Wow - I have a 6th grader!

I am having a hard time believing that my Little J is actually going to the Middle School!!! WOW! He is really excited (and I think alot nervous!) to go into 6th grade! Here he is on the first day....

The continued lack of joy of special ed....

I do not like the word "DISABILITY"

I think that word gives people a pre-determined mind set that a person is unable to do certain things.
So, Big Al was given detention, in a nutshell, for being pencil-less! So, I called the school and spoke with the head-disciplinarian and asked him WHY was Big Al being given the same punishment for a lessor "crime" than other previous violations. Of course I got the silent "..........." nothing. No response. Then when I asked why he was being punished and embarassed for his disability... still got the "......" nothing. The only response I got was that I needed to talk to the Special Ed teacher.... And guess what???? That teacher NEVER contacted me back on the issue!

Enough is ENOUGH! I finally reached down, grabbed my ca-honas... and filed a complaint with the State Dept of Education. I printed off every email from the last year (and killed lots of trees and lots of ink!), every copy of detentions, notes from doctors, IEP's, State and Federal Laws and sent a two inch packet off to the State. Flipped the school the bird and moved on! haha!

Sadly, though... the last few months have really shown us how in many areas, Big Al is truly incapable of certain skills and functions. And these skills are ones that are pretty essential to daily life. We have tried so hard over the years to help him attain some of them, but they are just either not there or he chooses to not do them! (probably a bit of both)

So, now we move on to mediating with the school. Which basically means that the school will take all Big Al's info, and put together their response to the State... ie, what parts of the IEP they feel they complied with and the areas they did not (like his reading level has dropped, yet again). The State will ask us to work with the school to come to some agreement on what to do. In a nutshell, it will be re-writing an entirely new IEP, probably changing his schedule up... and adding things in there that should have never been taken out, like extended school year!

The whole situation has been mentally and physically exhausting. But, you can never stop advocating... ever.... until they are out of school!!! (that would be 5 years, 3 months!)

Special Ed- Oh the drama!

I try hard not to post too many negative things about my kids schools... basically for the reason that at one, I am there ALOT... and two... most people already know the problems that go on there... haha!

Big Al is been in special services (aka Special Education) classes since the third grade. During the elementary years, we were able to get lots of help for him, as well as being able to really tweak things when they were obviously not working. The teachers there actually did this thing called LISTENING! They were awesome and I miss them!
On to middle school.... the special services have been far less than "special"! Actually, they have been a pain in the butt! I now call them "Stressful Services"!
Since the beginning of the year, the case worker for him has done pretty much the bare bones on what is needed to help Big Al succeed. We actually saw his reading level DROP in the fall. Not a pleasant thing one likes to see!

Since the beginning of his middle school career, we have talked to the teacher about how important it is for him to learn and have his skills improved for his own organization... meaning things like writing down homework daily, writing upcoming tests and projects on a calendar, etc... He has a WHOLE class period dedicated to this one area... and here we are... barely skimming by with D's and F's. Most of the D's and F's have been given due to either turning in work late, not at all, or doing really poor quality on a project.... all of which COULD have been assisted with the study skills class.

So last week... I get this phone call that he has received DETENTION! Not that it is a huge surprise... he has received a few for things like throwing his food (don't get me started on that one!) being tardy and a few other small things. So, when Big Al arrives home with the written referral of the how's and why's of detention, it is written as he did not have a pencil!
Yep - no pencil apparently is grounds for 2 hours of detention! That was THE final straw! So, before calling the school to tell them that he would have to finish his detention the next week, because of some scheduling challenges... I started to REALLY get worked up!

I realized that he was actually being punished for his "disability". I really do not like that word ONE bit - actually, I rarely EVER use that word when it comes to Big Al... he is what he is.

to be continued.....

The joys of middle school

I had to title this post that! Just because I really have not seen any yet! Call it some mild sarcasm!

Big Al is now is 7th grade. While he has three classes a day in the resource room, he is still mainstreamed for the other 4 classes. We are almost a month into the school year and already we have had 2 F's and a D! The hardest part is dealing with a school that currently is changing how they post their grading system. In the past, it has been online and parents (students too) can log in daily to check their grades. The "new" system is not up and running yet! This creates a real challenge for a kiddo that has to have daily tracking to see if he is turning things in and how things are going in general.

Big Al also wants to play soccer on the middle school team this year... so he MUST have passing grades! Ugh!

I so wish I had more patience and skill.... Big Al would truly benefit from a positive home school experience! But, he truly needs social interaction and a daily contact with this type of atmosphere. It is truly a double edge sword!