In my last post I discussed generally what an IEP is and what it can do for the student. While researching I had also found the steps that are involved in a child receiving an IEP, however I have been wondering how effective these methods can be. There just seems to be a lot of time spent going through all these steps. I have really been wondering just how quickly a child can actually get into the IEP and receive the help that they need before they fall further behind in their classes. During my research into this I found multiple instances when parents had tried to get their child an IEP but had been waiting moths to hear anything back from the schools. In these instances the state tends to get involved and there is a huge amount of paperwork that goes into getting this child the help that they need. A lot of schools take so long to get back to parents with special needs children simply because they are unprepared to deal with this new challenge. Many do not have a staff that is experienced in working with special needs children. I feel like a major way we need to change schools today is to make sure that every school is adequately equipped for children with special needs so that time is not wasted just waiting to hear back from the school.
Furthering my research i found that a typical IEP should be issues within 4 weeks and reviewed every 6 months. This just seems like a lot of time wasted before the child receives the help that they need. That is almost another month that they will be falling more behind in classes, and then if htey program they are assigned does not work, they have to wait another 6 months until it is reviewed and changed. I feel like schools really need to find a way to shorten this process so that the children can get the help they need in a more timely fashion. I know that sometimes it is good to have a lengthy process so that children are not wrongly assigned into a “special needs” category when they are just misbehaving in class, but for those kids who genuinely need the help, it is certainly a drawn out process to receive any.
Testing for IEPs 