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Why do you think would a teacher wait with only 3 days until school starts? I find it hard to believe that she plans on reading it over the holiday weekend. Is this just a hostile act or a pretty typical way of operating? Opinions appreciated.
Or he/she just found out about it (we haven't been notified by Guidance of IEP/504 students in our classes yet and we're ending our 2nd week of school with an earthquake day and a hurricane day off).
Much depends on the setting.
If I had an elementary school child I would at least expect that the teacher knew, three days into the school year, that Johnny had an IEP and that he had <insert diagnosis>. I wouldn't expect him or her to be conversant with it. My general MO was to write a brief note for the second day of school (because the first is insane and I figure it would get lost) saying
"Hi, I'm Amy Smith's mom. You might have noticed Amy has crooked feet. She is on an IEP because of this, and cannot be seated far from the door, and should not be expected to runor jump at PE. If you have questions, call me.
Jenny Smith
867-5309."
The exception to this is if Amy were in a higher grade than kindergarten, and I had managed to get the IEP team to assign her teacher before the end of the previous year, in which case I would have invited the teacher to the IEP meeting last spring. And then, of course, she should know what's afoot (you should pardon the pun).
If Amy is in middle school, I'd email her teachers (after I find out who they are) and give them an older kid version of the note above. And if it's anything like our local middle school, she'd end up getting her schedule changed because of clerical errors three times before the ten day count and I'd have to email at least three new teachers each time that happened, so pretty soon probably the whole teachers' lounge would know about the da**ed feet.
But three days in? I'd cut the teacher a little slack, assume the office staff is slow getting the IEPs out or that they went to the wrong Mrs. Jones or that knows she's got six kids with IEPs, knows who they are, and hasn't really had time to give Amy's a proper reading because two of them are really much more severe, and be proactive myself.
For perspective, I'm a teacher, and I'll not only be reading IEPs over the holiday weekend, I'll be writing IEPs. Depending on timelines, other people on the IEP teams' schedules, the speed with which documentation filters through the system to get to the right people, etc. holidays that involve doing work are not uncommon in this field. Just a friendly reminder against assumptions.
All things being equal, I wouldn't go into a new situation already looking for hostility. Teamwork is imperative for the appropriate development and implementation of an IEP. Starting out the year already looking for where battle lines could be drawn doesn't serve anybody well.
I'm suprised that this could even be perceived as "hostile".
As some have mentioned, I was just able to see the IEPs yesterday. They are in PDF form and I will look at them over the weekend. I have to go online and make them available to other specialists who need to see them (music, pe, art).
With everything else going on...the first week of school, not reading an IEP of a student is not the worst thing a teacher could do...by next week, or even the week after, one would assume the teacher would know what is going on, and if other specialists are involved with the case, they would have come over, introduced themselves, and worked out a schedule with the teacher, in regards to pull out time. Usually if this is the case, they will give the pertinent information to the teacher, a review and summary.
In both schools I have worked in IEPs were not allowed to leave the school grounds. Meaning we had to read them in school during our prep periods. Besides it's three days BEFORE school starts when was she supposed to read it considering many teachers do not get rosters until then.
Hell maybe she wants to meet and get to know your child without being influenced by anything in his IEP.
You'd be amazed to know what teachers do over holiday weekends......be careful with those assumptions.
Yep...I'm staying late tonight to do IEP paperwork, and will probably come in on Labor Day itself to make copies and set up the conference room for the IEP meeting that I have scheduled for first thing on Tuesday morning. No complaints, here; I'm fine with it. But it's very definitely a 'working' holiday.
Why do you think would a teacher wait with only 3 days until school starts? I find it hard to believe that she plans on reading it over the holiday weekend. Is this just a hostile act or a pretty typical way of operating? Opinions appreciated.
Hostile act? Seriously?
First, teachers in many districts are not given much planning time. It's not uncommon that they get one or two days ONLY to look over class lists, get their rooms set up, look over IEP's, etc before school starts. Many of those teacher days before that are taken up by district-required meetings. In some districts, they may put "teacher planning time" on the calendar, but then the principal drags the teacher into meetings. In some districts and in older grades, teachers do not even get their class lists from admin until the day before classes start so they have no way to know who might have an IEP because they don't even have a list of who is in their classes. Keep this in mind before you assign motive to the teacher.
Then you factor in that many schools are SLOW about getting IEP's out to the teachers. I won't even tell you how many weeks it's taken in some districts I've worked in. She may not even have it yet. I pity the special ed department. They often have too large a caseload assigned to each teacher and not nearly enough time provided to do what needs doing. We really get what we pay for with budget and staffing cuts. Teachers are only human and there are only so many hours in each day--even accounting for the fact that many work in the evenings and on weekends, especially at first!
What I would do, is send the teacher a very friendly, very positive introductory email. In that you should introduce yourself, say how excited you are that Johnny will have her as a teacher this year, then briefly add a comment like, "I'm sure you've already seen this in Johnny's IEP, but I just wanted to touch base with you that he (insert brief description of what's going on) and (insert brief description of the modification you're concerned about.) Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you. Johnny is so excited to be starting school again."
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