Happy Halloween

My first day full day in my new digs.  Today was also a staff breakfast/lunch and the school psychologists were in charge of putting the lunch together.  Of course we stuck with the Halloween theme but we ignored my original suggestion of making focusing on Freudian fears due to the potential for sexual harassment lawsuits and stuck with a more traditional theme.

Even though my coworkers are anonymous as far as this blog is concerned, I just have to give praise to our youngest fellow school psych who did a great job organizing the affair.  She took on a job that I wouldn't have touched with a 10 foot pole and handled it with aplomb.

So since we didn't have a staff meeting today due to the overflow of the big move, I went over to see a student on my caseload who had freaked out the speech therapist during their re-evaluation.  I met with the student and learned that the kid is a bit sensitive and is definitely not the type of kid who should be watching 1000 Ways to Die especially at 11 years of age.  Sheesh, really?  C'mon.  I was watching Enter the Ninja  & Revenge of the Ninja and at that age, and I certainly shouldn't have, and look how messed up I am.

Well, practically the whole school, students and staff, were dressed up for Halloween so I felt a little underdressed when I was over there.  So I made sure to tell any staff member, in my best deadpan, that asked that I was dressed as a serial killer and they look just like everyone else.  I like to scare the normals.

So I returned to the office and had lunch with the department and then I got annoying news.

A friend of mine had been asking me why I had been dreading the move so much and I told her that I knew it wasn't going to go smoothly considering all the potential IT and maintenance issues.  To be honest, it went rather smoothly yesterday, aside from being yelled at by someone for something that was my fault and largely their deluded misconceptions (Can you tell this person got under my skin?).

But all was not to be well.  So this afternoon, I'm told that there is a good chance that I'm going to have to move again because the person that yelled at me yesterday (who is the head of the alternative school program) dropped hints that they were planning on using the area where my office space is set up as a place for having students fill out paperwork and meet with teachers, which now makes my location inconvenient due to the confidentiality issues involved with my position.  This person had not mentioned anything about this prior to the move.  My thinking (paranoid as it may be but, as we know, just because your paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you) is that this person was so incensed that we moved in yesterday that they just made this crap up.  And considering that I heard them, upstairs, this afternoon, saying to someone else, "If you're nice to people, you get screwed.  That's what happens when you're nice to people" I find it hard to believe otherwise.

So now I'm probably going to have to empty out my new desk, which I just got organized yesterday, which is really amazing for me, and move into a smaller location than I was before.

The Big Move

Well, today was the day of the big move.  To give you an idea of just how big this move was I have provide a link to a visual.  The initials have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

So you can see that there was a lot of movement going on today.  Me and LZ had to move first to make room for JJ and SD.  Since LC was going to the same place we were going, they were moved at the same time.  Then furniture had to be moved from the cabin to the new place and to my old place.  Everyone had to take their phones and computers.  The phones had to come with us because of the voice over internet phone system that we have as each phone is programmed for each user.  Since all the computers and phones had to be dismantled, they had to be reassembled again.  I helped all my coworkers get phones and computers back together, which was a blast.  I've done this several times now.  It is actually kinda comforting to work on a problem that you know has a solution as opposed to problems that don't have definite fixes.

Then while I was trying to assemble my work area, our new neighbor (who works upstairs) came in and flipped out on me.  They started yelling that we weren't supposed to be moving in today.  That it wasn't supposed be until tomorrow.  I replied that I was told over a week ago that we were moving today and that men showed up at my office with hand carts and started moving my stuff.  The person went on yelling and a moment later, I decided to leave the field of fire and went back to my place of origin.  I told my supervisor what had happened since the other person was a supervisor as well.

So after lunch and helping a bunch of people with their computers, I went back to my new digs and finished moving into my desk.  The yeller came down and apologized but I remained cool toward them.  By the end of the day, I managed to get situated.  I am beat.  I'm getting too old for this stuff.

Wednesday Recovery

I woke up this morning after a night of coughing and trying to sleep in an upright position.  I really don't know if what I had would really be considered sleep but I dragged myself into the shower and tried to simulate life and went to work.

At first, I didn't think I was going to seek to interact with the student population (i.e. counseling or testing) today and I sought out some form of paperwork to do.  Unfortunately, my productivity from yesterday had bitten me in the butt and left me with very little that I could do.  I coworker had kindly brought me a box which I filled with books in about 2 minutes and I sought out other things to write/type without success.

Then I was present/involved in a discussion about a special breakfast that we are having this Friday.  It was this conversation that finally drove me from the building and sent me packing to the school, where I proceeded to counsel every kid that had it on my caseload.  I'm going to have more about this in a later post about office politics.  I was trying to write about it today but I'm finding that it is rambling on and I'm not too sure where it is going.  So I'm going to cut it and paste it into another post to be completed at another time.

After counseling and doing what little paperwork I could reasonably find, I finally had the teacher training for the FM system.  It was actually very interesting.  I learned some things about how to keep the FM system in working order.  I don't know if anyone else in the district knows any of this and I don't even know if it is something that I'm supposed to be responsible for.  I'll have to talk with my boss about this.

Tomorrow is the big move.  I hope I don't get my fingers smashed with something heavy so I can type about it.

Death Warmed Over

That is what I woke up feeling like but I dragged my sorry butt into work anyway because I need to hold onto my sick days.  I figured I would just isolate myself from the world and finish typing up the psych reports that I have outstanding.  I also wrestled with taking a half-day and going home early but at a certain point in the cost-benefit analysis, it just seemed like a better option to stay at work and bear on through the rest of the day.

One thing that was waiting for me was a bunch of IEPs that I had submitted to my director for review.  This may happen in other districts and it isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Most of the notes on them were more for future benefit but I did see my boss about them and cleared that up.  Then I fixed any clerical errors that were present and went about my day.

Today was the last interview for an open position in our department.  It will either go to a social worker or a school psychologist.  The last interview was a male school psychologist.  In the end, I continue to be the unique snowflake of the department since this one didn't make the cut.

In the end, I finished my two psych reports, printed them out, made copies, and sent them out in the mail.  I can't be absent tomorrow since I have a meeting with some teachers in the afternoon so I'm off to get some rest and hopefully feel better tomorrow.

