Help at last!

The good news. My nephew with the learning disabilities may finally be getting some much needed help at school. See, it was time for his IEP, or plan to be signed by my sister, but everyone who looked at it said, no way. It didn't cover any of the things he needs. So my other sister, who is a special ed teacher has  friend with his own company, who specializes in dealing with these. So we e-mailed him the plan to look at. He, like us, said it didn't address anything, and said it should go to mediation. He also faxed over a contract for my sister. $600 retainer with about $200 an hour. Um....no. She is a small farmer with her own struggling business, there was no way she could afford that. She called left a message telling him so. Then talked to my sister out east. We were crushed. His help was gone. But wait... I don't know what she said, but the sister out east convinced him to do it for free. FREE!!!! 

Instead of mediation, my sister here set up a meeting with his teachers and I had to come. It went ok. We mentioned he needed things like his own book, extra time, modified work, etc. All seemed pretty good about it. I mentioned too that I help and sometimes edit his work. That they were a little resistant too, but hey if I do work and take it to a writing lab it looks different when it comes out, but it is still my work. Same here. And I only do it for his stupid projects from his stupid history teacher. I prevailed and it will now be in his plan that I can help him. 

Now, I love history, but his current teacher is horrible. Lots of reading, vague directions and he keeps adding extra work after the kids finally think it's done. Plus, he doesn't give due dates and often only hands out these almost college level projects to his 9th graders less than a week before he decides it is due. But no, he can't modify or change any of this for my nephew. I mean how will he learn?? Honestly, he's not learning anything more from these projects, he's regurgitating information. Cutting the work in half won't change this. Thank goodness he only has one more month left of this horrible man. I really had to hold my anger during this meeting. I hope they change things on his IEP for the better. At least we have someone who knows what they are doing looking at it now. And maybe I'll get to help him less. Because no one else can ever help. Nope, just me.