Is it required that a child has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) before he can go into Resource Room?

Question

A childhood friend of mine has a daughter who received resource room help for reading and Math. She never had an IEP. Her mother tells me that she doesn't have learning disabilities but gets the help anyway because Reading and Math were problem areas. In some schools, an IEP specifying that resource room is necessary would be a requirement to get the extra help. Then there are parents who can get there kids into resource room help just because they are having problems with Reading, Math and/or writing. What is it like at your kids' school? Is an IEP necessary to get into resource room? Or can any child who is having problems in these areas get in?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Every system uses different labels to identify their programs.  Like some of the other posters, I feel as though they are using the term 'resource' to refer to some sort of supplemental help/tutoring and not sped related resource.  In order to receive sped related resource, you most definitely need to go through the testing process and have an IEP.

Answer 3

Resource room is a term that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

There's been a paradigm shift in the way we help students. If a kid fell behind, we used to wait until they were performing a couple of years below grade level, then give them academic and cognitive tests, use the scores to prove they had a significant gap between performance and ability, thus a learning disability, qualify them for special education, and then give them, arguably, the help we could have given them all along if we did it that way.

One problem was, if a child wasn't reading on grade level before the end of first grade, there was about a one in eight chance that she would ever catch up, special ed or not. Another problem was that most special education students tend to do better in the general education classroom. There are many reasons for this. Role models. Peer pressure --yes, it is often positive! Higher expectations.

The old model is now called the "wait-to-fail" model. What has replaced it is called "Early Intervention" or "Response to Intervention". Identify students who struggle early, perhaps with a test of reading fluency like the DIBELS. Give those students targeted interventions specifically for the learning problem they are having right now. These are usually provided by a general education teacher, not a special education teacher. It is not specially designed instruction as part of an IEP.

If the student continues to struggle after the interventions, then you test. Their response to the interventions is part of the information that you consider when making decisions about evaluating for special education eligibility. But what happens when you implement early interventions is that fewer students fall so far behind that they qualify for special education, let alone special education in a separate setting.

It's a beautiful thing!

Answer 4

I would guess that it may be a LOCATION where services are given like Targeted Services or Title One - rather than special education services that you HAVE to have an IEP to get.

Most districts keep those seperate locations but I would assume that perhaps it either looks like a resource room or that is what it is called.

Answer 5

Probably the reason the child is going to this class is because she scored low on the state tests, and they want to help her so the school can get more money.

THis happened to my child. She was failing all classes and I was trying to get her help thru special ed.

You wouldn't BELIEVE how horrible the school was toward me.

When this all started, my daughter brought home a paper 'congratulations, your child has been chosen for after school help'.

No explaination of WHY, WHAT, nothing. But I thought, 'well good, she needs all the help she can get.

Two YEARS went by she didn't improve. I wrote to teacher asking WHAT are they doing to help her, WHY are they helping her, WHAT are the problems they are helping with, Is she progressing?

NO answer. Then I wrote this letter to after school teacher. NO answer.

THen I wrote to the DIRECTOR of this program, who is ALSO the asst. principal. SHe told me that she did not have ANY INFORMATION about this program?

WTF??

SHe said I would have to ask the SST director. NO answer.

THEN, we had an SST meeting for my child and I brought out the letter. You should have  SEEN how they were avoiding me.

FINALLY, the SST director said 'this program is NOT to help a child with their problems, it is to help the child pass the state tests.

Everyone in that meeting looked like they were going to KILL her.

I BLEW UP. I said 'hmm, yall have been fighting me for over 2 yrs because you don't want to help her with HER problems.

I want her OUT of that program RIGHT NOW because if you are not going to help her with HER problems, she is NOT going to help you with YOURS.

I do have to say that schools CAN provide this help honestly and TRUTHFULLY,  but WITHOUT an IEP plan they are not legally required to do so and can stop the help at any time and you can't do a thing about it.

Answer 6

It could be she receives help in a Title I (Chapter I) Reading or Math room rather than a Resource Room.

The federal government provides money for Title I classroom teachers who serve at-risk students in Reading or Math. However, nowadays, most school systems divert this money into a classroom teacher position which is possible since that teacher still provides instruction in math and reading.

In order to get help from a special ed teacher who has a Resource Room, a student must have an IEP. It might be possible for a special ed teacher to be employed part-time as special ed and part-time as Title I. Then it would be possible to schedule combo-classes.

Answer 7

Are you sure she got Resource Room services-not Basic Skills Instructioin-

you do not need an IEP for Basic Skills Instruction-

it could have been held in a designated 'resource room'