Thoughts about the Move

Just a quick rundown on Monday activities before I get on to the subject of my title.

I finished torturing...I mean testing a 5th grader today.  The student was a real trooper.  I got all of that stuff scored and got to see the School Motivation and Learning Strategies Index in action.  While it was a little bit of a pain to score without the software, it was still interesting and I'll have to see if it will be of use.  I ordered it because I got to thinking about the number of students that get referred that don't necessarily have a learning problem as much as not knowing how to learn or study or prepare for tests.  The SMALSI is probably something that Intervention and Referral Services should be using but...

After this, I finished up two psychological reports after going to pick up my last outstanding survey from a parent.  So that was two down and two reports to go.  Then I have more kids to test.  Overall, it was a fairly productive day.

I also found out that one of my students that ended up being court ordered into a residential substance abuse facility had eloped and was now back in juvie and will likely be there for the better part of a year, if not sent to another facility for treatment.

So onto the meat of my entry.

I started thinking about the year so far and it seems very disjointed.  Perhaps this is more my perception than anything else but since this is my diary, I get to spew my view.  As I've mentioned, in a few days, me, my office mate, and another coworker are moving out of the building where our department is located and moved into a building that is about 10 yards away.  The reason for this move is that the "temporary" trailer that has housed three other staff people for much longer than the word "temporary" implies are being moved into the regular building and the trailer will be demolished.  Apparently, being a trailer is a thankless job.  I wouldn't recommend it as a career move.

One odd thing to note is that the third person that is being moved out with me and my office mate wouldn't necessarily be impacted by the move.  This third coworker is part of another series of moves that is occurring.  Along with her, several other people are having their offices switched around for reasons that aren't necessarily clear.  The reason I'm being moved with my office mate is because we are working in the same school this year but if the logic for my placement this year is followed, I will not be working in that same school next year.  Either way is fine with me.  I've known my office mate for 13+ years having worked with her in my previous year.

Two of the other people being impacted by the move are my current office neighbors who have been sharing an office together for over 2 years and, in a way, have become like family to each other.  From a morale point of view, I don't think that their separation is a good idea.

I think these impending changes are impacting the...communication isn't the right word...the flow of socialization within the department.  One part of it for me may be that I already have an alternative place to work, the office at the school, so I already feel a bit of a disconnect from the department.  I imagine that this disconnect is going to become greater after the move since my "home" office won't even be in the same building as everyone else.

I've already worked for program that was the black sheep of the company I worked for and it was a bit like being picked last for dodgeball.  I get the feeling that this move is going to lead to being forgotten by the social environment unless I/we make a concerted effort to remain involved and remind folks of our presence.  The people in the trailer already know a bit what that is like, especially since most folk already refer to them as the "cabin people", not in the redneck/ hillbilly sort of way but more in the "they are distant and different" sort of way.

The change in office mates for other people is also going to impact things.  I think about one of the theories of group development and what is going to happen as we adjust to this new system.  I hope that we have time to go through them before any other changes take place.  Otherwise we are going to be always a bit off our game.  Even though we do not have to make the types of group decisions that this theory applies to, the social environment will definitely be impacted.

DYFridayS

Our department meeting had a special guest today, a representative from DYFS.  We had provided a number of questions ahead of time but the representative didn't seem to prepare responses for them.  While I know that anything having to do with people has to be handled on a case by case basis, the rep could have looked up the law upon which decisions were based in order to answer the questions.

The few things that I was able to learn during the meeting included:

• Even when a child is in a foster home, the parent(s) retains the right to sign consent for evaluations and the initial IEP.
• Based on a recently passed law, when a student has been placed in a foster home in a different town, the district of their original residence remains responsible for their education.  In addition, their is a stronger requirement that the student continues to attend the school of that town in order to reduce the disruption in their education.
• There is no law against corporal punishment in New Jersey.

It was difficult to get definitive answers on anything.

Later in the day, I finally obtained two of the surveys that I needed to complete two psychological evaluations.  So I spent the rest of the day working on one of the reports and packing for the big move next week.

One final note, I had promised an additional update from the professional development day.  Well, I was looking over my notes and the material from the law presentation and there really wasn't anything additional to add.

The lawyer that presented on behavioral intervention plans didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know and the cyber-bullying part really didn't have any ground breaking news beyond the fact that the law really hasn't caught up with technology.

Have a good weekend.

Thursday Fun

I solved my Excel problems when I got into work and now I feel comfortable that I have a spreadsheet that can tell me when I need to have re-eval planning meetings completed as well as being able to tell me that date based upon whether the student's IEP lapses before the actual re-eval date.  It is still a little crude but it is functional for me.

I get an email from a teacher that tickles me pink.  The teacher basically asks me if I could look at all the IEPs for the students in her resource class to see if they have "calculator" as a modification for the NJ ASK.  First, I don't know who she has in her resource class.  And B, she has all the IEPs.  My response summarizes this and then tells her that she can email me the names of the students that don't have it and she thinks should.  I also mention that 90% of my students have their IEP meetings scheduled before the NJ ASK and if they need it, it will be put in there at that time.  I double check with the special ed supervisor to make sure that my response wasn't crazy.  The supervisor didn't think so.

I talk with the coworker that asked me to attend an initial referral conference in their place.  I ask my coworker if their reticence to ask me had anything to do with my seeming compromised due to my personal problems.  My coworker stated that wasn't the case and that I always seem "present" (my word) at work.  So that is a relief.

Later in the day, I attend the above meeting.  The kindergarten student has been referred due to behavior problems in school.  Angry outbursts, inability to remain still, below age performance on tasks in class.  The meeting was at the end of the school day and the student was brought to the room where we had the meeting so the parent could take the child home.  The kid is brought in and immediately starts crying.  The teacher brings the student out of the room for a moment and returns with the student who is continuing to cry, falls upon the floor and flails about, starts trying to crawl away and escape the room.

I think the child may be eligible.

