special needs on a budget — Page 3

Special Needs on a Budget: Watching a Movie

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AMC offers a “Sensory Friendly Film” once a month in partnership with the Autism Society. Lights are left on, sound is turned down, and you can move around!

You can find more information on it here, including participating locations. The closest one to me is AMC 30 Gulfpointe.

Once a month, on the first Saturday, kids of all ages and abilities can enjoy a movie. Shows start at 10 am!

February 25 – Journey 2: the Mysterious Island

March 10 – Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

April 7 – Mirror Mirror

May 5 – Pirates! Band of Misfits

June 2 – Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Kristin

Special Needs on a Budget: More advocating needed?

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Oh, school. Please don’t bowl me over with special needs services. Really.

Image via Google

I fix one thing, and something else goes wrong.

Jamey had been getting on the bus at 6:35 to 6:40, and getting to school at 7:30. A little excessive, but not terribly. Blah blah blah, resources, blah blah blah, routes, blah blah blah.

I get a call last night from his bus driver around 6 pm. On her personal number (huh?). She’s changing Jamey’s pick up time to 6:15.

Which is a full hour and forty five minutes before school starts.

What?

Um, no.

My kid needs his sleep. Really. He does. His sleep schedule is crazy already. You mean to tell me that it takes almost two full hours to get at MOST 6 kids to a school IN TOWN?

Really?

We live less than 5 miles from the school.

Seriously. I could walk to the school faster. And I’m slow.

As it sits now, he’s going to be dropped off in the morning and ride the bus home. As a matter of fact, we passed the bus this morning. At 7:30. And it wasn’t at the school.

I’m waiting for someone at Transportation to call me back.

Update: 2:30 PM: The bus driver called me again to make extra super double sure that I didn’t want them picking up Jamey at 6:15 am. Seriously. She asked me 4 times. Nope. I meant it. I don’t care if that means you’ve got to rewrite the route over the weekend. I didn’t ask for the change. I was fine with the previous time.

I’m now waiting for a supervisor to call me back. Don’t call and try to guilt trip me because you’ve got to do extra work. I am so not the one.

Kristin

Special Needs on a Budget – Enrollment without IEP

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As I posted on Facebook, Jamey is enrolled in school as of tomorrow. He’ll be attending on Thursday, due to a preexisting doctor’s appointment. He’ll ride the bus as soon as that transportation is set up, as I want him to be in a routine. Routine + Jamey = good.

Is his IEP complete? No. Not as of today. I haven’t actually signed an IEP yet.

Am I satisfied with the level of services he’s going to be receiving? Not really. I think he’s going to need more services in some areas, and in others, not as much. His classroom is actually small, with a class size of either 6 or 7, when you include him. It has a teacher and 2 aides.

Is he going to school anyway? Yes. He’s not getting any socialization here at home, and he’s not getting any formal speech therapy since he aged out of ECI. Time to see what the school has in mind for my brilliant, creative, and loving little guy.

I’m going to give the school a chance. It goes against every single one of my instincts, but I have to trust them to do right by him. Besides, what kind of academics is he going to be getting in a classroom of 3 year olds? He already knows his colors, shapes, and quite a few of his letters, both in sign and by recognition. He needs speech therapy and he needs socialization with peers – neither of which I can give him at home.

And honestly, no IEP is perfect. It’s about compromise. It’s about what’s best for Jamey.

Kristin

Special Needs on a Budget: The School Saga Continues

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More about getting my autistic, speech delayed child enrolled into school… The school saga is almost done. For this year. I hope. This is getting slightly ridiculous.

1. I won’t mention the school he will be attending. Nor will I give any identifying information about his teacher, class, students, etc. Everyone has a right to privacy.

2. I will answer any other questions people might have, especially if they’re going through the same thing.

3. As usual, I will attempt to keep my sense of humor about me, even when I’m frustrated.

So, the first placement didn’t work. For several reasons. The most important one being that the school lied to me about the capabilities of the teacher. Fine/fine. There’s other schools. There are 9 other ones in our school district, to be specific. We met with the head of Special Education yesterday. Just Jamey and me. And 3 people from the district. Why yes, yes it does take 3 people to keep Jamey from playing with things. Sometimes you really can’t take your eyes off of him.

Another placement was suggested. This one is slightly more restrictive, but the teacher is more fluent in sign language, and the class size is smaller. That part sounds fine by me.

We went to the school today. My husband was able to take a few hours off to join us. Jamey was his oh so charming self and mostly behaved while we discussed things. Most of my concerns were addressed and worked through. I’m satisfied with the arrangement.

The last stumbling block?

Jamey is only partially vaccinated.

Which, the intake center told me would be no problem.

And I should have followed up on.

But I didn’t.

So, as per the Law (Texas Immunization Branch), we’re waiting for his waivers to come in. When I get them, I can have them notarized and THEN my child can go to school. Funnily enough, I didn’t need my son’s primary care physician to tell me where to find the waiver. I did it all by my lonesome.

*Jamey is partially vaccinated for a very large number of reasons. If you choose to vaccinate your child, more power to you. I choose to not follow the standard schedule because of the very very large amount of vaccines that kids are given at one time. When my big kids were small, the list was much much shorter.*

Kristin

Why My Kid Isn’t Going to School… Yet.

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As I’ve written before, my youngest son was identified as autistic and significantly speech impaired. He qualified for services, and is eligible as of his 3rd birthday, which is next week. We had our first ARD/IEP meeting on December 5th. We were unable to come to a mutually agreeable decision and had a cooling off period as required by law. They have up to 10 school days, but there weren’t 10 school days before the break. We met again today. This time, someone from the school district was there, as was the assistant principal instead of the principal.

And honestly? If this is the way that this school is? See you suckers in 4 years, when the law says I have to send him to school.

The school was unwilling to reasonably compromise. Their idea of a compromise was to basically make a Jamey Dictionary, showing signs. Or for him to just learn to talk because everyone else around him was talking.

The teacher that I was assured knew lots of signs? Knows 5 out of the 1o0 that I had listed for Jamey.

They have no idea how many kids are going to be on his bus. No idea what the ratio of students to aide is going to be.

And I am not allowed in the classroom unless I arrange it beforehand. Except for his birthday, which will probably never fall within the school year.

These things just don’t work for me. At all.

I have an appointment with the head of Special Education for our district on the first day after the break. In the meantime, I’m going to file for official mediation from the state. I’m not playing with these people. It’s not wait and see. This is my baby, and I’m going to fight for him.

Five signs? Really?