shaneassignment6

 **__ Parent Interview __**

 Working as an education aid in an elementary school I have come to know many wonderful children as well as their parents. I interviewed the mother of one of the children that I have worked with to get her thoughts on her experiences with the school district and their Individualized Education Plans for their son. For the purpose of the interview I will call the mother Jan and the son Mike to keep their confidentiality. 2. What are your personal goals for the education of your child? || 3. What is your current relationship with the school, special education, and administration? || 4. How can it be improved? || 5. What form of communication is used and how often? Is this best? || 6. How often do you communicate with school? || Special Ed not very often maybe once a month and that was informal. Formally at the IEP review. 7. How effective is the special education program? || 8. How flexible is the program to meet the needs to your child? || 9. What problems have you had with school? || In second grade we had a hard year; lack of communication with classroom teacher and we were really frustrated with Mike’s lack of progress in reading. He was being coupled in a special ed group with a student having a very different level of ability. 10. Are you part of any parent group? || 11. What communication do you have with other parents? || 12. What community involvement does your child have? || 13. Are you satisfied with your communication with your child? || Yes, Mike is a very social kid and talks with us. Some things he doesn’t tell us, but I think it’s mainly because it just goes over his head or he’s not paying attention.
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 * 1. What is the special need of your child? ||
 * Mike has been diagnosed with ADD. He has been through lots of testing and no one really has any answers or explanations. He does have learning delays just none named other than ADD.
 * We want Mike to be challenged and pushed. Our goal is to not treat him like a special ed student and just push him through the system. We believe strongly in setting the bar high.
 * At the K-3 building we have a great relationship with all especially this past year. We have serious concerns for this coming year. New special ed teacher this fall. Administration and teachers that seem to be completely uninterested & lacking.
 * I think when a child comes to the district on an IEP there should be an initial meeting right at the start so everyone can be clear on each others expectations. As a parent it is really frustrating when everyone isn’t on the same page. I’m sure it’s frustrating for the teachers working with us also. Also, our first experience with the Special Ed department was horrible; poor communication, unorganized, with testing not getting done on time etc. However once we spoke to the principle about those concerns everything was addressed.
 * We have a daily agenda we can write in. (We tried that two years ago and it didn’t work at all; it was very difficult b/c we felt like we had no communication coming back from the school.) This year it worked well, but I also had lots of verbal/email communication with his teacher. For me verbal is best even if it’s just a few words like he had a great day today.
 * This past year I chatted with his teacher a few times a week. Nothing real formal just picking him up we’d talk; it could have been as little as “great day”. Then formally with conferences.
 * I always felt like they cared for my child and had his best interests at heart. How effective…I’m not sure. Two years ago Mike was floundering with reading and I found out at the end of the school year the teacher hadn’t been trained on the program they used. That’s not the teacher fault, that is the district failing. Failing the teacher by not giving her the tools she needs to do her job to the best of her ability and the students by not giving them the best opportunity to succeed. I hired a reading tutor who meet with Mike twice a week for 1/2hour and in 6 weeks he’d progressed more than he had in the past 6 months at school.
 * I think it was flexible. This past year they switched the reading program to one that better suited for Mike and I think for the teacher also as she wasn’t trained on the other.
 * The lack of reading training for special ed teacher was an issue.
 * Yes
 * Lots of verbal communication. Honestly though not enough with parents of kids with disabilities. Some times it feels lonely and like no one really understands what it’s like to have a child with delays. I would say that would be very valuable for both my husband and I.
 * He attends church and kids programs there. He plays on a local baseball team. He also loves to go to the YMCA nothing formal but just hang out at the pool with other kids.