I return to the office in time to accompany my coworkers/fellow moviees to the place we are moving our offices.  Word has come through the grapevine that we are going to move next week.  This is later confirmed by an email from our boss that we will be moving by the end of next week.  So we visit our new digs again and look around.  My two coworkers are the ones making plans as to where they will be and I will go in the default location, which suits me fine.  We spend some time talking with one of new housemates and get the grand tour...or a grander tour because we have already been over once.  This leads to the end of the day.

Department Meeting Friday!

Wednesday Testing

So I pick up my gear from the office and head over to the school.  Some student in the common area outside the school tries to look in the file box I'm carrying (yes, I'm very high tech; I constantly look like I'm moving into a new office or have just been fired) and asks if he can help me carry the box into school.  At first I wonder if I look that old that I would be assumed to be enfeebled but then he reveals that he just wants to help me because he thinks it will earn him a ride on the school elevator.  Again, this leads me to wonder if I look so incapacitated that I would need to use the elevator to carry one box.

Once I'm in my office, I endure the torturous school announcements and then call a student to my office for testing.  I torture the poor child for about an hour and a half and then send them back to class.  I'm about half-way through the evaluation and plan to finish it up by next week at the latest.

Following this I contact a few parents to get those darn survey forms back and I actually have success in speaking to them.  I look at the time and determine that I have caused enough damage in this school for one day and head off to another school to finish up the testing with the student that I had to call DYFS about.

My fears that the student would turn and run away from me as soon as they see me turn out to be unfounded.  In fact it is just the opposite.  As soon as the kid sees me, they say, "For me" with an eagerness that I'm not used to.  While I'm walking to the room for the assessment, the student says, "I wish we could do this every day for like the next ten days."  And this is even after the kid attended an assembly that morning.  Boy, I feel special.

As an aside, if you ever want to get a boost to your self-esteem in this field, do a classroom visit to a kindergarten.  You'll feel like a rock star.

So I don't know what happened between the last time I saw the student and today.  When I try to find out if there were any visitors (aka state officials) at their home, the student seems completely oblivious.  The kid is also more hyperactive than an appropriate simile for someone being hyperactive (thanks again for the joke, David Thorne; for someone, this just makes me laugh).  I finish the evaluation and return the kid to class.

I then return to the office and start another psych report that I can't finish because I don't have surveys back.  So that means I now have approximately four psych reports in the hopper, none of which I can finish due to missing information.  I also get assigned two more psych evals.  Such is life.

Oops, I just remembered that I forgot to log in a risk assessment from a colleague.  Note to self.

The afternoon involves getting some stuff organized and calculating dates for re-eval planning meetings.  This also means playing around with MS Excel.  While I'm doing that a fellow school psychologist asks me if I can cover an initial referral conference for them tomorrow.  The manner in which they ask me makes me wonder how my coworkers are seeing me these days due to my personal difficulties, which also makes me wonder if I have an inaccurate view of myself during this time.

I'm thinking about asking my coworker about this tomorrow.

Delayed Mundane Monday (I Flaked)

I forgot to do my post last night, which is not a good sign.

It was a sign of being too tired and whole lot of nothing going on today.  So I'll just hit bullet points:

• Tried to test two kids.  The one in the morning was absent; the one in the afternoon wasn't easily located and may have been in gym.  And trying to take a small, hyperactive child out of gym is like trying to take a puppy away from a dog lover.
• This freed me up to write up three risk assessments; scores some subtests; and try to make sense of a psychological report that I'm trying to write.
• I reached out to one parent who had emailed me with concerns about their child's performance in a class.  I did this after I spoke with the teacher.
• I called two other parents and didn't get a response.  The first parent was to set up a neuropsychiatric evaluation and the second was to obtain a survey that I need to complete one of my psychological reports.
• I also started the frame work of an IEP I need for in November.
• I also took a look at my upcoming re-evaluations and determined latest date that I would need to hold a planning meeting.

 And that is it.

I'm out tomorrow (or today, considering I'm writing this on Tuesday).  I'll be back on Wednesday.

Musings from Friday

Today was department meeting day and, aside from a double header risk assessment which was really pretty mundane, the highlight of the meeting to me was something a coworker brought up during the meeting.

The subject involved the I&RS team at my coworker's school reporting that they were seeing an increase in ADD type behaviors and was asking if there was a simple screening tool that they could use at the general education level to assist parents when they go to see their child's doctor.  Now putting aside the part of the screening tool and the issues regarding qualifications to administer and interpret, the real issue that sprung to my mind and the mind of the transition coordinator was the rumination of whether the ADD type symptoms is something that is going to become the norm in students.  Meaning that it may not be a disorder.

This made me think of some things that I had read in transhumanist science-fiction.  While the idea of something in science-fiction having an application in the real world may rub some people the wrong way, I do subscribe to the belief that science-fiction provides an area to explore uncomfortable subjects in a safe environment.  Such as exploring racism using alien races.

In addition to this, transhumanism isn't just something from science-fiction.  It is a movement that is involved in a number of areas: social, political, economic, technological.

So the particular piece of fiction that came to mind involved the idea that as time went by and biology and technology becomes more integrated and indistinguishable from each other, and as the internet evolves and we reach a point where we may be constantly in contact with it then part of the definition of intelligence may involve our ability to mentally multi-task and be able to access multiple sources of information.

With that idea in mind then ADD may not be a disorder but an evolutionary step.

If that is the case then perhaps it isn't the students that are the problem but the teachers.  Not the teachers but the educational institutions.

The final thought I had was that it is a shame that the current generation has to teach the coming generation because it is not a level playing field.  The coming generation always has a leg up, technologically.  I grew up in a time where I got to see cable TV and the internet has gone from practically nothing and has exploded.  The availability of information now is astounding.

I think back to my previous career and I think the type of psychiatric outreach program that I worked for wouldn't have been possible prior to the invention of cellphones and pagers.  There is no way we would have been able to respond to changing situations as quickly as we did without it.

The amount of information that children are exposed to these days is astounding and it must be difficult to adjust or manage that amount of information.  It is difficult and numbing for me.  Perhaps the malleability of young minds are better suited for it but it is having consequences that appear to be a disability to a fading society or age.  In addition, the generation that is in school now may be that transition period that is going to have the toughest time of it because they are a part of two different technological ages.

