klmno
Active Member
We see the hearing officer at school today and he/she will tell us if difficult child is allowed to go straight back to mainstream school or has to go to alternative school. They are trying to say that this transitional program they now have could heelp difficult child because he was in middle school before and has been in Department of Juvenile Justice a year and it could set him back to go straight to a large, open campus type high school. While I see that point, I'm thinking that difficult child didn't get into trouble at school and shouldn't be punished by the school system, his head is on straight right now and he has academic ambitions and is motivated but it will be a blow to that to have to go to school where there are shortened days, the focus is on discipline, and the academics are sub-standard; plus, he has a transitional plan and supports in place now (po and mentor) that will not be there next year so it appears to me that now would be the time they would want to transition him- not after these extra supports are no longer there. And of course, I'm concerned that the "minimum 9 week transitional period" which will be the rest of this school year, will turn into the rest of his high school years and basicly blow his academic ambitions. And right now he has good grades so if they drop due to adjusting to new types of class style and tons of homework, etc, they won't drop enough to fail once they are averaged in with the grades he has- I can't see one transition now and another, bigger transition in the fall.
difficult child's position is that he was never caught up into drugs (I guess he's thinking in terms of having a drug habit) or gangs and hasn't been a discipline problem at school the last 2 years and he's concerned that if he's going to school with people who have, it will be his downfall be/c he'll get caught up into worse than he has before. I think these are valid points- but being a disciplinary officer, he/she might not listen or care about a single thing either of us have to say.
We are both nervous about this but trying to prepare each other for the worst and tell each other that he can do this and just do whatever it takes to be allowed back into mainstream at the start of next school year, if they won't let him go now. We both said last night that this is like waiting for another court hearing in front of the judge to find out another sentence. SIGH...
And now I find that difficult child was on the computer during the night...
difficult child's position is that he was never caught up into drugs (I guess he's thinking in terms of having a drug habit) or gangs and hasn't been a discipline problem at school the last 2 years and he's concerned that if he's going to school with people who have, it will be his downfall be/c he'll get caught up into worse than he has before. I think these are valid points- but being a disciplinary officer, he/she might not listen or care about a single thing either of us have to say.
We are both nervous about this but trying to prepare each other for the worst and tell each other that he can do this and just do whatever it takes to be allowed back into mainstream at the start of next school year, if they won't let him go now. We both said last night that this is like waiting for another court hearing in front of the judge to find out another sentence. SIGH...
And now I find that difficult child was on the computer during the night...
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