Safi's IEP was a horrific flop.  Despite having texted and emailed members back and forth with the specific school I am interested in AND discussing that this IEP should be tailor made to include all of the features it has to offer because every single one of them is a service that Safi needs....crash and burn.

Within the first 5 minutes of being in the room I repeated what I had been saying for the past three weeks, "So, today we go for 'more restrictive envicornment'".  The school psychologist said, "Yeah, when we get to the last page we'll talk about the wording because it gets funny."  An hour and a half of my life later that I'll never get back we turned to the last page....which recommended "least restrictive environment" and essentially to maintain status quo. Not. Funny.

As you're probably already assuming, I went ballistic.  I was professional and appropriate but exceptionally enraged.  What had been the point of the prep work?  What had been the point of getting in touch with the members ahead of time to make sure we were all on the same page?  What was not understood that if this IEP were not done appropriately, Safi's schooling would not be paid for by the district that we move to?  And there, my friends, lay the problem.  You see, whatever the school district recommends they have to provide.  And, as the school psychologist put it, "We can't recommend services that we don't have and we don't have these services."  Uh, yeah, that's one of the reasons why we're moving.  But if we were to not move for some reason the IEP is a legally binding document and they don't want to be on the hook for providing the services that Safi and other kids need but they don't have.  So, I reminded the school psych that, legally, if Safi needs a service and qualifies for it, they HAVE TO recommend it and they HAVE TO either find a way to provide or pay another district or entity to do so.  She tried to do some damage control, tried to change what she had just said....and then assured me that they were all mother's in the room and that they understood that I wanted the "Cadillac of services, but the law states that we only need to provide the minimum of services."  I told her I wasn't signing it, to get the District head on the phone, and to get ready to litigate if need be.  I left them by telling them that if they were a barrier to Safi getting what she needs, what they ALL agree she needs, there would be hell to pay.

Now I'm tired, and that's all for today.  We have a meeting scheduled for March 6th and battle, which is so insanely pointless, will continue.  So very disappointing.  Such a cheap, cowardly school district Tulare City School District is.  This is their job....this is MY kid's future.  Shameful.

Sarah