It's time for meetings and phone calls. I took difficult child to school yesterday to have his student id picture taken and pick up his schedule for the next school year. Except for one hour of personal communications class a day his schedule says TO BE DETERMINED. Yes, I know they are covering their butts, but why waste the paper printing out something that doesn't tell you anything.
So, today we have a meeting to figure out what we're going to do with him this year. difficult child reads barely at a first grade level and probably won't ever read better than that, so going to regular classes is almost impossible. He can't read the required material, do the homework or read to take tests. He is really a smart kid with a high vocabulary, but the reality is that he won't ever be able to prove it to anyone based on his tests/classes.
The last plan we left with in June (after school got out) was that difficult child will be working on learning a trade, but walls keep getting thrown up in the way because difficult child isn't 16 yet. He'll be 16 in February. I wish there was a way to get him into a special school on a ranch somewhere. He loves animals. He was on horseback for the first time when he was 6 weeks old. He has finally faced up to the fact that any job he does will be physical not mental and seems to be okay with it. He needs to begin now. He is only going to feel more alienated by classmates by sitting in a room by himself with a 1:1 aide until he turns 16. There is one organization that works with disabled people in the work place, but difficult child isn't going to like being around the majority of the people they assist. He doesn't see himself as disabled and gets irritated easily when he feels like he's being forced to be with his "peers".
We finally got him out of the Developmental Disability group at school. The majority of the kids in that group had MR, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), or another major disability that prevents them from ever living a productive life and difficult child just didn't fit in that group, but it took two years in junior high and 1/2 a year at the high school for them to finally say okay this isn't the right fit for him. He's now in the Autism Spectrum group and gets along better with the kids in this group better. But the majority of the kids in the AS group are mainstreamed for the majority of the day and like I said before difficult child can't handle the work of the mainstream classes, so he sits in a room with a 1:1 most of the day. Heck, he actually spent the majority of the school day asleep or pretending to sleep.
The 1:1 he finally got after Christmas last year got more work out of him than he'd done in his entire school career, but he moved so he'll have a new 1:1 this year. I will meet them this afternoon. I am not happy as I was to be included on the decision process on who was hired. I can tell you this much if it's another soft spoken female I will pitch a fit. difficult child needs a strong person and if that person is male all the better.
The teacher in the AS program was pulled from the high school to early elementary. I was so mad when she told me that I wanted to do something/anything, but after thinking for a day or so asked her if she was happy with the change/had asked for it. No she hadn't asked for it, but was kind of happy that it would most likely be less stressfull, so I dropped it. We will meet the person they have moved to the position this afternoon also.
I will not put up with another school year of daily phone calls. I will not put up with another year of my child being allowed to spend the school day sleeping. I will not spend another year of them writing my son's ability to live a productive life off. My son can and will be able to do a job to support himself and it's their job to make sure that he has the skills available to do it. I know he probably won't ever be completely independent, but being a tax paying adult is not out of the question.
Keep your fingers crossed that the district is finally going to do their job and help my child to become the best he can be.
So, today we have a meeting to figure out what we're going to do with him this year. difficult child reads barely at a first grade level and probably won't ever read better than that, so going to regular classes is almost impossible. He can't read the required material, do the homework or read to take tests. He is really a smart kid with a high vocabulary, but the reality is that he won't ever be able to prove it to anyone based on his tests/classes.
The last plan we left with in June (after school got out) was that difficult child will be working on learning a trade, but walls keep getting thrown up in the way because difficult child isn't 16 yet. He'll be 16 in February. I wish there was a way to get him into a special school on a ranch somewhere. He loves animals. He was on horseback for the first time when he was 6 weeks old. He has finally faced up to the fact that any job he does will be physical not mental and seems to be okay with it. He needs to begin now. He is only going to feel more alienated by classmates by sitting in a room by himself with a 1:1 aide until he turns 16. There is one organization that works with disabled people in the work place, but difficult child isn't going to like being around the majority of the people they assist. He doesn't see himself as disabled and gets irritated easily when he feels like he's being forced to be with his "peers".
We finally got him out of the Developmental Disability group at school. The majority of the kids in that group had MR, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), or another major disability that prevents them from ever living a productive life and difficult child just didn't fit in that group, but it took two years in junior high and 1/2 a year at the high school for them to finally say okay this isn't the right fit for him. He's now in the Autism Spectrum group and gets along better with the kids in this group better. But the majority of the kids in the AS group are mainstreamed for the majority of the day and like I said before difficult child can't handle the work of the mainstream classes, so he sits in a room with a 1:1 most of the day. Heck, he actually spent the majority of the school day asleep or pretending to sleep.
The 1:1 he finally got after Christmas last year got more work out of him than he'd done in his entire school career, but he moved so he'll have a new 1:1 this year. I will meet them this afternoon. I am not happy as I was to be included on the decision process on who was hired. I can tell you this much if it's another soft spoken female I will pitch a fit. difficult child needs a strong person and if that person is male all the better.
The teacher in the AS program was pulled from the high school to early elementary. I was so mad when she told me that I wanted to do something/anything, but after thinking for a day or so asked her if she was happy with the change/had asked for it. No she hadn't asked for it, but was kind of happy that it would most likely be less stressfull, so I dropped it. We will meet the person they have moved to the position this afternoon also.
I will not put up with another school year of daily phone calls. I will not put up with another year of my child being allowed to spend the school day sleeping. I will not spend another year of them writing my son's ability to live a productive life off. My son can and will be able to do a job to support himself and it's their job to make sure that he has the skills available to do it. I know he probably won't ever be completely independent, but being a tax paying adult is not out of the question.
Keep your fingers crossed that the district is finally going to do their job and help my child to become the best he can be.
