First I. E. P.

Today, I held my first I.E.P. I was a little bit nervous earlier b/c I hadn't really prepared for it and didn't expect my day to be so hectic. My morning began with lots of administrative stuff (i.e., asking in my ever-so-passive-aggressive way that I needed admin access NOW to 3 programs) and meeting one of 2 County SLPs whose specialty is (severe) autism over at the Autism Class. She was wonderful, walking me through an assessment* with one of my kiddos. Afterwards, she showed me other useful things like filling out forms. Tomorrow morning, she's going to show me some therapy activities to do with the kiddos since I have close to no experience with children with severe autism (and wasn't so successful with the kiddos with moderate to severe either).

*I have to find this assessment like ASAP. Unfortunately, our big vendor discontinued selling it. When I did a quick search, I found one site that was selling it for $995! Holy snikeys! That's outrageous! No wonder/no joke BF keeps saying we gotta create our own material, patent & copyright it, and sell like a mofo.

So we spent the whole morning together. After she left, I panicked at the lack of time and quickly prepared for my meeting. Before I knew it, I was running off to another staff meeting. I thought it was going to be just a quick one but it turned out to be a super long one. It was 2 hours long and left me a 10 minute break before my meeting. The good thing out of it is that I met a few more teachers and got adopted into one of the Teams (Go Team Georgetown!).

Fortunately, my first I. E. P. meeting (and as case carrier) went smoothly. Two general ed teachers even stopped by! That was really encouraging, especially since I left a note this morning, not expecting anyone to show up. For the first time, I felt and talked like a professional (I think). It was also extremely helpful that the parents are uber sweet. I got all of my forms signed -- out of compliance, thinking I had covered all of my bases.

I walked the father out, chatting about how "spoiled" we are thinking anything above 80 degrees is "so hot." When I got back to my room, I realized that of all documents, I forgot to have him sign one thing. The dang I. E. P.!!! Of all of the docs, that's the most important one! For crying out loud, it's called an I. E. P. meeting for a reason! Good grief.

I don't think I'll ever forget this total newb mistake!