Day 1 Prep for IEP

On this, the first day of preparation for Hailey's IEP...I have hit a road block.  The IEP has been cancelled, the speech assessments haven't been completed (supposed to be done by tomorrow) and I am tired.  I have been researching online and talking with other parents and advocates all day...I am going in circles.  I have left messages and sent emails...Nothing.  I have gotten nowhere...no progress at all.  Now I just looked down and it is 2:00.  Minus the hour that I took Aubrey to the library program, I have been working on this since 8:30 am...five and a half hours....and nothing but a bunch of print outs of laws and articles that I have read a million times.

And so I wonder, how do they expect parents to do this...Run in circles, hope for a lucky break, a great program manager...but most of the time, we do the research and forge the battle to prevail for a year and then at the next IEP...slam they do it again and you start all over again....like the saying goes, you may have won the battle, but you haven't won the war...

I was counting them as I was getting everything in order this morning and we have had 12 IEP meetings in the last 6 years and 9 IFSP meetings...all that we have had to prepare for, get ready for, research, fight...There has got to be an easier way.  It takes me about 16 hours on average to prepare for an IEP meeting...It takes me about 40 to 50 hours in addition to that if we don't agree on something and I have to go to serious advocate mode...

My kitchen table is covered in papers, research, files and notes...My desk is covered in sticky notes, phone numbers, notes from calls, paperclips...etc etc etc...Hailey gets off the bus in an hour which means I need to button it all up so that she doesn't walk into a "mess" which sends her into a downward spiral...And Aubrey has basically been ignored all day (Oh she's been fed, playing and coloring next to me...but I haven't really heard anything that she's said and that is sad).

I think that I will button it up an hour early and sit outside with Aubrey...maybe some chalk or cuddling or reading before Hailey gets home...Then it will be back at it again when the girls go to bed...Yawn...I'm already tired.