E's IEP is in place

Whew. I know a lot of parents out there struggle with IEPs and school regarding their child's inclusion and education. I feel like I don't have much to complain about. Seriously.

I'm not going to go into details of E's IEP--mainly b/c since this blog is public, I am worried that some other local will read it and get angry about it. Or God forbid some school official reads it and decides it isn't appropriate. If you want to know, I'll tell you privately.

What I will tell you is that even though I have a great team, this whole process made me sick. LITERALLY. We've had 3 IEP meetings for E's Kindergarten (regular classroom) year. The stress involved, the worry about "what if I have to fight for this", "what if they deny that", "how will this work otherwise", kept me up for three days straight (before the last meeting, last week) and I was literally nauseous from stress. I cannot imagine what it is like for parents out there that have little support from their IEP team.

E's kindergarten class literally travels all over the school, 4 times a day. That's enough to tire out most of the class, the ones who walk about normally. For E it's extremely taxing. But I want her in there--included, doing as much as she can on her own. Making her own friends, writing her own journal, doing PE her own way, playing on the playground, carrying her own lunch, making her own mistakes, etc. Her educators do too. More than anything, E's teacher is amazing...not only b/c she's a good teacher, but b/c she knows the stress I feel and my worries (will E fall? will the kids tease her? will she get hurt? will she be able to do XYZ independently? how can she do X and be successful, like her peers?). She knows what it's like to be a special needs parent--because, literally, she's been there.

Yeah.