Inappropriate IEP goals

[digupherbones]

Hello! I am a person from The Bump from many years ago. My name was Brandi Bee there. I’m actually here bc I remember Auntie! And I honestly owe her a lot for her great advice. She told me to hire my daughter a GAL. I did and my case wound up going through mediation and I got permission from Family Court to move my daughter to a state where her educational needs would be adequately addressed. Isla, who is 10 now, is doing great.

I am here because I have a friend at work who is struggling to work with her sons school and I need to get input. She brought in her sons educational records to me and I read over his evaluations and IEPs and I honestly think it’s atrocious what’s happening. For one thing, none of the goals are individualized in regards to academics, speech, etc. In fact, there are only two goals. And one of them has to do with maintaining eye contact for a specific number of times during a certain time frame, even though this child has mastered initiating eye contact on his own. There is continuous and documented impact on his academic performance du to his disability and yet he has been mainstreamed consistently and denied modified instruction. The school was given paperwork validating a diagnosis of ASD three years ago and just this year they decided to change his identification in their system from developmental delay to autism. Which I know exactly why they did that. This past month, his reevaluation was due and they used his prior evaluations in IEP goals as a basis for the new evaluation. Which is malarkey. They have not seen this child in person since earlier this spring. They’re using this COVID-19 business to deny him.

The only advice I gave to her so far was to exercise her right to an independent educational evaluation. I actually wrote the letters for her. I just need personal experiences, anecdotes, advice, anything I can get to help this girl.