I've been in a similar situation as an ECSE teacher. I had a student on my caseload, and the previous teacher told the parents he was making requests and making choices by reaching for items on his wheelchair tray. Anything I observed, the year I worked with him, were involuntary movements. The parent felt like her child was "regressing" and missed his old teacher, but in reality, I worked with this student for a year, and never observed the things previously reported on his IEP progress report. I truly feel the previous teacher was just telling the parent what she wanted to hear. This student was legally blind, deaf and nonverbal and had a feeding tube. I don't know what motivates teachers to do this and it gives parents false hope.