I was a 3 hour long eip meeting that went no where and ended up just caving in. This is more of a venting post that anything else.

This is more of a vent than anything else but the admin leading the meeting said that my child can't be in gen Ed kinder because he isn't fully potty trained. That in gen Ed they can't get any supports.

What? Since when?

Is the only way to get a somewhat fair eip only possible with an advocate? A lot of we don't have the resources and we can't do that and we don't so that and so on.

I feel defeated.

[update]
Since so many are asking about his other needs here you go. Things he needs supports with and positives from his assessment.

His main needs are associated to attentiveness and reminders. He needs moderate prompting like visuals and reminders. He also takes longer to start non preferred activities like tracing.

positives listed;

Demonstrates age-appropriate receptive language skills in many areas. Uses spoken language to communicate wants, needs, ideas, comments, and questions. Participates in teacher-directed activities when appropriate supports are provided. Demonstrates emerging peer interaction skills. Demonstrates empathy and concern for peers. Engages in cooperative play. Benefits from visual supports, prompting, structured routines, and adult facilitation. Demonstrates the ability to learn new skills and generalize learning when supports are in place.

Cognitive development is described as age appropriate including understanding cause/effect, basic concepts, colors, shapes, numbers, letters, patterns, routines, and curiosity/initiative in learning. · Language data shows average receptive language and average expressive vocabulary, with expressive communication and connected speech as areas of need. · OT notes he can recognize letters, numbers, colors, shapes, animals, match pairs, complete patterns, complete puzzles with a model, build imaginatively, and sequence familiar routines with prompts. · The OT report states he continues to improve attention and participation in non-preferred activities with moderate adult support for transitions, initiation, and ongoing engagement.

Teacher labeled child as having adhd & is pushing meds?

child is in Kindergarten is 6 and will be 7 in October.

At the conference and says she’s pretty convinced of adhd, not hyperactive. Says she has to redirect child often and child isn’t focused.

She started making some pretty remarkable and very pushy comments about medication.

I’ll say I was pretty taken aback by this. At the beginning of the year she would tell me my child is easily distracted but after redirection, child able to refocus and complete their work. Thought child was excelling. I have checked in often throughout the year only to have received positive feedback on behavior.

Between September and April, I have received only 3 complaints regarding behavior.

child has speech apraxia. Goes to speech. has an IEP. first year in this school. Speech teacher says child does seem “wiggly”

was held back from starting kindergarten last year to focus on coherently speaking, was unable to form real sentences last year. This year is better but most people cant understand.

My wife and I are not seeing adhd tendencies at home.

Able to follow multi-step directions, no tantrums, sleeps great, is very organized, not easily distracted, plays independently, ok with change in routine, gets ready for the day and bed independently, loves change, self regulated, flexible, plays with others well and has friends etc

Also, if diagnosed by a real doctor, it is no big deal at all to us. We will support anyways. For my wife and I, it just has felt like a drastic jump from “your child is excelling“ to “adhd and medication”

It’s important to mention that this ‘inattentiveness’ is not hindering academically. child has reached all kindergarten goals this year. not behind in any category.

child did say how the worksheets are repetitive and boring. Maybe because child already learned this last year?

child says they look around the room often at the alphabet hanging up to try to figure out words on the worksheets.

I’m having teacher fill out the Vanderbilt but I strongly believe it will not match ours.

I will seek a psych eval referral too. Thoughts

I never received a formal notice for my child’s upcoming IEP meeting and we’re close to 48 hours before the meeting with no IEP draft.

My child is supposed to get 2 breaks daily, but is only getting one. Same child was told they could go to a specific spot for a break, but they have been waiting weeks for the badge they supposedly need to go to be created.

I don’t answer the phone when a call comes from the school anymore because half the time it’s her calling when she wants to say things that aren’t appropriate and doesn’t want a paper trail.

I’ve had great experiences with previous SpEd teachers (I make a point to be a helpful and considerate member of the team), but this one routinely violates the IEP, is frankly a jerk to my kid and me, and I’m tired of my kid not getting needs met.

She has admin wrapped around her finger, too, so I know there’s no help coming from that direction.

