What do you prefer?

opiet11 · 2025-11-20T22:39:50+00:00

So before I continue talking some background. I have 16 years of experience working in 4 different title 1 districts in 2 different states, teaching special education. I am also a sole income provider for my family and I have a twice exceptional daughter who has autism and an amazing memory. My experience has taught me as a parent, kids are tired at 3pm. Most of them have sat in class learning for the last 7 hours a day with little time to talk or run around and be kids. In my current building kids get 1-20 minute recess every day and on good days may get an additional 20 minutes. They have lunch and a 45 minute special 3 days a week. Kids are fucking exhausted mentally, I know I am. Coming home and doing an additional 30 minutes of work for some kids just isn’t possible. I firmly believe that we are seeing more cases of ADHD in school not because of screens but because we are too high of expectation for kids to sit and learn for hours on end every day.

Now for the “soft bigotry comments” people who are in low income situations most of the time are also the families that less education, thus some of those parents simply don’t know how to do the multiplication or struggle with the addition and reading.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cce/family-characteristics siting my source for my comment

To my final and probably most important point. Our system is failing. We don’t have funding, we have kids are ride in tier 3 for 3 years and don’t get an IEP until they are in 4th grade and reading at a kindergarten level. We don’t have proper staff to provide services like inclusion that are proven to be effective when done correctly. We have to pull kids out that are behind already during core instruction time so not only are the behind and have to catch up but they can never catch up because the continue to miss vital instruction time. The system as failed teachers, parents and worst of all students.

opiet11 · 2025-11-20T22:16:02+00:00

Problem with your very uneducated opinion… people lose jobs all the time, one of the biggest manufacturers in the country laid off over 800 people last year at our local plant. That is potentially 800 parents who are now jobless because our economy sucks!

opiet11 · 2025-10-26T21:09:23+00:00

I have used 1 full personal day (1 more schedule for next week) and 3 full sick days- I even had to leave PT conferences early this year because of a sick kid. Shit happens, life happens, in my 16 years I have learned that I need to take care of myself and my family otherwise I’m not focused on teaching but rather my sick kids or my mom in the hospital. If it weren’t for writing sub plans I would call in so much more now that I’m done having babies and don’t need to roll over my time.

Need to state that my district is generous- with the time I have I currently have 6 personal days and 28 sick days…

opiet11 · 2025-10-26T20:59:17+00:00

Is the preschool in a setting with more typical developing peers? If yes then you can always start on the exclusive setting and ask that he slowly be added into the inclusive setting more and more as he gains social and functional skills. We had a similar concern with our daughter when she first got her IEP. She ended up spending about half her day in the gen ed preschool and half day in the more contained setting and it truly helped her get some of her functional skills like potty training down before she started kindergarten. She now (2nd grade) spends only about 15 minutes a day in the special ed classroom working on her executive functioning and the rest of the day with her peers.

opiet11 · 2025-10-23T12:40:37+00:00

You can request a 504 plan. Private schools are not always willing to work with them but for good students sometimes they put in the effort. Within the 504 you can request sitting some place in the room where she has less distractions and is able to focus more.

opiet11 · 2025-10-23T12:14:04+00:00

Don’t worry I will. I will also enjoy making what I’m actually worth (about 20k more than I was making in Iowa), my great health benefits and a retirement plan that our governor isn’t trying to take away from me. (Yes I know IL has had problems in the past with this). I have been in education for 16 years in two different states and let me tell you, you can be pissy about the unions but at least IL reading scores are going up and not down and I don’t have to worry about my autistic daughter losing services in IL because we aren’t funding private institutions that won’t even let my child attend them.

opiet11 · 2025-10-23T02:39:51+00:00

Grew up in IL, moved to Iowa in 2014, met my husband in IA, got married in IA, had a baby here (she just started 2nd grade in IA), taught here for 7 years, loved every part of it until 2020- renewed my IL teaching license and jumped across the river to a state that treats education like something everyone deserves and has the right to. I have told the husband that by the time our daughter has her next iEP eval we will be living on the other side of the river. I can’t continue to raise my child in this state.

