Parent concerns: Accomodations

November 7, 2011

ARD/IEP Meeting for Caitlyn XXXXXX, grade 6A

XXXXXXX School of XXXXXXXXXXx

Parent Concerns:

Accommodations

Parents are concerned that accomodations are not being consistently implemented by all instructors in all classrooms. Caitlyn is entitled to copies of teacher notes for classes to supplement her own, not based on "teacher discretion", for ALL classes checked on page 17 of 26 on her accomodations page in her IEP. She is only receiving consistent handouts from her Math teacher, and her Turkish teacher. Other subjects there are sometimes items sent home, but other things that should be provided are not being provided (chunked assignment schedules with due dates listed clearly, vocabulary lists, notes for class, etc).

Since Caitlyn receives AT accomodations involving a laptop and a flash drive in Social Studies and ELA, there are also times when this information may be on the flash drive but it is in the posession of someone other than Caitlyn when she comes home or left in her locker, so we cannot access any documents on it.

In the area of "Reducing Work without Reducing Skills" there are times when this should have been implemented - again this is not noted as "teacher discretion" - such as the Poetry Project which could have been reduced to 20 poems from 30 without negating the purpose or scope of the assignment. (This is only used as an example as it is a recent project). Assigning math problems that are even number instead of the entire worksheet would be another example. For most assignments, the only ones that need "Reducing Work" are those requiring lengthy writing portions based on our observations. While we do not feel that right now this is impacting Caitlyn greatly, it is affecting her academic grade and stress level. It should be immediately implemented and followed so that it does not BECOME a problem.

In the area of "Chunk Lengthy Assignments Into Smaller Units", this is also not being done. XXXXXXXXs own schedule for some things such as the provided schedule for the Science Fair is acceptable for that project; it chunks the project down into areas; it provides clear due dates; it is easily accessible to the student. However, areas *within* that schedule still need clear chunking. An example would be to assign Caitlyn to do 1 thing on Monday night and 1 thing on Tuesday night, instead of 2 seperate areas that are both due on Wednesday. This allows us to better monitor her progress at home and keep her up to date within the class so that she does not fall behind or require extra time to complete an assignment due to confusion on her part. Another recent example would be the Drama Project from ELA for which we did not receive a sheet with the chunking, description of exact assignment, and due date for each section of the project. These are required and noted in her IEP.

In the area of "Access to Technology for Writing Assignments", this is also NOT listed as "based on observation" or "by teacher discretion". Caitlyn should have had access to the AT since the first day of school for all subjects noted in her IEP which are checked, which are: ELA; Reading; Social Studies; Science; Electives. The laptop should, based on her IEP, be available in all classrooms where she MIGHT need access to it at any given time. She should not be required to fetch it from another classroom or to lose instructional time to retrieve it.

In the area of "Organizational Help w/binder(s) including notes/homework" we request to add the word "agenda" or "planner" to this area. She is required to receive this during all of her classes, every day. We believe that this would require excessive teacher attention to do so by her General Education teacher and that the school and Caitlyn would be better served by having this done by her aide at the beginning and end of each class listed in the IEP (All subjects including electives, except Gym).

Request for Implementation as written of the IEP accomodations above, commencing on today's date, consistently and with accountability.

Request addition of the word "agenda" or "planner" to the subject area "Organizational Help". This is page 17 of 26 in her IEP.