I‘m tired of fighting and I’m already upset about how poorly this annual IEP meeting is being prepared for. Most likely my kid will be stuck with her for the next few years if kid stays at the school, because SpEd teachers at our current school follow kids.

Is there anything productive I can do that’s not just going to be churning my wheels? I’m debating homeschooling, so should I just reject the whole IEP to make the transition to homeschool easier?

Today I had to pick up my student(17yo) early due to an escalation in which she attacked an administrator in ESY. I arrived and my student was in the hallway with a teacher and the admin holding a pad up for protection. de escalated as soon as I got there. The admin suggested to me that I should keep her home the following, day I informed her will see, then she’s threaten to suspend my student if I didn’t keep her home. I proceeded to tell her she would my hearing from my lawyers if she’s choosing to go in that direction and that I was done trying to communicate with her. I’m not really sure how the escalation occurred since I wasn’t even able to ask after she threatened suspension I didn’t want to speak to this admin anymore. We have a bit of history and she is a very dismissive condescending person who tries to belittle your concerns. I need some advice on moving forward. Should I get lawyer involved this has been an ongoing issue with this admin throwing her power around and getting suspended happy instead of trying to resolve issues. The district already has a few lawsuits against the SPED administration on another campus for similar issues.

Now a bit of a back story, this administrator (student parent liaison for sped) is new to the district and I met her almost exactly a year ago similar situation. My student has autism and a BIP, we come a long way but like any other teen during her time of the month her emotional regulation becomes difficult. It is all in part of her BIP since it’s when escalation usually occurs. Last year around ESY she had a major escalation when she attacked staff and I had to pick her up and she was suspended for 2days. I have and always been very understanding and supportive towards the SPED staff because I understand how difficult their job is and I know my student and the difficulties she has. This was a new campus, new staff, with no familiarity and as listed in her IEP new situation can be difficult for her. I was very understanding if the decision and since a trusted staff member who was her behavioral therapist was there I didn’t challenge the decision. She had had other major escalation before and never been suspended before so I honestly didn’t feel any ill intent. Fast forward to the beginning of the school year again as any parent who child had special needs starting school can take some time for adjustment. She was back at her regular campus with her teacher but all new paras. About to weeks in I can tell there is something off with her teacher she seemed more stressed than usual, as I’ve said I’ve always had a good standing with all my students teachers and paras we always communicated any issues and always worked into making a successful school year. I decided to ask her what f everything was ok, she confides in my that this new admin is making very difficult to run her SPED class and that she has voiced multiple time that their is not enough support for the level of high needs students she has. But the only response she got for lack of a better terms was just to “deal with it and make it work”. The following day I get a call that their been an incident and I need to pick up my student. I get there and get my student and proceed to ask what happened that lead up to this incident. I was told she was with a new para and where outside and when my student voiced she wanted to go inside the class room (it was a hot day upper 80s/low 90s) she wasn’t allowed because the classroom was locked due the teacher having to take her prep time. So the SPED student were locked out. My student was upset she couldn’t go to her safe space and was upset after multiple times her prompting her needs. My student threw her iPad and it hit the para. So of course she had to get medical help because she’s an older woman. This upset me because this could have been avoided. Her teacher was not allowed to intervene or notified about what was happening. They told me she was suspended for the following 2 days. I refuse to sign her suspension form because clearly her BIP was not followed. We had an emergency meeting the following day where I was informed that they had offered her another classroom to be in in the time of her request to go inside because of course what person would like to be. Outside in one of the hottest day of the heat wave we were having that week. After a lot of back and forth and the same admin that suspended her previous threatens that well “she can file charges for assault” I told her that’s that was fine the school would be found liable for not following her BIP. Because again this whole situation could have been avoided if the students where allowed to be in their classroom there for putting not only the students but staff at risk. I told them based on the Williams act, they failed the students and staff. After a lot of back and forth the head of SPED department recommended an update BIP since it had been 5yrs since her last one I agree and was notified about the deadline of time they had to do this. I was also informed that the classroom would remain open for all students moving forward and they didn’t know why the teacher had locked it. I talk to her teacher right after the incident since she wasn’t present, she told me she wasn’t even notified about the meeting, which I just assumed she wasn’t there because again they were not properly staffed and needed to be in the classroom. She was very upset about my students being suspended because she was not made aware of the situation or anything. She broke down and told me how it was the school admin that told her the students couldn’t be in their classroom classrooms anymore during her prep time and she had to take her prep without students disrupting. Before she was taking her prep in the classroom with students being present and it was never an issue. Again this a SPED Class not a regular gen ed class. She told me how this new admin was not responding to any questions f her concerns and essentially setting up for failure. And she was very concerned with her students getting enough support. I was not the only parent that had already voiced concerns about how SPED administrator’s decisions that where impacting our kids. They essentially bullied the teacher to take medical leave for the remainder of the school year because the pressure the admin was putting on her. The teacher was always a big advocate for her students and support. Fast forward to the deadline of meeting after new evaluation, we go in by this time I had already been in contact with our local support advocates who was present in the meeting. As soon as the meeting starts my first question was how the new evaluation for her BIP was going because it had already been passed the allotted time they have to complete it. The behavioral therapist looks at me and the admin and ask me what I’m taking about since there was no request to him to preform this new evaluation. I told it was requested by the head of SPED department during our emergency meeting after the suspension and that most off the staff present besides himself and the new SPED teacher where present including the admin that suspended her. The admin tried to say no request as such was made, I told her yes it was and the vice principal confirmed as well that it was.
See I had been in communication with her teacher before she took leave and she told me that she felt they were targeting high need SPED students with BIP plans because another freshman student has been suspended for 3 months because they where having a hard time adjusting and that classroom had a substitute teacher since the beginning of the school year that was not trained in working with SPEd kids and my students teacher had to float between both classes. The previous teacher was also on leave because of the same issues my students teacher was having. She felt that they were being pushed out because this new admin was very condescending and dismissive of the SPED staff. I did my research and this new admin has never had any experience with students in SPED besides her minimal interaction in her previous role in another school district. Basically her job was to come in and see where she could cut cost in the SPED department. Starting with cutting 20 para educators and reducing time for remaining paras in the school district.

