Challenges of Special Ed

Two of the three kiddos receive "special services" from our local school district. The "old" term was Special Ed - or "SPED"... people have obviously tried to get to a more "politically correct" term - so they now just call it "special services"!

One of the many challenges is the constantly changing needs of each child within their "IEP" - also known as an Individual Education Plan. Every year, each child is evaluated for their skill sets and to acknowledge progress (or lack of!). The frustration for me lies there. Miss O had very high benchmarks set for her IEP - so that she would be close to or at beginning Kindergarten levels when she finished preschool - which is great - because that means I just get progress reports and usually a notice that things are being removed from her IEP because she has reached or exceeded her goal!
Big Al, on the other hand seems to be making very little progress on his goals. Each year when we get the testing back, there seems to be very little movement on the scores... which means he is falling more and more behind the level of his peers. This is a huge concern. While I could care less about his GPA or honor roll etc... I DO care about the fact that he still can't master a level of reading that he can learn from. For many years in elementary school we were told that at some point, he would just "get it" and be fine. Well.... that has yet to and probably will not happen! Since he is in 6th grade now, he looks at his peers going home with about an hour or more of homework each night. He, comes home with nothing - as the special ed teachers don't feel that they should do work at home...... ummmmmmmm RIGHT!

So - now I am put in a position where his IEP is at its "expiration" point and has to be rewritten... I think that beyond a doubt I will ask.. no wait - I will TELL them that he needs extra homework assigned each day... whether it is a page of math, or a book at his level to read, or a short essay to write - he just HAS to have extra help and time to practice! I'm sure that they are going to shoot me down, yet again, but he is the one who is suffering - as well as enjoying the fact that he has NO homework! haha!! His little brother has at least 30 minutes of homework and reading a day - and he is 2 grades lower! OY!

We'll have to see what unfolds in the next two weeks... maybe - just maybe they will see the light!