timer lady
Queen of Hearts
We had our placement mtg for kt yesterday morning.
You all would have been proud of kt; she spoke up for herself, let the adults in the room (6 of them) know her feelings, fears & concerns. At one point, she lost it - got very angry, but excused herself & left the room.
We continued the mtg, but kt, after 10 minutes, calmed herself & rejoined the mtg. She apologized to the adults & sat & contributed calmly after that point. (I'm so proud ~ she's under so much stress & is so emotional since husband died.)
After all was said & done we came to an agreed upon plan with, of course a back up plan (I always have one).
kt's school day will be modified ~ half days. That will last about one month. At that point an opening in a program called STEPS should become available. STEPS is a program that teens leave school after their core classes & go work (no money but credits) & learn living, employable skills for credits. kt will be in mainstream for half her classes; Special Education for her core classes so she can catch up academically & eventually attend mainstream full time. The catching point was transportation to & from STEP program. School insists kt learn to use city bus (all except school psychiatrist). Mental health case manager & I were both up in arms ~ kt is too vulnerable to be on city bus. We've worked out that as well ~ school will transport via school bus & Integrated Listening Systems (ILS) or PCA worker will pick kt up from her STEP assignment.
kt & I left that mtg satisfied. kt is thrilled to be learning skills she can use on her resume. Many times the teens that work out in that program are hired by the assignment company. What a way to get transitional living skills! Real world experience.
Back to school Monday! I was fearful we would be going homebound & kt would lose all those social/peer/friend skills we had worked so hard on.
The back up plan is that kt's name is on waiting list for day treatment she'd attended for almost 2 years ~ it's been extended to 11th grade.
Phew/Whew!
You all would have been proud of kt; she spoke up for herself, let the adults in the room (6 of them) know her feelings, fears & concerns. At one point, she lost it - got very angry, but excused herself & left the room.
We continued the mtg, but kt, after 10 minutes, calmed herself & rejoined the mtg. She apologized to the adults & sat & contributed calmly after that point. (I'm so proud ~ she's under so much stress & is so emotional since husband died.)
After all was said & done we came to an agreed upon plan with, of course a back up plan (I always have one).
kt's school day will be modified ~ half days. That will last about one month. At that point an opening in a program called STEPS should become available. STEPS is a program that teens leave school after their core classes & go work (no money but credits) & learn living, employable skills for credits. kt will be in mainstream for half her classes; Special Education for her core classes so she can catch up academically & eventually attend mainstream full time. The catching point was transportation to & from STEP program. School insists kt learn to use city bus (all except school psychiatrist). Mental health case manager & I were both up in arms ~ kt is too vulnerable to be on city bus. We've worked out that as well ~ school will transport via school bus & Integrated Listening Systems (ILS) or PCA worker will pick kt up from her STEP assignment.
kt & I left that mtg satisfied. kt is thrilled to be learning skills she can use on her resume. Many times the teens that work out in that program are hired by the assignment company. What a way to get transitional living skills! Real world experience.
Back to school Monday! I was fearful we would be going homebound & kt would lose all those social/peer/friend skills we had worked so hard on.
The back up plan is that kt's name is on waiting list for day treatment she'd attended for almost 2 years ~ it's been extended to 11th grade.
Phew/Whew!