any ideas for easy child?

janebrain

New Member
Hi,
I really need to change my signature--my easy child and difficult child have switched roles now! Anyway, my 15 yr old easy child is in 10th grade and has recently been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. She is on a 504 plan at school (based on misdiagnosis of ADHD) and we had a meeting last week to try to help her as she has all F's and D's on her 1st quarter report card. After talking with her and observing her this past week I really think she cannot do the schoolwork right now--she is overwhelmed and her emotional life is so hard for her to cope with that she just can't focus on school (also may be dealing with colitis). Her idea is that I pull her from school for a while and allow her to do more frequent and intense therapy with her therapist. I actually think this makes sense and have a call in to her therapist. However, I don't know how we would handle the school component--I mean I can't just legally pull her out. Her older sister had tutoring by the school for awhile but she was classified spec. ed for emotionally disturbed and she was suspended from school at the time! She was waiting to go to an Residential Treatment Center (RTC).

I have a call in to the school psychologist, whom I was very impressed with at the 504 meeting--maybe she has some ideas. My gut feeling is that easy child needs a break from the school setting. I cannot home school her--I work fulltime plus I think it would be a disaster since I have no patience for that kind of thing. What about online schools--any info on them?

Any ideas much appreciated--thanks!

Jane
 

janebrain

New Member
Hi again,
I just wanted to say that I talked with the school psychologist and she agrees that school is too much for Molly. She wants us to get her classified as Special Education so we can do something different--perhaps a tutor for part of the day, perhaps a different setting, something! I am relieved--this psychologist really seems to "get it". She is going to talk to Molly today and then get back to me. I feel better for going with my gut feeling on this--I can see that it is too much for Molly and that far more is going on internally than she lets anyone know about.
Still open to any suggestions or comments!
Thanks,
Jane
P.S. I changed my signature...
 

Martie

Moderator
Send a certified letter ASAP to get Molly Special Education certified. Don't be hostile but Molly needs this protection. What if this school psycholgisit leaves and the next one doesn't "get it."

I am not commenting on your plan. It may be the best thing for her. Just get the legal protections in place while you have a school psychiatric agreeing that school is "too much." That is a pretty negative impact (as well as Ds and Fs).

The evaluation should focus on both emotional and academic issues so that the tutor (or what ever) can be correctly targeted. On-line school usually takes either a lot of self-discipline or a parent present--it might not work right now.

Martie
 

Sheila

Moderator
She made need to be Homebound for a while, but the sd will likely buck you on this most particularly if she has a 504 rather than an IEP.
 

janebrain

New Member
I talked again with the psychiatric who talked with Molly and she is going ahead with referral for Special Education--I should get the paperwork soon. This psychiatric seems really committed to getting Molly the help she needs. My other dtr, the original difficult child, was on an IEP--found the school district to be very accomodating--no one has bucked me yet--maybe I live in an enlightened school district? I know I pay enough taxes, that is for sure!
Thanks for the help,
Jane
 
Top