Three days into the school year, and the IEP chair from the Monster’s school is still ignoring the single, easy question that I asked her. Of course, so is the person who is in charge of implementing IEPs in the district, so I might have to pick up a phone and start being my normal self again.
On the other hand… things are getting off to a good start with the specialists. Continue reading
Today was the second day of first grade for the Monster. Continue reading
The new school year begins on Monday.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife took the Monster to his new school today to get him familiarized with the place before the chaos of the official “seat sneak peek” tomorrow night. it was a quick breeze-through visit – the staff were busy in a meeting, and so he was given the chance to go see his classroom and the like, and my wife briefly met his teacher and the vice-principal of the lower school.
I have to say, honestly, that I’m already concerned. Continue reading
The Monster’s first day of first grade starts a week from Monday.
This will be another large change from him, on the scale of the change that he went through when he was pulled out of the private nursery school program he was in at the JCC and sent to Garrett Heights Elementary/Middle School for pre-K. The first day of school will find him at a new building – our zone school, Mount Washington – and in a far larger class than he’s been in previously in any prior environment, with fewer adults around him. Continue reading
I think everyone has seen, through the two plus years that I have been blogging about being the father of a child with Autism, about how I advocate for my son in the schools to get him the resources he needs to succeed. You’ve seen my struggles and frustrations, and the occasional victory, all while I’ve groaned and grumbled about how the school district seems to be rigged against children like my Monster and that they don’t seem to hear us when we complain to them.
Well, it looks like I’m about to have more of a voice.
Continue reading
Hopefully, this is my last IEP-related post for a while. 🙂
As most parents of special needs children with IEPs know, the process can either be very easy or very tiring, with most tending towards the latter rather than the former. It’s the reading over the reports before showing up at the meetings, figuring out what the reports are missing and where you have documentation to fill those gaps, where you have evidence to contradict the reports from the teachers, where you have doubts… and then showing up for the meeting to slug it out and sure that you’re writing a document that has the child’s best interest involved in it. Continue reading
Today’s IEP meeting was not really much of a change from what we had before.
The goal, to us, was to get the Monster an aide for next year. He’s moving back to his zone school, and while that’s a Good Thing, we’re really sure there are enough supports in place. Continue reading
In my last post, I mentioned that we had the Monster’s IEP meeting. This obviously means that I was at his school, in the morning, rather than my usual Thursday afternoon stop to grab my kid. While I was waiting for the meeting-time, I saw a school bus pull into the school lot, discharging their kids and then going on its merry way.
The problem? It was 9:25, and the school starts at 9 AM. Continue reading
Today was the IEP meeting to discuss our concerns about the newly-crafted IEP from February.
A few weeks ago, when we’d called Ms. R to schedule the meeting, she asked us if we wanted Early Learning involved. We said no – we’d had a horrible experience with the woman from Early Learning (the one who ripped out the Monster’s ESY) – because we didn’t know what they could possibly contribute to the meeting. So this morning, it was us, our advocate, the IEP chair, the SLP, his special-ed teacher Ms. A, the general educator he sees in the mornings, and the school social worker. Continue reading
Last night, while we were prepping for today’s (now postponed) IEP meeting, we started looking at the website for the school that the Monster will be attending next year.
It’s weird, to consider the differences between two elementary schools in the same district. And while we had already known that the Mount Washington School is a far better school than Garrett Heights… it’s shocking. Continue reading