It's that time again.....

Yup....it's on. We're unofficially scheduled. Rachel is about to have another IEP Meeting. The tentative date is October 18, in the morning, and we're going to discuss her goals. It's only about 6 weeks before her existing IEP expires.

I'm almost as nervous about this meeting as I was about the one on December 1 last year. And this time, I requested it!!!! I'm afraid their going to try to take her out of CAPP and put her in PEP-INC. If that's true, it is something I need to shut down right away -- she has been unbelievably successful since January 12 (and before). I attribute MUCH of that to the program that she's currently enrolled, i.e. CAPP. If they remove her from the program now, what's to say she's not going to experience a significant regression?

The "problem" is her annual goals -- she's pretty much achieved them all. We want her to continue to grow. We also want her to work on some things that were not considered particularly important 9.5 months ago. Did we not put enough expectations on her last year? The fact that she nearly reached all of her goals was apparent to her ESY teacher in July -- that was after only 6 months of the program. Do we need to make the goals more aggressive? Or do we simply need to be prepared to have multiple meetings in a single year? There are families, I know, that have nearly monthly IEP meetings in order to address their kids' needs and evaluate their progress. Are we going to be like that for her?

And, as is often the case when I have to do something for one twin, should I consider doing this for Simon as well? He has NOT come close to achieving his goals and his meeting is due on or around November 30. But there are things that I would like to reshape. And, also unlike Rachel, I'm not always 100% certain that his placement is correct. Would he be doing better if he were at CAPP? I don't think he's ready for PEP-INC though. Would he be better served with me requesting a meeting sooner rather than later?

I guess the thing is, I'm not sure how a follow-up meeting is run, and sitting here right here and now, I feel totally unprepared. Is it just reviewing the goals, or is it more like the initial meeting where much time is spent determining eligibility for an IEP? Will they argue placements with me, or will they agree with me that Rachel is where she belongs? If they don't agree with me, how do I convince them of the truth (in her case) that I'm right? But I'm getting ahead of myself. I just need to get myself prepared for her meeting, not worry about Simon until after it's over and then I can be sure that everything is exactly the way it should be. Just hope I can get some sleep so I CAN work on being prepared.....

Right?

I just need to remember; the most important goal for me at this meeting: RACHEL NEEDS TO REMAIN IN CAPP!!!!!!!!!!