The Annual Review

My daughter's annual review is at the end of this month. And like every year I've been slightly crazed since I got the letter with the date and time. I'm sure this year's annual review will be just as pointless as last year's.

I told them that my daughter will only do her math homework, (and any other homework that she doesn't know how to approach) in resource room or in a small group with her special ed. teacher. Without constant guidance and support the work completely overwhelms her. They give her a special ed./resource room teacher who treats the resource room period like study hall and spends the majority of her time texting on her Blackberry. She also commented on the 3rd quarter interim report card that my daughter was making progress, while the math teacher, Bio teacher, and Spanish teacher all commented that my daughter was in danger of failing because of missing homework assignments.

I told them that the 8th grade math teacher was so terrible and condescending that she created a case of math anxiety in my daughter that is off the charts. They put her in a class with a math teacher whose idea of motivating her students is tell them how dumb they are; and they're in trouble if they don't learn "this stuff" because there is no lower math class for them to go to.

I tell them outside of the academic setting my daughter functions beautifully. They tell me that she has ADHD and needs to be on medication.

I tell them that my daughter thinks she's stupid and wants to hide her issues from her classmates as much as possible and won't draw attention to herself by seeking help. And when she finally did seek help in resource was told that resource room is not a place for doing homework. They tell me that my daughter "needs to apply herself" and make arrangements with her teachers to stay after for extra help.

In other words, they come into the annual review already having decided where my daughter will be placed the following year and are only including me in the meeting to satisfy legal requirements.

The IEP they put together doesn't mention the way they intend to have my daughter reach her IEP goals, which in themselves are so vague that any LD student's name can be placed at the top and Presto! legal requirements are met enough to deter a non-compliance law suit.

Unless you've been the process yourself, there isn't an adequate way to convey how emotionally draining and heartbreaking the whole thing is.