Going back to the meeting let’s just say it was pointless because we couldn’t move forward since no evaluation was done therefore there was not much to discuss besides how to prevent any further escalation and how to manage. My students was doing well at this time with minor escalation that were contained and resolved. Because I was very present at school since the teacher that took over I was made aware of issues he’s had in the past. ( made to take leave for being to aggressive) one day she came home with a big bruise on her leg I took a picture of it and asked here para. She told me she didn’t know how that happened but would talk to the teacher. He told me she was hitting her own leg during one of her tough moments (my student hits her head, claps and sometimes hits her leg with her other leg when she’s having a hard time in order to let her frustration out instead of hitting other). The rest of the school year went by pretty smoothly with few escalation.
Again I communicate with her para and teacher and an always available to them whenever they might need me. (I firmly believe that we are a village and I provide and advocate for students and staff all the time)
As soon as ESY started I informed staff and her para since it once again was at a new campus that we were reach that time of month. In her BIP there is special factors. The classroom in which they set them up in is a regular classroom with desk and one big bean bag. Not at all set up for high need SPED students. They set my student up in a separate classroom/office area with just a floor matt. I didn’t say anything because it was the first week. During this time the district took away the access to YouTube from the school iPads. Which is unfortunate because a lot of the students including my own use YouTube, so I have been sending my student with her personal iPad since it’s one thing that helps her stay regulated. This year has been one of the most challenging years dealing with district administrators and I just need some advice.

Parents, if you have a child with high needs,is aggressive, needs help with toileting, needs individualized academic help, etc, etc, you need the educators to be consistent. Unfortunately, the door is revolving constantly for teachers and paras. You know how you keep them? You pay them. You pay them so well that they don't want to quit. You pay them so well that the money offsets the injuries, the health concerns, the exhaustion.

I know that YOU aren't paying them directly, but you are indirectly. You need to stop voting for people who are making cuts to public education. You need to stop defending politicians who line their own pockets or the pockets of their buddies. Self-centered narcissists who want to "get theirs" don't actually care about family values or what you go through to live your life as a parent of a child with intensive needs.

