So I went to our local SELPA meeting tonight on school alternatives...

[gcvmom]

It was informative. I learned a bit about the homeschool program, the two alternative highschools, the school for developmentally disabled (they take ages 3 thru 22), ROP, and Adult school. I'm thinking about what to do with difficult child 1 next year when he starts highschool.

Our district is building a brand new highschool, within walking distance of our house and difficult child 1 would be starting there in September.

BUT....

With all the problems he's having in middle school, I'm wondering now if that's really the best place for him, even though they will only be starting with a freshman and sophomore class.

What will the class sizes be like? What are the teachers going to be like? Course offerings? Electives? Athletic opportunities? What, what what?

So many unknowns.

And tonight at my monthly Ladies Night Out (formerly known as Bunco, except we don't play anymore, we just eat and drink) someone suggested yet another highschool in our district that apparently has a reputation for bending over backwards to accommodate students with special needs. I have some parents I need to interview about this based on their first-hand experience.

Of course, a lot depends on this neuropsychologist evaluation I'm working on securing in the next month or so, the 504 meeting I'm going to ask for in the morning, and the IEP evaluation I'm going to ask for after that.

difficult child 1 does better in smaller classes, quieter environments, with less pressure (don't we all?) -- he shuts down and spins in circles if he feels overwhelmed or if a situation/person intimidates him. (I'm starting to wonder about social anxiety in him). He told me last night that he's afraid of two of his teachers because they yell all the time. Not good. I plan to address that at the meeting we're going to set up.

The problems I see right now are:

1. He's been excited about attending the new highschool ever since we learned it was being built. He may have a shot at actually being on a sports team because there will be fewer kids trying out and the programs will be completely new. But they may not have the environment or services he needs. Plus, we just learned that the boundaries were finalized last night and more than half the kids at his middle school won't be going there.

2. I don't know if I have the bandwidth to homeschool him, based on a number of issues... but I think he would do really well if I could swing it.

3. The other district highschool sounds promising, but it's not even on his radar and I don't know that he'd be happy about it because he certainly wouldn't know ANYONE there. I need more info and should probably meet with the admin over there to find out more...

Anyone else ever been in a quandry like this about highschool?

Oh, and right now, I'm not even thinking he'll go to a 4-year college or uni out of HS. Community college is looking more and more realistic for him at this point, unless something in him changes dramatically... and soon!

 

[crazymama30]

I am not at the high school point with difficult child, we are just going into middle school. That has my wheels turning. We just went to an open house last night for a charter middle school. It is amazing. They will have one or two classes of 23 6th graders(depends on funding). They do a lot of active learning, field work, and also include a lot of social stuff in the class room. It looks really cool. Both husband and I really liked it. difficult child does not like the idea, but he never likes anything.

I would go with the high school that caters to special needs. With our school district, if difficult child wants to play sports he can play on his "home" schools team and attend the charter school. You may want to see if your state has something like that in place, many do for home schoolers.

Hope all works out for you. Hugs.

 

[ML]

The good news is that you have some seemingly good options there. I'm thinking out loud here but what about a combination approach? In other words partial days at the cool new HS with a couple of courses done by e-school. Is that possible? That's what I'm thinking about for manster when he goes to MS in 2 years. I don't even know if it's possible but it seems like it might work for him.

 

[JJJ]

We're going through the same thing here. We've settled on Kanga going to the regular high school if she is discharged from Residential Treatment Center (RTC). We looked at the TDS but they didn't have enough options. I'd like to have her bused to a different high school in our district just so her younger brothers and sister don't have to grow up in the shadow of what is sure to be a poor reputation but the district won't go for that. Our school is huge (3K+ students) so I'm hoping the littles can just avoid the same activities as Kanga.