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<blockquote data-quote="svengandhi" data-source="post: 405354" data-attributes="member: 3493"><p>I am in a similar type district. I'm on the North Shore so I know we're not in the same one, LOL! They want to declassify my difficult child because he refuses to avail himself of services. WELL, he's classified with ED/anxiety and one of his manifestations is an absolute fear of seeking help from an adult. I need him classified to protect him from himself. I use it to keep him in the honors and AP classes he loves because he doesn't care about grades or passing, just about learning.</p><p></p><p>I have gone head to head with the SD attorneys over my kids - at the SD level, I sat across the table from an SD attorney over the MS principal's refusal to put my son in to earth science in 8th grade (considered honors in that grade). Three years later, the SD changed the policy and now all kids are eligible for the ES entry test and have to affirmatively opt out. My son got a 99 on the Regents and an A+ in the class after the principal predicted he'd fail. </p><p></p><p>I had less of a battle over easy child dyslexic child because I did my HW like you are doing. I would be happy to PM with you if someone tells me how to enable it. Doing the walk-through is a great idea (I did that at Eagle Avenue, once alone and once with H and difficult child), getting all of the school's literature, if someone there is willing to sit down with you and look at your daughter's scores and see if she has the profile they service. I did that with Churchill School in the city for easy child. I had thought it would be perfect for him. It turned out that he was too high functioning in his reading skills (the school has reading instruction built into its daily program and he didn't need it) and his social issues were not compatible with theirs either. My son is very outgoing and has an extremely witty, sarcastic sense of humor. His classmates at the Learning Disability (LD) MS got used to him after a while, but Churchill was concerned that he would unknowingly hurt the feelings of kids who were more literal than he is and that he would have no peers to joke around with. He's back in district where his sense of humor had its fans and its foes but it's not as huge an issue in a class of 400 as it would be in a class of 40.</p><p></p><p>Another thing to consider for your situation is that the ratio of boys to girls in sped schools is often very skewed to boys. It wasn't a problem for me, since I had a son, but if a girl doesn't bond with the few other girls, that could be just another issue. I had that problem with my daughter when we sent her to a school for gifted students. She didn't like all but 2 of the other girls (who also came from our SD and were already her friends) and we pulled her after a year.</p><p></p><p>You need to have as much lined up as possible before you go in to a meeting with the school. in my humble opinion, the most important thing to know is whether or not your SD has sent kids to these schools before and then to make sure the school is a match for your child. </p><p></p><p>I agree on not letting her tank again. That's why I suggested getting info on what is available in your SD and compile a list of comprehensive and exhaustive reasons about why those programs are not suitable for her. With easy child, I relied on his overall IQ, sub-tests, his personality and learning to style. I always tell people that the least restrictive environment is not necessarily the one which might seem LR. For my easy child in MS, the LRE was the sped school, where he could learn without being stigmatized as the kid who goes to resource room and where the teachers were capable of differentiating a curriculum for him. I felt that the regular MS was MORE restrictive because he would have spent more time isolated from his peers. In the sped school, all of the students were taught together, There were pullouts but my son got only counseling (which was discontinued this semester in the district HS because his adjustment back was great); other kids got reading and math to supplement. </p><p></p><p>If your daughter is unable to learn due to her anxiety, then the MS with all of its social issues is not the best place for her necessarily. Be prepared to visit the BOCES and other alternatives as well. Document why or why not they are not suitable for your daughter. My SD has succesfully denied private placement to families who refused to look at public alternatives before going private. </p><p></p><p>Make copious notes of your visits. Include the percentage of kids who are medicated (my difficult child was not medicated but over 80% of the kids at the school were so it was not for him, but for a child who is on medications knowing that the staff is familiar with medications and how to administer them is a positive), whether there is a psychiatric on staff vs on call, if the school offers family and/or parental counseling services, the type/s of bmods used, etc. Use the website I told you about to see what classifications the schools accept. My easy child's Learning Disability (LD) school did not take kids with an ED classification while another MS we looked at, which took more ED kids, rejected easy child because he did not have ED components in his diagnosis. The schools also do screening because they need to ensure that a new student will blend in with the existing class and that a child's issues are what the school is geared to handle.</p><p></p><p>Good luck.</p><p></p><p>PS - When I retire from my current career, I plan to become a sped advocate/attorney. I had looked into it when I was downsized a few years ago, but couldn't afford the pay cut I would have had to take so I went back into my previous line of work. Over the years, I have helped some friends get services from my SD on the sidelines as I can't risk the SD knowing I'm helping other people while fighting for my own.