Can this be included in the IEP?
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Anonymous
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Is it reasonable to ask that the program or methodology used for intervention to support DD be included in the IEP?
DD is in MS and has dyslexia. She meets with a literacy teacher twice a week for 30 mins. When we first met on her IEP, I made it a point to ask if she would receive OG based intervention. They said they would need to assess her to figure out what would be best for her. Fast forward a couple of months and DD has been raising the alarm that she doesn't think the intervention is appropriate. She works with an ASDEC tutor 3x a week after school so she has developed awareness of how she learns and what kind of instruction is helpful to her (something I am super proud of her for!). To prove her point, she brought home several of the worksheets she had worked on over the last few sessions. They were ALL over the place. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for why these were selected for instruction. DD also showed them to her ASDEC tutor who was VERY concerned. While we both agreed that we are confident that the school means well... they are not appropriate for how a dyslexic student who needs a systematic structured approach. I am writing to the school to voice my concerns, asked for the specific results from the assessment, and ask for more insights into their intervention methodology. I wonder if I can also ask for the overall instructional structure behind her sessions, a scope and sequence of the instruction and if we could include that specific program or approach the literacy teacher is using into the IEP. It seems like she is randomly grabbing worksheets to work on DD. |
Anonymous
| You should ask for a meeting with the person in charge of special education for your region. |
Anonymous
I shouldn't start with the school first? |
Anonymous
| No. The IEP is about goals, accommodations and service hours. It is not within the scope of the IEP to name a specific program or staff member to deliver the services. The school’s responsibility is to implement a specialized program in the setting determined by the IEP. You cannot lock a school in to deliver a specific program that you like. |
Anonymous
| I think you can ask for it. There have been times where there were very specific interventions included in my kids’ IEPs. Thing is, they may not agree. There are two reasons for that. They may not agree with your intervention. Second, they may want to have the flexibility to pivot when things aren’t working. If the IEP is really specific, pivoting can’t happen without a meeting and official IEP change. |
Anonymous
You can ask for horseback riding lessons. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get them. Asking for a specific intervention is outside the scope of an IEP. No school should ever sign off on that. It puts them on the hook to get the program and then ensure someone is trained for it. The IEP team decides the goals. It’s up to the school staff to figure out whatever instruction will get the student to meet those goals. |
Anonymous
This is GENERALLY true, but it's not always true. Where a student's specific needs are for a particular type of methodology, then that type of methodology should be in the IEP. There was a case out of Nevada a few years back (Rogich) that held that an IEP was deficient for not requiring OG (or at least something incredibly similar). That parent established the requirement for OG through an evaluation that convinced the court that it was required for the IEP to be legally appropriate. |
Anonymous
| This has been categorically refused in every IEP meeting I've ever been a part of. They aren't going to list a specific proprietary methodology, nor should they. |
Anonymous
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Op here, totally fair then not to ask for that level of detail to be in the IEP. Thanks for the feedback, understood.
A larger question remains for me. The worksheets seemed to be chosen at random and not appropriate for a dyslexic student. They were general remediation worksheets. One was on latin/greek root matching that both her ASDEC tutor and I found to be difficult even for us non dyslexic adults. DD said she had a very hard time working through the worksheet and at the end the literacy teacher just gave her all the answers but did not actually teach her any of it. The second was on suffixes and was VERY text heavy. This may feel nuanced, but the worksheet instructed DD to "remember" which word to pick for a correct spelling and definition. Working memory is a huge area of deficit for DD something noted in the private and school led evaluation. To successfully complete this assignment DD had to rely on working memory... which of course she struggled on. The third one was on three different type of silent letters. ASDEC tutor said a dyslexic student would need to learn each of these three separately and then broken down into much more granular pieces since students with this profile need to see these concepts 14-40 times to master them. So... my question is, how do I ensure that the intervention that DD is getting is meeting her needs? I am not asking for one particular program/methodology over the other. I just want it to meet her needs. I am grateful that she gets the intervention, dont get me wrong, I just want to make sure it's valuable. |
Anonymous
OP you're hoping that your DD's pull-out instruction will be of similar quality to her time with the ASDEC tutor. This is probably an unrealistic hope. |
Anonymous
It sucks to say this, but my experience (DCPS and MCPS) is that your expectations for an IEP for dyslexia probably can't be low enough. Schools do a very bad job with it. Do everything you can outside of school, because the school based interventions aren't going to help. |
Anonymous
No, that's not it. I know that the school's intervention will not come close to ASDEC. I only talked to her ASDEC tutor to get her thoughts because of her deep understanding of how a dyslexic learns. She was highly concerned and said it's certainly not the way she is being taught by the worksheets not even close. I am just trying to make sure there is SOME value ANY value in the intervention. |
Anonymous
| You can do this through really specific goals. Can the tutor come to the next IEP meeting? The goals (which inform instruction) should be consistent with what you and the tutor want the school to focus on. |
Anonymous
| It comes down to evidence based instruction. In VA a literacy act was passed which requires evidence based instruction for reading like OG, UFLI etc. and reading plan with goals that can either be reflected in IEP or separate this is for all learners with IEP or not if their standards based reading test was below proficiency. Reading Specialist could be consulted also if they have not already although they don’t fall under SPED they are the expert in this area.OP worksheets are are not it , you have reason to be alarmed. |
Anonymous
| I think it's totally reasonable to ask for language to be included that says something like, "Madison requires two X 30 minutes phonics instruction weekly using an evidence-based multi-sensory method." |