Even so, I can't help think that something is being lost.  Some sort of depth of being or loss of introspection.  But perhaps that is just the inclination to think that the time that you occupy was better than the age that is coming.

Thursdee

My work day begins with a trip to a day care to evaluated a child before their third birthday.  I was in the company of an LDT-C and a speech therapist.  We decided to do the evaluation all together because we weren't expecting to get much since the child was reported to be non-verbal and diagnosed with FAS and PDD.  Sadly, we weren't disappointed.  Although it was a happy discovery that the child was no longer a biter and was actually much more social than we expected.  Standardized testing was not possible and attempts at informal assessments didn't meet with much success either.  We returned to the office with the plan of combining our observations.  I'm just waiting to get a couple of survey forms back before I can write my stuff up.

Since I was on a testing kick, I decided to go see another student and start that evaluation.  I get to the school and see that they have their book fair.  I manage to resist the pull of new sci-fi books and go to the classroom and start my observation.  Following the observation, I find a spot to test and go get the kid.  The student is amazed that I know who Wolverine is and that I like Superman.  In doubly impress him when I'm able to talk about Dragonball Z and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The testing session goes pretty well.  I'm doing a house-tree-person when the student starts talking about being beaten by one of their parents.  I explore the subject some more with the student but I already know what I have to do.  Since it was getting toward his lunch time, I bring him back to class after ensuring that he isn't injured and make the call to DYFS.  I make sure to get the DYFS worker's name and ID number.  I also make sure that the building guidance counselor is aware of the situation.

Following this, and a quick in the car lunch, I return to the office and find multiple survey forms in my mailbox.  I stop by and tell the case manager of the student that I just started testing and tell her about the call to DYFS.  We both comment about that may impede the progress of our assessment since the child's parents may hold it against the district.  After that, I sit down and do a ton of scoring.  By this time, there is only a few minutes left in the day and I copy and past some graphics into my psych report.  This is the only cheating I really allow myself when I write a report.  I'll cut and paste the charts from the scoring software reports.

Tomorrow, we return to our regularly scheduled department meetings.

Observation

I started off by going to the school and observing a student in their classroom.  I went to the classroom and motioned for the teacher to come to the door.  When I asked the teacher if the student was present, she immediately turns to the student and starts to call out their name.  I tried to hush her before she does so and I'm still not sure whether my cover was blown or not.  The situation wasn't any better because I really didn't even know what the student looked like because our school information system doesn't have their pictures in it yet (today was picture day).  So I end up observing the wrong student for the first couple of minutes until the teacher gets the class going well enough that I can get her attention and get an ID on the student.

In the past, I've had several observations where there was a far more interesting student to watch in the class than the one that I was there to observe.  It really makes you wonder just how good the referral process is and has caused me to say to myself, "Why hasn't anyone mentioned this kid?"

But that is not the case today.  As a whole, the class was pretty mundane and there really weren't any outstanding behaviors.

Later in the morning, I returned to my home base and settled in until 2:30pm when I was scheduled for an initial referral conference.  I spent the time between doing some house cleaning in preparation for the impending move because I just know that word will come down from on high suddenly.  I find a lot of interesting little, inherited, knick-knacks in desk.  My desk was the former desk of two school psychologist, one of which had been in the district for 30 years.  It is amazing what you can find.  I manage to suppress most of my hoarding tendencies and actually get rid of some stuff.

I also manage to complete most of a psychological report and I call the teacher that I returned the surveys to yesterday to explain why she got them back.  Now all I need is for the teacher to complete them properly and the report will be done in an hour...okay, maybe a bit more if I get hung up on the the social/emotional section.

I submit my paperwork to attend the state school psychologist conference in December and I also put out a couple of emails to colleagues to see if they are going.  If any of you are attending, I'll be the one wearing glasses...

The initial referral conference rolls around.  It is another interesting case but it is difficult to see how it is education related.  The young child has food eating issues that don't seem to be related to a medical condition and aren't necessarily something that would have an educational impact.  We agree to do the evaluation to see if there may be an education impact.

That brings me to the end of my day and I head on home.  Tomorrow is some fun and frolic with testing.  I'm going to also try to do part three of "I fought the law..."

Tuesday Summary

A quick one today.  I really didn't have much interaction with the outside world.

I completed compiling my list of testing modifications for my students and submitted it to the testing coordinator.  Two things to note on that: if a student needed a calculator, I had to make sure that it was in the testing mods and the classroom modifications.  As the school year progresses, I'll have to double check when I do each IEP.  I don't think it will be too hard to remember to do so since it is now my screen saver.

The other thing was that a coworker asked me if there was a way that our IEP software could pull that information from the IEPs.  I told her that I had already thought of that and it could do so but with the current screwed up state of the software, no dice Chicago.

Following that, I got back some surveys, a BASC-2 and a Vineland-II, from a teacher.  I just don't understand why people can't take a moment to read the directions.  They are very clear.  But no, the teacher left most of the Vineland incomplete and enough of the BASC to make it worthless (and a huge pain) to enter into the scoring software.  So the teacher gets to have them back with a note attached.

In the afternoon, I attempted to work on my coworker's spellcheck enabled form-fillable document.  After about ten tries, I growled and cursed in frustration and gave up.  I did everything correctly and got it to work but everything went to hell when I saved it.  The macro would just disappear.  Extremely frustrating.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the school again and I'm going to see about doing a classroom observation and try to get some more paperwork done.

I fought the law and the law won (Part Two)

The training was broken down into several sections.  The first was sort of a "top ten" list of things for CST members to be aware of.  I don't see any copyright or trademark imprints on any of the hand-outs so I may risk quoting directly from the text (although doing so from something given to me by lawyers almost seems like chancing it; hopefully they would start with a "C and D" before getting really legal on me).

Email
As I mentioned yesterday, email was one of the topics.  The presenters made sure we knew that any email that has a student's initial or name in it could be subpeona'd for a due process hearing.  With that being said, be respectful and professional in all your email correspondences.  Keep them brief and avoid long narratives and inappropriate references to the student.  It seems very much like common sense but, apparently, common sense goes out the window more often than you would think.  Being the jaded person that I am, it doesn't go out the window more often than I think.

