3 hour IEP meeting.
I sat through 2 hours of a meeting today. When I had to leave, they weren’t close to done. They finished another hour later with nothing signed. I’m scared to share more for well, you understand the reasons. Barely needed to share that this was a matter in my life today. And my head was spinning by the end of my two hours in there. I had to create it this flair, because that was the name of my game.
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I can certainly guess from my own experience in IEP meeting Extras: - "My child doesn't need intervention"/ "my child needs a lot more intervention" arguments +20 min - Side quest stories about back in their day and so the same must be true for their child +40 min - Absolute...
Would you talk like this to a mechanic fixing your car? How about a doctor, dentist? Would you talk to the stylist cutting your hair like you know how to do their job better than them? Why is it always teachers?
I’ll tell you this - she brought six pages of strategy notes.
THIS. 🤣
I’m in hour 18 of an IEP across 6 meetings and the parent helped write it but refuses to sign. She is demanding services but won’t sign until services start. We keep trying to explain you have to sign in order to get services. All she says is she knows her rights and sch...
The fact that we have to tolerate shit like this is yet another reason why teachers are fleeing this profession in droves. My favorite was when a parent kept telling us how to do our jobs and dragged the meeting out for as long as possible. Oh, this was the same parent that sa...
You are so, so much stronger than I am.
Why is the school going along with this?
I once had a three hour IEP meeting that was super contentious. Not surprisingly it involved both the kids lawyers and our school lawyer And that doesn't count the two prior meeting to prep for it.
Our lawyer or her associates attend ours usually by phone. But we have them in a lot of other family matters as well. They kind of operate like our family’s office. It’s been extremely helpful to have a single legal source for your family. Edited to change Him to Her.
The worst is when the parents are divorced and each one brings their own lawyer.
No lawyers in this one, at least not yet. We’re expecting them to file something against us. Even after my two hours in the meeting, I’m not entirely clear on what they’d be fighting us on.
My second year teaching I was in an IEP meeting until 5:30pm one time. I didn’t know any better. I thought I had to stay. I didn’t even say anything after like 3pm(meeting started at 2!) Last year a meeting went until 4 but I up and left at 3 when my contract hours were over.
I was in a manifestation meeting for a kid till 5:00! It started at 3:30. My schools staffing specialist would not let me leave even though school had ended and I told her 3 times I needed to leave.
Leaving when contract hours are over is the right thing to do. Parents do not have the right to monopolize our time.
This is probably not going to be a very popular take here, but we need to abandon the customer service model in education. There is entirely too much focus on indulging parents and dealing with individual needs, at the expense of the overall mission. Every bit of time, mone...
This is an extremely popular take, actually. In the almost 30 years that I’ve been a special education teacher, we’ve gone from “We appreciate your insight but that’s not an appropriate goal or accommodation because…” to “We don’t want to get sued so we’ll just say ok to damn ...
I think that's an extremely popular take here... But I agree. Parents are not customers and teachers do not serve parents. At all. The educational contract is between the students and the state, and the teachers are acting on behalf of the state. Parents are not a party in th...
I'm a sign language interpreter and I periodically have to interpret IEP meetings. There are certain parents that, when I find out I'm interpreting a meeting for their child, I definitely think FML.
Sucks so much that all the other students lose their teacher and instructional time.
I missed two classes for it. And then another teacher had to attend in my place as the GenEd teacher for the remaining time and miss her instruction for that block.
How long was the IEP scheduled for? At my school they get one hour and if it goes beyond that we end it and schedule a time to reconvene…
I've had one of those both last year and this year. In both cases it was "my child needs more intervention." One wants a reading specialist - our district doesn't employ anyone in that role. Last year it was that my class was stressful. The stressful part? Brain breaks like Go...
I have sat in IEP from 9-3 , that then reconvened for another day we have one coming up in April and they already blocked out the entire day for that one IEP meeting and I so disagree with it . The parent has an advocate and I guess my supervisor and admin thinks they are enti...
The longest IEP meeting I've ever been in was 8 hours. 1 day marathon of torture. In person no less, and having to sit there and not start screaming at the sanity was...challenging.
I would have gone nuts, having to sit there for 8 hours. Wow.
Man im lucky that my parents are easy to deal with. The longest one I've conducted was maybe 30 minutes and 20 minutes of it was just goofing off.
Seems quick for an IEP meeting. Do you do just annual reviews?
Should not even happen - we stop them at a certain point and schedule a part 2. Insane for everyone involved.
Schools are educational institutions and not therapeutic. Schools will recommend based on testing and observations. Parents are the first teachers and know their child. Parents come to the table out of love and a desire to do everything for their child. Anything to the extreme...
What is also insane is the moving goalposts in this sub. Frequently I see teachers complaining that parents never get IEPs for their kids, never show up to meetings, and the like. Yet when they show up and try their best to use a framework they are legally entitled to, suddenl...
This! This is the type of mindset and response we need. When I first started teaching a mentor teacher said to me, “just remember a parent sends us the best they have.” I think about that everyday in my classroom. Yes, we as a profession are stressed and stretched thin, but ...
It drives me crazy that lawyers would be claiming every billable hour, yet teachers are expected to sit there outside their contract times and not be paid for it (teachers who, in some states, aren't even making fifty thousand a year.)
Whenever I run them I always do a hard end time. Start at 7 30 but my first class is at 8 so we need to finish by then, for example.
