IEP Success

The IEP went better this time. It was a smaller group, with the Autism Team, the special ed teacher, the speech therapist, the director of special ed and the rep from Easter Seals Family Support Services.

We got to meet Nathan's teacher for next year, and she's actually looking forward to teaching Nathan. She has a friend with an autistic child, so she is taking a personal interest in him. That was very good news to us.

The teachers and para will all get special training in autism this year. The whole school district will. More good news.

The IEP was altered this time, to give us more specific goals. The old ones were so vague, you didn't know exactly what they meant, let alone how to measure their success.

They are going to stop pulling Nathan out of class so much. This was particularly interesting to me, since we believe the person he spends so much time with, outside of his classroom, is also the person who escalates him the most. They think Nathan has been using the sensory room as a playground, and they may be right. I don't like the idea of taking away breaks, and fought to keep them, but they will be shorter (which may be just fine, as long as he takes them often or before he escalates too far) and they will be less play-like. That's okay. That might work just fine.

They offered to let him take Septran to school, but we opted to try the school bus one more time. The kids that used to bully him so badly have not bothered him, or they have moved on to other schools. So we'll try it, and we'll evaluate it again next school year to see if it's working.

The Autism Team will talk to his class next year. YAY!! They are actually going to tell the kids that Nathan has autism! We had suggested this all year, but they refused to do it. As soon as the Autism Team recommends it, everyone agrees. I find that annoying, but at least it will benefit Nathan. The more understanding people have, the more patient they usually are with his meltdowns or his quirks.

They have also adjusted the whole attitude about restraint. We can't fight to have it prevented. Truthfully, we don't always object to it. We don't want anyone else to get hurt. He can get quite aggressive, and sometimes it does become necessary to stop him, and to remove him from the room. What I do object to is restraining him for yelling. Or for throwing school supplies on the floor. Or for hitting another kid with a piece of paper. All of which has happened. And we object to him coming home with buises from it! And being yelled at and ridiculed while he is being restrained! So we were able to insist that no one is to touch him, unless all other avenues have been exhausted, and those that do restrain him are trained in proper technique. We also had it noted in his IEP that we object to any form of restraint, and emphasized that it will absolutely escalate him tenfold, and that any unwanted and unexpected touch is actually quite painful to him. I don't know if any of that will help, but at least our objections are on record, and hopefully they will understand why the restraint is such a bad idea for him. Keep in mind that he has never hurt another child. The only people he has hit are the ones that try to restrain him. We're hoping if the restraint isn't going to used as often, he will calm down a bit, and not escalate so badly or so quickly. Right now, he knows the minute he looks at them funny, they will grab him. If that's not the case, maybe everyone can calm down, and actually DE-escalate the situation, instead of making it worse. Hm, what a concept.

Anyway, we seem to have averted the confined classroom for now. We have also not been thrown out of school. And he has actually passed third grade (which we wen't at all sure of).

Next school year, however, I will not be so naive, nor so trusting, nor tolerant. There will be no more bruises. Restraint better not be used unless it is actually called for. And people will not be threatening me with confined classrooms unless I dope my child to the gills.

As an experiment, they stopped pulling him out of class this week. He spent a lot less time with the teacher we believe is making everything worse.

Ironically, Nathan had a major turn around last week! He did INCREDIBLY well! He did his work, he was mostly calm, and he did his homework. The teacher even sent a note home about it! I was so proud of him!

I wonder if the powers that be at that school noticed how much his behavior improved, when he spent less time with her...?