Saturday, February 26, 2011

Resources for IEP Prep

Even though we had strong intentions our school district would not fight us to send Aiden to the oral deaf preschool we chose (since they do not have a program for kids with hearing loss outside of their special education preschool and most of the district's hearing loss kiddos attend here), we still wanted to be prepared all around.

In preparation for Aiden's IEP, I read, and read, and read. In essence, I wasn't only reading to educate myself for Aiden, but also for his sister. It is through our struggles to get my daughter evaluated that I have come to understand the laws better and have learned that two things every parent going through this process should do:

1) communicate all requests in writing, and
2) write/keep EVERY.little.thing down in a notebook/folder, from phone conversations to meeting dates and outcomes to dates any letters were sent and received to copies of emails etc.

Here are some websites I found helpful throughout Aiden's and his sister's IEP/request for evaluation process:
  • Wrights Law (a leading website on special education law and advocacy) and on THIS page within the Wrights Law website, there are tons of links for FAQs on IEPs.
  • THIS chart shows a table differentiating the IFSP and the IEP.
  • Did You Know? - a great sheet to hand to your child's educational team with facts on cochlear implants.
  • Go HERE for a good overview of the steps in an IEP process.
  • This IEP Goal Bank and this one are both good sites for sample speech and language goals. The second link also has sample goals for all areas. (I went into the IEP meeting with auditory, articulation, language, gross motor, and social/pragmatic goals/objectives based on what we've been working on in AVT, speech and PT - remember, parents are a part of the IEP team. WE are there to help set goals and objectives too!)
Are there any websites that you found helpful through your child's IEP process? If so, please leave the website in the comments section to help other parents going through the process.

I also created a getting to know Aiden booklet to bring with me to his IEP meeting. I will post about that next.

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Can I link this in my blog? Love!

tammy said...

of course!