The presenter also touched upon our requirements for responding to emails from parents.  That each email should be treated as a separate written response and we have 20 days to respond to them.  That doesn't mean we have to respond to each email separately and that we don't have to respond by email, we can make a phone call or send a written letter.  Along with that, if you don't respond by email, make sure you keep a copy of your response or log the phone call somewhere.  In the case of the latter, some school information systems and IEP software systems have the ability to log such interactions.

PLAAFPs
My favorite from this is something that has been repeated over and over again.  Saying something to the effect of "Mikey is a pleasure to have in class and he works very hard" is useless and meaningless in a court of law.  PLAAPFs need to be broken down into what the student can do and has trouble doing and it needs to be operationalized.  "Mikey is able to complete two digit computations but has difficulty completing three digit computations" tells much more.  The information in a PLAAFP should be completed with the thought that one day, it may be read by a judge or lawyer.  Be honest, not cruel, but honest and concise.

Rationale for Removal
This is a section of the IEP that has plagued people at times.  The best advice from the presenters was to be specific because it may help another party in the future and to give strong supporting examples.

Uncooperative and/or Abusive Parents
Don't take it personally.  If anyone else was in your position, they would suffer the same as you.  Maintain your professional demeanor.  And you don't have to take abuse.  If someone is verbally abusing you over the phone, you have the right to end the call by telling the person that they are being verbally abusive and that you are ending the phone call.  After that, make sure you tell your supervisor.

Accommodations and Modifications
Avoid laundry lists.  Again, keep in mind that a judge or lawyer may read this one day and ask a teacher, "How do you have time to provide all these everyday?"

Due Process Hearings
When the presenter asked the audience about their experiences with going to a due process hearing, most people said it was a horrible experience.  Some said that it was humiliating.  The presenter said that it should not be a bad experience if you are prepared and prepared correctly by the lawyer.  In addition, if the judge refers to you as "credible" in the judge's opinion, that is the best praise you can expect to receive.

I fought the law and the law one... (Part One)

Today was professional development day.  So while many people had the day off, I went in for some training.  Fortunately, it was a better, and more applicable, training than on some previous professional development days.  Possibly because the child study team went out of district this time.

It has been my experience that when you are the minority in the district (and next to teachers, almost every one else is the minority), you often get shoe-horned into trainings that have little to nothing to do with your profession.  While one training on differentiated instruction may be nice, when you go to the same thing several years in a row (I'm taking dramatic license here) it gets to be a bit much.

So what is a child study team/department of special education to do?  Well your options include pushing the department agenda and getting the organizers of ProDep to get a special presentation just for the department; get someone from the department to do a training of some sort; or head out of town if you are lucky enough to find an applicable training on the same day as your district's day (and the district is willing to spring for it).

So today's out of district training was on interpreting special education law.  I had been to similar a training last year and I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the same lawyers that did the presentation last year.  The great thing about this lawyer, aside from some of the truly horrific and preposterous stories he had to tell, was his dry humor.  I likened him to Bob Newhart back when he did stand-up.

I plan on recapping this training in a couple of posts or side posts.  I'm doing this for a number of reasons: first, today and tomorrow are a bit busy for me personally; and second, I need a little time to organize my notes.

So not to leave you high and dry, I'll mention some of what you can expect in the next few days: email, PLAAFPs, parents, and bullying.

I'm sorry if this seems like a bit of a non-post but my private life calls.

Publishers are reducing the number of picture books...

I saw this sad article today in the New York Times.

Publishers are reducing the number of picture books that are being produced in favor of more text-heavy books for young readers.  The article says it better than I can.

A Flat Friday

Without a department meeting today, it was business as usual.  It was very quiet at home base as there were a number of absences in addition to the boss.

I started my day at the school by meeting with a special education teacher and the Wilson Reading teacher.  The SE teacher had been receiving communiques from one of my formidable parents and we met to provide some encouragement and reassurance.  The main message was that it was the teacher's classroom and as long as their decisions were based on sound, educational choices, the teacher would have all the back up they could get if the parent went above their head.  When I returned to the department, I made sure to talk to my supervisor, who oversees the special education teachers, and filled her in on the situation.  My supervisor echoed the message of the meeting and asked me to remind her to speak with the teacher at the next SE teacher meeting.

For the rest of the day, I worked on several projects:

• I started the psych report for the 1st grader;
• worked on compiling a list of testing modifications for the district testing coordinator; 
• fielded a call from the parent that didn't show for their child's IEP meeting yesterday; 
• completed the IEP for said child;
• organized some more risk assessments that I found misfiled in my drawer;
• and worked on a MS Word project for my coworker (trying to figure out how to get MS Word to spellcheck a form-fillable document)

That is really about it for today.  Monday is our final professional development day.  Our department is going to a training in another district.  So Monday's post will be about that field trip.

I'm off to read a book...

IEP Day

My day starts off with three IEP meetings.  Two of them are actual meetings while the last one is an attempt but two thirds is actually a good turn out.  One is done over the phone since the parent reported that they never received the invitation but the letter was sent to the correct address.  The other one was with the parents that showed up on Monday.  In the case of the latter, the funny thing is that they showed up three days early but, today, they showed up 10 minutes late.  Even the parents joked about it.  Still, it was good times.

I have an interesting discussion with the parents of the second meeting.  One parent works for the state child protective services (okay, okay, I'm blatant about this being a New Jersey blog.  I'll just call it DYFS, it sounds like Dreyfuss without the "r").   This parent asks me the process of referring a student for an evaluation, particularly in the case where DYFS is the custodian/guardian.  I explain that we have had the DYFS caseworkers make the written request in lieu of the the parent (wow, "lieu" didn't get a red underline, I thought that was an iffy guess on my part).

I think I'm starting to grok the idea of having the office in the school.  I've been amazed at how productive I've been since spending time there.  It has really reduced a lot of distractions for me.  Not only was I able to have the IEPs for these meetings 90% prepared but after the two meetings, I was able to finish those IEPs and have them ready to print out.

