Parent Concerns: Assistive Technology and Teacher Provided Notes

November 7, 2011

ARD/IEP Meeting for Caitlyn XXX, grade 6A

XXXX School of XXXX

Parent concerns:

Assistive Technology Accomodations

We know sometimes Caitlyn has her jump drive, and at other times Ms M keeps it. Would it be possible if she is keeping it, to email the documents that it contains to Caitlyn's email?

We are concerned that at times her access to the netbook is limited (Writing Benchmark would be the latest example), which while we support the decision of her teacher(s) as to when and if it should be used, on at least one documented occasion this has impacted her academic grade directly.

We do not have an official report from the Occupational Therapist assigned by XXX who observed Caitlyn and made recommendations. We do have reports from her physical therapist and her speech pathologist regarding her difficulties with writing, hand positioning and fatigue, and her avoidance of long writing assignments/procrastination due to anxiety and.or dread about the potential pain she will experience due to these things. This avoidant behavior may be misread as "lollygagging" or "blowing something off" when it is a protective mechanism for her body/pain.

Request for Change to Access of Assistive Technology Devices

We hereby request that Caitlyn maintain free access to the netbook for everything requiring writing over one paragraph in length total and/or where legibility is necessary (such as copying down vocabulary words to study the spellings) unless they are required to be written by hand (penmanship being graded, or if this is not an appropriate accomodation on a standardized or class test). Spellcheck and other "assists" can be turned off on any word processing program she is utilizing so that there is no "cheating" for spelling when it is to be graded.

Request for Teacher Provided Notes and Handouts

We also hereby request that all of her teachers provide her with copies of any notes, materials, handouts, things written on the board etc on a daily basis when the work is assigned. She may still be required to take her own notes and do what the teacher determines is needed to do the assignment independently; these notes and handouts will remain as backup in case she does not have time to complete the notes herself, they are left on the jump drive and it is not in Caitlyn's posession that night, or we discover that something is illegible or confusing and wish to refer to the teacher's own instructions as the teacher wrote them. They will be placed in her binder on a weekly basis along with her own independently made copies and archived each six weeks at home (to save space in her binders).