The IEP is signed, sealed and delivered, baby!

We had Part II of Kate's IEP (individualized education plan) meeting yesterday morning. The closer I got to the building, the more my stomach dropped out from under me. I was dreading it. I was afraid that it would be contentious, afraid that I wouldn't have the courage to fight for my daughter enough, afraid that we'd have to book a Part III. I was just AFRAID.

For those of you who don't remember, here's the post about the first IEP meeting that was less than stellar: First IEP Meeting

When your child needs an IEP -- especially when it comes to one-on-one services such as speech -- you go in asking for the moon and then are grateful to get one twinkling star. It's just the nature of the beast. Well, let me tell you -- we got nearly everything we asked for.

Here's the deal:

• Kate will be in a classroom specifically for Speech and Language Impaired (SLI) children - Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays (which means we still have our Tuesdays & Thursdays together to do playdates with friends and just have mommy & daughter time)
• She will receive 30 minutes of occupational therapy per week (for fine motor skills -- lacing, beading, drawing -- abilities that lead to a child being able to write, especially)
• Kate will receive 30 minutes of physical therapy per week (to focus on gross motor skills such as climbing, hopping, riding a tricyle, etc.)
• DRUMROLL PLEASE.............................
• 90 minutes of one-on-one oral-motor speech therapy. That means that she will see the speech language pathologist everyday she's at school for a one-on-one 30 minute session. We were fully expecting to settle for twice a week and knew we'd have to really fight for it. We were FLOORED to see that they recommended 90 minutes per week. Kate's Early Intervention case manager told us afterwards that she's never seen 90 minutes before, and thought us being a thorn in their sides in the first meeting paid off big time.

Let me say that everyone was gracious and on their best behavior at this meeting. It was so much nicer than the first and I truly believe that Kate will blossom at school.