has been more unpleasant and adversarial than most, but I suspect only by a matter of degree, and could hardly be considered unique.

Hi Jillysue, im an Aspie and also the mother of an Aspie.

I strongly suggest to try to keep your child in school as its so hard for us learning about neurotypical people and trying to understand them as much as we possibly can. The school days I'd think are your sons greatest opportunity to learn as much as possible about them and if you take him away from that re home school, his social aspects may end up far worst.

One dont just go to school to learn maths, english etc but one also goes to school to learn how to socialise as much as one can. The socialisation may be even more important then the other things which are learnt.

I also want to say that my daughter was on a IEP right throu her public schooling (thou they never knew she had Asperger's). The school organised all of it so i never had imput other than reading it and signing it.. I always thought the plan her school put out for her as excellent. They dealt with getting big assessments done on the way she learnt, her memoryand other stuff by child professionals. The school (they had an exceptional head mistress) was so sensible.

From the time she started, the school put whatever steps they needed in place to deal with her behaviours. When she started at 5 yrs old, she'd just wander out of the school and away (she wouldnt worry about being lost or other things)... so they implimented someone watching her full time during the breaks.

By the time she was 6, she'd stopped the wandering away but was still unsafe as she'd climb up high playground equipment if she got to the big kids side (where she wasnt meant to be but she never did as told).. and jump from the very top (she had concussion sooo many times from jumping off wardrobes and things at home), so they kept her under watch in the playground and close to them full time. She needed that till she was about 8 or 9.

She was in special ed classes right throu still to get one to one help.
...........

Things did get far more difficult but that was when she was in high school cause she still hadnt been diagnosed so none of us could understand why she couldnt even keep her diary right (I had to keep buying them as she constantly lost them between school and home including all her notes from the school to me). She hated high school as she got teased (the school tried to sort things)

She then started wagging school at 12 yrs old (wandering off after i'd got her to the school, before she'd signed into home class) and was going to the park to get cigarettes (i was horrified as no one in family smokes) from strangers in the public toilets. By 13 she was refusing entirely to go to school and i couldnt get her there (as she'd jump out the car while it was moving!!).

As i was going to get into trouble with the school for her non attendance, i decided to get in first so rang the education dept.. asking them how i could make my daughter get to school. The education dept.. told the school that it was up to them to get my daughter there.

So her favorite teacher came to our home to try to talk her into it.. my daughter just shut her door and held it shut and sat on other side of it, singing and humming loudly so she didnt have to hear the teacher, I couldnt even get her face to face with the teacher. When two teachers visits proved useless... the school had to make deals with her. They ended up getting her there by getting me to ask her what she'd like to be doing at school and what things she didnt like to do there. So a deal was struck that she wouldnt do the lessons she didnt like eg maths and instead the school had to make up special lessons with her eg doing gardening with her favourite teacher, learning about soap making? and other lessons which arent school lessons (teachers just did their favourite hobbies with my daughter if my daughter said they were interested in them). The poor school.. had to give her one to one time to do things which arent even school things.

She ended up leaving school when she turned almost 16

Anyway.. my whole point is that some schools can be great.. and really try. Aspies thou are just difficult to deal with both in and out of school.

here is a sample of an iep that I wrote up for class...the goals need to be very specific and measurable so you can tell if they have been attained in the past year getting my masters in special ed I have reviewed some of the worst IEP's ever written while doing my student teaching -- the poor kids but brilliant for the school system really skating by ---
Here is a good website to help you it is extensive but I would be happy to share all my notes if you email me, much of it came from my course work. This website I have they won't let me post because I ahven't yet made five posts....I will do that now (I am a new member and then post the link for you.

How old is he? A rarely acknowledged reality seems to be that most kids don't have the hand development to keyboard effectively and comfortably before 5th grade or so. While a few kids can learn earlier, most just get frustrated. Perhaps he is simply not ready. It may change as he gets older. My son's keyboarding took off when he was in 6th grade. Before that, he was introduced, but not pushed.

How old is he? A rarely acknowledged reality seems to be that most kids don't have the hand development to keyboard effectively and comfortably before 5th grade or so. While a few kids can learn earlier, most just get frustrated. Perhaps he is simply not ready. It may change as he gets older. My son's keyboarding took off when he was in 6th grade. Before that, he was introduced, but not pushed.

OK, I found a post that says he is 14 ... so, old enough to learn, but if he has issues in his hands, it still isn't a perfect solution, and maybe he's had too many frustrating years behind him to get beyond the frustration. That is a difficult one; maybe it's time to go to voice software (I fought against that with my son because I wanted him to learn keyboarding, but at some point you do have to call it).

Hi there I am a mom of a teen aspie my sons iep is very comprehensive some of the things in his plan are knowing he can bring work home ( this helps with the pressure of keeping up in class.)
If there are test problems he can come back in the next day to finish it
Isats have there own small group testing with breaks if needed to be determined by my son.
I email the teachers a reminder to send any unfinished or not turned in work to the office on fridays and i will return them on Mondays sometimes aspies just miss getting an assignment some times.
He can leave class 5 minutes early (he's in highschool by the way) this helps him get to his class with a minimum of sensory overload.
He also has one set of books at home and his teachers keep a book for him in class this helps him with sensory overload and the general muscle weakness that is quite common with aspies as a result he doesn't have to share a locker either which can also be very unerving

His teachers are required to give him copies of notes for studing or otherwise

I also make sure that all of his teachers fully understand that almost all of his actions are neither malicious or willful not all of them get it and i can usually tell which ones don't by his grades in the class
I think you should strongly advocate for your child but yyou must also be flexible. it is in your childs best interest if you understand that sometimes the iep plan doesn't work for all teachers let them know to come to you with e-mail or phone so you can troubleshoot these for your child.
This year i told my son that if the kids were too malicious and he was having too many problems with bullying that he could do online high school instead I really think that knowing that he had that option made things much easier to bear he has worked very hard with everyone so if he keeps getting harassed I want him to know that it's not his fault and give him options.

I think that was really impressive and shows great insight into your child's challenges and needs. It just again goes to prove what I have always believed; parents are their children's greatest allies, and the ones who absolutely have the greatest impact upon their outcomes.

In dealing with the public school system last year, my daughter's first year of public school, I went in optimistic and hopeful but found myself being more forceful than I thought I should have to be to get anything accomplished. CCing the Superintendent of schools got things accomplished and made meetings happen rather quickly. Of course, I don't think I am exactly well-liked by the principal, the special services coordinator, or anyone else that had to deal with me - but my daughter's needs were being met by the end of the year. Er, mostly.