difficult child, grade 2, getting switched to an E.D. unit within our district

[cboz]

His school is finally doing something substantial. After failing to do something proactive for 2 months, they are now (hold on to your hats!) getting an IEP written in ONE WEEK to get him switched to an E.D. unit. We appealed his last 5-day suspension with medical documentation out the wazoo, and that really lit a fire under them.

During the manifestation determination, they wanted to put him on half-days at school in the interim period while the IEP is being drafted. We refused. They have been putting this back on us for weeks now, and I've had it. We're doing everything we can at home to stabilize him. We've tried many different behavior modification techniques (now on 1-2-3 Magic and Collaborative Problem Solving), tried 22 different medication variations/changes in the past 3 months, and have visited 4 different mental health agencies. The school hasn't helped his teacher put ANY proactive interventions in place, so she's been struggling with this on her own with 24 other kids in class. It was time for them to step up. So, the principal (who he punched in the face last week), will be more-or-less babysitting him all day while these IEP evaluations go on. I consider it karma - she wouldn't do anything to be proactive, only reactive (3 suspensions in 3 months), and now she's stuck with him all day every day for a week.

The E.D. unit should help him. We're still tweaking medications, and with any luck, he'll only be in that unit for a year or so. Maybe less. He's a fast learner and a highly intelligent child, so I expect he'll pick up on the techniques pretty quickly.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

 

[HaoZi]

Great work warrior mom! Now stay on top of them to make sure the IEP is the best, too.

 

[JJJ]

Great job! The smaller classroom, more highly trained teacher and aides should help a lot!!

22 different medication combos in 3 months???? That's a medication change every 3 days....how can you tell if it is working or not????

 

[cboz]

22 different medication combos in 3 months???? That's a medication change every 3 days....how can you tell if it is working or not????

By changes, that means not just the adding of a new medication, but sometimes the removal of some medications. So, for instance, he would be on 10 mg. of something for a week, then we'd bump up to 15 for 2 days, see a negative result, then back in back down to 10. (That's 3 changes right there - the addition, the bump up, and the bump down). We tried Risperidol for a while, then stopped it after it didn't make a difference over 3 weeks. We initially tried various levels with the medications he was on for 2 years. We made changes with the ADHD medications too, which show pretty quickly if they work well or not. Some caused ticks the first day he was on them, so we didn't try them again. That sort of stuff.

 

[pepperidge]

I think this question was asked on the other forum--but do you see the lexapro making a difference? That was the medication that caused my son to overturn desks in his classroom after three days. And later on he had a similar reaction to Prozac.