Would you tell parent what school is planning?

Torah

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 1:07 am

I am working as a SEIT in a Pre K classroom at a yeshiva. My agency is not a Jewish one and my student is African American. Since it's a UPK classroom the yeshiva had to accept him. At first, I was thrilled that I got to work at a yeshiva, especially with all the Tishrei holidays and the need to take off for them. My student just started at this school this year and to be honest, he is quite a handful. The second day of school, the classroom teacher asked me about requesting an increase in SEIT hours so that I would be there for a longer time period. He was going to be having his meeting soon, so the timing was good to make this request. The teacher wrote a letter and I showed her my letter. She said that the director was reviewing it and would put it on letterhead and get me the final copy. I asked her permission to show her letter to my agency along with my letter for their feedback and she agreed. A speech therapist was assigned to my student. Without even working with him or observing him, just from looking at his IEP, she decided in her mind that my student belonged in a center-based program. I told her how I did not think that it would be the best placement for him and why. The speech therapist said that she thought he should have a complete evaluation and dropped the discussion of a center-based program. In the meantime, I asked the classroom teacher if she had the letter back on letterhead and she said that she didn't. Then, she said that the school thinks that the child needs to be in a center-based program. I was in a state of shock. I knew that the mother would not want this and, while the kid is a handful, I did not feel that he belonged in a center-based program. If he were to go to this program, I would also lose this case because the center would have special education teachers. My agency also asked me to get a letter from the parent asking for this increase. The parent brought the letter to school for the teacher to give to me. The teacher gave this letter to the director. I have to retrieve it from her. She made a copy of it and then gave it back to me. This really got me angry because I had requested the letter from the parent, not the school. Also, I think that they really just want to get rid of him because he isn't easy and really don't care about what's best for him. So, I have a dilemma. Do I tell the parent what the school is planning?

mummiedearest

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 8:49 am

I would give her a heads up. she should be involved in these discussions.

bnm

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 10:04 am

Do you as a seit think the kid is an appropriate for for a class of 17 or would he benefit from a smaller classroom? If the kid is so difficult he might not even get enough seit hours, the BOE would rather put him in a fully special ed school My kid didn't get accepted in a headstart class of 17 but the center based program felt he was ready for mainstreaming so I got very frustrated and really didn't want a fully mainstream class of 25 if they couldn't tell me in advance how many hours of seit he would get, for 5 or 10 hours it wasn't worth loosing the special ed services.

amother

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 10:12 am

I didn't know Any yeshiva has non Jewish kids

mdoif

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 10:12 am

Without question you should. If you're afraid of your job, at the very least tell the parents to inquire about what's happening and hint that they shouldn't back down until the get a satisfactory reply.

imasinger

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 10:17 am

Who pays your agency; the school, or the state, or insurance?

I might think twice about saying anything if it is the school, since that might be perceived as betraying your employers, and the parents will find out soon anyway.

But if it is the state or private insurance, I would definitely say something.

Barbara

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 10:30 am

Before I give an opinion, tell me about the affiliation of the speech therapist. Is she full time at the school?

marina

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 1:55 pm

Wait, what?

Any change of placement typically needs to be approved by the IEP team. That includes the parent and the child's teachers, presumably OP.

So I just don't understand the whole post. Is the school planning to just switch the kid without a meeting to get consent? I don't understand at all.

mummiedearest

Sun, Oct 05 2014, 2:26 pm

marina wrote:

I assume the school is going to demand an iep meeting with this goal in mind without telling the parent in advance. if the parent isn't prepared, she may not get what she wants (which would probably be to keep the child where he is). regardless, it sounds like she's being left out of the discussions for now, when she should be contacted before going through the board of ed.