SPED PAC mtg -- Dracut Weekly Roundtable

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Subject: SPED PAC mtg

Author:
Shawn

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Date Posted: 11:51:08 05/11/04 Tue

I forgot to mention...

I attended the special ed pac meeting last week, got to meet quite a few special ed parents who just ain't too happy with the way things are.

I'm lucky, in that currently I don't have any children who need special ed, but I usually do. I try to keep up on the rules and regs.. it gets pretty hard (I volunteered as an educational advocate for a few years).

There were a lot of people with complaints about the school not following the rules, disregarding the iep's, etc.

Some were obviously just looking for help with their children, and you could feel for them. I and a number of others made some recommendations with regard to services beyond the school system that they should be looking into.

One couple made a telling statement. They had moved to town from Lowell because they thought that the schools were much better. It wasn't until they got here that they found that they were getting much less in services for their child than they were in Lowell, and even spoke about moving back.

I think a good recommendation was that we get a number of special ed parents and special ed administrators together in some joint training events. Getting people working and learning together tends to help everyone see each other's point of view. Communication is the key to resolving so many of the problems. (money would be another, but we know that ain't showing up soon)

The meeting leaders spoke about a manual for parents that would be available soon (special ed subcommittee to the school committee) to explain the ins and outs of the current special ed process. This would be helpful, and will be made available at all the schools and library as well.

There are a lot of parents in need of help where the problem is not a disability but emotional (and thus behavioral). We spoke to trying to create a list of resources, or find a service provider in the area with such a list (DSS, CTI, Casey Family, etc) that we could point people to for help with children in need.

All in all, it was a good meeting. The people in attendance did tend to be those who were having problems with the special ed process.. and we had to remind everyone that there were about 400 other families who did not attend, so we could not judge the whole program based upon just those in attendance.. but their concerns were real.

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