On Thursday, October 9th, the IEP Task Force will reconvene for their 3rd meeting. This meeting will be VERY interesting. The first meeting was geared towards parents concerns, and the second was extremely heavy with school members complaining about logistic parts of the IEP process. The third time is the charm as they say, and I am getting advanced word about a particular guest who may show up. Some people will NOT be happy about this individual daring to show their face. But many people will be ecstatic. Trust me when I say any parent of a special needs child will want to show up for this one!
This will be the meeting where Lieutenant Matt Denn makes his mark, one way or the other. He will be confronted with the absolute reality behind the IEP process and how he runs with it will define this task force. Another wild card will be if Governor Markell’s designee deigns to show up. Brian Touchette is the testing guru at the Delaware Department of Education, the wizard behind the curtain for the Smarter Balanced Assessment. The only person who has brought up standards-based IEPs at this point is myself in public comment. I’ve heard from another source that all the school districts in Delaware are being told to start them immediately, without any type of transition period like the four pilot districts received. Once again the DOE is inserting itself into matters that are controversial at best. Will Touchette bother to show up for the third meeting?
The meeting is at 4:30 pm, at the Collette Center in Dover and the Carvel Building in Wilmington. The center of the action will be in Wilmington for this round, and with this potential surprise guest, you may want to venture up to Wilmington for this one if you don’t live in the area. Trust me when I say you will want to see this one live.
The Season Of Myths 