trying not to be irritated .....

buddy

New Member
I'm trying to not be irritated.

From the beginning of this year I've asked the best way to quickly get ahold of Q's teacher. Last year and summer the teachers gave us their work cell numbers so I could text if a schedule change happened or could respond quickly if they had a question. This school is so much bigger and they have walkies that are not going through the building so the office can't get ahold of people. There is a class phone and email. But they have to be there and check it.

Several times they have said either the teacher or aide checks the phone messages throughout the day.

So yesterday his neurofeedback cancelled. I quickly arranged for a bus. Called the teacher line to explain there would be a bus not my car. Please prep him it may not be his driver. I also sent an email. Since it was 12 and they made such a big deal over my being worried for nothing I left it at that.
Q gets home. Class email says transition at end of day was difficult. Q says they were looking for me and then someone went up and checked and saw the bus was coming.

So, we survived his crabbiness but???

I wrote and asked if they got the phone and email message, playing dumb. He said not till 240 when they had already gone down. He then said, WE ARE OUT SO MUCH AFTER NOON WE DONT USUALLY CHECK THE PHONE OR EMAIL AFTER 12. WTH?

And to say it didnt come till 240?.....BOTH THE PHONE AND EMAIL? he is lying. The time stamp on my phone is 12:37. Why not just say, sorry....we missed it but we will do better.?

Also, after the IEP meeting last Tues, we compromised on using their behavior person instead of the independent behavior analyst since things were going better and they repeated they are committed to keeping him there (we'll see).

I asked how long before things would be arranged? Oh, by the end of the week. As if.that was a silly question. I said I didn't want it to drag out and they giggled. It's now been over a week and no permission to assess, no assessment plan presented. I left the law advocate out of it because she is so ****** off anyway. But if they don't respond to my request by tomorrow I'm going to let her have my emails.

Finally I've asked for a teacher conference since Nov. As I told you all before, just a normal non IEP meeting to see his school work. He had said it had to be an iep meeting....thats not true so I went above him and they said oh yeah they've done that. Usually they combine it but Q's IEP meetings are all behavior and IEP goals. They said of course we can have a parent teacher conference. Believe it or not, there is more to school. Math, reading, science, social studies, etc. LOL.
Still no dates offered as I've now requested three times.

I put all this in another email and cc'd it to his uppers and our home psychiatric.

So, trying to just deal with it while my son is melting away with stress.....trying not to just be so annoyed.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Ummm... even for ME with my mostly-easy child kid... I'd be upset.
If appointment change - or if I get caught in traffic - or ANY scheduling emergency, there has to be SOME way to guarantee that a message gets through.

We have two... the school here does recognize "emergency" communication and will make sure a note reaches the appropriate teacher (in this case, to be handed to the almost-easy child kid... ), plus the kid has a cell-phone, and we have unlimited texting. But... K2 is... mostly NT. I don't have to worry about her getting out of control. It just really helps both K2's anxiety plus my anxiety, if we both know what is up.

You need a guaranteed communication channel.
Precisely BECAUSE this has already happened once, it WILL happen again... how can we handle this better?
 

buddy

New Member
A very new one I think. I think they assumed that u.could call the office and they walkie the staff. But they've know from week one the walkies don't work 50% of.the time. I've never seen them work. They've ordered replacements but my question is what to do till then I shouldn't have to make three calls to make sure at least one person gets the message. I really did drive the point home. They said they will check by 2 daily. Still doesn't help if I get stuck in traffic on the way there. Im going to call the office and ask them to do it the old fashioned way....go.tell them. If I'm driving I shouldn't be calling anyway!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Dont all teachers have cell phones on them anyway? I find it hard to believe in this day and age that the teacher dont have cell phones attached to their bodies. Either their hips or in their pockets. Instead of walkies why cant the school just send out a mass text to either the entire school or to the group of teachers involved with Q. Quite easy to do. Actually with most newer phones you dont even have to type the message in, you just hit the microphone button and speak into it and it types it for you and all you have to do is hit send. How hard is that.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I bet you will get a response now that you cc'd to his superiors. I would be so frustrated. As a teacher I check my email often and the office would have put through a call. However, I would not have been accessible by cell phone. I have mine off during the school day-don't want interruptions that are non school related.
 

buddy

New Member
Wiped, the school had their own cell / walkies. I would never intrude on a teachers private phone. The class has direct dial. They said they check the messages all day in case of medication changes etc. The whole school is intensive Special Education. kids. I hope you guys are right or else I may just show up one afternoon!
 

buddy

New Member
Janet, why they switched to just walkie talkies and then got some that aren't strong enough? They say it could take till Feb or March to replace them. Why in heck. I'd be fuming. That's a safety issue at that school. Every kid has a bip!
 
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