[flickr id=”5885702438″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]School started two months ago. After the gains made last year, and the IEP already in place, we started this year with more hope than last year.

At meet-the-teacher night Archie and I both started to get uneasy.

When we waited after the session to speak to the teacher.  We asked about her behavior, to which she replied that it was still too early in the year to say anything. That she doesn’t really pay heaps of attention to behavior – in her class it’s about learning.

That was the first red flag.

Then I mentioned the IEP and her teacher last year, and the response was…

“Well, I don’t look at the past.  What happened last year is last year. I give the children a clean slate.”

Alarm bells sounded, dinging loud in our ears.  The IEP HAS to be looked at. It’s there for a reason!!!

Still, we sat back. We gave it a chance. We had our IEP meeting for the new year. We thought everything was established and set in it. Everything was put into place. In black and white. The plan was set.

And then it came time for Parent-Teacher conferences.

During the meeting first of the year test scores were discussed. How low Riley’s results were and what they meant.  And then it happened.  The teacher said:

“It may have had something to do with how she handles tests. But tests are a part of life, we can’t change that and we can’t change how they are given. She just has to learn how to adjust.”

Both Archie & I were stunned into almost total silence. We wrapped up the meeting and got in the car and both said, “What the hell was THAT?”

We have an IEP that states tests are to be given in accordance with her needs. Tests CAN and WILL be changed.

We have decided to switch teachers. There are more reasons than just those two statements, but those alone are enough.

A teacher that doesn’t refer to or care about IEP’s are not what is needed. At all.