Start a September Baseline for Progress Monitoring
Here is a truth about the school year that takes most families a while to see: spring is decided in the fall. That accommodation conversation in the spring, the one where the school says there is no data to support the change you are asking for? The progress monitoring behind that data is happening right […]
Least Restrictive Environment: “Let’s See How She Does”
The least restrictive environment is the legal idea that your child is educated alongside peers, with the supports that make that work, unless there is a real reason she cannot be. So when a school says “let’s just see how she does in the general classroom, and we can always pull her out if it […]
The Recap Email That Protects Your Child’s Plan
The single most protective thing you can do for your child’s plan all year is not dramatic at all. It is a short recap email you send after a meeting or a conversation. Five minutes, sent kindly, and a spoken agreement becomes something that holds. Here is the situation it saves you from. You have […]
Is the IEP in the Classroom, or Just in the File?
An IEP or 504 plan that lives in a folder protects no one. The plan only does its job when it is an IEP in the classroom, which means the people in front of your child know it exists, understand it, and are actually doing it. In the first weeks of school, that is not […]
The One-Page Student Snapshot Every New Teacher Needs
Two weeks before school starts, a new teacher walks into a classroom holding a stack of IEPs and 504 plans, a roster full of names she has not matched to faces yet, and a to-do list that does not fit in the day. Your child is one folder in that stack. A one-page student snapshot […]