Does anyone else have any experience with this. I understand the need to save time, but I thought that in an ARD you were supposed to go through EACH PAGE of the ARD packet thoroughly, and that everyone had the right to ask questions and that at the ARD is where decisions are supposed to me made. Am I wrong?
Half of my parents sit there with a glassy look like they dont know what is going on and when I ask if they have any questions they say "no" but I get the impression that if they were encouraged more they would voice their concerns.
I hate feeling rushed at my ARDS and I do not agree that an ARD should not last longer than half an hour. So how do you do it at your school?
Wow! Well I can tell you from my experience that our district director of special ed does REQUIRE us to send home the goals before the ARD so that if the parent has any concerns or doesn't agree with the goals and wants others added or modified, changes can be done prior to the ARD. I little extra work for the teacher but I like this because it's one less thing to worry about at the ARD which makes it go smooth. As for going every page, our diag does explain every page but depending on how many ARD's they've sat through already will determine how in depth she does. (summarizes the page or goes through every section with a detailed explanation). As for questions, I never really see a parent ask questions.Most parents will ask the teacher pre or after ARD but I think it's because they don't really know the Diag well enough to feel comfortable asking. That is unless they're like my mom and don't care who it is, she's asking questions! =) Being that I'm not the Diag running the ARD right now, I like seeing these parents becuase I get to see how she handles it, but hopefully I don't get to many myself later on...
ReplyDeleteHope this helped. =)
Great question Amy. One of the most difficult things to juggle is the time during an ARD meeting. Your diagnostician is correct in saying that anyone dealing with that child should aready be familiar with the paperwork and most (certainly not all) of the forms. I almost always use the parents as a guide to how quickly the meeting should go. It is in my experience that if you went according to the administrator the meeting would last less than 10 minutes!
ReplyDeleteA good diagnostician will have already reviewed any major changes in placement or diagnosis with everyone involved in the planning. This is especially true when discussing MR with parents.
I have seen that the meetings become counterproductive when they last over an hour. People start getting really antsy and disengaged. Of course, there are exceptions.
Thanks for posting this. I hope it sparks some conversations among everyone!
By the way, if you interpret the guidelines exactly, (which we all should!) it states that the goals and objectives should be reviewed PRIOR to the meeting. This means mailing them home well before the scheduled meeting. At the ARD is where they are officially reviewed, approved, and adopted.
ReplyDeleteAND...the ARD meeting is most certainlky where issues need to be discussed and settled. People just don't like suprises so any major issues should be discussed BEFORE the meeting and decided upon IN the meeting.
Thanks for the responses. It did shed some light on the subject as far as the goals. I agree that a lot of the parents ask questions before the ARD since they seem to know the teacher better than anyone else on the ARD committee.
ReplyDeleteI teach resource English at Eastland High School and as the special education teacher I attend all the ARDs. Our diagnostician is always very good about covering all the paper work. At the high school level the ARD covers the student's IEPs, the modifications recommended by each of the student's teachers, the student's schedule for the next year, the level of TAKS test the student will be taking, and also the transition(what the student wants to do after high school). Most of our ARDs last about 30-45 minutes. The parents and the students are given the opportunity to ask questions.
ReplyDeleteHi Glenna thanks for the response. So your students come to the ARD as well? As a Resource teacher, are you ever asked to do any of the paperwork in the ARD packet? What about amendments? I have been asked to do amendments but I have recently been told that the special education teacher should not be doing amendments, and that the diagnostician is in charge of those.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy,
ReplyDeleteYes, the high school students go to their ARD. I do some of the paper work--I do the observations for all special education students when it is time for their 3-year re-evaluation. I have been trying for two weeks to contact parents about ARD amendments and have not been very successful. All of these amendments have to be finished prior to the students taking the ELA TAKS test on March 3rd. Our diagnostician said not to send or mail the amendments home for fear of them not returning. I would also love to know the answer to this question.
Actually Amy, the administrator is the one who should be contacting the parent and explaining the amendments, not the sped teacher OR the diag. Not many administrators actually do this though!
ReplyDeleteOk, well I have only been doing special ed for a couple of years so I am really still learning but what are you all talking about when it comes to amendments? Isn't that when you would hold a brief? I'm confused.
ReplyDelete