I think my original distaste for having an office in a school came from my previous district where students constantly showed up out of the blue and the administration was constantly calling for my presence for the most minor things.  "Can you come down here?  X got kicked out of class for not doing what Mister/Misses Y told them to do."  Really?  How about working with the teacher on better classroom management strategies?  Or give the student a detention.  The situation doesn't warrant a debate.  Sometimes students just need to be told the rules.

So since I'm in a school/district where the administration has a clearer vision of discipline and boundaries, these sorts of situations don't come up nearly as often.  Sometimes, just the reverse occurs: "You suspended them for 15 days and didn't call me?  I have to do a manifestation determination to see if this is related to their disability."  But this doesn't happen nearly as often as the former did in my previous district.

So, as I said, I'm actually able to get more work done at the school.  And thinking about my eventual move to my new office, perhaps the isolation from the rest of the department will also benefit me.

After my meetings, and doing the related paperwork, I return to home base (although having multiple offices makes it difficult to keep them straight when I'm writing about them).  I speak to my supervisor about the application for services from a parent.  The one that I mentioned yesterday that had the wording "physical basis."  I show the application to her and she has the same reaction: that looks like something that a medical doctor needs to sign.  She advises me to talk to the director.  So since the director is out until Monday, I call the agency that gave the parent the application.  I make sure that this hold up won't cause the application to expire.  Once I get that reassurance, I call the parent and explain the situation.  The parent is very understanding and I tell her that I will call with an update as soon as I speak with the director.  Now that I think about it, I'll have to call the agency again just to get clarification about their application form.

I should note that I looked over the student's evaluations and previous IEPs and don't see anything in there that makes me think that they would technically be eligible for the services from this agency.

After lunch, it is time for another IEP meeting.  This one isn't mine, I'm just along for the ride.  My coworker likes to bring someone along because she is still getting used to working in a school environment and likes to have a sounding board when uncertain about the law.

My presence came in handy because there was a question about how to discontinue occupational therapy: did the student need a formal evaluation or was the report from the OT stating that the student had met their goals and was recommended to discontinue enough.  I used the precedence that speech therapists had done the latter (wow, I'm getting some mileage with "former" and "latter" today) in the case of students receiving speech.  The only times that this really triggers a formal evaluation is in a case where a student that is eligible under communication impaired is determined to no longer need speech.  Then we need to evaluated to see if the student continues to be eligible for any special education services under another category.

The meeting is a long one.  Mostly due to the fact that the parents need a translator.  For the newbies out there that don't speak a second language: if you are going to have a meeting that requires a translator, count on that meeting taking up to twice as long as an average meeting.

Following this, we return to home base and I finish out the day printing IEPs and putting the out for copying and mailing.  Overall, a good day.

With my boss away for a long weekend, we do not have a department meeting tomorrow, so the inmates are running the asylum.  Toga!  Toga!

Just kidding.

I Had a Snappy Title But I Forgot...

First thing this morning, I finished testing the student from yesterday.  She was a real trooper, once again.  After that, I went to my assigned school and did some work.  I'm really amazed at how much paperwork I'm getting done when I go there.  A lack of interaction really does wonders for productivity.

I get a call from my office mate who tells me I should return to the office because we are going to see our new digs.  I was planning on returning any way, so I go back and see the new place.  On any other day, I probably would have been impressed but I'm just not feeling it today.  It is nice and it doesn't seem like it will be a bad move.  Most importantly, there will be room for my books.  On the downside, I'll have to clean out my desk since it won't be coming with me.  I'll have to start the purge.

At lunch, we talk about the move.  We also talk with the people moving into my current office.  We kid one of them about purging her stuff.  She goes on about having 20 years worth of protocols stored in her office.  We tell her that she can get rid of 13 years of those protocols but she is resistant.  I tell her current and future office mate that she will need to do a "Hoarders"-style intervention.

After lunch, I speak with my boss about the risk assessments.  She tells me that she hasn't been holding back on giving me assessments because of questions regarding my clinical skill but because she inundated me with risk assessments and evaluations that it impacted my ability to complete my other work.  This makes me feel better.

Oddly enough, I get called in on an odd situation/risk assessment and back up one of my coworkers.  It was one of the more interesting situations.  The main question that it raised was: when does religious belief become a psychiatric concern?

A very touchy situation.  In this case, the student has reported seeing spirits of relatives in the past.  This time, she reported the student reported that they haven't been sleeping because of being visited by malign spirits that give bad dreams and have physically shaken them awake.  The rest of the family has also experienced similar events at various points and recently had their home blessed.  The family is part of a church where this is completely acceptable to believe.  The church has also identified the student as being gifted or blessed with the ability to interact/perceive the spirit world.

The student does not have suicidal or homicidal thoughts; no thoughts of harming themselves; no problems as far as school is concerned, aside from fatigue from poor sleep; no racing thoughts; no disruption in peer or teacher interactions; no problems with personal grooming or hygiene.  When speaking to the family, they are aware of the situation and plan on taking the student to the pediatrician regarding the sleep problems.

While there may be religious pre-occupation from my secular standpoint, it is not unusual in the context of the family and their religious beliefs.  The student is not a danger to themselves or others and the only impact appears to be the sleep disruption, and the family is taking appropriate measures.

I tell my coworker, who brought me in on this, that she sure knows how to show a guy a good time.  I go back to the office and finish printing my paperwork for tomorrow's annual reviews.

A Short Tuesday

I just spent the last hour and a half cleaning up the sludge in the basement.  This sludge was the result of the plumber snaking a pipe under the basement floor.  Needless to say, I'm eager to put this day behind me.

There isn't much to talk about today.  I did a classroom observation and starting testing a 1st grader today.  I don't remember first grade being that organized but then again, I don't remember much of last week either.

I managed to get through about half of the evaluation before it was time to bring the kid back for their snack time.  The student was a real trooper.  When I brought her back for snack time, there was still 10 minutes to go.  The kid said we could go back and do some more but I didn't want to get caught up in a subtest and have her antsy for snacks if it ran over.