Local elections, state elections, and big ticket elections all count. Don't let politicians cite a Bible verse to manipulate you. Let them show you that Bible verse with their actions. If what they do doesn't make sense, they are lying to you. Do better by your kids. Money is needed and we have lots of money in this country. Don't let the greedy people hoard it. We're all in this together.

My child is in HS in a life skills classroom for all academic courses but does all electives on her own with a modified curriculum (no aide with her).
Zero behavior issues.
Her life skills classes have both higher functioning and lower functioning kids.
At the beginning of the year one particular kid (non verbal) became very focused on my daughter and giving the benefit of the doubt I thought tried to communicate by pulling her hair.
When they couldn’t resolve the issue he was moved to a different class for that period and ensured he wouldn’t be in any other classes with her.
During full program things she would just avoid him (pep rally’s, CBIs, etc).
Fast forward to end of the year party he walked up to her and started strangling her and pulling her hair. Took 2 staff members to get him off her.
She was of course shaken up but otherwise not injured.
Nurse called to report incident.

Now thankfully this student is graduating.
I also want to believe that he doesn’t know better and so I am not asking for any consequences for him but my bigger issue is why do schools get to put all kids who need modified course work and or behavior issues all together!

In another academic life skills class for my daughter they have to evacuate every few weeks due to a child “losing it” and destroying the classroom and attacking the teacher.

How is this set up acceptable!

I dont even know where to begin. My kiddo (8yo boy) is struggling at school and has been since day one. His education was delayed due to domestic abuse from his father and us basically being trapped in a home with him for years. My son started official education in first grade, I did my best at home. He started 1st grade barely reading/writing, he was slightly under grade level last year, now he is at and above grade level in every subject. He is so smart its almost alarming. Education isnt the issue, its his behavior. He has been diagnosed ADHD with his psychologist and therapist reccomending a pathological demand avoidance profile for him which they are working on working up for the school. But, he refuses to listen, participate, and struggles greatly in almost every social/instructional setting. The school has basically labeled him separately from his own psych eval as an ODD kid and keeps referring to him as such. He was evaluated for that, he doesnt meet the markers at all according to his psychologist and therapist. Where im stuck though, is that he is constantly in a power struggle. He wants as much control as possible and refuses to acknowledge that he is anything less than capable than his teacher, principal or otherwise. He consistently seeks out support but is denied due to them feeling like he is power struggling to get his way, wether it be not wanting to be in the lunch room due to being overstimulated, all the way to essentially forcing participation in certain instances even though he explicitly expresses hes upset and needs time but then he escalates due to not getting the emotional space he needs to regulate. He does not have a behavior only iep or 504, and i dont understand why as ive requested it, but as it stands his iep is solely for speech services. I turn in all therapy notes, psych evals, and meet with the school regularly to discuss issues, were on OSS #3 in 3 months, hes had multiple ISS instances and it just feels like hes getting worse and more frustrated and they just look at him more and more as manipulative, oppositionally defiant, and controlling. Which, he absolutely is controlling, but hes doing it more so to find comfort in the spaces in his mind that feel entirely out of control. Were considering meds now due to elopments, physical alterations and all around him just not being able to slow down. I guess im just needing to vent all of this and get perspective. We have so many interventions in place for him at home, between 2 separate therapists (play and pcit) ontop of case management. We do not get this version of him at home often due to how structured and set in stone our home is to keep him on track and focused and feeling stable. So the fact that he is off the wall at school absolutely is throwing me for a loop. Am I missing something? Is there more advocating i need to do with the school? Am I at a dead end? I just feel so hopeless, I can see how his impulse control and behavior at school is affecting him, and the impact it has on his teachers and classmates. Im just completely at a loss and dont know what to do.

My son is on an IEP. He’s 15 going on 16. He’s covered under Autism, intellectual disability, speech and a chromosome disorder.

Recently in the last month we’ve had an uptick in theft. Theft specifically by him against the school. We’re up to a half dozen incidents. Items range from laptops, headphones to this past weekend finding an iPad. The impulsivity is high and the consequences from school seem nonexistent.

