This was brought up in class last night. Ive always wondered the same as my son has had one since he was a baby. Why do paras never attend i e p meeting?? The para usually has more time with the students then case workers do?

Background: I'm an Australian speech-language pathologist (SLP). I work with school students, but not in schools. Our special ed system is very different to the US one. I've been reading up on IDEA, and I'm really confused about something: How do school districts handle the legal consequences of IEP/504 accommodations that they don't have the resources to meet? And why is it a negotiation?

It looks (from what I've read) like IDEA is an unfunded mandate, and I can see that multiple courts have ruled that staff shortages are not an acceptable justification for not adhering to IEPs. What happens next?

Scenario: A small rural school district needs more paras to comply with the requirements of students' IEPs. They cannot find enough paras. A family threatens to sue because FAPE is not being provided. The district does not want to be found to be violating IDEA. Do they offer above-market rate and a relocation package to paras to encourage them to relocate from other places? What do they do if the cost of hiring paras becomes more than hiring teachers? Are they expected to just keep hiring paras even though it would make more sense to hire teachers? Do courts actually end up punishing districts by mandating compliance, removing funding, etc.? If the cost of non-compliance is so high, how much are districts willing to spend to avoid being slapped with a court ruling?

And why is it treated as a negotiation? I keep seeing "an advocate bullied the district into ___," or "the parents refused to agree to anything less than ___." What's the typical outcome of due process hearings? Do they usually side with the family, or the school?

I get that the everyday answer is "we get told to do more with less." Caseload size is a common lament on r/slp. It sounds like many of you are drowning in a system that's not resourced for you to do your best work, and you have my enormous respect.

(If anyone is wondering, the Australian system is not all sunshine and roses. FAPE here means we have many 'specialist' schools which service only students with disabilities - think self-contained classrooms, but a whole campus for 120-450 students. Students with lower support needs are provided with additional support in GenEd classrooms but it's funded by the each state government's Department of Education, and it's not a negotiation - funding is generally allocated based on student need according to a set of rubrics. Suing the DoE is a very different process here because we don't have the same tort law structure the US does. You can do it, and I've seen it done successfully, but the system is much more set up that the Department says "we will meet your child's needs as best we can, and we will provide extra support as needed, but our system focuses on procedural fairness in allocating the resources we have between all the students who need them, and that means we can't do everything for everyone." Depending on the government and its budget priorities, this can make work more or less miserable for the average classroom teacher.)

I resigned from my job today because I accepted a new position in a different district. The contract breakage fee is $1,000. Ouch, but okay. I was anticipating it. But they're also charging me for insurance fees paid for the month of July by the district which is an additional $1,138 I wasn't expecting to be so expensive. So that's $2,138 I owe in the next couple of weeks. I only have $2,800 to my name total. Like, that is literally all the money I have. I still have to survive the next month and a half until I get my first paycheck of the new school year. Not to mention all the bills I have to pay, and all my student loans accruing interest, medical bills, etc. I feel so defeated and like I'm drowning. Why do they do this to teachers? Looking for reassurance/support.

This is my first time ever on here, so please forgive me for the long post. I moved my family to Wilson, NC from Missouri for a fresh start after my husband passed and we lost our home. We've been here almost 10 months and it has not been the best experience all the way around. The middle school my 13 year old daughter attended gave her more anxiety and depression than she was already dealing with, and even though she has an IEP in place, they refused to follow it and give her the extra help she needed. We will be moving out of Wilson as soon as possible, but I need help finding a public high school that will actually support her and her learning needs. Is there anyone that has dealt with this and can point me in the right direction?

Is there any document out there on how to determine service minutes? I have a student with high service minutes and we are now having trouble fitting them into his schedule, which has him fully included but pulled out for his service minutes. It a middle school kid.

Hello! I am an incoming first year, mild/mod, K-2nd SDC teacher. My incoming caseload is: two kindergarteners , four 1st graders, and two 2nd graders for a total of 8 students. I actually spent all of this past Feb-May with 7/8 students as I was a long-term substitute for them.

I have no clue what materials I need, how to set up the class, how to organize the class! Any ideas or recommendations would help! Or even asking me questions to get the ideas flowing would be great!

What do I need in terms of materials?

- I see some colleagues and others asking for donations in the form of Amazon wishlists but I’m not even sure what I really need. Would it be weird if I asked for money donations instead until I know what I need?

How I should physically set up my classroom?

- I have no idea how to go about setting up small groups because of how diverse my learners are. Or even doing whole group.

Just wondering if there’s anyone who can share about their or their child’s experience attending Amelia Earhart in Alameda, with an IEP.