The room that I used for the testing was good but had the downside that the back room was used for another class and the teacher that used it didn't seem to have any sense of volume control.  When you are in a room that is about the size of your average non-master bedroom, I don't think you need to shout when you are standing two feet away from all your students.  It wasn't even like the teacher was shouting at them, she just talked loud enough for it to be shouting.

For the rest of the day, I managed to get a significant amount of paperwork done.  So far, I have had exactly one teacher give me PLAAFs (Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functioning; replacing the older and much snappier PLEPs) for my meetings on Thursday.  That is a turn out of one third.  An email will have to go out first thing tomorrow.

Toward the end of the day, one of my other special education teachers stops by my office at HQ and shows me a piece a paper that a parent had sent in, asking the teacher to fill out.  The paper is asking for certification that the student has "physical evidence of a visual or perceptual disability."  It is for the student to receive services from an outside agency for dyslexia.  I tell the teacher that I would have to speak to my supervisor first or the agency itself.  The one thing that makes me leery is the "physical" part of the statement.  That smacks of medical diagnosis which isn't me.  I'm not going to prevent the student from getting the services that his parents are seeking but if the agency needs a medical doctor's signature then that is what they should get.

At the end of the day, I get a chance to speak with my supervisor about the risk assessments.  I ask if she has been hold back on giving me risk assessments.  She states that she has been doing so but she doesn't have time to talk to me at length and would like to speak to me tomorrow.  She assures me that it has nothing to do with my personal life.  I respond, "Well if it professional, that makes me even more concerned."  My boss tells me not to worry.  I go back to my office, worrying, and speak with my officemate/confidant.  I tell her that I'm worried that our boss is concerned is concerned about my clinical ability.  She says that it isn't that: that our boss recognized that she had given me so many risk assessments and so many evaluations last year that it severely impacted my organizational abilities and I was swamped at the end of last school year.  So our boss doesn't want to do that to me again.  I tell my confidant that I hope that is the case.

I'm not the type of guy that has a lot of male pride.  I have more geek pride than anything else.  I don't have a big competitive streak.  I don't go in for a lot of the "measuring" contests that are stereotypical for my gender.  The one thing I do have a hang up about is pulling my weight.  I don't like to be coddled or feel like I'm being coddled.  Although finding out that I was being coddled and not having recognized it might bother me more.  So I have that feeling at the moment.

The whole pulling my weight thing was probably the thing that made it difficult for me to be a supervisor in my previous career.  I believed that I had to do as much work, if not more, than everyone else on my treatment team, which made it difficult for me to delegate.  In addition, I had to do the dirtiest jobs because I felt if I did them then it would be hard for my staff not to do them.  So I went to the worst neighborhoods and saw the most difficult clients.  That is my biggest hang up.  Professionally.

Questions from Andrea

I just noticed someone posted a comment on the October 1st post.  Andrea writes:

Hi!

I, like Cameron from last week, really enjoy reading your blog and learning from it. I'm currently a 2nd year graduate student in Florida, and I'm thinking about leaving Florida after I graduate to return to NJ where I'm from. I have a few questions I hope you can help me with.

Thanks for reading.  I hope that it is helpful.

I'm planning on becoming a NCSP during my third year, which NJ accepts, but I'll still need to learn the state laws and how things are done in NJ. Do you have any good resources for learning information like that? I don't want to have too steep of a learning curve if/when I return to NJ.

Reader friendly resources are few and far between.  The two core sources are the NJ Administrative Law for Special Education and Parental Rights in Special Education.  My standard line for parent meetings where these two sources are given to parents is that the former is written by lawyers for lawyers while the latter is the easy reading, abridged version.  Sadly, there are no clear, concise versions of the law.  I'm sure it is no different in other states.  I've been in department meetings where even the emphasis placed on certain words can seemingly change the entire meaning of the sentence.

Another source of information is the Rutgers Special Education Clinic.  This site consolidates a number of things, such as forms and other information.  It even leads to the law search engine with a hint on how to search specifically for cases related to special education.

Another option, if you have the funds, would be to audit a class in special ed law at one of the New Jersey universities.  When I was in my program, I know there was at least one student in our special ed law class that was sitting in after passing a similar class in New York.  They paid a reduced rate for auditing the course.  That being said, check with your university of interest first.

Another question I have is about Response to Intervention (RTI). Florida moved to using RTI for determining the need for special education services, instead of the discrepancy model that a lot of other states use. That means that a lot of school psychologists don't really have a place in the school anymore, and that's a major reason why I want to move back home. Which model do your schools use (I'm guessing the discrepancy model) and have you heard anything about the state switching to RTI?

The official stance of NJ special education law is that it really doesn't have a specific stance.  The most recent re-authorization of special ed law in the Garden State was in 2006.  At that time, the basic statement was that district did not have to be tied solely to the discrepancy model.  There really hasn't been much talk about it since.  That being said, the state is already gearing up for another re-authorization so who knows what it is going to come out of Trenton next.  The general feeling, which I stated on Friday, is that the state is going to try to adhere more to the federal guidelines.

There has been more pressure on regular education to provide support and intervention before referring students to the child study team but even then there hasn't been a lot of follow through (from what I have seen) on using empirically researched interventions prior to referral.

The role of the school psychologist pretty varied in New Jersey.  The main role is case management, along with all the meetings and paperwork that requires.  In all honestly, case management is the primary role of all three primary specialties (school psychs, school social workers, and learning disabilities teacher-consultants).  School psychs still do plenty of testing; we do plenty of counseling, and we do risk assessments. 

This also changes from district to district.  I know of some districts where case management is top priority because each team member may have 90+ students to oversee.  Other districts: the school psychologists don't do any risk assessments.  So if you are looking to interview in New Jersey, you may want to keep these things in mind and think about the type of district you want to work in.

I will say that with the current economic and political environment in New Jersey, working in education may not be as secure as it used to be.

Thanks for any help you can provide,
Andrea

 Again, thanks for reading and if you have other questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them.  Good luck this semester.

That Sinking Feeling

Well, I popped on while I was at work this morning to make notes for today's post and saw that another person has started following me.  I just wanted to say to her and everyone else: Thank you!

