[Before I go any further: I can't say I got an A or anything, but the initial word from my editor on the article was positive, so I didn't fail. Yay me! More when the piece is out and ready for general consumption...hopefully within the next week or so.]
At the end of last week, we got official word on N's IEP meeting. They scheduled it for next Monday, January 14. At 7:45 am.
Here's what you need to know to understand why that made me want to spit fire. The school's playground opens not a moment before 8 am. It's their school, and their 'no exceptions' rule; clearly, they know this. And so WHY EXACTLY would they schedule a meeting that both parents should clearly want to attend for FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE those parents are allowed to drop their kids at school?
It was an easy fix: I called the school, told them we couldn't be there until 8 and that we would not agree to having the meeting start without us, and they said, "Oh, sure! No problem! We'll make that change for you!"
But you know (and by you, I mean anyone who has dealt with a school district in this manner) that this was, at best, a passive-aggressive screw you to us as parents. I'd like to assume that she just wasn't thinking...this SPECIAL ED SPECIALIST who is in charge of our IEP. You know, because she's probably not had to do this much before in her 20-PLUS YEARS OF WORKING FOR THE DISTRICT IN THIS CAPACITY. Because it's probably unusual that the parents involved in the IEP have KIDS TO SCHEDULE AROUND. Maybe it's just that I'm being overprotective, not wanting my not-yet-7-year-old to drive himself to school in the morning. That must be it. I'm sure it's my own fault.
Calling an IEP for 15 minutes before school opens. For crying out loud.
This is going to be fun, don't you think?
3 comments:
Have things changed that much since I was 6 or 7? My dad used to take time off from work to attend my IEP meetings with my mom. I sat on a chair outside the office where they were meeting and read a book or played with my Mr. Math or something small. Or I stayed home with my older brother.
Will they not allow him to sit in the front office while you're meeting and then at 8 a.m., tell him he can go out on the playground?
Been meaning to reply to you, Green. You'd THINK I could just let him sit in the front office, but that's just not possible in our school. As the school secretary told me in her frostiest voice (and trust me, even her normal voice is frosty, so her frostiest one is REALLY chill-inducing), she is NOT a BABYSITTER and children are NOT to be left with her when school is not in session.
So, um, nope. But, like I said, it was an easy fix. It just pissed me off that even the simplest stuff in an IEP requires an argument. Nothing is done properly the first time around.
"Nothing is done properly the first time around." Sigh, sigh, sigh, welcome to my world :(.
I'm glad they let you change it without a fuss. In my world, they probably would have tried to reschedule for 3:30, after the kids were out of school.
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