svengandhi
Well-Known Member
This question is for a friend of mine. She is a single mom with 2 boys; the older is a HS senior. Although he is bright (IQ 118), he is very alienated and disaffected with school. He is a skater boy in a very wealthy and conservative enclave. His mom is struggling to keep the house until her younger boy graduates HS.
Anyway, my friend's son has not been to class once this year. He needs 7 credits and 2 Regents exams to graduate. He does not have an IEP and has never been classified. She tried to get him into a program that provides one to one assistance for finishing up course work, vocational training, college prep and the like. After stringing her along for weeks, they told her they would not send him there because they just don't send kids there. She knows of at least 2 other district kids who are there now but when she mentioned that, they then said that those kids have IEPs. The placement itself told her that it does not require a student to have an IEP and its website lists "excessive truancy" as a basis for acceptance. My friend asked (by email) for an evaluation and was told that parents could not ask, it had to come from a professional. She got a letter from his therapist and was then told that it would be a waste of time since he's a senior. When she asked if they just wanted to see him drop out, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.
When she finally called me on Friday, I told her to send a certified letter to the SD asking for the evaluations immediately. I also gave her the number of our local advocacy center but she has been playing phone tag.
Is there any other advice I can give her? I did tell her not to mention social maladjustment (which is an issue given his skater boy tendencies and the lacrosse- young Republican nature of the school he is in) but to talk about anxiety over school performance as an issue as that has always worked in my district. Honestly, in my district, her son would have already been in this alternate program, especially since it is located in my town. I also told her not to tell them that his girlfriend goes there (she does not live in the same SD as him).
I know this boy since kindergarten and he is basically a very nice bright kid who doesn't fit in the mainstream school. It is too late for him to get into the voc-tech programs as they are all 2 years and he is college bound; the program my son attends is not right for him because he has no Aspie-ness. He's not a substance abuser, though he has experimented. He's just a kid who needs a break and this program might be able to do it for him - it helped my other friend's son immensely.
How can I help her get him in there?
Thanks for your advice.
Anyway, my friend's son has not been to class once this year. He needs 7 credits and 2 Regents exams to graduate. He does not have an IEP and has never been classified. She tried to get him into a program that provides one to one assistance for finishing up course work, vocational training, college prep and the like. After stringing her along for weeks, they told her they would not send him there because they just don't send kids there. She knows of at least 2 other district kids who are there now but when she mentioned that, they then said that those kids have IEPs. The placement itself told her that it does not require a student to have an IEP and its website lists "excessive truancy" as a basis for acceptance. My friend asked (by email) for an evaluation and was told that parents could not ask, it had to come from a professional. She got a letter from his therapist and was then told that it would be a waste of time since he's a senior. When she asked if they just wanted to see him drop out, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.
When she finally called me on Friday, I told her to send a certified letter to the SD asking for the evaluations immediately. I also gave her the number of our local advocacy center but she has been playing phone tag.
Is there any other advice I can give her? I did tell her not to mention social maladjustment (which is an issue given his skater boy tendencies and the lacrosse- young Republican nature of the school he is in) but to talk about anxiety over school performance as an issue as that has always worked in my district. Honestly, in my district, her son would have already been in this alternate program, especially since it is located in my town. I also told her not to tell them that his girlfriend goes there (she does not live in the same SD as him).
I know this boy since kindergarten and he is basically a very nice bright kid who doesn't fit in the mainstream school. It is too late for him to get into the voc-tech programs as they are all 2 years and he is college bound; the program my son attends is not right for him because he has no Aspie-ness. He's not a substance abuser, though he has experimented. He's just a kid who needs a break and this program might be able to do it for him - it helped my other friend's son immensely.
How can I help her get him in there?
Thanks for your advice.
