Our IEP Meeting

We had a good meeting at the school. the inclusion teacher is Pam McNeil, . She seems nice. We'll see. She will work with Shan in her classroom 2 days one week and 3 days another week, if I understood her correctly. She will be taking Shan into the resource room-a separate classroom- to finish tests she may not have completed, and working with her on problem areas. She won't have the full 15 spelling words, but only 8 and will take her spelling test in the resource room where Pam can pronounce the words out more clearly and slowly because Shan spells better that way.

Certain tests, where they can, she will take separate from the regular class because the test will be modified to fit her learning ability. Patricia Boyd, her teacher was really a big help, pointing out where Shandi does well and where she falters. She also stated that Shandi worked harder than any other child in her class. Like us, she was puzzled over the Math learning disability which qualified Shan for Services, since Shan does reasonably well in math; still the discrepancy between the mean average and her score in reading and English, wasn't the full 23 points to qualify her. However, Julie, the Case Manager said Shan may have scored 21 or close to the 23 point discrepancy, but regardless, she functions at mid first grade level and that means she will receive help in all topics--math, English, Reading, Spelling.


The goals are to bring her up to 3rd grade level by years end; with modification for her learning ability. She will be kept in the regular classroom except for specific times when tests are being given or she has fallen behind the normal class work. Her regular teacher works with her already, using help aids where she is struggling. I really like Patricia and feel she is going to be wonderful for Shandi this year.


They will monitor her progress on a 9 week basis and if she's not progressing, then we'll change what is being done. If she falls too far behind, she'll qualify for a summer program. This will be checked out about mid-year. I'm promised regular notes concerning her progress, her problems and even help aids sent home for me to utilize here with her doing homework. I asked for that last one--either send me some copies home or point me to the web address where I might find it.


All in all, I feel very good about Shandi now. I feel that we have the ball rolling in the right direction. My job now is to start digging around for added aids to help her at home, keeping track of what's going on at school and making sure she is actually getting the help promised in the IEP. The one problem I see is that the inclusion teacher serves several classes and scheduling her assistance may be a problem if all classes she serves has, say reading at the same time each morning. Maybe all teachers involved should meet and work up a better schedule?