Shari
IsItFridayYet?
I would be glad to meet with you at anytime. For now though, I wanted
to make an effort to answer some of your questions.
In hindsight, when difficult child was removed from his other school, I feel like we should have
probably started out on 1/2 days at that point. He was placed in a
completely different learning environment with very different routines
and expectations. With the issues we were facing, I was wondering if
this were even the right placement for him. My point in saying this, is
for the first time, since he has went to 1/2 days, I do feel like he is
meeting some success. That being said, we still have issues, it just
seems the ones that we have been seeing, have not been as drastic -
granted he really has only been on 1/2 days for a week. You ask about a
time-line. Truthfully, I do not feel comfortable in setting a deadline.
I want to make sure that we see enough consistency in behaviors and how
they are being dealt with/handled before we make the mistake of throwing
him back into full days. Even though you may not view it from this
point, I believe it is for difficult child's benefit too. I have to make sure
that the school environment is safe for everyone - students and
teachers. I can not allow staff members and students to be physically
hit/kicked/spit on and verbally threatened by difficult child. The earliest
that I would want to look at adding time is following spring break. But
again, I would want to make sure that consistency was present. My
thought is that we would look at adding specials (12:10 - 1:10 art,
music, P.E....) to his day - see how that goes for a week or so. If
that were successful, we could look at adding math time (1:10 - 2:10).
If things were going well with that addition after several days, we
could look at ending the day with us towards the end of the school year
in an attempt to have him ready for summer school.
As far as the evaluation, the SPED staff is working on trying to
complete it as soon as possible. I do want to point out that even after
the evaluations are complete and we determine he is/is not eligible for
an IEP, I do not really see the services he receives changing all that
much. Since he started with us, we have basically treated him as though
he were on an IEP. Besides some related services he may/may not be
eligible for, he will continue to have the same interventions he has had
since day one.
You also inquired as to what was being "done to address the
environmental and support issues that are contributing to his problems
staying at school." I truly feel like my staff members are doing
everything they can to make difficult child successful. We are continuing to
work with the team from MU on ways that we can build consistency for
difficult child and ways that we can try to head-off some of the issues. You
have said before many times that difficult child is unpredictable and that there
is not always a warning or a trigger to try to detour his acting out.
At times, I feel like you are inferring that it was the "school" that
was responsible for difficult child's actions. I hope that I am misjudging in
my assumptions, but I can promise you that they are working very hard to
make difficult child comfortable in our school. This Saturday, SpEd Teacher, "sort of" para, and I, are taking part in an 8-hour training on Non-Violent
Crisis Intervention which will also hopefully allow us to add to our
tools for working with difficult child. The other two para's are scheduled to
take part in the training at a later date. difficult child will continue to
work with all three para's since they are also involved with other
students in our building.
Your last question was regarding how you could assist. Truthfully, the
best thing would be to continue to support our plans and efforts in
making difficult child successful in the school setting. I know that it has to
be frustrating on your end and probably inconvienent to have him only
attending 1/2 days. We just want to make sure that we are not setting
him up to fail by putting him right back into it before he is ready.
Again, I would be glad to meet with you if you have further questions.
to make an effort to answer some of your questions.
In hindsight, when difficult child was removed from his other school, I feel like we should have
probably started out on 1/2 days at that point. He was placed in a
completely different learning environment with very different routines
and expectations. With the issues we were facing, I was wondering if
this were even the right placement for him. My point in saying this, is
for the first time, since he has went to 1/2 days, I do feel like he is
meeting some success. That being said, we still have issues, it just
seems the ones that we have been seeing, have not been as drastic -
granted he really has only been on 1/2 days for a week. You ask about a
time-line. Truthfully, I do not feel comfortable in setting a deadline.
I want to make sure that we see enough consistency in behaviors and how
they are being dealt with/handled before we make the mistake of throwing
him back into full days. Even though you may not view it from this
point, I believe it is for difficult child's benefit too. I have to make sure
that the school environment is safe for everyone - students and
teachers. I can not allow staff members and students to be physically
hit/kicked/spit on and verbally threatened by difficult child. The earliest
that I would want to look at adding time is following spring break. But
again, I would want to make sure that consistency was present. My
thought is that we would look at adding specials (12:10 - 1:10 art,
music, P.E....) to his day - see how that goes for a week or so. If
that were successful, we could look at adding math time (1:10 - 2:10).
If things were going well with that addition after several days, we
could look at ending the day with us towards the end of the school year
in an attempt to have him ready for summer school.
As far as the evaluation, the SPED staff is working on trying to
complete it as soon as possible. I do want to point out that even after
the evaluations are complete and we determine he is/is not eligible for
an IEP, I do not really see the services he receives changing all that
much. Since he started with us, we have basically treated him as though
he were on an IEP. Besides some related services he may/may not be
eligible for, he will continue to have the same interventions he has had
since day one.
You also inquired as to what was being "done to address the
environmental and support issues that are contributing to his problems
staying at school." I truly feel like my staff members are doing
everything they can to make difficult child successful. We are continuing to
work with the team from MU on ways that we can build consistency for
difficult child and ways that we can try to head-off some of the issues. You
have said before many times that difficult child is unpredictable and that there
is not always a warning or a trigger to try to detour his acting out.
At times, I feel like you are inferring that it was the "school" that
was responsible for difficult child's actions. I hope that I am misjudging in
my assumptions, but I can promise you that they are working very hard to
make difficult child comfortable in our school. This Saturday, SpEd Teacher, "sort of" para, and I, are taking part in an 8-hour training on Non-Violent
Crisis Intervention which will also hopefully allow us to add to our
tools for working with difficult child. The other two para's are scheduled to
take part in the training at a later date. difficult child will continue to
work with all three para's since they are also involved with other
students in our building.
Your last question was regarding how you could assist. Truthfully, the
best thing would be to continue to support our plans and efforts in
making difficult child successful in the school setting. I know that it has to
be frustrating on your end and probably inconvienent to have him only
attending 1/2 days. We just want to make sure that we are not setting
him up to fail by putting him right back into it before he is ready.
Again, I would be glad to meet with you if you have further questions.