Department Meeting Friday

So I finally get the IEP for the student that I was told about yesterday.  While I'm looking at it, something just doesn't seem right and then it strikes me: this IEP ended in March of 2010.  So I leave a message for the case manager from the previous district.  There are also some things that are confusing about the actual description of the program but this is more due to the lack of uniformity in the way district record things in the IEP.

One of the emails this morning reported that our department meeting has been moved up by half an hour.  This doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do much else.  During the meeting, we do quite a bit of house keeping which isn't very interesting.  Although, it also turns out to be Risk Assessment Friday and two of my coworkers head off to have some fun.  We manage to finish the meeting pretty quickly today and don't have to re-adjourn this afternoon.  Although we are given an edict to go forth and review the district mandatory trainings, which includes the crisis management plan, blood born pathogens, discrimination, sexual harassment, drug policy, etc.

My favorite line from the crisis management plan "if you discover a fire or explosion..."  From what I know, explosions usually announce themselves and don't need to be discovered.

After the meeting, I return the call from the previous case manager for the student I mentioned above.  I contact her and discover an explosion, whaddaya know...no, no...discover that the student actually left their district at the beginning of last school year.  Nothing is ever easy.  I contact the secretary at the school who has the whole package and find out that while the parent supplied the IEP from one district, they reported that their last district of residence was someplace else entirely.  So I put on my Sherlock Holmes hunting cap and call the next district.  I leave a voice mail message and I also send a fax requesting the most recent IEP and then I hope and pray that the district actually did another IEP or that the family didn't move again.

Time passes and I don't get a return phone call or a faxed IEP.  But I get nothing.  I complete the request for board approval for the FM system and speak with my supervisor about notes that were made on my coworker's initial request for board approval for home instruction for a student.  If you're wondering why I'm doing stuff for my coworker, she had to leave town suddenly due to a family emergency.

Toward the end of the day, I send an email to the teachers in my assigned school telling them about the procedure for obtaining accommodation/modification sheets (which are part of the IEP) and let them know about my availability at the school next week.  I decide to go to the school to finish preparations so I don't have to run around on Monday.  I find my coworker's mod sheets and go to the files.  While prepping the files, I see that my 6th grade files are out of alphabetical order.  And not just by a little bit, by a lot.  I know that a few teachers have gone through them but could they put things back in the proper order?

I finally manage to get in touch with someone in the other district that might have an updated IEP on the student but it is looking really uncertain that I'll have the information from IEP.  I call the family and let them know of the hang up and tell them that I'll call them on Monday morning.  And then it is time to go home.

Have a good weekend.