RE: 's Mom - PLEASE READ!!!

[Guest guest]

Deep breath.... Get ready to read, read, read and LEARN LEARN LEARN! You

are going into battle my friend and you do not know it now... but it will

be.

Please take the time to buy and read these two books in prep for your IEP

*The Complete IEP Guide : How to Advocate for Your Special Ed. Child

-

Lawrence Siegel, -1999

*Right From the Start - Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with

Autism & Jane Weiss - 1998

I did not believe when someone told me to be: defensive, remain objective,

tape record and do not trust our local school district who was supposed to

help my son. These today are still the best advice I received. Do not

trust anyone but your family when it comes to your child and their needs.

Remember that the school district is dealing with a huge increase of special

needs children and does not have the funding, heart or goodness in mind when

it comes to your child. They are trying to figure out how much they have to

pay you to keep you out of there face (i.e HOW LITTLE they have to pay you

to keep you quiet.)

Consider some other advice:

- get an attorney or advocate for the first meeting

- tape record each meeting (tell them ahead of time)

- be an expert note taker on every correspondence you have with the

school district. Record for all talks, calls, meetings, correspondence the

date, time, and key points about the interaction.

- Buy a filing cabinet for your newly found journey. REMEMBER: HE

WHO IS THE MOST ORGANIZED ... WINS

- Bring a large, framed picture and put in on the table at your IEP

meeting. (I have said to my school district coordinator " are you going to

say no to that face? " It works.)

- DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING AT THE MEETING!! ALWAYS TAKE DOCUMENTS HOME

BEFORE YOU SIGN THEM!!! THEY CAN WAIT A DAY!!

- Do their evaluations of your child, but also MAKE THEM PAY FOR

OUTSIDE EVALUATIONS!!!! (they put my son as mild in all categories when in

some he should have been severe to pay or provide less services!!)

- Know your rights - here are some good web sites:

School District & IDEA LAW

www.ideapractices.org/idearegsmainTopicIndex.htm

http://www.ideapractices.org/idearegsmainTopicIndex.htm>

www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/iep.html

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/iep.html>

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/IDEA/regs.html

www.devdelay.org/issues

www.childrenwithdisabilities.ncjrs.org

www.aauap.org

I hope all this preparation will not be required in receiving the services

your child needs. But so far, I have heard of only a few stories of good

school districts.

Take care

A Jeffs mom

newly diagnosed PDD-NOS...

(3years, 3 months) was diagnosed PDD-NOS on March 15th

and we started the gfcf diet on March 18th after reading Karyn Serroussi's

book. We've done well on it and I believe we have already seen an

improvement. We are doing yeast free though we haven't done any testing

yet.

Questions: has anyone tried non-dairy creamers? Mine says

100% milk free but I'm wondering if it caused a reaction?

Carrot juice: we seemed to see a reaction to that the next

day...very stimmy, withdrawn, emotional. So we are also doing phenol free!

Anyone else see a reaction to that?

IEP questions: we have our IEP on April 12th and the people

are coming to my home to meet this Friday. How should I prepare? My

intention is to try to get them to pay for a home-based program and do

private preschool in addition.

That's all...I can't wait to get to know all of you!

and Myrd

(3years, 3 months)

(almost 23 months)