Monday, May 5, 2008

CSE MEETINGS

Well this morning I went to my son's CSE Meeting (Committee on Special Education), this was my 13th CSE Meeting. My son is now 16 years old and a 10th grader, and has had a IEP (Individual Education Program) since he was 2 1/2.

The meeting went well, some things have changed for the better. His learning abilities have improved, he now only needs help in his writing skills, and will only need to go to the resource room 1x in a 6 day cycle. He will also be going to a course in Auto CAD this fall for 2 years. They send them out to Boces for the morning where they can learn something usable, and then come back to school in the afternoon for their core classes. When he is finished with high school he will be certified in Auto Cad and will be able to work at it while attending college.

My son has been in the system as I said since he was 2 1/2, and it works, but as a parent you must be involved. As a parent you have alot of control over his/her IEP. There is alot some schools do not inform you of, what you can have as far as help. They also have to follow the IEP, that is Federal Law. There are plenty of websites out there, that you can access for help. I have been doing this for 14 years, and have learned alot. But when I first started I did not have the access of the Internet for help.

I have spent many a times fighting for things that my son needed, and yes I did get them, you pretty much need to stay on top of things. I even went as far as stating to the head person of the CSE that I was going to sue the school district, if my son did not get the resources he needed, and guess what, within 2 weeks it was done.

Push, Push Push, you are your child's only advocate, and if you don't do it, no one will.

The pay off is worth the effort.

You can read more on my son and also my girlfriends daughter in Learning Disabilities at our website, that has a link to this blog.

1 comment:

Suzanne's Blog, Jane's Blog said...

I hope the Cse meeting went well I always hated them. You have to have patienct for them which I do not. This is a good first posting and will be looking forward to more. Your pal Suzanne