Saturday, October 13, 2012

Everything I Need to Know about IEP’s* I Have Learned from Watching Sons of Anarchy



Sons of Anarchy

1.      When you feel intimidated, wear leather.    You may be worried about the IEP, meeting with a roomful of “experts”, and setting a plan for your child’s entire educational career, but if you show up in an entire outfit made out of skin tight leather, you’ll look confident.  I would even suggest splurging on some leather chaps.  You’ll send an unspoken message.  I am bad ass so don’t even try to screw me or my kid!  So walk in, kick your boots up on the table, and confidently say “Let’s do this!”

2.       Have a back up plan.  Think of it as insurance. “You want to cut the amount of therapy hours Tyler gets? You want to put him in a class with 12 kids and 1 teacher? BAAMM!  I don’t think so, sparky!”  (I would not recommend using the term sparky.  It takes some street cred away from the leathers. You get the overall point, however. )


3.       Keep your plan a secret.   Just when you are thinking, “How is this delightful band of biker  brothers going to get out of this mess,?” BAMM- you are blindsided with an unknown plan in place all along.  How did you not know Jax already had a drug cartel shipment on the side just waiting to go?  Have your own back up plan secretly  in place.  “You say the school can’t afford the extra parapro your child’s classroom desperately needs? Well, perhaps if we spent those cookie fundraiser profits on the classrooms instead of a new slide and school board “donations”, we could find some room in the budget."

4.       Enlist your gang to help.  Did Clay go to confront his druggie wife’s boyfriend all by himself?  Absolutely not!  He took a “brother” or two to back him up just in case shit went down!  Have your own team of “experts”.  Aaron and I did this when Tyler was in pre-k.  They were trying to put him in a severe class so they could get out of testing him with the rest of the students.  We showed up to the meeting with 3 private therapist, grandparents, a state board of education official, and a psychologist.  Before the end of the meeting, Tyler was where he should have been placed to begin with and the county officials were begging for forgiveness.  So fill up the chairs with your own people.  Can’t find your own experts?  I would suggest buying a van and picking people up off the street as you head to the meeting.

5.       Never show fear.  Never Give up.   What would happen if the Son’s cried, shook, and peed on themselves every time someone pointed a gun at them?  That would be a boring (and very wet) episode.  When you go in to an IEP meeting, keep your game face on!   If you don’t get the answer you want from one person, follow the chain of command right up until you get what your child needs. 

6.       Remember who’s in charge.  You are the parent.  You know your child best.  Remember that and trust your instincts.  You never see Jax ask a random charming citizen what to do about his club.  He is in charge.  He knows what is best   (or at least looks like he does in all that leather.  Take a minute to picture it.  Jax in leather. J ) so remember that when you are dealing with people who have only spent ten minutes with your child. 




*IEP’s are Individualized Education Plans.  Any parent of a special needs child has at least one of these a year.  They outline goals and services for your child.

1 comment:

Total Pageviews