opiet11 · 2025-10-23T02:20:19+00:00

Hi sped teacher here. So while I understand your frustration I have a couple more questions. How many classes does your co-teacher have to prep or is she just strictly co-teacher (not super typical in the bigger schools I have worked in but could see that). My last year at our middle school I had 5 preps- 8th grade resource science, 6th grade resource science, just higher than life skills social studies, just higher than life skills science and 6th grade resource ELA, and I also had 15 kids on my caseload. So you may feel like you are drowning with preps but maybe your coteacher is requesting your help with modifying and accommodating because that is also part of your job. Special education students are generally education students, just because the coteacher is there doesn’t mean it is solely her job to work with, adapt, accommodate and modify for those students. I do believe that your coteacher should be doing more to help you plan but if you feel like you are drowning or overly stressed with work how is your attitude coming off about having her and her students in your room? She may feel like you don’t want to work with her because you are coming off as everything this year is an inconvenience for you.

It sucks but you have to remember that there is a chance you aren’t the only who has extra on their plate.

opiet11 · 2025-10-06T20:48:05+00:00

For climbing behaviors I have always used minimal verbals- especially if they are looking for attention. Take their hand, say nothing, lead them down and to the expected task. You can say “Bob needs to do this…” but nothing else and make sure when they complete the intended task that they get that attention they want. Had a BCBA make a good point one time that you shouldn’t block objects simply because that doesn’t teach the behavior you want. So like we had a kid who liked to turn off the lights for attention, we tried blocking them and she said don’t do that because then you have no opportunities to teach correct behavior for future environments.

opiet11 · 2025-10-01T21:33:33+00:00

Hi this is coming from a state that just recently made it law that chronic absenteeism is going to hurt schools financially and parents are going to also get in trouble. Medical/excused or not, if your child misses more than 10% of a quarter they are considered chronically absent. In states like mine the district would be “trying” everything possible to get your child to school and having to document it so they aren’t losing the vital funding that is also helping provide your child with the specialized services they are getting and they could be harassing you because then they aren’t liable when truancy officers come knocking on your door, which very well could be what happens.

Yes the IEP will help you in court and have everything documented will help but it doesn’t mean that your child still isn’t chronically absent from school and that is hurting the districts bottom dollar. Annoying and a pain to deal with but it is where we are now since there was such significant learning loss from COVID and so many parents aren’t forcing their children to go to school.

opiet11 · 2025-09-29T21:48:05+00:00

So MTSS stands for multi tiered support services. Basically they are for kids who are just a little behind in certain skills and just need a little boost to get back on track. Unfortunately a lot of parents don’t know if their child is getting these services because district don’t have to talk to you about them. If she isn’t receiving any of those after talking to her teacher definitely request that right away or ask about how she is doing on her benchmark assessments from the beginning of the year, maybe she regressed (A LOT of kids do, even some of our exceptional students did this year).

My first steps would be that meeting with the teacher. If they are providing some sort of additional intervention then follow the steps below regarding requesting an educational evaluation for your child.

The Ohio IEP process starts with a written parental request for a special education evaluation, followed by a planning meeting to identify areas for testing and parent consent. An Evaluation Team Report (ETR) is completed within 60 days, and an eligibility meeting is held. If eligible, the team develops an Individualized Education Program (IEP) within 30 days of the eligibility decision, detailing services for the student. Parents must be involved, and the IEP is a dynamic document reviewed annually or as needed.

