If you don't ask, you don't get...

I think parents do need to get involved in their kids education. Lets face facts here Teachers are overworked and underpaid and most parents anymore expect the teachers and the school system to handle their kids and their kids problems while they are at school. There are not a lot of parents out there anymore that actually get involved. So Kudos to you!

My daughter is in 5th grade and she has been going to speech thrapy since 2nd grade and she also has a special needs teacher. Let me tell you when she was in 1st grade it was a nightmare. The teacher accused me for being the problem! The teacher accused me of being some kind of monster. Anyways one lady bent over backwards for me and my daughter.. That lady was my daughters speech teacher. My daughters home room teacher never told me about any help out there at all. So now im more educated and at my daughters IEP meetings I have a paper filled with questions I now ask. I agree with you I think its about money. Best of luck to you...

yah. i know. There dont seem to be any people who really care about their jobs anymore. it's sad.

You are right about that. School with offer anything your children are entitled entitled to. But first you must know what to ask for. That is a problem for parents. The ones who don't knwo what to ask for. I knwo I ran in to teh same problem with my daughter. I ended going to the school board last year because of the whole mess. It took care of it and got the paper work I neede started. But the testing I asked for was never complete. Now she goes to a new school. I have yet to talk to the teachers. But for some reason her reading and my sons reading level has improved from failing to high "B's". Go figure.

Our youngest daughter has also had learning disorders and had to have help. The IEP meetings were the only way to get things done. They never volunteered to do something unless it was asked for. She also needed help in the language arts and, like Cary, needed help with the word problems in math. She loves math but the word problems always bogged her down. Now that she is in High School she is supposed to still have an aid working with her but she hasn't had one. We had a meeting with them about this and they said she did not need it because she is getting a passing grade in the class. She also has a "Study Skills" class where they go over the math problems that they do not understand. And to our surprise, Becky is the one helping all the other kids out with their math. hey say it is because she got so much help before that she learned how to do it on her own now. Wow, what a transition. I hope that Cary gets just as good of aids and teachers as Becky got.

This is true, Dawn. Hubby used to always tell me, "Ask for the moon, you might get a piece of it, but you have to ASK!"

it is true. unlesss you tell nobody will give you. also how they would know. But in my case, in office, saying many problems has not eased anything, they know my concerns, but do not do anything.

Unless you have a really caring teacher or an advocate that can attend meetings with you to help you get the services that are needed, they usually don't suggest anything. When I'm finally teaching, if I ever have to be involved in an IEP, I'm definitely going to be the teacher that makes suggestions for the parent and helps the parent through the IEP process so the child does get the help that is needed. Otherwise, schools care more about just getting it done and over with instead of actually getting the child the help they need.

So true, when my youngest was in school we had to keep a close eye on everything. he is mildly LD but had a very high IQ. But sometimes the school districts are in it for the money only. At one point his Special Ed.teacher felt he was ready for mainstreaming, the board disagreed. We fought them tooth and nail over this because once he is out of special ed, they lose the extra funding. He did not get mainstreamed fully until someyime in HS and had to go to one special class a day. Needless to say this caused him many a problem. He hated school and made it out by the skin of his teeth. Ok we knew college was not for him and he loves to work with his hands so now that he is an adult and has children of his own he is doing very well in life, but the stress we all went thru was ridiculous. We were only on top of things because I was in Grad school for Pyschology and had professors and colleagues advising me. I feel sorry for the parents who have no idea what goes on in schools.

Good luck with your son, here's hoping he gets the attention and care he very much deserves. It's true sometimes we have to be aggressive and specific with what we want in order to get it. Take Care and Best Regards!

i do agree with you Dawnald... a lot of teachers would not have the initiative to tell parents what the kids needs...during parent-teachers conferences, i do encounter teachers who would not even bother to tell me what the strengths and weaknesses of my kids are... they would just tell me if i did ask them, but if i dont ask, they would not tell me anything...

You are right... a closed mouth never gets fed! I am sorry to hear that they didn't have a curriculum for Cary. Maybe you should extend all that you have done a bit further by buying him some sort of phonics that he can understand and kind of help him with his "language arts". I am not sure that this would or would not be a benefit to you, I just hope that you all get things working in your favor! Good Luck!