I head straight to my office and grab an IEP for photocopying. Once I do that, I return to my desk and go over the paperwork that I need for my meeting later this morning. I start printing stuff out that I think I'll need. As I'm doing this, I realize that I need to grab something from another room. I leave my office just in time to see that a parent I was expecting has arrived. I ask the parent to give me a minute while I locate a place for us to meet. I snag the "reservation" book for one of the conference rooms and quickly jot down my name. Then I get my parent. We sit down and the parent hems and haws for a few moments and then tells me the concerns that they have regarding one of the special education teachers that her child has this year. She is worried that the teacher is too scattered to adequately educate their child. The parent also says that the teacher revealed the scores of a proficiency assessment that the class took to the entire class. I listen attentively and when she asks me what she should do, I tell her that she should allow me to deal with the situation. That I will visit the classroom several times and see if there is any reason for concerns. The parent is hoping that her concerns are unfounded and that it is partly faulty reporting by her child and partly the chaos of the beginning of the year. This parent does trust me because I was the case manager for another of their children and she leaves feeling a bit better.
I return to the paperwork grind after turning in a recommendation for board approval for a related service. As my meeting time approaches, I speak with the LDTC and social worker about the meeting. As I've indicated in previous posts, this is a situation where the student was evaluated earlier this calender year and at that time the parent declined eligibility. Now the parent has supposedly changed their mind but we still have to treat it as a new referral. After some thought, I've decided to be prepared for an initial referral conference, eligibility meeting, and initial IEP meeting. While it isn't 100 percent kosher, it seems a bit needless to hold things up unnecessarily. Little do I know that this will come back to bite me in the butt later today.
We have the meeting and there is no additional information that warrants additional evaluations. The student is still eligible and the parent is amendable to eligibility. So we discuss this as well as the education plan. A short time later, I get a call from the guidance counselor to help plan the student's schedule.
I return to my office and help my office mate organize her IEPs. Then disaster strikes in the form of a 3 second power outage which results in our losing the phones and internet for more than 2 hours. After futile attempts to get some sort of work done with out access to any of our files, the IEP program, or phones, most of us decide it is time for lunch. Lunch turns from mildly amusing to outright hilarious and the humor turns blue and someone tries to tell us about an out of district school that they can't remember as they try to describe its physical appearance.
After lunch, I gather my stuff and head over to the school. I had told the special education teachers in an email that I would be there at 1pm for them to get their IEPs. I also know that my office mate has a meeting there at 2pm and that I will be kicked out of our office for her meeting, so I bring something with me to store the IEPs in for the interruption. On my way out, the LDTC that was in the meeting with me this morning gives me a heads up that our supervisor has been getting an earful from the principal about the student returning to school and that my supervisor will want to talk to me when she returns from the administrators meeting. Sigh.
I get another great parking spot (I'm worried about how I am going to pay in the karmic sense) and get to the office. The guidance counselor tells me that two teachers had been by about half an hour ago and I wonder to myself which part of 1pm was misunderstood. I shrug and get ready for any teacher that may take me up on my offer. In the time that I'm there, two of the teachers comes by and I also speak with my supervisor over the phone about the meeting from the morning. I explain my reasoning for my actions and she asks to speak with me in person tomorrow. Once the school day ends, I gather my things and return to the office and decide to see my boss before I leave instead of waiting until tomorrow.
We discuss this situation and the outcome again. My reasoning for his return to the school as opposed to another placement is that the student has already been punished for the actions from last year and that one of the other pupils that the student had difficulty with has left the state. In addition, the eligibility category did not relate to the infractions and, clinically speaking, the attitude the student has is not a disability even if it is a maladaptive belief instilled by the family culture. My supervisor does see it my way but also has to see it from the principal's point of view as well. In this case, I think I should have looked at it from that point as well. Live and learn. I tell my boss that I will go see the principal tomorrow and allow him to vent at me.
In thinking about it a bit more now, I will definitely hold a 30 day review. I think I forgot about working within a system this time. I'm not saying that I would have done things differently but I think paying attention to the system and listening to all the stakeholders as a whole would have made things move more smoothly. That doesn't mean the student shouldn't get a fair shake though.
My mistake was in assuming. You know the joke so I won't go into it. If you are too young to know the joke then it is a shame that it has gone out of common knowledge as hackneyed as it may be. I assumed that all the administrator that were involved were on the same page and apparently the principal may have been left out of the loop.
More fun tomorrow: Friday is department meeting day!
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