I'm still figuring all of this out but here's what I've learned so far:
1. IEP (Individualized Education Plan) - If you are behind in speech you need an IEP to get speech services at school. He first was evaluated and then the initial IEP was created, but each year around my son's birthday V's speech teacher will set up a meeting with her, my son's teacher, and my husband and I and we redo V's IEP plan. We talk about what his strengths, what he struggles with and she goes over what he still needs to work on. This is the time that I need to push for any services I want school to work on with him. If it is written into his IEP they have to follow-through and do it. The point of the IEP is to set short term and long term goals and to draw out a plan of how he is going to meet those goals.
This past year many things have developed with him in regards to his behavior and a whole team at school team has become involved in helping V. At his IEP this year, he had in attendance, the speech teacher, Occupational Therapist, school Psychologist, Vice Principal, his Teacher, Social Worker, my husband and I.
Changes to the IEP can only be made during the meeting. At the end of the meeting, we should get a print out of the new IEP.
Just recently, our school Psychologist recommended we do a REED. It basically allows us to modify his IEP mid-year. http://www.michiganallianceforfamilies.org/education/reed/
As a parent, I have a right to ask for the REED to happen too. Once the REED is signed the school has 30 days to complete the assessments and hold the IEP.
2. 504 plan - We had V tested for multiple learning disabilities this year. He can't write at all. We thought for sure a learning disability would show up, but instead it showed he was advanced in many areas. If a learning disability had shown up we would've been able to append his IEP, but since academically he is average or above average there isn't much to do.
After we received the results of this testing, I remember looking at the school staff saying, "I know he doesn't qualify for anything, but there has got to be something you can do to help him." It's then that I found out that we could pursue a 504 plan for him. 504 plan would allow V more access to resources. In order to get a 504 plan for him OT observed him and so did the Social Worker. And thanks to the 504 plan plan, V now gets OT once a week, Social Worker services weekly, and a 8th grade student pulls him out of class in the afternoon for sensory work (a sensory diet).
3. Child Study - A parent or a teacher can recommend that the child be put in Child Study. At our school, our school Psychologist gets involved, does observation, and then a team will talk about next steps to help the child. It seems Child Study is often started because a child is not doing well academically or behavior problems.
When V was in Child Study early on (and he had minimal to no behavior problems in school) I felt like this was a huge waste of time and just a paper work procedure the school had to go through. Sometimes I'd walk out of these meetings and wonder, "what are the next steps?"
4. Manifestation Determination Meeting - this is a meeting that is set up to help protect students who have an IEP who are on the verge of being expelled.
Our situation is that something came up one week ago at school where the school is trying to expel our son. The school has told me they called a "Hearing Officer" and the Hearing Officer will hear the case on whether or not to expel him. Sounds like this is someone who works for the district, but not at our specific school. Before the Hearing can take place we have to have a Meeting of Determination because V has an IEP. At this meeting it will be decided if V's behavior one week ago is because of his disability or not. If not, then we will proceed to the Hearing a few days afterward. If it is because of his disability, then he cannot be expelled.
Here's a good resource
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