Many hurdles interfere with meeting the requirements of the IDEA and IEP process. First of all, there is little consistency between AEA's and their interpretation of those laws and rules. The dates involved with binding mediation and arbitration need adjustment, in most cases, schools haven't received health insurance quotes which have been a central part of negotiations. In one year, you can expect at least a Special Education visit, Food service visit, Comprehensive School Improvement visit plus others. How about one comprehensive visit? The State needs to develop a template of information needed for the APR and require only that information from the Schools. The current narrative format is unclear and rarely satisfies the state department. A lot of time is spent preparing the document in a way we think the state wants it, and then redoing parts that the state was unable to comprehend our meaning or intent. A template would give the state exactly what they want the first time.
Perhaps a pattern is becoming clear here, paperwork is endless. Man will always add to the pile, he's that kind of animal. We must address this problem immediately, one report at a time. The first step in solving this is the Standards and Benchmark document.
Standards and Benchmarks are something we should share. What are they? Simply put, it is a cookbook for educators, what our children should learn and at what age. This should read like a playbook from a very good Football coach. It should also be understandable and strictly used. Iowa does not have State Standards. We pride ourselves on local control of Education. There is a limit on how effective local control can be in some cases. As they say, two heads are better than one, if two are better, then why not three-hundred and seventy? All Standards and Benchmarks from the 370 school districts in Iowa should be gathered, checked for consistency, then we can measure testing and instruction.
The question that often comes up when people talk about Billy the Kids is "Did Pat Garrett actually kill him, as reported by history, or did the Kid escape to go on to live to be an old man?". The facts of the incident have been lost to time; through the employment of modern technology, plans to ve...
