IEP....or 504??

The first meeting with Dominic's teacher, counselor, PACE teacher, kindergarten teacher and school psychologist was this past Wednesday. At first I was feeling rather defensive. The psychologist explained that to have an IEP, Dominic has to be having a problem with his education. Dominic is very smart. She explained they would test his IQ and if it's in the average range, but his educational performance is lower than average, he would qualify. I doubt Dominic is in the average range. I wanted to ask them to test him anyway because I'm curious as to if there is a difference in his IQ and his performance.

Then the counselor said she doesn't think Dominic needs an IEP. She then brought up a 504 plan. "A 504 plan spells out the modifications and accommodations that will be needed for these students to have an opportunity perform at the same level as their peers." (http://specialchildren.about.com/od/504s/f/504faq1.htm) They explained what it was, what it was used for and then the counselor said she doesn't think Dominic needs that either. When she said that I became annoyed. They weren't offering help for him, they were just telling me what he doesn't need!

At this point his kindergarten teacher spoke up. She said she believes Dominic needs a 504 plan because that way it's set every year, no matter what school we go to, what Dominic needs to thrive in school. Most of what is being done for him now they kept calling "good teacher practices". For example: preferred seating, having him help out in class, encouraging other classmates to praise him when he does something right (such as apologizing, letting someone else take the lead, etc.), and giving him harder course work. Mrs. Fletcher (kindergarten teacher) pointed out that not every teacher would think to do those things for Dominic. Also if we switched schools, we'd be starting all over. They wouldn't just take my word for what needs to be done for Dominic.

After all this discussion it was determined we would do a 504 plan for Dominic. I could've cheered! The first meeting to get that started is next week. I hope this will be the best action to help Dominic. Unfortunately I'm wading thru the dark here and I only know whether it was the right choice when it's too late to change my mind!

As a side note, at one point during the meeting Dominic's current teacher, Ms Jurado, was explaining what Dominic does when "forced" to apologize and say sorry. He grabs his throat and says it hurts to say the word. He has done this with me as well and I never understood what was going on, why he would say that. Ms Jurado said to him "That's emotions, Dominic." It was like a light bulb went off! I knew Dominic has a hard time with other people's emotions, I never realized it was difficult for him to deal with his own as well. Now that I know it'll be a lot easier to handle. :- )