How hard is it to organize ESY?????

[JJJ]

The same supervisor that oversaw the disaster that was 2nd semester of 4th grade for Tigger is the supervisor for the ESY programs in our area. ESY starts in less than two weeks. I just got the letter for Eeyore on Friday and Tigger's letter has still not arrived. Since they could be assigned a class time anywhere between 8am-2:30pm it was impossible to register them for any summer programs, impossible to make committed plans, etc. I called, again, today to get Tigger's info. Per her, his letter may have been in the group that went out on the 7th -- which means it won't get here until the weekend, giving less than 10 days notice.

Tigger has been assigned the earliest class time (despite it being said at his IEP meeting that he was to be given the latest possible start), was not assigned to his social worker's group (despite it being noted in his IEP that it should be a priority to do so), and she is refusing to tell me how many, if any, of the same kids from his fall class are in his group (because he won't be able to come home after the first day and tell me???).

Under her supervision, the ED program was a disaster. Of the 3 children assigned to it over the course of the year, two were yanked out by their parents (including us) due to the gross incompetence of the staff. The superintendent of our district gave me a personal apology regarding how bad it was. This year, with a new supervisor who fired all the staff except 1, the program has been the most amazing success. When everyone saw how great the program was, it went from 2 boys to 6 by the end of the year, because principals were no longer terrified to send a child there.

She definitely threw the teacher under the bus but now seeing how she handled the ESY programs, he lack of managerial skills were also a clear factor.

So now, for a ridiculous 18 hours of "social skills", it will take me at least 18 hours to deal with her. Now I have to research the staff he has been assigned to, call around to see which of the boys may be in his room, and if, after researching it, think that it may be worth a try, drive Tigger there on the first day and observe to see if they can handle the classroom.

Tigger's staff pushed me very hard to let them put him in ESY and I very reluctantly agreed. I worked hard to get Tigger all excited about going. Now, I already have a headache.

[Sheila]

Makes one want to pull your hair out.

Sounds like the district is having pretty profound problems with their personnel....

[JJJ]

I found out today that she is merely the 'organizer' for the ESY programs but that a different person is the direct supervisor. Thankfully, the direct supervisor is more competent so I'm going to talk to her this afternoon and hope she can fix at least some of this.

[Sheila]

Fingers crossed for you

[JJJ]

I think we may be okay. I met with Tigger's social worker and the one whose class he is going to be in this summer. They agreed to evaluate how he does with the group he was assigned to and if they feel he'd be better in the later/older group, they will move him. He can't go to his regular sw because he is too old to mix with the kids she's been assigned. But they did agree that if Tigger shuts down or gets wild and the summer sw can't calm him down, that they will get his regular sw to come in and help. This is only an 18 hour summer program so I agreed to give it a try and hopefully it will go well.

This summer sw was Kanga's school sw in the last two months or so before we got the RTC funding. She was the only school employee to ever get that Kanga was extremely mentally ill. And she remembers me; she commented that she remembers how much I held the districts feet to the fire over their "services" for Kanga.

[Sheila]

Very glad it seems to have worked out well.

[JJJ]

Just an update now that we are halfway done with ESY, it has been going beautifully! Of course, the sw that was suppose to lead Tigger's class got very ill and they had a sub the first week but it went okay. Eeyore really likes his teacher and classmates and I have had no problems getting him to school other than minor teen whining. Tigger says that he loves it cause first they talk for 5 minutes then they do lots of playing

I saw the supervisor on the first day and we just ignored each other. I was not going to cause a scene in front of a group of children. (Course I nearly ripped the head off the SLP that actually said to a pair of 8th grade twins - one in summer school and one not - "so your brother must be smarter than you, since he doesn't have to come to summer school". Ugh, and this man chose to work in special ed???

[Sheila]

Insensitive clout! And that type thing can cause self-esteem and emotional problems. Sigh....

Good to hear ESY is working out for gfg.