Awesome IEP Meeting

Yesterday I had an IEP for Micah, and I'd have to describe that experience as absolutely awesome. The team met for the first time since starting at the new school for Micah's annual review. There were so many things that went right. I had never met the speech therapist before this meeting, and he was great. He recognized Micah's intelligence and ran with it. I didn't feel like I had to convince him that Micah really could accomplish more. Micah obviously had shown him what he could do very well, and the goals that he came up with for Micah were very similar to my own goals for Micah. In the past, I have always had to tell them how much more my son is really capable of, but that really wasn't the way things were this time.

Micah's teacher is new, and this was her first IEP meeting. She did very well. My favorite thing about this teacher is that she is like a sponge for information. She asked me so many questions about Micah, recognizing that I really did know Micah better than anyone else there. She also recognized Micah's intelligence and her goals were very appropriate.

The principal was awesome. She told me of different incentive programs that they do for the whole school and asked many questions about how Micah could be involved with these things. She was very open to making sure that Micah was mainstreamed as much as possible. She told me that Micah has been her buddy and they have bonded in the many times that she visited his class.

Mainstreaming for math is going really well. His regular ed teacher really enjoys having Micah in his class and Micah is keeping up with the rest of the class. The aid from Micah's classroom actually goes with him to the class, so there are no problems like last year where we had to come up with someone new to go with him to assist if necessary. He actually goes with a couple of other kids from his class, and his teacher doesn't have any problems with giving up her aid for that short time (probably because Micah's class is so much smaller than his class last year).

I'm really excited about this year in Micah's class. He is doing so well, and I have a good enough relationship with the staff involved so I think that we really can tackle any problems that come up. I had been worried because the beginning of the year was so rough. He had to change teachers from the one that we had prepared him for. He changed rooms, the school didn't have their act together when it came to the services that were on the IEP. It was really rough. Now they are really on the ball.