Lessons Learned

I received a call from the Services Coordinator at James' school, a day before the informal meet-and-greet for all students and teachers. She was asking me about how our summer went, and more specifically, if I had James' box, so she could get it to his new aide. "What box?" I asked.

Well, evidently it's the box with his IEP, visual cue cards, daily scheduler, and other confidential information. I say "evidently," because I never saw it at said summer school, which was not a very good experience, BTW. After doing some checking on both parts, I reconnected this morning with the Services Coordinator, who was able to assure me that his records had stayed at the school, and that in fact she'd sent folder with the visual aids and his plastic cube chair, both of which had been returned.

That's interesting, because I never saw those, either. And I was there, observing the classroom, because James was not happy and the teacher had complained that his behaviour was a problem. I observed them putting James in a regular seat, not using the cube chair until I specifically asked if he could sit in that and have it be his chair. The staff never looked in his folder and another aide shared her visual aides to help him along. I noticed other things happening too, and ultimately had a couple of high-level concerns prompted me to phone the head of Special Ed to share them and ask for help in resolving some issues. That was a first.

I am frustrated because there was little to no coordination of communication between James' regular team and the summer school team. This set us up for a rocky summer school session. I am mad at myself for not being more pro-active.

Lessons Learned:
* Ask for more detail from regular school team, especially Services Coordinator,
about who is teaching and what they'll be doing over the summer.
* Pick up materials for summer school myself and review them with his team
* Be available to meet and review said materials with summer school team as
early as possible into the summer school session.
* Come up with a few clear goals for James in summer session and communicate
them clearly to the team.

I am writing a letter to his Services Coordinator, reviewing what worked and what didn't work for James with this summer program, so that next year's is a much better one for us all.