Special education mediation; how does that happen?

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeIt's pretty rare, but it can happen. The parents disagree with the school or the school disagrees with the parents. It's seldom that the school sticks so completely to its guns on a point of contention. It's oftentimes cost effective to give a family a compromise, so here's a word of caution. If the school is adamant and chooses mediation, take a long, hard look at your case. Step back and really look.

There's a reason they chose that way instead of being cost effective. They think the process will go in their favor. That means they may be right on target with Article Seven guidelines. In this case, parents should ask someone trained in the law. Mediation may be a waste of your time.

The school is run by people, and those people may actually think you have the wrong idea about your child's education. Here's where things get sticky. You know your child. More than anyone else, you've seen what he can do. You know how good the good moments are and how bad the bad. Parents are experts, best in the field, on one kiddo.  How far do you go?

If you've tried to work out the kinks and you're losing time on your child's education, go to mediation. If the situation is turning hostile, it's more than past time to bring in a third party who is objective and uninvolved. If you believe it's a safety issue, then do it without hesitation.

Mediation is never fun. Parents have the option because there has always been the chance they would need it. I can guarantee it's easier than due process, but that's about the only guarantee a family will get.

Related articles

• Procedural Safeguards The Series - Part VIII (specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com)
• What Is the Difference Between Mediation and Arbitration (brighthub.com)

Case conference recordkeeping; what should you keep?

An early blog article on 15 minutes discussed keeping a notebook just for your conference, to keep and take notes and to organize anything you may be given. Another possible time saver for a family is to make your own report.

It's simple to make up your own form to document all that occurs once the case conference begins. It may sound stupid, but date everything. This gives you a frame of reference for when particular events occur.

Be sure to document each attendee and if they were excused for any amount of time. This gives a parent a sense of who was there and said what. It also helps to keep the names with the faces.
List the issues you wish to discuss. This will be particularly helpful during the conference, keeping you on track to discuss each concern and ensuring you get to them all in good time.

Parents might find it helpful to allow space for listing what was actually discussed, in case the conference gets away from the participants. It helps you track weak points in your own conferencing style as well. While we love to hear great things about our kids, there's only so much time to talk.

Leave space for the outcomes. What was decided today and how will we implement it? Later on, it will be useful to have something to refer to when you discuss your conference or decisions made there. There will be no doubt in your mind what agreements were reached and when because of your thorough dated notes.

Keeping copies of a form makes for easy prep. You can grab the form and stuff it in the file on the way out the door, and always have clean notes from your conference.

Teacher's Union, Did We Create a Monster?

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Oh, I have a conflict this week! In special education, I've seen two levels of bad teachers. Some are just teaching impaired and can be fixed, but some are scary bad. Scary bad means they don't really change, in spite of it all. My encounter with one such teacher has taken me all the way to the administration of our school where I learned even scarier things.

Contracts are important, however one year flying by with a bad teacher could be catastrophic for my son, while only a nuisance for other people. Unions guard even the worst teachers with tenacity, I'm told. Our hands are tied, I'm told. They are waiting on Union approval to introduce training on programs like ABA and TEAACH which are industry standards. What? You ask them what they want to do at work? Did they answer 'take long naps' because I'd be tempted if given a choice what to do?

I'm being flippant, I know, but it can't be understated how this undermines the very idea of unions! Unions serve a protective function that can't be denied. They make employment fair and available to anyone. They help workers make decent wages and protect them from personal political pressure. Never in the inception of the institution was it meant to shield a worker from the consequences of a job badly done. You still have to do a good job!

Have we created a monster here? Surely, teachers shouldn't have more protections than students. My administrators know me well. I see something that isn't working and I just may take a swipe at fixing it. One of them told me with a look of concern on his face, "you have know idea how powerful the ISTA is." Part of me sat there feeling like I'd been swallowed up by On The Waterfront, an old black and white Brando film. You know, "I coulda been a contender, Charlie, instead of nuthin' which is what I am." What are they going to do? Mess with my kid's education? They're already doing that.

I started some research, and what did I find out? That the only people out there saying anything about this are union busters, who I do not intend to emulate. I found that Indiana schools are not developing teacher standards like they should be, and that our national rating for getting rid of bad teachers is very low. Where are the parents?

Are we all too blind to connect this with ISTEP failures? This is going to be the beginning of a series of posts about teacher's unions and how they affect special education. Because the bottom line is our children already have enough to slow them down, and sometimes you need to change staff. It's just a fact.