So my first bit of business at the school is to sit in on a meeting with two students (one of which is a student on my caseload), the principal, and the dean of discipline.  The two had a fight on Friday, the students not the principal and dean.  The parent of my student is in as well.  The meeting pretty much comes down to "don't do it again and knock it off" as well as two day's detention for each.  That is about what I expected.  I would have even been okay with a suspension.  I fully support having students in special education, even ones that are behavior disordered, experience the discipline system of the school.  Society is not going to give them a break once they are out of school.

Once I'm back in my office, I begin to feel the cold seep into my bones.  Since it is before the 15th of October, there is no requirement to turn on the heat in the building.  It is hard to believe that a little over a week ago it was still pretty warm out.  It is like the 1st of October came and someone threw a switch.

I try to keep the cold out of my hands by typing up some IEPs for Thursday.  As I do, someone comes into my office and tells me parents are here for their meeting.  Oddly enough the same parents that I just received the meeting RSVP.  I go out and tell them that the meeting is actually scheduled for the 7th.  I also tell them that I would do the meeting right now if I was able to print anything out and if I had the teacher feedback.  They understand and agree to return on Thursday.  At least I know they'll attend.

Once I'm back into the special ed software, I begin to notice something: all the documents that were created before a certain date are just gone.  Letters, IEPs, etc.  Gone.  I also notice something else: when we open a new IEP on a student that has had previous IEPs done in the system, the program pulls a lot of the text from the previous IEP into the new one.  So I see that when I open the new IEP that isn't pulling from the IEP that I see under the archived documents (which is the most recent IEP) but it is pulling from some invisible IEP from the year before that is among the missing documents.  I let out a few expletives and comment on the lineage of this program and how it is related to an ass (the donkey type, not the body part, although I could say that too).  I shoot off an email to the software company and CC our office manager.  Then I continue to work on the IEPs.

Somewhere between the time I start on the IEPs and finish the IEPs, the server for the special ed department goes down like an appropriate simile for how something goes down.  I know it is down because I lose access to my remote desktop and all my calls to the office go straight to voice mail.  I manage to find a workaround to access the special ed program and continue to work on IEPs.  It is amazing how much work you can get done when you don't have access to the internet.

After I finish the IEPs, it is time to go observe a class.  I sit in on a resource class and watch how it goes.  I saw this class a few weeks ago and I notice the teacher has changed the seating arrangements.  It is difficult because it is an English class that is in a science lab classroom.  So instead of desks, there are those large lab tables.  The four kids in the class are so spread out, it is almost like each student is having a separate class.  The class itself is alright and I really can't argue with the content but the atmosphere has lost some of that cohesion.

Follow the observation, I return to my main office.  After lunch, I do a lot of prep work.  I also agree to go to a parent's home for a social history with my office mate.  We are used to home visits because we both did that sort of thing in our previous career.  It isn't something that is normally done in a school district.

I also get some testing stuff prepped and make plans to test a student tomorrow.  I also remind myself to seek out my boss to talk about some office issues.  As I've alluded to, I'm going through some difficult times in my personal life, and I'm getting the feeling that my boss is taking it easy on me when it comes to risk assessments.  I need to speak with her about that because if that is the case, I'm not in agreement with it.  At this point, I know my judgment isn't impaired.  At some point down the road, the stress I'm under may increase and I may need to pull back but now is not the time.  But that discussion will have to wait for tomorrow.

Lawyers, Students, and Money

Without the Money.  But this was the closest I could come to a Warren Zevon reference.  At least two out of the three apply.

Work begins with a visit to my assigned school to meet with my newest student and his mother.  They are much more prompt than the parent from earlier this week.  We talk about his previous program and changes to the program now that the student is in this school.  The parent is in agreement to have their child in a smaller setting for language arts.  We get through the meeting and I hand them off to the guidance counselor for their orientation.

I return to the office for Department Meeting Friday.  We are having a special guest today: our district special education lawyer.  She has come at our director's request for a Q&A session.  Among the subjects discussed are the next re-authorization of IDEA; the proper use of the amendment letter and when amend instead of revise (the former not requiring an actual meeting or new IEP); using a draft during an IEP meeting and being able to use the "sloppy" IEP as a final copy.

The most interesting is the rumor regarding the re-authorization: that the social worker and LDTC specialties will be eliminated since the school psychologists can do the educational evaluations (and in other states they do) as well as the social history evaluation.  The lawyer advises everyone not to get nervous about this because so much changes so quickly during the actual re-authorization that such an idea is unlikely to happen.  Even if it did: there would be such a lack of school psychologists that you wouldn't be able to find enough people to fill the gap.

We also talk about risk assessments and whether our risk assessment reports should be a part of the student's special education record/school record.  Some think that it should but I'm on the side that it shouldn't.  Those that think it should feel that it should go with the other CST evaluations.  My contention is that those evaluations are used to determine eligibility and a risk assessment isn't.  In addition, a risk assessment may involve the revelation of drug abuse which then add a whole other level of confidentiality the likes of which don't apply to the special education record.

The main concern by the staff that are for putting this information in the permanent school record feel that it would be helpful for those specialties that conduct risk assessment to be able to find out if a student has been the subject of previous risk assessment.  I am all for this.  When I worked as a mental health screener in psychiatric emergency services, our first step when receiving a call was to look up the client in our system to see if there was a previous history.  But there are other, more discreet ways to do this in a system where risk assessments are not our primary focus.

I bring up that I had recently taken all the risk assessments that were in my possession and had been done in the last two years into a binder for just such a purpose.  I did this because I had been called twice so far to see if someone had been seen previously.  So now this information is accessible to the staff that is responsible for risk assessments.  In addition to this, we all agree to put a note in the computer system when a student has been evaluated.

After our department meeting, which takes most of the day, I return to my office and my office mate reports that she had received a voice mail message from the student liaison (read dean of discipline) from the school we are assigned.  Apparently, one of my students got into a fight today.  The student's parent is coming in on Monday morning.  So it looks like I have my Monday morning planned out for me.  Enjoy the weekend.