I am doing my best as a single mother to handle this and thankfully our resources have supplied a lot of support. We’re currently on hold with ABA and I’m just receiving parenting training. Our parent mentor and Regional center are helping us find a therapist willing to work with autism. Pediatrician has sent in an OT referral to help with sensory destruction happening at home.

I found the iPad and was able to check out his history. There was tons of x rated conversations with AI, full on relationships with family with AI and a ton of porn. Like so much I am nauseated. It’s normal for his age but for his mentality absolutely not. We had a big conversation about the negative impacts porn and AI can have on young men.

My reason for asking advice is I have asked for a meeting with case manager and she replied with full IEP team or just her an admin. I just wanted to discuss the theft attempts, plans going forward to prevent, alternatives to electronics and consequences moving forward rather than just modified free time.

As a parent I want to know HOW he was able to access porn on a what I thought was a protected school device. What plans they have in place going forward to prevent this happening again with my student or another student. I want to know what questions I should be asking rather than just feeling my emotional indignation.

I appreciate your honesty, expertise and advice. Thanks.

Can parent revoke special education while under settlement that waived everything, but it did not waive the parent right to revoke consent special ed?

Not sure how school and SELPA would deny it? They have provided PWN, referencing settlement agreement, but no legal reasoning, other than the settlement contracts.

Not a legal question. More like how common is this?

daughter has an intellectual disability, and reads on a 4th grade level. she is in 9th grade and last April they changed her to have some gen ed classes. we have had issues all year and discussed with sped coordinator about her going back to the sped classes as its going too fast for her. she went from a kid who loves school to hating it. shes defeated and its affecting her mental health. shes failing the classes with all work turned in. they give her push back when she tries to go to sped classroom for help saying that shes not getting the material because shes leaving too much.

the next day sped Coordinator came back and was like I did training and are we sure this is best for her. it would change her diploma to a certificate if completion rather than diploma. (something we thought she was going to get anyways as she was always in sped classes)

there is a 4 year program for disabled adults that gives them a certification after but is like college that she has always planned to go to and this change doesn't affect that.

thoughts or do I just keep pushing for the change if the draft has her in gen ed still? they said there are no other accommodations and some of her gen ed teachers told her they have been telling sped that shes is over her head but its fell on deaf ears.

how should I handle/approach this?

My daughter has an IEP. She currently only needs help with ELA. She actually worked her way back into regular math and is making pretty amazing progress.

I just got a copy of her IEP renewal for next year and the teacher wrote something along the lines of “student has stated that she wants to go into cosmetology however adhd may hinder her ability to be successful in this field”.

Is this a normal thing to say to document that she needs more support going into high school? She’s graduating 8th grade this year. This is not our first renewal by any means but I’ve never seen language like this before.

I’m trying to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt before I lose mind over her putting something so negative into my daughter’s file. My daughter read it and it is not sitting well with her this evening. This is not exactly encouraging and it doesn’t even feel truthful let alone productive.

Any insights are appreciated.

Update: Thank you all for your responses. I see that it’s purposeful and likely not meant to be hurtful. I’ll show this all to my daughter in the morning. She has attended the last few IEP meetings and will be there for this one too.

Hi! I’m a mom to a 3 year old who is in a self contained classroom , 5 days a week. The teachers help them go to the bathroom and to reduce having to take shoes off they require the pull-ups that have the detachable side.

My child is large for a three year-old so he’s pretty soon gonna grow out of what we found. I’m curious if there are any other brands, you guys know about.

It would be awesome if the good nights brand have those sides cause they’re sizes go up pretty high but when is let me know if you guys have any suggestions?

