Winning at the IEP Autism

Okay so it's pretty much a given. You have a better chance of getting hit by a car then you do at getting what you want when the school board is in your IEP meeting. That's always been the case for me. School boards are the worlds worse for helping parents get their kids the best. Seriously, at one point in time Doodle went to a horribly crappy school. The teacher just babysat. That's all they did there. And then Doodle was transferred to a school were she learned to read, write, do math and her speech came in. This was a dream school. And the school board said she needed to go back to the crappy schools. Um, no that's not gonna happen.

Well, it happened but in a different way. We moved 400 miles away, due to what was out of our control. So here I am battling this school board with a child on the spectrum that is regressing to the point she is self harming and she's throwing chairs in the classroom. Yeah, my dream life. There's been a large shift. It used to be that Doodle was horrible at home and great at school. Now she's bouncing chairs off the teacher cause she doesn't want to do any work including speech and she's pretty much golden at home. The school just threw too much change on her and the regression that slowly started last year is picking up speed this year. That's right school and school board. Children who can't handle change at all, you just keep throwing changes at her. I can only do so much but I'm not a miracle worker when your being difficult.

But hey, the good news is I didn't get hit by a car today but I did leave the IEP meeting today getting everything I was asking for. So here's the break down.

Last week I got the call from the dream school where Doodle's fantastic teacher started her career at. I was informed they never received Doodle's request for an evaluation to be placed on the waiting list. I did a little snooping around and found the offender who messed up at the school board. I contacted my advocates and followed everything they told me to do. Up until my IEP meeting today I watched my emails as you can see the person in question was beginning to become flustered with the emails she was sending to me. It's funny because every email this woman sent me I just forwarded it to my lawyer (that's what an advocate is). Last I was told in the emails was that I would not be able to get a behavior specialist at this meeting for today.

I never responded to any of the emails that she sent me. I just copied what she put and then pasted it to the message to my lawyer. That's it. But hey, guess what I had in the meeting. The behavior specialist I requested in my original email to the teachers, therapist and two school board members. Yes, the one person I was sent a message about that said because it was such short notice they wouldn't be able to bring the behavioral specialist in to the meeting. And I got one.

Not only did I get the behavior specialist but because of Doodle's new aggression and regression with self harming and her not wanting to be throw off schedule to the point where it breaks out in a flat out fight at school it pretty much sealed the deal that when Doodle gets ready to transition to middle school she's headed to the new school! Yay!

First things first I kept my poker face on. I didn't budge on anything and had tons of notes. Notes that the advocate said that I would need for the meeting.

And big apologies to everyone that I didn't get to post on Monday. After I had finished my work Monday morning I sat down to finish my notes for the meeting today and the next thing I know I was getting a call from the school that Doodle was flinging chairs again and they needed me in the classroom to calm her down and get her back on task to getting her work down. So needless to say I was at the school for the rest of the day. Doodle got all of her work done, I got to practice on my calligraphy and it was pretty much a win win for everyone. All but you guys who missed hearing about us on Monday. Sorry it couldn't be helped. Once we got home from school, we had homework of course. And it was regular schedule for the rest of the night. I had a meeting via messages with my computer guy later in the night and well there was no time for blogging on Monday.

And here it is Tuesday night, I'm writing the blog because Doodle and I will be on the road on Wednesday for a very important Doctor's appointment that she needs to be at. So we are traveling 400 miles to make the appointment and then 400 miles back. Just to get in with a specialized doctor that the school board won't be able to ever say no to whatever he writes as Doodle's prescription. So that means if the doctor writes a prescription for Doodle to get into the school tomorrow, they have to do it or people lose their jobs. Now that's my kind of doctor. That and he's going to re-evaluate Doodle's autism.

So you guys have a great day! We are traveling as you read this right now.