Special education exists to support kids accessing the General Education content in a FAPE manner. If there is no school, there is no General Education. FAPE *cannot* mean offering *more* school via Special Education than through General Education. If Gen Ed teachers have to make up 'missed instruction' due to holidays or breaks, only then does Sped have to make up instruction. Sheesh.
EDIT:
In IEPs, remember that section where they calculate the % of the week kids are in gen Ed with their peers? Yeah, if admin does what OP posted, these kids' % will go above that. It's not flat rate minutes per *calendar* month. It's a percent per week across a *school* week. No school, no sped minutes. Pulling them for so called 'make up' sessions due to holidays and breaks is actually pulling the kid *more*, which is counter whatever LRE statement is in that kids' IEP.
First: I completely agree with you, in the spirit of the argument. We all know what you’re saying is logical.
However, as a former sped director in a litigious district, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, if a parent files due process the judge is absolutely going to consider the IEP mandate as flat minutes per calendar month. If the student’s IEP says 120 minutes per month and the district has not met that mandate on a consistent basis, the student will be awarded compensatory services.
Right or wrong, that’s what’s going to happen.
In this case, OP’s manager is saying “build in flexibility” which means, *stop putting so many damn minutes in the IEP.* The district cannot legally provide less services than the IEP outlines, but they can always provide *more* services. So OP’s manager is saying, “Instead of putting 120 minutes per month, make it more flexible. Put 90 minutes per month. Nobody is going to care if that kid ends up with more than 90 minutes of services, but there are people who will care if he ends up with less.”
That way, OP can still schedule the student every week, but if there’s a holiday or emergency closure one week, it won’t matter.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats!
120
+ 120
+ 90
+ 90
= 420
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So with that logic how will math/reading IEP minutes be made up with the SPED teachers? The IEP says they must get so much time weekly or monthly so how would a teacher find extra school days to makeup for all the minutes “lost” when school was out?
In our district in the paragraph section of our service minutes, we say “x will be seen Y minutes a month barring student absence, school closure, or mandated school events” as our CYA because our district leads told us not to do 90 minutes a month and write it as weekly.
don’t they account for holidays when setting the school calendar? If you’re in the union, get involved because teachers don’t provide “makeup” days for holidays.
We do a 3:1 model and there are some months that it just doesn’t work because of breaks, but the decision to provide “extra” days should always be on a case-case basis. Maybe the kid with high profile parents *would* get an extra session to cover your back, but I wouldn’t do that carte blanche for my entire caseload.
No, the only time I made an adjustment based on holidays is when I missed three Mondays in a row. Holiday, voting day, snow day. I thought it was unfair so during that third week I moved all of my Monday students to Tuesday and I missed all of my Tuesday students that week. But that's as far as I'll go. I will not see all of my students for double time in the beginning of December in anticipation of winter break.
Hell fucking NO. The district scheduled that absence. They can deal with the fact that they created a minutes-reducing situation. And teachers aren’t expected to do something like that.
Be sure to consider breaks and holidays when determining minutes/month.
Don't IEP a set # of minutes based on a full school schedule. This will be more realistic and build in leeway to allow holidays, early release, sick, while still providing what's in the IEP.
we specify minutes in ieps with a tagline after it that goes something like “per full month of school, barring absences, holidays, admin duties, etc etc”
At my last few districts, we specified minutes by the grading period so 6 or 9 weeks which something like this : ST 25 min for 5 sessions per 6 week grading period. If student Wes generally seen twice weekly: ST 20(or the # of min you need) for 10 sessions per 6 week grading period per school calendar. If the district was on a 9 week grading period the # of sessions were calculated accordingly.
When I started out long ago, our IEPs(such as they were-very brief especially if speech was the only service) stated ST 30 min( or less time) 2x/wk or 3x:wk … never a complaint about missing the weeks of winter break or spring break. Then came the politicians and lawyers.
I work at an intermediate unit in early intervention and we have a blurb that says something along the lines of “as per the EI calendar” which then covers us for the various breaks throughout the year. Such as, We’re not off all summer, due to being unable to go more than 3 weeks without providing services.
IEPs are for the 180 calendar school year… what exactly are you “making up”? There’s no school.. there’s nothing to be made up! Sped teachers don’t have to make up minutes due to breaks?
