larngry sope

I've talked about my children's issues with spelling before. Bear is a junior in high school. Kitty is a freshman. Both usually pass the Modified version of the Statewide Standardized testing and when they don't... nothing really happens.

We're usually told the kids are "working at grade level" so our concerns are "unfounded." We were told that this year, Bear "almost" passed the Language Art section so we shouldn't be too concerned. Apparently he bombed the writing portion, but did fine on reading which brought up his score enough to "almost pass."

Struggling to Stand had suggested awhile back that I get the children assessed by an occupational therapist. I couldn't get the school to acknowledge a need, but they did assess the children for a special software called Solo 6. The school will implement the program for both kids - mostly in English class. They've decided to use it with the whole class so my kids don't feel singled out and because the school feels it would benefit thier classmates too (both my kids are in special ed).

Recently we went to a brief orientation on the program and they gave us a copy to use at home. Basically it's an interesting program, but I don't see it helping us much at home since our kids refuse to write unless forced. Plus, part of what it does is read what they've written out loud and you can tell it to check for spelling and possible homonym errors. I asked if it checked for grammar errors, but was told no, since most grammar programs are "wrong 50% of the time anyway." Basically I don't see how it will help my kids because the words spelled are so different from the correct spelling sometimes.

I did ask if they could check the kids' hearing because I've occasionally wondered if they just weren't hearing the words correctly, but more likely it's just that they've never seen the word written down before. Bear consistantly uses Granmal when meaning to write Grandma.

Can you work out what the title of this post is? I'll give you a hint. I found Bear had written it on the grocery list.

Parent/ Teacher Conference results

Bear's parent/teacher conference tomorrow!

This is the document I readied for myself of things I want to address at the P/T conference tomorrow. I also have a detailed record of all of his tardies, what class they are in, and referrals and detentions. The actual document also includes suggested study skills from the FIE to find out if they are being implemented.

Topics for discussion:

--- Attendance - Bear is tardy or absent to at least one class at least 3 days a week or more, and has walked out. He has been known to wander halls, but this appears to have diminished with teacher awareness.
--- Referrals – mostly for being tardy or skipping class. But recently got one for teasing a boy for whom English is a second language and calling him "retard."
--- Grades - Bear has decided that academics don't matter and is now failing several of his classes (even though allowed to turn in work late). He has mentioned that it doesn’t matter if he turns work in because he’ll still pass.
---Missing Work - Bear has repeatedly lied about turning in school projects and documents (he claimed he turned in this English SSR project and teacher lost it, he claims he did it again and set it down somewhere, he claims he couldn’t do it because his computer broke, he lost his jumpdrive….

“I did make Bear work on his SSR project during Study Skills. He wasn't thrilled about it at first bc he said he didn't have the supplies. I told him forget about it not being on poster board, I showed him how to do the word splash and had another student work with him, I think she did most of the project but, it's done. I felt it was important that he turn something in, I will have to double check but I do think he is passing now or close to it. He can also pass study skills if he turns in his pink rubric to me Monday morning. {He did not turn this in}

--- Behavior, particularly behavior changes since Christmas Break, possible reasons for, and where to go from here:

• Bear was finally told by Hubby that he wouldn’t be able to go in the marines or join the police force because of his mental illness and meds. We told him because he wasn’t motivated to see the need for another back up plan. His new “plan” is to become a bull riding cowboy and then go work on his great uncle’s (by marriage) farm – which of course doesn’t require a high school diploma.


• Possible taking or selling drugs and hanging out with kids who do.


• After being caught in the halls frequently, issues with excessive tardies, leaving class frequently and skipping class, BEHAVIOR PROGRAM has begun keeping better track of his attendance, including escorting him whenever he requests to leave the classroom.


• Bear feels persecuted by BEHAVIOR PROGRAM and has accused the staff of spying on him. Is no longer easy for him to wander and go to counselors.


• Bear told Ms. S he didn’t feel safe going to resource room. Appears to be caused by a general feeling of being unsafe.


• Is no longer attending SPECIAL SCHOOL so has lost that structure and support.


