JSD24

First HIPPA is a misspelling. HIPAA is the correct acronym. Most schools don't bill for healthcare services so HIPAA doesn't apply to schools. FERPA is the privacy act that schools use. (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - intesting how a copy & paste worked here) This is what Lisa has on classroom observation: https://adayinourshoes.com/can-parents-observe-classroom-iep/ My question is how does your child communicate? Have they ever had an AT evaluation? One of the most important things a person does is communicate to others. How does your child do this? If they are not reliably verbal, do they use PECS? A devise? A letter board? Sign language? Smoke signals? Method doesn't matter so much as they can reliably convey information to you and others. This eliminates the need for the teacher or para to tell you what's going on. Your child can do this themself. Back to your original question about how do you find out what your child's day was like given his IEP isn't teaching him how to tell you himself. What about designing a checklist - something that will be easy for the teacher to fill out? Ask if they follow a schedule where they start the day with A and then do B...and can you have a copy of the schedule? Can you meet with the teacher and ask them to describe a typical day? What about meeting with your child and their teacher & showing them how he knows more when he works with you? What about requesting an IEE at school expense because you don't agree with the present levels the school lists for your child? I think you also need to remain vigilant. Kids will not do well if they don't feel safe. I always worry that anyone who can't talk cannot tell their caregiver that they are being abused or witnessing classmates be abused. This is one reason I feel that everyone needs to be able to communicate. If you live in a state that allows people to record w/o their permission, parents have sent recording devices to school to audio record the school day. I know this is illegal in my state but there are places where this would be OK to do. You can search 'two party state' to see if yours is a place where you need permission to record or if you're in a 'one party state' where you could record. This is a short video on Spelling to Communicate. Many of these individuals were in self-contained classrooms being taught 'life skills' when their potential was hidden by not having a way to communicate due to autism combined with apraxia. I don't want this to happen to other students.

What does your child want to do after HS graduation? Work, more schooling? Does the IEP prepare your child for this? For example, if your child gets extra time for tests and wants to go to college, this is an accommodation they can get on SAT/ACT as well as on tests in college. I'm not sure with a homeschooler, who applies to the testing companies for any accommodations. In a public school, the guidance dept tends to do this.

Not sure if they will give it to you, but I'd ask for a copy of the FBA so I can become familiar with it before you meet with the school team. Not sure what to do when an IEP team isn't on the same page as you are with knowing how services are being delivered. What does it look like? is a good question to ask when they tell you about a service your child will get.

Not sure about including self-advocacy with this. Since your child is older, they need to learn to reach out to their teachers to catch them up when they are out. Would it make sense for them to email their teachers and ask what they missed when they were out? This could be part of the IEP. My SD has a policy when a student misses more than 20 classes over a year, the school doesn't have to give them credit for the class - even if they pass it. I would see about making sure that the excessive absences don't mean they won't get credit - even if they do all the work for the class & have passing grades.

Therapists are not 'legally' required to be at an IEP meeting. There is an exception: When it's a speech only IEP & it's the speech therapist. The therapist should provide written input when they are not at the meeting. Not in the gen ed classroom really depends on the child & their disability. This was not appropriate until my child needed a 2nd senior year that covered how to navigate college. I believe the placement was classified as 'community' and not as sp ed.