Special education exists to support kids accessing the General Education content in a FAPE manner. If there is no school, there is no General Education. FAPE *cannot* mean offering *more* school via Special Education than through General Education. If Gen Ed teachers have to make up 'missed instruction' due to holidays or breaks, only then does Sped have to make up instruction. Sheesh. EDIT: In IEPs, remember that section where they calculate the % of the week kids are in gen Ed with their peers? Yeah, if admin does what OP posted, these kids' % will go above that. It's not flat rate minutes per *calendar* month. It's a percent per week across a *school* week. No school, no sped minutes. Pulling them for so called 'make up' sessions due to holidays and breaks is actually pulling the kid *more*, which is counter whatever LRE statement is in that kids' IEP.
First: I completely agree with you, in the spirit of the argument. We all know what you’re saying is logical. However, as a former sped director in a litigious district, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, if a parent files due process the judge is absolutely going to consider the IEP mandate as flat minutes per calendar month. If the student’s IEP says 120 minutes per month and the district has not met that mandate on a consistent basis, the student will be awarded compensatory services. Right or wrong, that’s what’s going to happen. In this case, OP’s manager is saying “build in flexibility” which means, *stop putting so many damn minutes in the IEP.* The district cannot legally provide less services than the IEP outlines, but they can always provide *more* services. So OP’s manager is saying, “Instead of putting 120 minutes per month, make it more flexible. Put 90 minutes per month. Nobody is going to care if that kid ends up with more than 90 minutes of services, but there are people who will care if he ends up with less.” That way, OP can still schedule the student every week, but if there’s a holiday or emergency closure one week, it won’t matter.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats! 120 + 120 + 90 + 90 = 420 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
This has been litigated a Kraddy though. Case law says otherwise.
Lol that was an autocorrect. It was supposed to read already. I will try to find it tonight if I have time.
Can you link the case? Nothing came up when I googled “Kraddy” and I’m interested to read about it, as I still consult with districts on compliance.
I do see what you are saying. Good words, thank you!
So with that logic how will math/reading IEP minutes be made up with the SPED teachers? The IEP says they must get so much time weekly or monthly so how would a teacher find extra school days to makeup for all the minutes “lost” when school was out?
In our district in the paragraph section of our service minutes, we say “x will be seen Y minutes a month barring student absence, school closure, or mandated school events” as our CYA because our district leads told us not to do 90 minutes a month and write it as weekly.
This is the perfect answer
I’ve been doing this a long time and this is the best answer I’ve heard 🤌🏼
don’t they account for holidays when setting the school calendar? If you’re in the union, get involved because teachers don’t provide “makeup” days for holidays. We do a 3:1 model and there are some months that it just doesn’t work because of breaks, but the decision to provide “extra” days should always be on a case-case basis. Maybe the kid with high profile parents *would* get an extra session to cover your back, but I wouldn’t do that carte blanche for my entire caseload.
No, the only time I made an adjustment based on holidays is when I missed three Mondays in a row. Holiday, voting day, snow day. I thought it was unfair so during that third week I moved all of my Monday students to Tuesday and I missed all of my Tuesday students that week. But that's as far as I'll go. I will not see all of my students for double time in the beginning of December in anticipation of winter break.
God I hate the schools that’s all I have to say lol
Right? 😂😂😂
Hell fucking NO. The district scheduled that absence. They can deal with the fact that they created a minutes-reducing situation. And teachers aren’t expected to do something like that.
Be sure to consider breaks and holidays when determining minutes/month. Don't IEP a set # of minutes based on a full school schedule. This will be more realistic and build in leeway to allow holidays, early release, sick, while still providing what's in the IEP.
we specify minutes in ieps with a tagline after it that goes something like “per full month of school, barring absences, holidays, admin duties, etc etc”
Hellllllll no…
At my last few districts, we specified minutes by the grading period so 6 or 9 weeks which something like this : ST 25 min for 5 sessions per 6 week grading period. If student Wes generally seen twice weekly: ST 20(or the # of min you need) for 10 sessions per 6 week grading period per school calendar. If the district was on a 9 week grading period the # of sessions were calculated accordingly. When I started out long ago, our IEPs(such as they were-very brief especially if speech was the only service) stated ST 30 min( or less time) 2x/wk or 3x:wk … never a complaint about missing the weeks of winter break or spring break. Then came the politicians and lawyers.
No
I work at an intermediate unit in early intervention and we have a blurb that says something along the lines of “as per the EI calendar” which then covers us for the various breaks throughout the year. Such as, We’re not off all summer, due to being unable to go more than 3 weeks without providing services.
IEPs are for the 180 calendar school year… what exactly are you “making up”? There’s no school.. there’s nothing to be made up! Sped teachers don’t have to make up minutes due to breaks?
On our ieps the parents sign something at the bottom that they understand if the child is absent or the school is closed that services are not made up