Friday, June 29, 2007
A crisis of faith
Almost 3 weeks ago I sent a letter to the special education God.
She still hasn't replied. That first week was our second week of summer so I thought maybe it was her sabbatical. I didn't feel the need to pressure her. That second week was the first days of summer school. I thought surely she'd be back in her office and a response was eminent. This was the third week. My faith is diminishing. It is time to gather my flock for our journey of enlightenment.
I talked to our summer school teacher. She is a 17 year special education veteran who is now teaching general education class of 1st graders. (If you are perplexed why JP's teacher is a 1st grade teacher you can read my Decisions and more decisions chapter of our saga.) Unfortunately, I must admit I feel like I do not currently have a handle on what JP's level of participation is in this classroom. I haven't asked to observe the class. Perhaps I should. However, his teacher did say that the classroom aid (they were assigned for JP) is pretty much by his side most of the time. This aid is only there for the 1 1/2 hours of the 2 1/2 hour summer school schedule. However, I believe that the school itself is funding her to be there the extra our. I also have to factor in that these are incoming first graders and the material is likely pretty foreign to JP. Yes, he is academically advance for an incoming kindergartener. Yes, he knows his numbers, letters, is reading a few words. But the long A sound. Nope, he isn't there yet. He is keeping up but he is not doing so without adult assistance.
Anyway, I am getting off on a tangent. I told his summer school teacher that I was looking for information on how JP is succeeding (or not) in the classroom. I needed to know so I would know what to say in our discussion with God about a aide for next year. Her response was, "I'll probably take some heat for this but I did send an email to the principal and tell her that he needs a full time aid in the classroom." Thank you! It appears we have another believer in our midst.
So if you are keeping score with us...we are now at 13 to 1. At IEP time it was 10-1 but we now have the 1st grade summer school teacher (our future 1st grade teacher), a resource teacher who is partnering in our summer school class and the para who is assigned specific to JP for a part of his day. Still that 1 is a pretty powerful force.
I commented that I would be following up with God since I hadn't received a response. The teacher did tell me that God visited the classroom during the first day of summer school. (Hee! Hee! Who says God isn't allowed in our children's schools!) So I know that we are on her radar. Nevertheless I have not heard from her. It is time for me to up it a notch. I need a response and they now have their own live data from JP in their classroom.
Perhaps she is confused by my analogy. I am not in prayer here. This is a two way discussion. She may control the funding for the school district but she still has to adhere to the 11 commandments. Did you know there was an 11th Commandment? Free and Appropriate Education!
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5 comments:
Love the God analogy! What is it with these folks who think that it's acceptable to completely ignore parents? BTW, FWIW, you should follow up in writing to her and enclose a copy of your letter "dated xyz" asking for a response in a reasoable time frame (that being normal business time frame NOT the ridiculously long period allowed for conducting evaluations). Better still, you could state in your follow up letter that "since I have not heard anything to the contrary from you, I will assume your silence is tantamount to approval of our request. If this is not correct, please reply to my letter and indicate your response, etc..." create a legal paper trail for yourself.
What niksmom said! And if possible, hand-deliver it to her (if her holyness is ever in her office). But it certainly sounds like the numbers are in your favor. I hope you get some resolution soon.
Jeez. I am feeling out of faith these days, too. We still haven't received a copy of our IEP from three weeks ago, and I still don't really know what I want to do with Hutton for school next year. Hubby, the school psychologist and the speech therapist at school are leaning toward first grade. The teacher wants him to repeat TK, even though I know she doesn't like him and she'll be his teacher again. I went to observe the first grade contained class, and though it was the last week of school, so these are rising second graders, my did they all look big. And though some were easily distracted, they all seemed to eventually do the work they were asked to do. I really have no idea if Hutton would do that or not. Especially in a class of 15 other "special" boys. He had eight in his class this year, and there were two girls in the class. I guess we won't have to worry about him being distracted by his hormones later on, if there are no special needs girls in the school. Well, there may be later on. We'll see. Sigh. Free and appropriate education. I don't even know if I would recognize it if I saw it in action!
Kal (and MWAM, of course!), I learned the hard way to send those sorts of things certified. Yeah, it costs extra but then you have an irrefutable prrof of delivery and the recipient is on the hook for responding in a timely manner. I hate that we have to be so "retentive" about this sort of stuff but it is so easy to get burned. Heck, we had to write a certified letter, make two phone calls, AND a follow up certified letter just to get a copy of the INCOMPLETE autism eval from the district last fall!
BTW, MWAM, I don't think you have anything to worry about with the whole God anaology (re: your disclaimer). Anyone who takes the tie to read more of your blog will also get that it's not meant in any disrespectful or mocking fashion. :-)
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