FAQ

There is only one Frequently Asked Question I get, and it’s this one: Why aren’t you posting as much anymore? The answer is, I don’t see kids as much anymore. Unless I am covering for an LVN – which, per my contract, I am not supposed to have to do – I can easily go a day or two, or more without even seeing a single student. Your next question is probably going to be: what the heck do you do all day then?

Much of my work time is IEP assessment-related. It is coordinating an assessment with the staff (usually the school’s resource teacher or speech therapist), assessing the student, and then writing the report on that student. Parents fill out a detailed questionnaire on their student’s health history, and I include that in my report along with hearing and vision screening results. The majority of times, the students pass hearing and vision, I type up verbatim what the parent’s form says, and  move on. It feels like busy work, and unfortunately, what I spend the most of my time doing, I like the least. I just don’t see the point of spending an hour or two writing a lengthy report on a student that has been in Special Ed for five years for, say, a lisp. I don’t see why whether he was born via a C-section vs. vaginal delivery is of any relevance to his IEP. It can be interesting stuff sometimes (it is incredible to me the number of children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy), but we’re trying to further the kiddo’s current education, not perform a study about how smoking affects kids. I’ve made the suggestion to my colleagues that perhaps some of these things we are expected to include on our report are not actually relevant to the reason we’re having a meeting, but I was shot down immediately.

We also do state mandated hearing and vision screenings. In my previous district, I coordinated all these screenings, often did them by myself, and input the results in the computer. Here, they contract hearing screenings to an outside company, so I do none, other than the ones I do for IEPs. We have health clerks that coordinate the vision screenings, and we use SPOT vision screeners, so all I do for vision screenings now is show up, point, and shoot. Clerks record all the results, and send out referral letters for those that don’t pass. Boom, done.

Then there’s the case management stuff I do. Health plans, which are most in the beginning of the year but still come throughout. Following up on kids who need glasses, who aren’t taking medication, etc. It’s what I consider to be the most important role of mine, and also appears to be a last priority. The district gets reimbursed for my time for IEP assessments, money talks, and I don’t make the district any money by ensuring a student gets a much-needed pair of glasses.

In the other slivers of time I find, I might do a little first aid, talk with my co-workers like I actually like them (and some I do) or, you know…Pinterest.