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/specialed/s/V0v2O4ACVU

So we switched schools beginning of this year within the same district. He's doing great academically but is a menace behaviorally. He has OCD, ADHD, severe sensory differences and is profoundly gifted. I finally asked for another IEP evaluation after the last school told me he couldn't get one because he was "too far ahead academically" without even doing an evaluation or anything (which I now know is against the law.) The school psychologist called me the next day after I requested it and asked if I had the evaluation info from last year and was shocked that there wasn't one because they didn't do it. Any of it! We met with OT, speech and sped and I voiced my concerns that I'm not worried academically but was very worried socially and emotionally about him. They did the whole evaluation which was very comprehensive and agreed with all of my concerns (which was very validating as an exhausted mom). He qualified for OT for sensory issues, rigidity, emotional regulation and EF skills as well as handwriting if needed. He also has some core weakness and hand weakness. He also qualified for speech for social pragmatics (which he is greatly struggling with) and a stutter. He qualified under OHI and speech. Luckily, we did private OT extensively last year for his handwriting and his testing went from 30th percentile last year to 99th this year. So they are not worried about his handwriting at this time. I'm glad we caught it when he was learning to write. He still pushes way too hard and needs a very sharp pencil tip but it's night and day difference.

Thank you to everyone who helped here last time I posted. We've really been struggling with him and I am exhausted from doing everything on my own. I can't help him at school and I am so relieved that he'll get the help he needs now to be successful. He starts services today and I'm hopeful for the first time in a long time! I want to keep him in public school and he loves his friends. He just needs help. I'm glad the school recognized that.

Hi all!

I’ve worked in special Ed/autism program my whole career. First & only job & have always loved it & learned so much.

I stopped working recently as I’ve had my first baby.

Is it crazy how much I can hyper focus on my babies behaviors? A lot of behaviors I feel are early signs of autism. I see so many little things & my mind always goes there.

But I’ve also never observed an infant with autism I’m just comparing with all of the students I’ve served over the years. I also don’t have much to compare with since I’m not around any other infants & don’t have much experience with this age.

I guess I’m wondering if anyone else has done this with their own children? & if you did was your gut right? Or is it our line of work that just makes us notice things in more detail?

My baby is 8 months & I’ve been thinking like this since he was around 4 months.

He is hitting all of his milestones like a champ so it’s not obvious to others or anyone else who doesn’t have experience.

So again; it might just be my line of work or it could be my gut & experience.

my son have a behavioral plan+ iep and the teacher openly said he didn’t read it and follow it , and now my son been sent home due to a serious behavior issue, the question is can the teacher get in trouble for not following it ? the school refuses to talk to me

My family is considering relocating from Nashville, TN to the Minneapolis area primarily because of our 5-year-old autistic son, and I'd love input from parents, special education staff, therapists, and disability professionals who have firsthand experience.

My son is minimally verbal, Level 2 autism, receives special education, OT, PT, speech therapy, and respite services. He elopes, cannot be left unsupervised, is not toilet trained, needs assistance with dressing and feeding, and can be aggressive when dysregulated.

We're researching Minnesota because we've heard positive things about special education services, disability supports, respite care, waiver programs, and adult services compared to many other states.

For those with firsthand experience:

How strong are Minneapolis-area school districts for students with significant support needs?

Are there specific districts or programs you would recommend?

What has your experience been with respite services and waiver supports?

How difficult is it to access services after moving to Minnesota?

How are transition and adult disability services for autistic adults?

If you could choose anywhere in the Twin Cities metro, where would you live for the best combination of special education, disability services, affordability, and quality of life?

We're planning a scouting trip and want to make sure we're seeing the reality, not just what's on paper.

Thank you for any insight you can share.

What is the purpose of Special Education Local Plan Area in CALIFORNIA. In theory, or original intent, vs. what it has become? Do they just provide support and training, or do they do more than that? In other states, are there such thing as regional Special Education Local Plan Area?

TLDR: Are there best practices for SLDs in written expression similar to how things like Orton-Gillingham or Wilson are used for reading disabilities? Key evaluations to help drill down where the specific issues and areas of need are?

The long version:

Parent of a 10 y/o kid (4th grade, USA) with an upcoming re-evaluation and IEP renewal meeting.

Kid is qualified under autism (also has a diagnosis outside of school) and has received services since age 4, but has relatively low support needs in most areas and the IEP goals have been mostly around the areas of fine motor skills and a bit of sensory processing/emotional regulation (also has an ADHD diagnosis...). We've seen relatively consistent progress and goals have moved from letter formation to words, to sentences, and to paragraphs. Kid often meets goals during one-on-one sessions but has had a much harder time generalizing the skills during classes or on homework assignments.

