Passing Time - and the IPRC

How is it that I have been writing this blog for nearly 4 months? How has the time gone by so quickly? I was having this conversation with a friend on mine last night, and after we got off the phone, it really started to hit me.
I have a dinner tonight with the people I sat on the jury with - two years ago! It doesn't seem like two years since we all met for the first time. We were only on the jury for two weeks, and that time seemed just as long as the two years that have passed since.


Anyway, enough "deep thoughts" for so early in the morning.


I went to the IPRC meeting yesterday. As we were heading in to the meeting, the principal informed me that the "inappropriate comments" made by the EA had been addressed. Of course he wouldn't (and couldn't) share the outcome with me. Geesh - I wish I knew how that all went down.
The meeting itself was simply a formality. His IEP has been written and prepared based on S having "multiple exceptionalities" so we just needed to get the proverbial 'ducks in a row.' For those that aren't aware - the outcome of an IPRC meeting is very significant for the school board. Basically, the IPRC - more so the results of an IPRC meeting - put a legal obligation upon the school, and therefore the school board, to ensure that all educational requirements and accomodations must be made for the child's exceptionality.
Once a board recognizes that a child has a 'different' educational need through the formal IPRC process, they are then legally obligated to do all that they can to ensure that this child receives the necessary educational supports. If they try this, and it doesn't work, then they move on to the next step, and so on and so on, until the child finally achieves success. (This is why so many boards are trying to avoid the entire IPRC process - it can cost them too much in many, many ways.)
As a result of S's parent knowing how this entire legal-entity process works, and working the system in a well-thought and designed plan, S now has his special bussing, his laptop, and his EA. The bussing was an issue - there were problems there. The school tried a), then b), then c), and when none of that worked....special bussing was the only option that had not been attempted. And so it went with all of the other accomodations he is currently receiving.
The problem with all of this uptopia-like plan, however, is that the schools will not just move to the next step willingly. Sometimes, I am sure there is a principal and/or SERT that will move to that next step without proding, but in every single step of the way for S, I have had to read, and research, and consult with higher-ups to find out what else could be done. It has literally taken years to finally get to a stage that hubby and I feel could even remotely be successful for S. Like, 5 years.
How many parents are willing to continue to write letters, read, research...write more letters, make countless phone calls, send tons of emails, and on and on, for the better part of 5 years? Sad to say it - but not that many. Most either change schools with the hope that this school will be better, or end up doing homeschooling, or send their child to a private school. I will admit, all of these have been options we have considered.
We have (twice) even gone so far as to looking at our budgeting to see what we could do about one particular school. One we looked at - which I'm sure would have been great - was $25,000 per year. Another one - which we did seriously consider - was more resonable at $3,000/year. But, we are fortunate that we could consider that one - there are so many families out there that could never fathom that much money for education for their 8 year old.
Something I thought of, as I am writing this - please note that I am speaking only for the current Ontario legislation with respect to the IPRC. I don't know how it works in other provinces within Canada. And, I say current because I think the Ministry of Education is looking at melding the two steps (ie. IPRC and IEP), but I don't know where that has moved to within the legislative houses.

(whew, that was a tangent I hadn't planned...)


So, we had the IPRC meeting then discussed how S is doing over-all. It appears that he is doing well for the most part. The teacher said she had noticed that he is starting to come to her with things a little more often now, which means he is feeling comfortable with her. We are still waiting to get that 'voice to text' option fixed, and that was brought up twice at the meeting. I guess they know that I won't back down until all is moving smoothly!! And, the second term IEP has been developed. I have been given a copy to consider and sign off on. This is the first time I have ever been given a term-by-term IEP. She is really on the ball this year!