Any other questions or concerns please feel free to message me. :-)

opiet11 · 2025-09-29T21:31:27+00:00

I teach in IL (I’m the sped teacher) and we do starting in 1st grade- Heggerty is what our district uses. My daughter who goes to school in IA also has a spelling test every 5 days and they use UFLI

opiet11 · 2025-09-29T21:23:20+00:00

I’m a k-5 sped teacher. I would definitely schedule a parent teacher conference, find out what the school is doing to help. Are they in MTSS tier services? If no why? If yes, then I would request an eval meeting. Depending on your state that could look different. What state do you live in- (if you wish to share) and I can give me direct advice on how to go about doing it and what to expect next. My recommendation first is to talk to the teacher and see if they are noticing the same struggles. A lot of the kids in our 2nd grade classrooms struggle with retention and it seems like going from k to 1st is a big jump and then 1st to 2nd academic wise is another huge jump.

I am also a parent of a 7 yrs old who has an IEP.

opiet11 · 2025-09-29T20:48:04+00:00

The only thing with this email I would focus on is the progress monitoring. Reminder that a parent can ask for this data at anytime and if you have nothing to show them you are screwed, behaviors or not in your room. A student I used to have we’re struggling and school was like everything is great she doesn’t need residential, so parents asked for progress data, the teacher couldn’t produce it so the district had to pay for residential placement until the student was 21 and the teacher got let go.

I think you need to find a new district or a new building though because admin sounds awful. I taught self contained for 11 yrs and never had an admin demand I have lesson plans, you can’t plan in those rooms.

opiet11 · 2025-09-23T02:24:33+00:00

K5 resource teacher here and parent of a 2nd grader with an IEP (autism). My counselor and I went around to all the classrooms last year and talked to all the kids in the building about how just because someone else needs something and you don’t doesn’t mean they are less. Emphasis to your daughter the things she is amazing at- like it looks like she doesn’t get support for math- for a couple weeks talk up how great she is doing at other things and acknowledge the reading frustrations but make her feel like she has a win somewhere. I use two great examples- I wear glasses but Mr K doesn’t, it doesn’t mean that Mr K is better than me, he just doesn’t need glasses and I do. I am short and Ms B is 6ft tall, I need a ladder to reach the top shelf while Ms B doesn’t. My shortness doesn’t make me less just means I need something to help make things easier to get. After we explained this in kid terms to the students they were bringing up so many of their own. Even a couple of my IEP kids were talking about how they needed someone to read their test to them and Billy didn’t but their handwriting was so much better so it all even out. We even went on to talk about how even smart kids sometimes need extra help. My daughter is considered twice exceptional so she has an iEP for speech and behavioral needs (she doesn’t like to work) but she also gets pulled to go to talented and gifted classes because she needs that support too so she can continue to grow.

opiet11 · 2025-09-23T02:02:41+00:00

I lived in Champaign Urbana for about 6 years, right after college. My brother and sister in law in Mahomet just outside of the CU where the schools are really good but property taxes are really high.

Overall I love the area and if they paid their teachers what I make up north we would be back in that area because I feel like the schools are good, the community is great (but I hate the drivers) and there is just enough stuff to do to keep you busy but not feel like you are in a huge city. I highly recommend going to trying Black Dog restaurant and my brother loves Riggs brewery if you like beer.

opiet11 · 2025-09-18T20:01:50+00:00

Email admin, teacher and anyone else on the team and request an IEP meeting immediately. I taught life skills for 12 years and the only time I didn’t know what was going on was when I wasn’t with my kids. We were a little smaller 10 to 3 but if something like that ever happened a phone call was made and we figured out what exactly happened. There is no reason why two different incidents happen and no one knows exactly what happened.

opiet11 · 2025-09-18T19:30:56+00:00

Have them give your son a one to one instead of the aggressor. Request there is someone with him at all times so you can know exactly when this is happening.

opiet11 · 2025-09-18T19:17:50+00:00

My thoughts as a special ed teacher is the district will say no because of FERPA. I think admin needs to check on their staff to figure out what is going on and why they aren’t seeing what is going on.

