Sarah Herman

SPEC_ED 420
January 26th, 2017
Attend an IEP meeting Reflection
One of my first experiences was that I got to attend a re-evaluation meeting
for the student who has an IEP in my observed classroom. I also got to experience
the annual IEP meeting that happened post decision so this is a reflection on both of
the experiences.
For my first experience attending the IEP meeting the meeting was called to
see if the student would be placed in the small group specialist for mathematics.
The student had tested into the specialist groups for every subject, however, not in
math. With the teachers believes though they thought it would be best for the
student to continue to work with a specialist in a small group since the student was
easily falling behind in the struggling math group in the co-teaching model. This
meeting was called to discuss whether or not the student would make it into MAP
(Mathematics assistance program), however they utilized the time to check in with
how the student is doing overall.
People who were present at the meeting was the main special education
teacher, both of my mentor teachers (co-teaching model), the school counselor, the
main para educator, as well as the students specialist teachers. Each teacher
brought in evidence to show improvement or places of worry. Although the parents
said that they would be present, they ended up not showing up, hence the following
meeting later the next week.
The tone of the meeting was pretty positive because many of the teachers
believed that the student was placed in a positive situation for the students growth
and development. They also ruled out PARKA which they believed to be a positive
and they were concerned since the student had a tendency to pick, and eat random
materials such as pencil led.
Decisions were made prior to the meeting and were just reported at the
meeting. The decisions made where that the student would be placed with a
specialist for math, and continue to remain with the para educator throughout the
day as well as work with the other specialists throughout their schooling. The
decisions made however, were made based off of the evidence and suggestions
made by both co-teachers, as well as the specialists, and main special education
teacher in which he commonly interacts with (reward system is placed in her
classroom).
The parents were not present at the meeting. The parents are separated and
from what I observed it seems as though the father is in denial, where as the
mother tries to justify behaviors by comparing herself o the student, when she was
their age. I think this is not a clear observation to say how the parents are observed
throughout IEP meetings, rather that they atleast wanted to be aware of their childs
meeting by promptly rescheduling the meeting in which they could not attend. At
the meeting they did not attend however, the special education teacher said that
they are all for moving him forward throughout the program aslong as there is
evidence in place that shows the students learning.