Not so special education

March 27, 4:24 PMSpecial Needs Parenting ExaminerFredrica Brister

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I'm the type of parent who's big on education, so I take an active role in my children's schooling and education.  I have two school aged children in my home, one who receives regular schooling and another who's in special education.  Though I've worked with special education children before, I'm finding it's much different when it's your child.

Unlike general education, special education is meant to take each child's individual strengths, weaknesses, and disabilities into conderation and come up with a specialized education plan that provides for maximized learning for the child.  That specialized plan is called an individual education plan, or IEP. 

An IEP is a supposed to be a well thought out document that explains the goals and objectives for the child and the tools and aids being provided to assist the child in obtaining those goals.  There is an entire committee of specialists who each play a role in making sure the IEP is the best available plan available to help your child meet his or her educational potential.  The goals and objectives should be reasonable for and obtainable by the child, taking into account the child's special needs and circumstances.  The IEP also gives a specific time frame in which the goals and objective are to be reached; that time frame should also be reasonable, taking into account the child's special needs and circumstances.  In an ideal world, the child will reach all of the goals and objectives outlined in the IEP.

Anyone who has lived into adulthood knows we do not live in an ideal world.  Having gone through the special education process for the past year and a half, I've found that the special education system in my area is nothing like it's supposed to be. Last school year, my husband and I found that the school our child went to did not have the skills and training necessary to handle the severity of disabilities our son has, yet at the same time, the school was not willing to admit as much. School became a playhouse for our son; one in which he could do and act as he chose.  As much as I hate to admit it, our son spat, choked, swore, threw, argued, hit, punched, and did all kinds of things to all kinds of people with no consequences whatsoever. My husband and I warned the school ahead of time of the types of behaviors they could expect from our son, we also told them how to handle our son's behaviors; everything we said fell on deaf ears until it was too late.  When it was all over and done with, our son had been transferred to another school to be someone else's problem.

Not wanting to have a repeat of last year, my husband and I moved to a new school district, one that was known for having a better special education system than that of last year.  In his new school, my son has found that his teachers and administrators are better able to deal with his behaviors. I have found, however, that there is still much that is lacking.

My son has been in school less than 10 weeks so far, yet we have already had two meetings with the school.  The first meeting was to give the school the same heads up we had given his last school regarding his behaviors; the second meeting was scheduled to discuss his IEP. If you'll remember, I made a point in the beginning to point out that my husband and I play an active role in our children's education.  After the first school meeting, I received a copy of my son's IEP and what I saw disturbed me to no end.

The first thing I noticed about my son's IEP was that although he was a 5th grader (in name only), his IEP had him marked as  6th grader.  As I traveled deeper into the ten or so pages, I saw trouble on the horizon.  The objectives written into my son's IEP were unbelievably high as far as expectations were concerned.  The more I read, the more I could see that whoever had written my son's IEP, they had not in any way taken my son's abilities, disabilities, or individuality into consideration. I knew that if my son were to truly be expected to live up to that IEP, we would all be in trouble; my son was being set up to fail and the teachers, administrators, my son, and our family would all be forced to pay the price for someone else's mismanagement.

It wasn't long after that when I set the wheels in motion for an IEP meeting. An IEP meeting is when the IEP committee comes together and discusses changes to the child's IEP either at the parents', school's, or committee's request.  I expected to be met with some resistance regarding the changes I wanted made, but what I got was nothing like I expected.  I quickly found that my son's teacher agreed with my concerns and felt as I did regarding the IEP- surprise one (it's usually my son's teacher who is the biggest source of contention when it comes to the choices my husband and I make for our son).  All of changes I wanted were made exactly the way I wanted without me having to vocalize what it was I wanted- second surprise. So far, everything was going better than I expected; then we got to the issue of grade level.

What I expected to be the easiest part of the IEP meeting, I found to be the most disconcerting.  What was thought to be a mistake was in fact a calculated and disturbing violation of my son's rights as a student and my my husband's rights as parents.  It turned out that the school did not have the proper program available for my son's grade level, so they changed his grade level so he would be able to stay in the program they placed him in. All this took place without mine or my husband's knowledge, without our consent, and without taking my son's needs into consideration.  The person who made this decision regarding my son had never met my son, had not ever taken a look at my son's IEP, and challenged everyone who disagreed with her decision, including my son's teacher, prinicipal, and special education coordinator.  To put it politely, I wasn't happy about the fact that important decisions regarding my child's education were made without my knowledge and without my consent.

Honestly, my son is no candidate for early promotion in school. Remember how I said that him being in 5th grade is by name only, well as far as academic level is concerned, he's a 2nd grader, as far as socially, he's still in pre-school.  In my eyes, there's just something wrong about putting a child who's so far behind even further ahead; I would feel the same way if it weren't my child.  To date, I still have not received a valid excuse as to why my son is now a 6th grader though he has in no way earned it and you can believe I'm going to continue asking questions. 

As things stand, I may end up having to hire a lawyer in order to fight this errant decision, and if that's what it takes, I will. I just find it disheartening that the very system that's supposed to cater to my son's individual needs  is getting the best possible education he can get is actually standing in the way of my son getting the educational help he needs... that just goes to show that in this day and age of  "No Child Left Behind", my son is a victim of not so special education.