It’s hard to believe that the kids’ summer break from school is only a few weeks from ending! Now that ESY is over, the next few weeks will undoubtedly fly by.
To make the most of this coming school year, there are some steps that you can begin to take now so that once the year does start, you can hit the ground running to receive the education that you know your child should be receiving.
As a parent, you should never feel like another year in school will simply be another year in school. Regardless of the needs of your child or the disability that they have, every single child with an IEP is protected under federal law to make MEANINGFUL progress. That means that your IEP should NOT be the same each year, assessment scores should have an upward trajectory, and they should receive what they need to be prepared for their future.
What steps can you take?
Day in the Life
When my son was in school, from the very beginning, I would create something called the Day in the Life. This was generally a one page document that described who he was, what he was motivated by and what were the most important strategies that would help him make the most progress. While I knew many of these, I counted upon previous teachers to let me know what they saw as the most effective. That’s why it’s important to have good and open communication with your teachers from year to year. I had created a blog on this document a few years ago and you can find it here. There’s also a video that I hope you’ll find helpful.
I’d have to say that this document was equally important as the IEP, at least at the beginning of each year. I recall a few teachers telling me that they didn’t even know how to read the IEP. 🫣 While this was shocking and disappointing, I greatly appreciated their honesty, and this further supported the importance of this document
The Home Note
A daily home note is not for the school… It’s for you! It is to provide you with the information that you need to understand what’s happening in school, how your child’s doing and hopefully suggest ideas of how you can help them at home. It is never meant to be a data tracking tool. If your child attends a school that gives you copies of the Home Note when you ask for data, return it to them and remind them that that is not the function of the daily home note.
Because this document is for you, I highly encourage you to spend this time to create your own home note. I have found that when a parent can make a teacher’s job a little easier, they tend to follow through. If you create the note for them, that’s one less thing they have to worry about, PLUS it’ll give you the information that is most important to you.
One of the details that you should include in the Home Note is if your child had their related services. You should know if your child had speech therapy on Tuesday or occupational therapy on Wednesday, etc. If they are a student in regular education, they can still have a Home Note (mine did). It should let you know if your child received any special education services that are documented on their IEP on the days and times that they should. Service providers are required to keep service logs. If you are ever in doubt that your child is receiving those services, you have the right to request them. The first thing that you want to do when you get the service logs is to compare it to your daily home note to make sure that the dates of the services correlate to the dates on your home note. Sadly, I know of instances where a service log indicated that a child received services that day, but the child wasn’t even in school. Sometimes that could be a mistake, but sometimes it is fraudulent, which is illegal. But, if you are unaware of it, it can easily continue.
Review your child’s current IEP
Hopefully, you had the opportunity to talk to your child’s ESY teacher, if they went. Look carefully at the IEP and see if you get a good picture of who your child is by reading it. It should most definitely not look the same as it did the year before.
- Are there meaningful assessments documented? (Not the FAST – not meaningful by any stretch)
- Does it include details of both their strengths and their weaknesses?
- Are the goals truly measurable and easy to understand by a teacher that has never met your child before?
- Do the services seem adequate based on the needs of your child?
- Are related services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, etc., enough for your child to make meaningful progress? Is there evidence of that?
- Does your child have inclusive opportunities? Regardless, if your child is in a special program or not, every consideration should be given to inclusive education. And if it is on the IEP, is it actually happening? Again, this is something that you can add onto your home note.
After reviewing the IEP, if you have concerns, it is best to write an email to your school’s ESE or staffing specialist and let them know that you want to have a meeting at the very beginning of the school year. When it comes to special education, having a wait-and-see attitude, typically never works.
Your child’s time in school is like an hourglass, except that this hourglass cannot be tipped over to begin again.