• Thinks/thought that he could move out at age 17 and appears to be pushing everyone away in emotional preparation for this.


• Bear has discovered the school will not let him fail. He can wait weeks to turn in something he threw together and he still passes.


• Monthly psychiatrist visit -refused to talk about anything but some of his sleeping issues because he doesn’t want his meds to change. He says he feels like a guinea pig. I try to explain that no one’s chemistry is the same and it changes with time, but to no avail.


• Bear is feeling aggressive has stated he wants someone to hit him so he can beat them up. Has stated he wants to go to the OFF CAMPUS SUSPENSION.


• Bear feels that because he is not allowed to do PT team (not being where he was supposed to be, trust issues and poor grades) he is not getting enough exercise so that is why he’s depressed.
  

--- Mr. P (BEHAVIOR PROGRAM staff)- Bear is now attempting to pursue criminal sexual harassment charges against Mr. P for recently following Bear into the restroom where he stood behind Bear while Bear was at the urinal. Bear mentioned he also fears Mr. P because he carries a knife. Bear claims to have discussed this with the SRO (School Resource Officer) and, I think, The Assistant Principal, and plans to speak to Dr. C (school district superintendent)?)
--- Bear's Future - Bear discovering that he would not be able to join the military after graduation appears to have he greatly diminished his motivation and direction.
--- Study skills class – what is he accomplishing? Can we add tutors for other classes he’s failing?


MAIN CONCERN: Bear appears to be deteriorating quickly, but because he was doing so well last semester (As and Bs) I fear that nothing will be done this school year because it all "averages out."

Ms. S, “He did mention he was "over everything" and "didn't care anymore." He also told me he wanted to go to the OFF CAMPUS SUSPENSION and that he has no one to go to at school, no teachers he can talk to. I just thought I'd mention that to you. “

Other points of concern:

• Unmedicated ADD (due to inability to take any meds without serious side-effects),
• Inability to increase any meds despite Bear’s apparent increase in instability and other mood issues, and increase in aggressive thoughts and behaviors.
• Bear‘s obvious depression and “giving up,”
• Adaptive behavior skills seem overwhelmed by the reduction in structure. As stated in his FIE, he has great difficulty adapting and working quickly and efficiently when under pressure
• As subjects increase in difficulty and complexity, Bear’s abilities and confidence decrease.
• Bear’s vocabulary and ability to understand concepts is often much less than he is willing to let on.

Criteria for Emotional Disturbance: (The part I plan to emphasize to try to get him back in the SPECIAL SCHOOL)

1. An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors. At the time of the FIE this criteria was not met because Bear was passing all of his classes. This is obviously no longer the case.
2. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. Bear and teachers have expressed concerns in Bear’s decline in this area.
3. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances. Due to his past history of trauma, Bear tends to misperceive social situations which results in maladaptive behavioral reactions that do not appear premeditative. This has always been the case at home, but regarding school situations, the FIE stated that they were basing this more on Bear’s history at school than overall current behaviors and mentioned the ability to control this with medications. As he is maxed out on medications and the behaviors appear to be increasing, I believe Bear now fully meets this criteria based on current behaviors at school, not just history.
4. A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. Bear’s unhappiness appears to have increased this semester to be more general and pervasive than it was at the time of the FIE.
5. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears with personal or school problems. Bear responds to stress with physical symptoms that are habitual and persistent. While there is a slight increase in these at school, they do not appear to be pervasive there. His increasing and persistent inability to sleep however is greatly affecting him.

ATTENDANCE SUMMARY

Attendance issues per month (tardies or unexcused absences - there's an extreme likelihood that no one reported these during the first two months of school as they are mentioned in e-mails, but are not on the school attendance website).

• October -8 ,


• November -8,


• December -1,


• January-2,


• February -5,


• March-17!, remember they were out of school for a week for Spring Break!


• April -2 out of 2!

Tardy 1st semester -16, 2nd semester -20 Total -36
Unexcused 1st semester -2, 2nd semester -3 Total –5

Attendance per period - 26 out of the 36 were the last period of the day

Tardies and unexcused absences may seem equal until you realize we still have 2 months of school left.

