Meeting today at difficult child 2's new middle school

[gcvmom]

I'm a little anxious, but excited about today's meeting. The middle school counselor sounded very enthusiastic and supportive when I asked for this meeting. She volunteered to have the school psychiatric attend and is going to ask prospective teachers to stop in to say hello to difficult child 2 as well.

We'll be discussing his background, support needs for next year, which classes he should have, etc.

He is REALLY looking forward to going to a new school with new faces. The kids at his elementary school STILL exclude and avoid him during recess activities, even though his behavior is improving. And the school just isn't doing much about the subtle stuff. How can they? It's hard to shake the attitudes that these kids have developed after seven years with difficult child 2 and all his behavior issues. But now that he's having some emotional clarity, I think it hurts him more than ever before. That's the only downside to his stability. At least when he was hypomanic he seemed oblivious to the social crap.

Anyway, with middle school around the corner, I have a feeling he's going to start feeling better about things. And if this school admin is as open about accepting him as they seem to be, we may be able to find better ways of helping him socially.

 

[sosotired]

The middle school sounds great! I only hope I'm writing a similar update in a year when difficult child moves to middle ... the rest sounds so familiar ... new school, new faces, everyone excludes him now.

Good luck! Please let us know how it goes.

 

[Wiped Out]

I hope the meeting goes well. It sounds like the right place for difficult child from what you've posted.

 

[Shari]

It sounds like a good place. I hope it pans out as well as its sounding.

I know what you mean about the clarity thing, too. With our district being so small, that was another reason I didn't want to bring difficult child into it early. difficult child 1 had classmates that weren't allowed to play with him because the classmates' parents knew difficult child 1's bio dad!

 

[gcvmom]

Well the meeting went VERY well. School counselor, psychologist and speech/language specialist were there, and the GATE coordinator/science teacher stopped in briefly.

They'd already spoke to our current school psychiatric and got the low down on him it seems. But they were very happy to take my copy of his IEP, my introduction letter and my IEP overview that had all his test scores and grades, areas of strength/deficiency, etc. They'll be making copies to give to all his teachers, so I'm glad to not have to do that.

He's going to be placed in a type of RSP class at the end of the day where they'll work with him on organization, time management, etc. -- all those executive function skills he needs so much help with. They'll also use that time to pull him out once a week for the social skills work he's been doing. This way it doesn't impact any of his core classes. It means he gets one less elective, but oh well! We can worry about electives later in the year or next year if he can remain stable and get his act together.

They felt it was good that we were wanting to have him repeat his pre-algebra class, based on how much he has struggled with it this year. And they also thought it was good that I'm having him take a math class over the summer.

Sounds like the teachers are all flexible with homework, etc. as long as we are up front and communicate with them. I have NO problem with that! We were told that they have many GATE kids on the spectrum (difficult child 2 isn't but at one point they thought he had Asperger signs -- I wonder if the school is not convinced that he's not.... whatever!) so the teachers are good at watching for behavior signs and relaying that back to parents and support staff. I was very impressed.

He goes back next week to take a math placement test. We're going to shoot for the last week in August (before school starts) to have his IEP meeting and get all the teachers on board.

I feel really, really good about this school. Everyone seemed to understand where we were coming from and they were positive and welcoming. Very different from difficult child 1's middle school (glad we're not sending difficult child 2 there).

 

[Wiped Out]

Sounds terrific! Glad the meeting went well, it sounds like they know what they are doing!

 

[totoro]

I am so glad it went well!
I love reading these post were things actually go well at Schools!

I try to keep track of things that work for our kids... so I can think of the future for K.

I am happy for you and difficult child.