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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 10:41:41 AM
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They are not a state funded school. They do not have to take any of the tests that the state requires. I am not sure if they have their own versions.
Sally |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 10:45:59 AM
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Chuck, Who do you mean by Joe G? I have talked to a lawyer because I am not standing still and having my child not graduate over a test, and he is recommending an advocate too. I was naive to think the school would do the right thing all of these years. Now people just think he is lazy and does not care. But the truth is, he is burnt out. He has struggled for years and now may not graduate. I feel his frustration. Some of these kids fall through the cracks and end up suicidal and depressed.
Sally |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 10:48:09 AM
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Gabby, My son is a junior and I kick myself everyday for not pushing the school harder. Get an advocate if you can. Lots of them have sliding scales. They can give you the best advice about your child and what options you have. I wish I had pushed for him to go to a private school who specialized in his LD. Do not count on the school doing the right thing.
Sally |
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Gabby
Member
26 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2007 : 11:23:51 AM
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| Oh believe me, I don't count on the school doing the right thing. I'm pretty sure they think I'm a B**ch, but I honestly don't care what they think of ME, as long as I feel my son is being treated and educated fairly. It does get tiresome having to call the principal, (knowing that the next call will be to Freddy) because he can't make a decision on his own. What kills me is that these people have kids, would they want their children treated any way except fair? There was a situation at the beginning of the this year that has been taken care of because of MY actions, before school even started, they tried to slip something by me directly affecting my son, but I took care of it and probably made an enemy or two, but I had no choice. |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 12:05:04 PM
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Good for you. You will not end up being a friend of Freddy, what a loss!
I have had many incidents over the years. Once they get to high school it seems the kids slip into the cracks. I had a teacher call me yesterday and leave a message asking me to try and start encouraging my son to do his homework. Yeah, thanks for the call because I had not been encouraging him all of these years.
Sally |
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Lynda
Advanced Member
1282 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 1:22:02 PM
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I have to ask Chuck are you in the High School, one of the elementary schools or in the school department (traveler)?
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Gabby
Member
26 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 6:30:19 PM
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| Sally, I cannot believe a teacher called and asked you that! You should have said, "What a good idea!! I wish I had thought of doing that!" I mean, most teachers already know if the students have supportive parents or not. My son is in Jr High and I know some of the kids have no help whatsoever at home, and it will be more obvious in high school. |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 7:18:05 PM
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Thats what gets me I have always been an involved parent. He is a new teacher and assumes my kid is just screwing off in school. If he bothered to read his IEP he would see he is dead wrong. He left me that in a message and I did not return his call because he is not worth my time.
Sally |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2007 : 7:20:14 PM
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I have a better one. A teacher told him ADD is caused by bad parenting. That would be why my oldest one is in college doing very well, and my youngest is doing just fine. They all grew up in the same house. This from a teacher who has a child with a condition that he must of caused.
Sally |
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whatsup
Member
33 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 12:04:18 AM
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| Hey Sally, I just put my 8 yr old son back on an IEP because of his speech delay. Up until this school yr (3rd grade) speech therapy was working just fine and he was doing well in the classroom. But recently he has gone backwards and his speech issues are affecting his reading and comprehension. I wrote a letter to Sped requesting a 3 yr reevaluation (which spec ed was late in doing anyway) and then we had the determination meeting which it was decided that yes he does need to be back on an IEP. Well now we go through the 36 or so MCAS "rules" and they make 9 exceptions for him. For example, "taken out of the classroom into a smaller group for testing", "word problems verbally read", "teacher periodically checks work to make sure is complete", "models problem if does not understand what is being asked", etc there are a few more items but you get my point. Modifications can be made to the IEP to accomodate MCAS testing if there are issues with the child. You have rights within the MCAS. I know a lot about Sped, I read about advocacy. If you are armed with the right info they will not ignore you. Unfortunetly the other side to that is if you don't know anything your child gets brushed aside. Shame on them. Please feel free to private message me if you need more detailed info. I would like to help you if I can. I also have another child in Sped who is autistic. So getting my son's needs met are my priority. I hope this helps a little for now. |
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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 06:20:34 AM
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Thanks,for the offer. My son has accomodations for the MCAS. He is re taking the math portion next week. They moved his IEP meeting from this month, to January. My husband is calling today, since he has the day off, to tell them he wants a meeting ASAP.
Sally |
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Gabby
Member
26 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 09:32:51 AM
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| Parent involvement? They say they want it, but they don't make it easy. |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 09:39:36 AM
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| What I don't get, and it's been going on for years, is why they make it so difficult for the student with learning disabilities and their parents. You hear horror stories year after year. You would think, these kids would be one of their priorities. |
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whatsup
Member
33 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 2:03:49 PM
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| One would think that these children would be their priority, but there is never enough funding available. The school should have more therapists and sped teachers but that would mean that we have to pay for more salaries. The school dept just can't afford it. And then comes the issue of there is no room in any k-8 school to add any more classes of any kind. So I guess they make due with what they have and it's unfortunate for the ones who don't have the correct information to advocate for their child. The parents who speak up and are knowledgeable about the correct laws and such, good for them. My two children are getting what they need because I speak up and argue my points. I've also had them tested outside of the school system so I also am armed with outside evaluations that sped cannot ignore. They need to take these evals into consideration. Th woman Heidi Friedstein is great. I had a great experience just recently at my son's meeting. She was in full agreement with me with everything I suggested for my son. We were on the same page. And it helped that his 2nd grade teacher from last yr was present and she pretty much backed up what I said about the trouble he is having. ok I'm going to stop talking now b/c I could keep going but it's the witching hour and time to get the kids. :) |
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bbpolitical
Forum Admin
265 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 6:35:38 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by whatsup
Th woman Heidi Friedstein is great. I had a great experience just recently at my son's meeting. She was in full agreement with me with everything I suggested for my son. We were on the same page. And it helped that his 2nd grade teacher from last yr was present and she pretty much backed up what I said about the trouble he is having. ok I'm going to stop talking now b/c I could keep going but it's the witching hour and time to get the kids. :)
I will add Ms. Massa to the list of great people in the Everett Schools, along with Ms. Friedstein and the rest of the special ed evaluators who were very concerned with my 2 son's cases and were very supportive of our efforts. However, the IEP was not effectively implemented for my older son due to factors I could never entirely figure out. As a teacher myself, I watched Everett break the state statutes a number of times, particularly on the time it took to schedule IEPs (5 months from my initial request) and also on the decisions taken by people in guidance and the school office who had no business being obstacles to my son's education plan. Unfortunately, the efficient and law-abiding people that we eventually dealt with were the exception and not the rule. The office is short staffed and has more than its share of cynics who seem to resent parent involvement or are just plain incompetent. We are FAR ahead of Everett in Boston (where I work) in terms of special ed services and I find that shockingly pitiful in my opinion. As a result of our frustration and the lack of an effective delivery of education, my wife and I moved away.
In our new school in the beautiful Quiet Corner of NE Connecticut, we learned that Everett's records were full of holes and demonstrated a level of disorganization that this new public school had never witnessed before. As we learned from the after school program in Malden, where my older son learned alongside Malden kindergardeners, Everett is far behind surrounding communities in early education benchmarks. It was comforting for us to learn that this new school shared in the opinion that high standards can be reached and that a positive relationship with families was key to success. It is hard to put a finger on what is going on wrong in Everett. Everyone is so good at dodging blame and my wife and I were often made to feel like the enemy for our concern.
Michael
I am an average resident of Everett who would like to see more communication about anything and everything to do with Everett |
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2007 MCAS Results
