F
flutterbee
Guest
I posted this first on the General Board and was advised to repost here. A brief background on difficult child. She is in the 6th grade (age 11) diagnosis with chronic depression and severe anxiety. Recent neuropysch evaluation shows significant neurological deficincies in non-verbal areas, auditory procssing issues and mulit-sensory integration deficiencies. She also developed cluttering in her speech in the 2nd grade that has progressively worsened to the point where it is hard to understand her at times. Before the school can sit down for an IEP we have to go through an IAT (Intervention Assistance Team - or something similar). There are no evaluations done with an IAT and they narrow everything down to one or two issues that need to be addressed. They try that for 6 weeks and see how it goes. Yet, they are refusing to even start an IAT until they receive the report from the neuropysch - which I've been waiting on for over a month and have now been promised it by Tuesday. Further, they are (now) saying that they cannot provide speech therapy through the SD unless it adversely affects her education. Ummm...it affects her ability to GET to school because it really plays into her anxiety and is worse when her anxiety level is higher...just goes round and round.
My original post:
difficult child has not been to school for the last 3 days. After reading the other posts, this seems to be a popular thing this week.
difficult child was homeschooled second half of last year. I call it homeschool, but it's actually an at home, internet-based pubic school. Her transition back to regular school was tough this year, but she's been making progress. During the transition she missed some school due to huge anxiety-induced meltdowns (curled up in the corner of the landing for 3 hours saying she wanted to die kinda thing). The guidance counselor called me and suggested that maybe she should be homeschooled again because it was too hard on the teachers when she missed. She also told me that they didn't want to have to turn me in for truancy and possibly have CPS involved. She changed her tune when I told her that as far as I was concerned the SD had some culpability in this. I have been communicating with the school district since the 2nd grade (difficult child is now in 6th) and they have done nothing except tell me that I was the one with the problem, not difficult child. Had they done the little things I had requested to help with her school anxiety, I really don't think it would have gotten this bad - and I do mean little things, like check her homework folder before she left to make sure she had her homework so she wouldn't panic at home when she forgot it which she did a lot - the teachers told me they didn't have time. Of course, the Student Services Director told me that if I asked them to do something like that, the teachers were required. By the way, when I made that request she had 2 teachers in her classroom all day with only 22 students.
But I digress. I spoke with the therapist yesterday and she is recommending day treatment - checking on insurance coverage, so I'm not holding out much hope. She also mentioned a school for kids with Learning Disability (LD)'s (an hour away) where I might want to enroll difficult child temporarily to get a good IEP in place, because the process I have to go through with this SD is ridiculous and I know it's going to be a battle and will not be what is really needed.
I talked to the guidance counselor today and repeated the above. I also told her that I was considering re-enrolling difficult child in the homeschool program because she just couldn't function. Now she says she thinks it's a bad idea. However, she does want her medicated. Hmmm....something I've been saying for a long time, but you know, I was the one with the problem, not difficult child. Now the guidance counselor is saying she doesn't understand why she's not on a mood stabilizer yet. I almost asked her if she was going to pay for it, but I stopped myself. Guidance counselor also hinted that I might want to put her in private school. Maybe the difference between the homeschooling and private school is the homeschooling is actually through a charter school and they then get the money we pay through property taxes for the SD rather than the SD getting it and that wouldn't be an issue if I put her in private school?
The SD's attitude has always been exactly what her 3rd grade guidance counselor told me: "[difficult child] doesn't have a problem. You do." Even though I had been communicating with her middle school teachers and guidance counselor since day 1 of the school year (actually starting the week before school), they were shocked when I withdrew her from school last year. In fact, none of her teachers even noticed her speech problem, except her science teacher. All you have to do is speak with her for 5 seconds to notice it. How could you not notice it??? was my question.
Anyway, I'm preparing myself for a battle I'm ill prepared to fight at the moment because of my lack of knowledge on the subject. Any advice, ideas is welcome and appreciated.
My original post:
difficult child has not been to school for the last 3 days. After reading the other posts, this seems to be a popular thing this week.
difficult child was homeschooled second half of last year. I call it homeschool, but it's actually an at home, internet-based pubic school. Her transition back to regular school was tough this year, but she's been making progress. During the transition she missed some school due to huge anxiety-induced meltdowns (curled up in the corner of the landing for 3 hours saying she wanted to die kinda thing). The guidance counselor called me and suggested that maybe she should be homeschooled again because it was too hard on the teachers when she missed. She also told me that they didn't want to have to turn me in for truancy and possibly have CPS involved. She changed her tune when I told her that as far as I was concerned the SD had some culpability in this. I have been communicating with the school district since the 2nd grade (difficult child is now in 6th) and they have done nothing except tell me that I was the one with the problem, not difficult child. Had they done the little things I had requested to help with her school anxiety, I really don't think it would have gotten this bad - and I do mean little things, like check her homework folder before she left to make sure she had her homework so she wouldn't panic at home when she forgot it which she did a lot - the teachers told me they didn't have time. Of course, the Student Services Director told me that if I asked them to do something like that, the teachers were required. By the way, when I made that request she had 2 teachers in her classroom all day with only 22 students.
But I digress. I spoke with the therapist yesterday and she is recommending day treatment - checking on insurance coverage, so I'm not holding out much hope. She also mentioned a school for kids with Learning Disability (LD)'s (an hour away) where I might want to enroll difficult child temporarily to get a good IEP in place, because the process I have to go through with this SD is ridiculous and I know it's going to be a battle and will not be what is really needed.
I talked to the guidance counselor today and repeated the above. I also told her that I was considering re-enrolling difficult child in the homeschool program because she just couldn't function. Now she says she thinks it's a bad idea. However, she does want her medicated. Hmmm....something I've been saying for a long time, but you know, I was the one with the problem, not difficult child. Now the guidance counselor is saying she doesn't understand why she's not on a mood stabilizer yet. I almost asked her if she was going to pay for it, but I stopped myself. Guidance counselor also hinted that I might want to put her in private school. Maybe the difference between the homeschooling and private school is the homeschooling is actually through a charter school and they then get the money we pay through property taxes for the SD rather than the SD getting it and that wouldn't be an issue if I put her in private school?
The SD's attitude has always been exactly what her 3rd grade guidance counselor told me: "[difficult child] doesn't have a problem. You do." Even though I had been communicating with her middle school teachers and guidance counselor since day 1 of the school year (actually starting the week before school), they were shocked when I withdrew her from school last year. In fact, none of her teachers even noticed her speech problem, except her science teacher. All you have to do is speak with her for 5 seconds to notice it. How could you not notice it??? was my question.
Anyway, I'm preparing myself for a battle I'm ill prepared to fight at the moment because of my lack of knowledge on the subject. Any advice, ideas is welcome and appreciated.