The wife and I are members of a Facebook group for local parents of children with Autism, and as much as transportation has been a major source of frustration for me, it’s been echoed in their own messages. And while it’s nice to know we’re not alone with a problem, it’s still a problem (and it being common doesn’t make it any better).
So today, because I really have little insight into why the Monster’s ride is 75-90 minutes, I decided to follow his bus in the morning. Continue reading
So. The new school year begins on Monday.
We’ve been building up to this all summer, trying to keep him from back-sliding as much as possible, and now the day is finally here. Continue reading
After today, there are only five days before the Monster returns to school for his second year in the public school system.
There are a lot of questions about the coming school year. How much has he regressed over the summer? How much good did his ESY services at camp do? How much good did the social interaction from camp do? Will this year be better in terms of his progress?
And my big question for this year – will the bussing be any better? Continue reading
I’ll be writing about our weekend over the coming days – I just need to have some time to get a few more photos taken and to collect my notes, and then I’ll be getting that cranked out.
This morning, though, was my meeting with the Monster’s providers. With the bus problems last week, and my irate emails to the school system, his IEP coordinator asked me to come in this morning to discuss the implementation of FAPE vis-a-vis his education. Continue reading
The biggest problem with the school year ending, and with the bus problem being unresolved, is that there are differing opinions about what I ought to be doing about the problem.
There’s really no good course of action – three days later, the Baltimore City Public Schools have still not answered any of my emails regarding the matter. There is no positive purpose to the “ignore it and he’ll go away” logic since, plainly, the Monster is returning to their schools in the fall. Continue reading
The bussing issue reared its ugly head again.
For anyone who is new to my blog – or doesn’t follow my tweet feed – the Monster is bussed from our house to his elementary school and back each day. The school he attends is not our zone school, which is five minutes away and roughly in our neighborhood, but all the way across the city. His bus ride, on a good day, is somewhere between thirty-five and forty-five minutes. Continue reading
I’m somewhere between thinking that they’re going round-and-round or falling off… take your pick.
The Monster likes taking the bus, it seems. He’s used to the pattern of it, and he’s pretty much good about knowing what’s expected of him vis-a-vis using it every day. Continue reading
The bus saga. Ah, the bus saga. Continue reading
Every so often, the Monster’s bus is seriously late picking him up.
Most of the time, the bus is here within about ten minutes on either side of their designated pick-up/drop-off times, which I think is fairly normal. Traffic varies day by day, accidents along the route, how fast parents can get their kids on the bus… and never mind that the children on this bus are, as far as I know, all special-needs. Continue reading
Sorry for not posting as usual this weekend – I decided to take a break and spend as much of it with my family as I could, rather than worrying about blogging. 🙂
Anyway. So, I wrote last week about our disaster with bussing (see I Aim to Misbehave) on Tuesday afternoon. I was very happy, as I wrote, with the school system’s response to the issue and how they took me seriously when I complained about it. Continue reading