Speech Therapy through the school district (school districts, deed, lawsuits)

[mom2redheads]

My son attends speech therapy through the school district, he is in Kindergarten. I am not happy with the speech therapist and I am having big problems with her so I decided to take my concerns to her director and I am getting horrible service... I can not believe it! I am pulling my son out of it ! Does anyone know who I would talk to other than the director to address my problem?

[bhcompy]

Someone at the district office probably. Superintendent is at the top

[Snort]

You can call for an IEP meeting at any time to have your concerns addressed. I wouldn't take him out of speech officially by taking him off the classification of special education, because you'd be losing those services. Are we talking about a private or pubic school?

[mom2redheads]

public school....who would the IEP meeting be with, would it just be with the speech therapist? I contacted the superintendent today and left a message....

[Snort]

No, the IEP meets as a team. That would include an administrator and a regular education teacher, as well as the speech therapist (minimally). If your child is getting help from a special education teacher, then that teacher would also be part of the IEP team. Because you would like a different placement or assigned speech therapist, you'd want to have a program director or program specialist involved. For any change though, the program director would likely be involved.
Give me some more details and I'll tell you how all this will go down.
What is/are the complaint(s)?

[Clarks]

I contacted the superintendent today and left a message....

Superintendent's secretary rolls her eyes.

In my experience the fault is seldom with the school personnel. 60% of the time it is a failure of communication. 39% of the time in special ed it is a parent that wants their child "fixed" and when the child can't be "fixed" somebody has to be blamed. 1% of the time it is the school personnel at fault.

[mom2redheads]

Originally Posted by Clarks

Superintendent's secretary rolls her eyes.

In my experience the fault is seldom with the school personnel. 60% of the time it is a failure of communication. 39% of the time in special ed it is a parent that wants their child "fixed" and when the child can't be "fixed" somebody has to be blamed. 1% of the time it is the school personnel at fault.

How does this answer my question? So are you saying not to talk to the Superintendents secretary because they will roll their eyes?

[Clarks]

Correct, the Superintendent's office gets phone calls nearly 24/7 from parents upset at some "awful" deed the teacher did.
A good secretary rolls her eyes, because she is only human and she gets these calls constantly. She and or the Super rolls it back down the chain of command to the staff members supervisor. The staff member in question meets with her supervisor, then with the parent.

Now, some superintendents and some supervisors and some building administrators will throw the staff member under the bus and agree with everything the parent complains about. So, you will know that if the supervisor appears to be on your side, the staff member has been thrown under the bus and the supervisor sucks, all to common these days.

If the supervisor is worth his or her salt, she will defend her staff member, if that happens you will know you have a good staff member and a good supervisor and the problem will get ironed out. Contrary to common belief, school personnel are dedicated to doing a good job, especially those actually in the trenches. Once one becomes an administrator all bets are off, their sole purpose is to prevent lawsuits against the district.

And then there is a particularly nasty breed of human, a hired gun, hired by the parent to go up against the school district. Their actual purpose is to have as many meetings as possible, never solve the problem, just run up the tab, since they get paid, by the parent and the parent thinks they did a great thing by hiring the hired gun, usually a former sped teacher who figured out she can make more money than she could by actually teaching and helping society.

[mom2redheads]

That is sad that the school district is like that...because in all honesty a good business or service will not get complaints 24/7 and it is really sad that you think a "good secretary" will roll her eyes at parents who have concerns with their children...sounds like an awful job.

[Clarks]

I imagine most all school districts go through the same thing, I am not stating this is one particular school district. It is not the fault of the district or the secretary, it is parents who believe that their child is more special than all the others, and who refuse to take responsibility for their child, but foist it off onto the school and the teachers and other staff, then get upset when the outcome is not what they want.

School districts don't get complaints with substance 24/7, complaints with substance are rare. School districts, Teachers, Principals are simply handy targets for displays of parental shortcomings.

Teaching is an awful job, parents attack teachers constantly, just go to a soccer match, or softball game, or little league, you will hear parents picking at their kid's teachers. Teachers who work their hardest to give the little darlings a good education in spite of low pay and long hours.

As a teacher told me when I was first starting out;"contrary to your expectations, teaching consists mostly of playing politics with parents and administrators".

I could not tell you how many times a parent stormed into my room at 3:15 in high dudgeon because "I" failed their child.

Here is a story; child tells parent I lose the kids homework. Parent knows the kid does the homework (actually, teachers can usually spot the homework done by the parent, and a lot is) Parent called the Principal (she could have called the Superintendent, or the area supervisor, but she called the Principal, the Principal said to her, "have you talked to the teacher? Of course the answer was no, but she was angry at the Principal for not going after me with a baseball bat, She shows up with a full head of steam, accusing me.

So, with a slow smile, I walk to the desk and pull the rats nest of papers out, and lay them on the floor, and Voila, there are about two weeks of homework papers crammed into the desk, never turned in. Parent, "splutter, splutter".