My daughter has had an IEP since fairly early in her school career; I cannot remember if it was first or second grade. She is now in 9th grade, and repeated 6th grade.

Her IEP is for a significant identifiable emotional disability (SEID), as reaching past her comfort zone is very difficult for her. In one wealthier school, this got her time with a school counselor, but when we moved to a less wealthy school, there were not sufficient resources to assist her. She does have some emotionally linked issues that we have worked with over the years where the IEP has helped, such as a strong distaste for good hygiene that still plagues us to some extent. She has been in special education math and reading up until this year. The reading is because she overloads in a large class and is less successful; the math is for an inability to grasp math concepts. Despite this, and despite annual verbal requests for testing, the previous school district has not tested her for dyscalculia, a learning disability for which she has a preponderance of symptoms. With no diagnosis, however, I cannot count on assistance for that LD, nor assistance should she actually make it to college. Her hatred of school makes college somewhat unlikely, at least right out of high school.

Since she is a bit of a social outcast as a Goth, she was also mistreated at school, despite an avowed "zero tolerance" on bullies. She was pushed into lockers, teased, called names, and often manhandled physically in ways that were not obvious. She didn't want to run to the principal every time it happened, and when she did report it we saw no results. I took her out of public school in the middle of her 8th grade year, and we homeschooled for a semester, focusing primarily on math. This year she is in 9th grade in the k12.com system, where she works on a computer at home most of the time. I have seen some notes to her about her IEP this year, as I am copied in on correspondence. At this point, success seems rather distant, but she has not been at this school for even a month yet, so we are hoping for a gradual improvement. At least her IEP seems to be part of the discussion here.