Bad news..

[Californiablonde]

I spoke with the school regarding transportation for my son to be taken to the boys and girls' club next year. Since he has an IEP and he's Special Education, I thought he would qualify for the busing program, since difficult child 1 has been taking that bus for several years. I was just informed that difficult child 2 does not qualify for the bus since he is in RSP classes. Apparently a child has to be in SDC classes to be able to take the Special Education bus. difficult child 1 is in mostly all ED classes so she qualified right away. Unforntunately even the Asperger's diagnosis isn't even enought to qualify difficult child 2.

So the boys and girls club, which is free, is not an option for him. Right now he is going to a before and after school daycare that is on the school site and very expensive. I am paying $300 just for him to be watched an hour before school and two hours after school. I am VERY behind in my payments. I owe well over a thousand dollars. Yesterday when I picked him up the daycare supervisor informed me that my son is not going to be accepted next year. I owe too much money and they would need the entire balance paid off plus the first month of September's tuition. I do not work in the summer so there is no possible way I could make payments.

I can barely afford paying them anything as it is with me working. I do not work at all in July and August and I basically live off of child support and a very small savings in the summer. There is no possible way I can come up with that kind of money. I don't know what I'm going to do about this. If I don't have daycare for my son, I will lose my job. Even if my son did qualify for the boys and girls club, they are only open after school and I would still need him to be watched an hour before school by the school daycare center. Now that they say I am not welcome back in September, I have no other options. So either way I'm screwed. I don't know what I'm going to do. I am going to call the district supervisor and see if I can make extra payments next year, but I'm not very hopeful she will let me. Besides, I simply can't afford it anyway. Just when I thought things were looking up, more bad news comes along.

 

[welcometowitsend]

Oh no! That is awful. You were so thrilled in your previous post. I wish there were some way you could explain your situation and see if there is any possibility you could get an exception made for difficult child. I know it's a longshot but.....

I wish I had some answers for you. Maybe the daycare supervisor or the person who runs the boys and girls club may be able to help you brainstorm some answers.

What a huge letdown for you. I'm sorry. Hugs

 

[Liahona]

What are RSP and SDC classes? I could see how they wouldn't want an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) kid with the ED kids. It would be torture for the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) kid.

Are there other daycares? Around here there are much cheaper daycares that will transport to and from school. I see the vans at the schools. Is there a neighbor or friend of his from school who can pick him up and take him to school? Is he responsible enough to leave for an hour at home? Or would that be a complete disaster?

Sorry things aren't working out like you planned.

 

[Californiablonde]

Lahona, RSP classes are for learning disabilties or ADHD. In our school, SDC classes (special day classes) are more for kids who are mentally retarded, severely physically handicapped, lower functioning autistic, and Down's Syndrome. ED classes (emotional disturbed) are for kids with psychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder, etc. I was under impression that any kid with an IEP would qualify to get on the Special Education bus. After all, my son is special needs so I don't know why it would even matter what type of classes he is in. As for staying at home, that wouldn't work. For one thing, in California the legal age that a child can stay home by themselves is twelve. My son won't be twelve until October 17th. Plus how is he supposed to get to school and get home? I refuse to let him walk by himself. It's way too dangerous these days to let my kid walk by himself. I don't know any of my neighbors, and his friends parents all work so they are not an option either. I don't see any way around this...sigh.

 

[buddy]

Busing can't by law be tied to any diagnosis. or program. It is a related service or adaptation for any child who needs it based on individual challenges and it is a team decision. Sounds like your son does not have issues with the bus and can attend his program without that kind of related service so that is a bummer. BUT, can you call to the boys/girls club and see if there are other kids from his school that go there. I imagine that you paying a parent for carpool or transport services would be far less than the daycare costs. There could be someone you could hire too...maybe a high school student who would be willing to get paid for driving him there that would still be less than the cost of the onsite daycare.

(depending on how far it is, a taxi one way there may even be less than daycare...lots of kids take taxi's at my sons current school)


edit: just had this thought....you could tell your son to act up and make life horrible on the bus for the last week of school! (ok kidding)

Just some thoughts. Such a bummer, I am sorry.

 

[Liahona]

How about a different daycare? One that transports to and from school.

 

[Californiablonde]

There are no other after school daycares that do that. Unfortunately, us parents are stuck paying for a higher priced on school day care center because there are no other options. It's even worse in the summer. Thank goodness I don't work. Full time summer daycare is astranomical. I don't know how parents who work in the summer can afford to pay it, especially single parents like me.

 

[helpangel]

OK gonna throw a couple idea's out there not sure if any of them would fly but if sound like might work worth a try...

If his IEP has anything about social skills a good advocate could get the boys & girls club written into the IEP as participating satisfying a goal. (bus already at school its cheaper for them to let him on it then set up a social skills group)

Might go to welfare office apply for daycare assistance and explain on verge of losing job over daycare costs also mention boys & girls club to them - might get state worker to strong arm district into letting him on that bus to avoid a future welfare recipient (wink, wink) who knows they might approve daycare assistance and here it's good for $2.37 /hr toward your daycare costs. (every little bit helps)

Other people to discuss this with would be director of boys & girls club & Special Education director - it's wrong for anyone to discriminate one disability against another - if the need is there for a Special Education student it should be the districts goal to satisfy that need. boys & girls club people usually want what's best for the kids.

It's like when I get in mission mode I keep hounding whoever needs to see it my way to make it happen and while I'm hounding them I keep pointing out what I'm suggesting is the most inexpensive and painless method possible to get what needs to happen done. Eventually they can't come up with a decent argument and give in ; at least thats how its worked here when I was right.

You are right that your son needs & deserves this so go to the wall with them until they make it happen - don't put that armor away just yet. Sending some extra warrior energy your way

 

[tiredmommy]

Would it be cheaper than the $300 to arrange private transportation to the afterschool program? Perhaps there's another parent that would be thrilled to get $20 or $30 a week to get difficult child there? Or a counsellor at the program?

 

[keista]

Did you ask the daycare program if they have any financial assistance program available?

And just out of curiosity, did you include the childcare costs in the child support calculations? here in FL Child care and medical care are separate line items and if extra is paid for those, then that cost is also split and added to regular support.

 

[Californiablonde]

Yes the daycare has financial assistance and nope I don't even come close to qualifying. Not by a mile. All the parents I know work so it's not an option to have someone drive him to the boys and girls club. Besides, there's still the before school problem. I need to be to work by seven thirty. I work a half hour away from the school. School starts at 8:00. The kids aren't allowed to be on campus until 7:45. I need to drop off my son at daycare by 6:45 so I can drop off difficult child 1 at her high school by 7:00. The daycare is banning my son from coming there mornings or afternoon. I still don't know what I'm going to do.

 

[Californiablonde]

OH and the child support issue. Y'all are gonna think I'm incredibly stupid but I made a deal with ex to settle for a certain amount of child support, and I agreed on him not paying for half of the daycare costs. The court was going to make him pay half but I was nice about it and said forget it because I thought for sure he would qualify for the boys and girls' club next year. Ex and I already signed the new agreement. The court already processed the papers. There's no going back now. I could just kick myself. I felt threatened and bullied by him so I let him intimidate me into taking less money than the courts were going to make him pay.

 

[hearts and roses]

How about speaking with the director of the program and seeing if he/she could help you coordinate a car pooling situation with another parent(s). I had to do that when mine were little because we lived too far from the bus pickup and by the time the bus came, I had to be on my way to work all summer. It helped a lot.

Too bad you didn't wait until the camp stuff was settled before agreeing with ex about anything. That bites.