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="svengandhi, post: 405354, member: 3493"] I am in a similar type district. I'm on the North Shore so I know we're not in the same one, LOL! They want to declassify my difficult child because he refuses to avail himself of services. WELL, he's classified with ED/anxiety and one of his manifestations is an absolute fear of seeking help from an adult. I need him classified to protect him from himself. I use it to keep him in the honors and AP classes he loves because he doesn't care about grades or passing, just about learning. I have gone head to head with the SD attorneys over my kids - at the SD level, I sat across the table from an SD attorney over the MS principal's refusal to put my son in to earth science in 8th grade (considered honors in that grade). Three years later, the SD changed the policy and now all kids are eligible for the ES entry test and have to affirmatively opt out. My son got a 99 on the Regents and an A+ in the class after the principal predicted he'd fail. I had less of a battle over easy child dyslexic child because I did my HW like you are doing. I would be happy to PM with you if someone tells me how to enable it. Doing the walk-through is a great idea (I did that at Eagle Avenue, once alone and once with H and difficult child), getting all of the school's literature, if someone there is willing to sit down with you and look at your daughter's scores and see if she has the profile they service. I did that with Churchill School in the city for easy child. I had thought it would be perfect for him. It turned out that he was too high functioning in his reading skills (the school has reading instruction built into its daily program and he didn't need it) and his social issues were not compatible with theirs either. My son is very outgoing and has an extremely witty, sarcastic sense of humor. His classmates at the Learning Disability (LD) MS got used to him after a while, but Churchill was concerned that he would unknowingly hurt the feelings of kids who were more literal than he is and that he would have no peers to joke around with. He's back in district where his sense of humor had its fans and its foes but it's not as huge an issue in a class of 400 as it would be in a class of 40. Another thing to consider for your situation is that the ratio of boys to girls in sped schools is often very skewed to boys. It wasn't a problem for me, since I had a son, but if a girl doesn't bond with the few other girls, that could be just another issue. I had that problem with my daughter when we sent her to a school for gifted students. She didn't like all but 2 of the other girls (who also came from our SD and were already her friends) and we pulled her after a year. You need to have as much lined up as possible before you go in to a meeting with the school. in my humble opinion, the most important thing to know is whether or not your SD has sent kids to these schools before and then to make sure the school is a match for your child. I agree on not letting her tank again. That's why I suggested getting info on what is available in your SD and compile a list of comprehensive and exhaustive reasons about why those programs are not suitable for her. With easy child, I relied on his overall IQ, sub-tests, his personality and learning to style. I always tell people that the least restrictive environment is not necessarily the one which might seem LR. For my easy child in MS, the LRE was the sped school, where he could learn without being stigmatized as the kid who goes to resource room and where the teachers were capable of differentiating a curriculum for him. I felt that the regular MS was MORE restrictive because he would have spent more time isolated from his peers. In the sped school, all of the students were taught together, There were pullouts but my son got only counseling (which was discontinued this semester in the district HS because his adjustment back was great); other kids got reading and math to supplement. If your daughter is unable to learn due to her anxiety, then the MS with all of its social issues is not the best place for her necessarily. Be prepared to visit the BOCES and other alternatives as well. Document why or why not they are not suitable for your daughter. My SD has succesfully denied private placement to families who refused to look at public alternatives before going private. Make copious notes of your visits. Include the percentage of kids who are medicated (my difficult child was not medicated but over 80% of the kids at the school were so it was not for him, but for a child who is on medications knowing that the staff is familiar with medications and how to administer them is a positive), whether there is a psychiatric on staff vs on call, if the school offers family and/or parental counseling services, the type/s of bmods used, etc. Use the website I told you about to see what classifications the schools accept. My easy child's Learning Disability (LD) school did not take kids with an ED classification while another MS we looked at, which took more ED kids, rejected easy child because he did not have ED components in his diagnosis. The schools also do screening because they need to ensure that a new student will blend in with the existing class and that a child's issues are what the school is geared to handle. Good luck. PS - When I retire from my current career, I plan to become a sped advocate/attorney. I had looked into it when I was downsized a few years ago, but couldn't afford the pay cut I would have had to take so I went back into my previous line of work. Over the years, I have helped some friends get services from my SD on the sidelines as I can't risk the SD knowing I'm helping other people while fighting for my own. [/QUOTE]
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