Buyer Beware

Have you ever had this happen? If so, I would love to know how you handled it.

IEPs are almost always held in the Spring in my school district. The planning is for the next school year. Ronnie's IEP was held in May, and his teacher last year, a teacher for the Deaf, as well as the Chair of the Hearing Impaired department, tried very hard to convince me to move Ronnie from our neighborhood high school to another school where the district was trying to consolidate services for Deaf students. In addition, the teacher said she was also moving to that school.

The other school was not that far away from us, and Ronnie said he wanted to go (although I believe there had been a little coercing before the meeting). And, his signing friends were also moving, I was told. The move was going to make my life just a tad bit harder, but if it was in Ronnie's best interest, I would certainly do it.

So I made the decision that he could move. We hammered out the rest of the IEP - heavy on academics, not so heavy on functional skills because I believe it is my job as his parent to focus on those things.

Fast forward to September.

Ronnie starts at his new school and I find out that the teacher for the Deaf is not going to be at that school, and the Chair of the Department has retired. And I'm not so sure that this is a good placement. But Ronnie says he likes the new school. So far the homework that he brings home is heavy on functional skills and light on academics. And, he is only one of three students in his classroom.

Making a change at this point back to his previous school would be difficult. He is starting to make friends, especially girl friends (!) at the new school, and I'm not sure moving him again so quickly would be a good thing. But something needs to be different.

I'm thinking I need to call an IEP meeting and share these concerns with the school team. What do you think?