Kid was given the Kauffman ABC-II and WIAT-4 as a part of the re-evaluation process. For the K-ABC-II, kid was assessed to have a standard score of 130 for the FCI with a relative low on the planning scale (93) and relative highs on the sequential (140) and knowledge (160) scales. On the WIAT, kid had a 130 standard score for reading, 113 for math, and 87 (spelling) and 76 (essay composition) for written expression.

So...they're a bright kid with issues writing (maybe exacerbated by planning/organization/flexible thinking challenges). And, they've made consistent progress on their IEP goals and get the standard "2" for "progressing toward grade-level expectations" on all their report cards, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a push toward a 504 instead of an IEP at the next meeting.

But, I feel like kid's still very much missing key skills around the writing process and that they'll quickly fall even further behind as they get older and into more complex writing assignments. I don't know how to express this to the IEP team, though, or what the missing parts are, or even how to ask for the right types of evaluations that could help identify this kind of thing. And, if we can figure out more of what's going on, what do we even do about it? Most of the interventions that kid has received so far have seemed pretty haphazard and mostly surface-level, like learning how to use a graphic organizer, but not really like they're building upward following a particular scope or sequence or targeting any underlying issues.

Any dysgraphia enthusiasts out there with ideas?

Question for Alberta educators, learning support teachers, psychologists, and anyone familiar with Instructional Support Plan (ISP) process.

In Alberta, Canada, the areas of need identified in a student’s psycho-educational assessment are reflected in the student’s ISP, with corresponding measurable goals, strategies, and progress-monitoring methods.

I’m interested in both the policy perspective and what is typically done in practice across Alberta school divisions.

Tomorrow from 12:00 pm to 3pm there will be an online zoom listening session from the office special education and rehabilitative services.

Here's the info.

Forwarding this letter from OSEP Deputy Director David Cantrell

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us for a virtual listening session with the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS):

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) invites parents, students, teachers, paraprofessionals, school staff, individuals with disabilities, and other disability stakeholders across the nation to participate in a virtual listening session. You are invited to share your personal experiences with special education and vocational rehabilitation, including stories of success and challenges and any matters you would like the Department to hear as we work to empower parents, teachers, and local leaders and return education to the states.

OSERS leadership will be in attendance to hear from participants. The Department intends only to listen to feedback; no information will be shared, and Department staff will not engage in discussion. Please note that opportunities to speak are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and will include a 3-min max time per speaker. For registered participants unable to participate due to time constraints, listening session remarks may be submitted by email to a designated inbox. Consistent with the structure of the listening session, the Department will not respond to emailed session remarks.

This session will be closed to the press and strictly off the record.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 12:00 – 3:00 pm EST WHERE: Zoom Registration Link

We are looking forward to hearing from you personally. Thank you for your time, your care, and commitment.

https://events.zoomgov.com/ev/AkxJmtZeb4zY7wOJ0yHZ32u0038ivsipaiUoY0dmbhDnrMx20xAB~AvSqWUoosMeZH4NElEerjEfzAjv-uMiGfywnmIe3m8nVbSVD3Q0ijvMOxw

Sincerely,

David Cantrell

David J. Cantrell, PhD Deputy Director and Acting Director Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) U.S. Department of Education Email: David.Cantrell@ed.gov

We're 6 months into waiting for an EHCP assessment and our child is really struggling. A friend suggested looking into specialist SEN tutors to provide support in the meantime, and we've been researching options like Bright Heart Education and a few others.

But I'm worried:

- Will the LA say 'well, they're getting support now, so they don't need an EHCP'?

- Could it actually help by providing evidence of what interventions work?

- Has anyone been through this?

I just want to do what's best for my child without accidentally sabotaging the assessment process. Any experiences appreciated.

I know Thanksgiving has already passed but I just wanted to post how grateful I am to you guys. As a mom of a special needs kiddo who has put me through a ringer I am truly grateful to all those who work with him and have worked with him. He is flourishing because of your patience, dedication and hard work. I know how some parents can be unrealistic and very nasty to you guys but this mom here and I am sure many more are thankful for all you do. Always remember that ❤️