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May 1, 2003 Meeting |
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The Sevier County Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SC SpEd PAC) held its third meeting on May 1, 2003. Eight members attended. Dr. Sandy Enloe discussed Extended School Year (ESY). It isn't summer school or tutoring. ESY is open to Special Education students only and is intended to supplement what cannot be done at home over the summer break. IEP Teams have to address the need for ESY for every Special Education student. The main reason that the IEP Team would recommend ESY is that the student would regress so badly that skills lost would be difficult or even impossible to get back during the new school year. This concerns recently mastered skills, but is also true for "breakthrough" skills (those that the student is on the verge of mastering). ESY will run from June 24 through August 1 this summer. Two more IEP Team considerations surfaced at this meeting: transition IEP meetings and the use of draft IEPs. A few parents mentioned that it is not always easy to get the losing and the gaining schools' staffs together for the meeting when a student is switching from primary to intermediate, or intermediate to middle. It get even tough for the middle to high school transition. The current teacher has the responsibility to set up the meeting, but the parents can and should be involved in naming the time and place and starting early when more than one school's personnel are to be involved. Jeff Romanczuk brought up the use of "draft" IEPs going home to the parents in advance of the IEP meeting. The parents in attendance liked the idea. Teacher's have been reluctant to made such a move, which may be construed as the teacher doing the IEP on her own without any parent or related service provider input. Even if we guard against this by clearly indicating that the IEP being sent with the meeting invitation is a draft that will be finalized at the meeting, doing so still wouldn't be right for all students in all situations. Therefore, the Special Education Department is going to encourage but not require that the teachers draft IEPs in advance of the IEP Team meeting. If you would like your child's teacher to send home a draft for you to review prior to the next IEP Team meeting, please let her or him know. Dr. Enloe reminded the parents that no matter how many school personnel come to the IEP meeting, as the legal guardians for the child the parents' opinion is 50% of the team's vote on any issue for which there isn't complete agreement. This summer, a fee-based program will be available. It's operating out of Sevierville Middle School, but is independent of the Sevier County School System and will be offered in addition to any summer school or extended school year requirements. This program will be open to students 11 and older and expects to accommodate 10 students with social and recreational skills 3 times a week for 9 weeks. Contact Summer Moore or Kathy Dufau for more information. The other activity is planned for the mid August week prior to next school year starting. Kathy Dufau and Jeff Romanczuk will present "What it's like to be autistic" based on what they have learned from raising children with autism. This session is intended for teachers, but parents are welcome. In fact, parents of children with other disabilities can even use some of this time (or a later session) to discuss with the special education teachers (and other parents) the other-than-school experiences of their child. One of the after-school inservice sessions (3:45 to 5:45 pm) this year will be available for this purpose. More info later. A parent brought up the issue of long bus rides and Sandy Enloe stated that what is allowed for special education is 1 1/2 times the run for the general education students who ride the longest. Since Sevier County's longest GenEd bus commute (one way) is 1 hour, the longest SpEd route must be less than 1.5 hours. Jeff Romanczuk distributed the results of this year's parent survey. Call or e-mail him with any questions about it. The next meeting will be on Friday, July 18, 6 to 9 pm at the Trula Lawson Center. This one is the cookout. The next topical meeting will be Friday, August 22 at 10 am. If you have a child in Sevier County Special Education and would like to get involved in the SpEd PAC, please come. |
