Or "Individualized Education Program".
Something that Michael and I are all too familiar with, being teachers.
As stated by Wikipedia,
"An IEP defines the individualized objectives of a child who has been found with a disability, as defined by federal regulations. The IEP is intended to help children reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would.[1] In all cases the IEP must be tailored to the individual student's needs as identified by the IEP evaluation process, and must especially help teachers and related service providers (such as paraprofessional educators) understand the student's disability and how the disability affects the learning process."
This past Monday, Michael and I had our first IEP meeting with the team at Ella's preschool, Ann Reid Early Childhood Center. The team consisted of the assistant principal, Ella's teacher for next year, school nurse, social worker, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist and psychologist.
When we arrived, we were a little concerned with how well we would be able to give our full attention at the meeting, as we had Ella with us. Typically, the children are expected to stay home during these meetings, but at the last minute, we needed to bring Ella with us (due to the fact that she would be needing a feed during the meeting and our babysitter who is trained at giving her feeds was unable to watch Ella at this time).
Right before we were called back to the meeting, one of the staff members approached us and asked if Ella would like to join the class she will be in next year, rather than sitting through the meeting with us. Of course, Ella was SO excited to go to her classroom and we were more than happy to let her!
So Michael and I were able to sit, uninterrupted (except when Ella's feed finished), through our first IEP meeting.
To say we were impressed (once again) by Ann Reid Early Childhood Center would be an understatement. We've heard from others that while services provided by school districts can be good, we'll definitely need to have Ella in additional private therapies to have her needs truly met.
But Ann Reid is different.
Ella will be receiving more minutes of physical and occupational therapy each week than she is currently receiving through Early Intervention. And her school therapies won't only be focusing on the learning environment, as we've been told by others. Her therapy will also be focusing on SMA.
In addition to her official physical and occupational therapy sessions throughout the week, Ella will spend time every day in a stander that the school purchased just for her. She will also practice walking with parallel bars and/or a gait trainer every day. They also discussed how the classroom assistants will work with Ella on various skills each day (sit-to-stand, standing at the Smart Board, hanging her coat and backpack on her modified cubby hook, etc.). At one point, as the physical and occupational therapists were going over all of this information, I had to fight back some tears. I was so overjoyed with how this team is going to care for Ella while she's at school.
After the meeting was over, and we had goals set for Ella's first year of school, the physical therapist took us on a tour of the building, ending at Ella's empty classroom (where we thought she would be). She ended up being at an Earth Day assembly with the rest of the class! It turns out she had been quite busy while we were at the meeting! She met some other students, participated in centers, did a butterfly art project and got to play outside on the handicap accesible playground!
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| Ella's Butterfly Art Project |
I don't think I've ever seen Ella as happy as she was when she told us about her many adventures in her preschool class. She is SO excited to start in the fall!
Michael and I are so very blessed to live in a community with such incredible resources and educators! We have no doubt in our minds that this is where Ella is meant to be and that she will flourish at Ann Reid!
