Well we finally had it....the dreaded IEP meeting. I went in with low expectations, and was happily surprised with the way the meeting went and what decisions were made for Will.
Since we were transitioning from pre-school age to school age there was MANY people at this meeting. Seven school personnel to our two parents. Despite being outnumbered my husband and I felt like we were listened to and included on decisions for Will next year. We were told he would go from "a child with a disability" label (which all pre-school IEP kids get) to "speech and language impairment" label. The chairperson said decisions on Will's schooling would be made through that label's lens. We were very happy with this label and even more happy we didn't have to fight off an undesirable one.
The review of Will's progress by his teacher was very even sided. Reports on his speech testing (still VERY behind) balanced nicely with his progress socially. Often times I find these meetings are about what is wrong with these kids, not on also where their growth or strengths lie.
So it looks like next year its 1/2 Kindergarten with speech/OT/special ed push-ins. Now we are just waffling on whether or not we should let him go for the whole day, or wait until next year for a full day experience.
Oh and I did manage to get the "input" goal from Will's OT removed easily enough. After a open and frank conversation, the OT gave no resistance to removing the goal and put in an addendum the next day. I don't think she had anything invested in Will so removing a goal was a "no brainer" for her "no brain".
Special thanks to fellow blogger Pia and her Crack in the Light blog for the IEP alert level pic.
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