TEAM Meeting

So disappointed before we even walk into this meeting with the team today. Earlier today Melissa, Jayen's BCBA, called to let me know that she heard back from Mr. Frazier about some of her recommendations. We were really hopeful that the school would allow an ABA tutor to come to school a couple times a week to work with Jayen and also allow direct service hours from the BCBA. After the news that the district doesn't allow outside providers to work with the students during school hours, I was devastated. Everyone knows this is not where I believe Jayen would get the best education. I would give anything to have the services we had in Nebraska. But I really thought this was going to be a stepping block. This was going to be a compromise. But once again I have been disappointed by this school district.
I sat in my car and cried for a good 20 minutes before pulling myself together and walking into the school office. I knew there was opposition before even starting to share my plea. I still had to be hopeful that we would make positive changes. I had to hope that they would listen to Melissa's recommendations as well. I had to hope they would listen to me.
Melissa started the meeting sharing some of the wonderful things she observed. And I truly believe, and witnessed myself, that there were some wonderful moments. I really loved the reading lesson I observed where Mrs. Lake taught whole class and allowed the students to hold up the missing letter, then checked their understanding individually. I love how included Jayen was in the regular education classroom. He did such a great job jumping right into the activity and being a role model while listening to the teacher. I really see so many great things and am so happy for the possibilities! The physical therapist had to interrupt since he had another meeting. He just quickly told us about Jayen's progress with the two physical therapy goals on his IEP. I guess I was a little confused since it sounded like he couldn't work on either one since 1) he doesn't have a lot of peer interaction when outside and 2) he only observed PE once and they were working on a skill far above Jayen's skill level. I would like to follow-up with all of the specialists and understand when and how Jayen's IEP goals are being worked on and what progress he is making.
After Mr. Clayman left, we continued talking about Melissa's observation. It was a good conversation, but felt like there was a little opposition. We transitioned our conversation to Jayen's schedule and tried working out a way to get him in the general education classroom more. Mrs. Mullins and Mrs. Lake wrote their schedules on the whiteboard so we could talk out of few things. I was able to share my feelings about the work boxes and movies and ask for more classroom time. The Occupational Therapist didn't seem as excited about the idea as the rest of us and kept asking how Jayen would transition from math in the special education classroom to jumping into whatever the general education classroom was working on. After a few back and forths we were able to talk through Jayen's day and get him more time in the general education classroom. It was decided that we wait to start the new schedule until after Fall Break. I wish we would have started it now to work out the kinks before coming back, but we will roll with it.
I'm glad we could all come together and work through this. I'm still disappointed about the ABA not being able to come into the classroom, but I will see what other options are available.