After yesterday's evaluation and IEP meeting that you can read about here: Rock Star Avery I can say I was disappointed but since I knew it would be a long shot that they would agree to out of district placement I wasn't surprised.
I did get emotional in the meeting which I normally have been able to control my feelings about this world we live in now. What I had a hard time was with the administrator who rides a broom in her spare time and how she talked to us. The demeanor I got from it was that she knew of all of the options out there and this was the best one for her. She even had the gall to tell us that all the private schools take long breaks as well.
Huh. The school I was at on Friday takes maybe about 3 breaks a year and is a basic year round school for a full day. When I spoke up and said I had visited a school the look on her face was basically "oh shit." I understand the districts want control of things and they do know what schools might be a better option for your child but what I really dislike is when school districts tell you that you do not have the right to look at another school without their permission. Um no not true. The only time another school will not allow it is if that is their general rule. That they have to wait for the paperwork from that district before you are allowed to tour. When I called the school I visited on Friday the first thing I asked was if I had to have permission from the district to visit and they said NO. And considering Avery was not even enrolled yet there should have been no issues for me to visit said school. So administrator on her broom stick can sit on it.
I basically feel she will be the hurdle in this whole process of getting the right school for Avery. Considering they said they have never had a child who needs as much sensory input as Avery does was kinda of a shock. Really our kid is the worst? But they said she wasn't. So what did that mean? That the really extreme cases were automatically placed in out of district schools?
Another thing about this whole process is that it reminds me of how Early Intervention in our state works. Your child gets evaluated by one team of therapists but then they are not the one's who do the actual therapy. The state has to find therapists OR you do depending on how crappy your coordinator is. So it's another team. With Avery we got therapists right away but it became obvious right away that Avery needed a second day of OT and it took awhile to get that scheduled because the coordinator kept telling me we had to wait for her 6 month review. Oh no no no. See in the little yellow handbook for parents I highlighted the part where it said if they parents wants a review sooner than it should be done. Once I pushed it with the coordinator we got the review sooner and Avery got her second day of therapy.
How is this similar to the school district? Well the team that does the evaluations are not necessarily the same people doing the actual in class therapy. I know that from dealing with my oldest. I know the OT and the SP already. So while the eval team might come in and see her occasionally a different person will be working with her daily. So with both examples you'll have two differing opinions about how much she is achieving. What I don't want to happen is that they make things on the books look great but in reality things aren't. KWIM? I don't want them to say she is meeting their goals because they are so low but in reality she should have more intense therapy.
So yesterday was a lot to digest. I'm still digesting it today as I got a lucky appointment to get Avery's physical done today because it was the only opening til June. And broom stick lady said it had to get done ASAP so she could get the bus situation done ASAP. blah blah blah. grr.
So my husband yesterday decided to just have ice cream for dinner. His comfort food. I decided on the other hand to hit up a local restaurant and get take out. My husband thought I was going to get Taco Bell but when I got in the car I headed to Merichka's to order a garlic poor boy and a double baked potato. While I waited I had a nice cold beer. Wishing I could sit around for some more to. When I got home with my bag and told my husband about the beer he was disappointed because he said he could have used a drink to. What was funny about this is that it only took me 20 minutes to go there, order food, drink a beer, get food, pay for food and come home. Better than Taco Bell where they never get the order right and take forever and there's no beer either.
How is Rock Star Avery today? Complete meltdown while trying to transition from activities with her OT today. Nothing that the therapists would have seen yesterday. Sigh. Throw me a bone kid. Throw me a bone!
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