My difficult child always behaved worse right before big celebrations or field trips, especially if the school used the threat of taking away those activities to try to get him to behave well. I brought this up in several IEP meetings, and finally this was put in his IEP. They stopped threatening him and started being more proactive and positive before these big events, and he started to do better.
We finally got the school to see that taking away and punishing a kid with ODD doesn't work nearly as well as offering extra rewards. With my difficult child the rewards are usually small, like if he kept up good behavior and was good on the field trip, he would get to eat lunch with his teacher or he'd get to have a shake with his resource room teacher.
Too concerned? Sounds like they want you to drop the request for different placement or extra services so they're making you doubt yourself. My difficult child's kindergarten teacher told me I was overreacting and that my difficult child was normal. I'd like to see her tell that to every teacher who's dealt with difficult child since.
Linda