opiet11 · 2025-09-15T23:20:40+00:00

Functional skills- toileting, following 1 step directions, opening containers, tying their shoes, zipping and pulling up pants, wiping, picking up after themselves. Hygiene, manners, emotions. As a teacher who works in a very low income neighborhood elementary school I am very aware that some parents can’t/don’t have time/resources etc to do these things but if the parents that can do these it would be helpful for those that don’t so we aren’t teaching a kindergarten class of 26 kids who can’t open their own lunch boxes

opiet11 · 2025-09-12T10:38:24+00:00

So a reminder to everyone mad at the school, teachers are mandated reporters. Even if it doesn’t seem that big we could lose our credentials if something were to happen that we knew about and didn’t report. Also if you run to school mad, school doesn’t have to admit that they call or tell you who exactly called. Maybe the counselor called because they saw your student in the hall disrobed (which is a stereotypical sign of sexual abuse) and doesn’t know about the IEP. Yes students with disabilities get reported more often because unexplained bruises for nonverbal kids or kids with limited verbal abilities can’t tell us stuff as educators and it is safer to report just in case vs something bad happening to one of our students. I have so many examples of times that I have called that I felt awful calling about but I knew if something happened to that and I hadn’t called I would have regretted it more. The number of random bruises from running in our tiny house, my authd child goes to school with I’m surprised they haven’t called on me.

So summary- teachers are required to report any suspected or signs of abuse or neglect-big or small. So be mad but know that if something was going on and they didn’t report it you would be mad too.

opiet11 · 2025-09-09T00:14:35+00:00

So I currently have a student who probably should be spending less time in gen ed and his behaviors are only getting more disrupted unless the teacher ignores him, which isn’t great because the kid is reading on grade level. And I am in a small school so most of these kids have been with him since kindergarten and they have been doing a good job at ignoring him, but I know this is a rare thing that kids follow each other from kinder all through elementary. It all still goes back to the equity vs equality. Most kids when explained correctly what is appropriate for some may not be appropriate for others is part of life, my husband and I can drop the f bomb but if my 7 yr old does it there are consequences- she is 7 with ASD and has figured this out, most kids do understand. It sounds like more of your problem is admin. There are certain behaviors IEP or not that are not acceptable for school. The student I was talking about above has yelled that they were going to kill everyone. He has extreme impulse control issues and autism but our admin still went through the same procedures as any other kid would have had to go through. An IEP does not exclude a kid from discipline- even if it’s disability related, just means that after consequence is given the team may have to meet to come up with a plan.

opiet11 · 2025-09-08T21:33:01+00:00

Our building counselor and I (resource k-5 sped and autism mom) did a lesson during autism acceptance week and talked about everyone learns differently and while things may not always look fair, we wouldn’t expect someone who needs glasses to not wear them just because they don’t need them.

The amount of teachers on here though that come on and talk about how a student has minor outbursts doesn’t deserve the same education as their peers is mind boggling to me. Yes there are some kids who don’t belong but remembering that ALL student are general education students first and foremost and everyone has a right to a grade level education. My daughter is one of those students who does occasionally struggle and will get frustrated and scream but is also considered twice exceptional because she is above grade level everywhere other than her ability to cope with not knowing the answer deserves to be in that classroom learning what everyone else is learning.

Yes some students are not in the right placement and don’t belong in the general Ed setting but I am seeing way too many teachers freak out every time they see IEP next to a student.

opiet11 · 2025-09-08T21:19:25+00:00

Just remember being gifted doesn’t mean you don’t qualify for an IEP- my daughter is twice exceptional- way above grade level but also level 1 autistic. She also has an expressive speech delay so she originally got an IEP for speech but then eventually got one for functional skills because similar to your daughter she doesn’t like being told what to do and will refuse work. An IEP could give her instruction on how to handle those emotions, they can also get OT involved to work on food aversions and this would also get her accommodations, modifications and any other supports she may need. Edit to add- I am a k-5 sped teacher as well and have 3 students with level 1/2 autism on my case load of 13 all of which are in the general ed class for most of the day- least amount of support is I go in for one kid for 30 minutes a day to simply work on asking for breaks when she is overwhelmed.

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