Liz Weaver: Hi and welcome to IEP answers. I'm Liz Weaver of Learning Success and I'll be your host for this exciting video series. IAP answers is an initiative to help you understand individualized education plans, otherwise known as eps. In this video series, you will hear from educational professionals and parents alike giving you a well-rounded perspective from a variety of viewpoints. This information will help you determine if an IEP is needed at all, and if so, how to work with the school to design an IEP that is scaffolding to building a better student rather than a crutch for them to lean on. In today's video, we have Dr. Melissa and green. Dr. Green is a licensed psychologist with 20 years of experience in the mental health field. Dr. Green's background is in both clinical psychology and school psychology. She has had the amazing opportunity to serve culturally and ethnically diverse people across the country.
Liz Weaver: She has worked as a psychologist in the schools and the Washington DC metropolitan area as well as in Georgia, Hawaii, and on the island of St Thomas and Saint John in the US Virgin Islands. She opened her practice resilience and psychological fitness center in February of 2019 her practice offers emotional wellness groups evaluations and testing for school-aged children and adolescents and adults as well as treatment. She has a trauma therapist who has a passion for working with people dealing with ethnic and race-based traumatic stress as well as those who are dealing with the ongoing traumatic stress that often results from being a caregiver for an aging parent. In addition to running a part-time practice, she works full time and a state-run forensic hospital over the past two years. She has served as a forensic evaluator conducting court order competency to stand trial evaluations and violence risk assessments. She also provides expert testimony on the status of some of the individuals that she has evaluated when requested by the court. To learn more about Dr. Green, you can find her at psychfitcenter.com or follow her on Instagram or Facebook. In today's video, she tells us about the IEP process from the perspective of a school psychologist. Let's watch.
Dr. Melissa Green: Hello, I'm Dr. Melissa Green and I'm a licensed psychologist. My background is in both clinical psychology and school psychology. But for the purposes of this video, I will focus on my background and experiences in school psychology. I've worked as a psychologist in the schools in Washington, DC in Alexandria, Virginia, in Georgia on the big island of Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands on the islands of St Thomas and St John. And you're probably wondering what is a school psychologist? Many people have told me that they have never heard of a school psychologist. So, the role, the primary role of school psychologist is generally to conduct psychological or psychoeducational evaluations and provide consultation to the, um, educators as to how they can best support the children in their classroom. Prior to a child being evaluated by a school psychologist. There may be several meetings with members at the school team members at the school as well as with parents to discuss a child's progress or lack thereof and to discuss what type of interventions have been in place and what other types of inter interventions may be considered to implement.
Dr. Melissa Green: After all of those things have been exhausted and it appears that the child or adolescent is not making adequate progress, then a teacher and a parent may decide that they want to have a child or adolescent evaluated. And that evaluation usually consists of tests that look at um, their intellectual functioning, their academic skills may be behavior rating skills to see how they exhibit certain behaviors and the school environment versus the home environment or the community. Um, also, uh, there may be writing skills to screen for any type of emotional difficulties and after that evaluation is conducted and there may also be other evaluations the team will come back together and discuss the results and determine if the child meets special education eligibility criteria. And there are several different categories and in which, um, a child may become eligible. But if the child does become eligible for special education services, then an individualized education plan or IEP would be developed.
Dr. Melissa Green: And that plan is very specific to the needs of that child. And so it's based on the testing data and observations from the teachers and academic performance. The current academic performance and then that information is all collected and reviewed and the team will develop goals and objectives for the child and adolescents to work on and that progress would be monitored at various intervals with the team reconvening to discuss the child's progress. Um, so if you're concerned about your child's progress in school because of academic difficulties and or behavioral or emotional difficulties, I would advise you to consult with your teacher, the classroom teacher and talk about the options and determine at what point you may want to consider referring for an evaluation for special education eligibility consideration.
Liz Weaver: Thanks for that really informative video, Dr. Green. This video has been part of the IEP answers initiative and initiative to educate parents about IEPs from a variety of viewpoints. We've created this because this is an important subject that so many parents need to understand. Please make sure to share the video and use the Hashtag IEP answers so we can find you on social media. If you would like to be part of IEP answer's initiative and share your story or expertise on this subject, you can get in touch with us by using the contact form www.learningsuccesssystem.com please put IEP answers in the subject line. Thanks for watching and sharing in case no one has told you yet. Today, you are an amazing parent. I appreciate you for showing up and doing the work it takes to embrace your child's brilliance and unleash their potential. I'm Liz weaver from Learning Success.
Dr. Melissa N. Green is a licensed psychologist with 20 years of experience in the mental health field. Her background is in both clinical psychology and school psychology. She has had the amazing opportunity to serve culturally and ethnically diverse people across the country. She has worked as a psychologist in the schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, as well as in Georgia, Hawaii and on the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the US Virgin Islands.
She opened her private practice, Resilience, and Psychological Fitness Center, LLC, in February of 2019. Her practice offers emotional wellness groups, evaluations and testing for school-aged children and adolescents and adults, as well as treatment. She is a trauma therapist who has a passion for working with people dealing with ethnic and race-based traumatic stress as well as those who are dealing with the ongoing traumatic stress that often results from being a caregiver for an aging parent.
In addition to running a part-time practice, she works full-time in a state-run forensic hospital. Over the past two years, she has served as a forensic evaluator, conducting court order competency to stand trial evaluations and violence risk assessments. She also provides expert testimony on the status of some of the individuals that she has evaluated, when requested by the court.
To learn more about Dr. Green, please go to www.psychfitcenter.com or follow her on IG or Facebook - @drmelgreen