That's how my admin/chairs are. We have CSE days and they're back-to-back 1-hour intervals, scheduled for 45 min so if something runs over there's a few min wiggle room, time to finish documenting, etc. On to the next. If there's one that has to be continued, they'll schedule ...
I had a similarly bizarre experience. Irate parents who wouldn’t acknowledge the developmental delay of their child , yet had magicked an „isolated spelling disorder“ (the mildest diagnosis possible here in order to qualify for accommodations) in a desperate bid to ensure the ...
My longest meeting was 7 hours. Admin threatened to call the cops because the family was holding us hostage. Everyone wanted what was best for the kid but the parents were asking for unreasonable things given their ability level. I refused to sit in another meeting that year.
This is absolutely freaking wild. I 100% believe it, but still, I'm shocked. 7 hours??!?? You're a saint. What ended up happening??
I’ve had a handful that took 5 hours And 2 that were hashed out over 3 separate school days Anyway, have they told you when hour 4 of this meeting will start?
Not yet - still waiting on that info. I’m sure it’s coming soon.
My hats off to all of you. Luckily I’m a GenEd teacher so usually I’m just there for an hour at the longest. Our case managers are great and organized so there are times where I’m in and out in 30 minutes.
I am a GenEd teacher too haha…this just happened to be a rough one.
That is mismanagement of the meeting. I am sorry. You need an administrator there to move things along and eventually call the meeting and reschedule for another day. I hope you have language in your contract that lets you get paid extra duty pay if these meetings go past a c...
We had admin there, as well as a district higher up. I don’t think anyone quite knew how to handle it. This isn’t commonplace for us.
I literally cannot comprehend this. Why isn't the IEP coordinator following some sort of agenda? Why aren't they intervening to clearly state the process to the parent?? I don't think I've ever been in an IEP meeting for more than 30 minutes.
Extreme outliers aside… It’s weird to me when parents come to an IEP meeting like it’s a parent conference with tons of new ideas, questions, and revelations that the team doesn’t know about already. If there is that much to discuss why isn’t the parent sending that in and re...
Not a lot of districts around me have this, but this is why my district has compensatory leave time, so anytime we are in a meeting off the clock. We get an equal amount of time to take for whatever reason we want as leave. Last time we negotiated a contract, our district lawy...
Never had one that long but admin almost had to call the cops once bc the parent got so aggressive towards staff
Let me guess, their kid was a behavioral child as well??
My last meeting lasted nearly 2 hours. Parents kept bringing up that their daughter was strictly “not allowed” to use the restroom during any classes which was completely bullshit.
Once I had a meeting adjacent to an iep that extended past my prep and there were no subs available so I had to excuse myself to pick up my class. Later I was reprimanded for not prioritizing this nothing meeting
Lol, and if you'd stay you'd be reprimanded for not getting your class. This job sucks more than it should
I have sat through three hour IEPs. It’s not completely unusual.
Here I am thinking two hour meetings are pretty regular for an IEP... But I am also not a teacher and just work in SPED. Idk.
We had a parent recently ask to see a list of accommodations that were available. She wanted to choose them like they were items on a menu😂
What?!?! I want to ask for real, but I know it’s for real.
I mean, yeah I'd laugh in my head but honestly especially if you've never been through the process before? Not an awful idea to wrap your head around tools available for your kid.
I had a grandpa guardian who needed two three hour meetings to finally sign. She had an advocate and actually wanted her kid to go to a scared-straight camp like she "saw on Dr. Phil." Like, lady, I think I understand why she resents you.
When a meeting goes that long, it's no longer about the student.
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I'm sorry you went through that. I always wondered what happens when iep goes for so long, I have one kid on it and the only issue I've been having is my kid knows how to get around the Chromebook locks. I begged for paperwork and textbook and if they can't, at least have clos...
I’ve had one that lasted all day and we had to break for lunch 🥲
That sucks. We do those meetings during the working day where we get OT coverage to take our classes. When I taught in the US they were usually held before or after school, but mostly after with absolutely zero effs given about YOUR time.
I’ve been teaching general education for 23 years and I’ve never been in an IEP longer than 30 minutes. I don’t understand IEP’s that last that long. Unless parents are bringing an advocates and things are going south.
The longest IEP meeting I’ve sat in was 1.5 hours as a sped educator. This was due to translating. 3 hrs is wayyy too long, ppl must have gotten off topic. You need to make sure everyone stays the course and get straight to the point then say “and this concludes our meeting, t...
I’m a “regular education” teacher at IEP meetings. Earlier this year, I attended a meeting that was supposed to be in Room A but apparently someone decided to move to Room H way down the hall. After one of the parents, her speech teacher, and myself sat Room A for 10 minutes...
3 h.o.u.r.s
I had a two hour one on Friday. My 10th grade class came into the room after 1 hour and I put in a headphone and told them to get their book and notebook (we do Independent Reading every Friday) and just do what I need them to until I got coverage. Mom wasn't difficult (thou...
No IEP/504 services for students scoring a C or higher in any class. End result: Truly struggling students will keep services, and grade-grubbing parents won’t get to use the system for easy grades and bullshit lawsuits. Make it law. Also, you get the five highest leverage ...
That's terrible
I have twins both on IEPs. We do them back to back every year with a ten minute stretch break. But my butt hurts at the end.
Seriously at this point, I would just give them whatever they want. It’s gonna end that way anyhow. That is excessive. Schools are for education not intensive therapy.
The problem is, we teachers have to meet the “whatever they want” accommodations.