Grades (APPL - stands for Applied which is the latest PC term for special ed).

Class Grades for 9th grade and 10th grade per semester

APPL Math 9th grade 1st -87 9th 2nd -93 10th grade 1st -79 10th Current -74
APPL English 9th 1st -90 9th 2nd -89 10th 1st -83 10th Current -64 (last 6wk was 54)
APPL Science 9th 1st - 90 9th 2nd -91 10th 1st -80 10th Current -61
APPL Social Studi 9th 1st -97 9th 2nd -96 10th 1st -96 10th Current -82

Bear is also failing APPL Study Skills with a 63. Social Studies (aka History) is his favorite class so a B in there is saying a LOT!

School Assessments and Other Issues

Sept 23rd
ARD/ IEP Meeting - For the school this meeting was supposed to be confirming that Bear's academic classes and IEP did not need any adjustments. Instead I took over the meeting and began talking about all the trouble we had over the Summer (skipping school, sex, drugs, skipping football practice, dropping off the football team at the last minute...). We learned that Bear had failed the first session of Summer school with a 37 and the second session with a 72. The vice principal asked if the class were for credit, and we explained he'd made good grades in the class, but kept failing the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). The VP stated, that Bear probably knew it wasn't for credit and he didn't really blame him. Uh, thanks for the backup. I'm sure that wasn't the only person Bear got that reaction from though.

Most of those present barely knew Bear. He had spent most of his Freshman year of High School at a special school for emotionally disturbed youth. This year he would be spending the majority of his time at his home campus. I wanted them to be aware that he needed to be well supervised, because I knew he was sneaky and would slip under the radar.

We also reaffirmed that we wanted to have a school assessment done on Bear - cognitive, behavioral, and of course academic. We felt that the school was ignoring, or at least not applying, the many psychological reports we'd brought in over the years. We felt Bear's academic difficulties were being glossed over and that he would be graduating without the skills he needed to survive in the working world. We also felt that there was an underlying issue(or 10) that wasn't being caught that was keeping him from being successful on standardized testing and with anything that involved reading and writing.

November 10th
ARD/ IEP Meeting - This meeting was to talk about Bear's plans for what to do after graduation to determine what courses he needed to be taking. The school had him on the "highschool plan," but Bear wants to go on to college so they talked about what he'd need to do. Of course they didn't really address the fact that he just won't be prepared, because of the type of classes he is taking (applied classes - which are small groups 4-6 students who are studying the same subjects as their regular ed classmates, but are getting just the basics).

We talked about the fact that Bear will not be attending the special school next semester. The special school has stopped being supportive because Bear is only there for a couple of hours two or three days a week so I'm fine with that. One less thing for Bear to hate me for (he blames the fact that he's still in the program all on me - I kept saying he needs the structure).

Minor irritant was the transition plan that Bear's caseworker put together for him because she couldn't find time for him to do it. She made more spelling and grammar errors than Bear would have - and she spelled his name wrong throughout the whole thing.

Assessment was supposed to be done - wasn't. *grr* The whole "team" was a little confused as to how we're supposed to make these decisions without this, and why we didn't delay the meeting until it's done - which we were told would only be a few more days. We're afraid we'll have to have another meeting to redo his schedule at the last minute. I talked to the coordinator of the assessments after the meeting. She wasn't in the meeting and claimed she didn't know the meeting was imminent. She promised to call me the next day to give me a brief summary.

November 11th

Hi Mary,

sorry, I didn't get a chance to call this afternoon, but I wanted to shoot
you an email to give you an overview of Bear's testing results. Academically,
Bear's skills are significantly below age-level expectations. Broad skill
weaknesses were noted. Cognitively, he had a relative strength in fluid
reasoning, which is his innate problem solving ability that contributes to math
development. Also within normal limits was his short-term memory and auditory
processing skills (which underlie language development). Normative weaknesses
were noted in crystallized knowledge, which develops through schooling and
largely based on the investment of other cognitive abilities. Additionally,
weaknesses were noted in long-term retrieval and processing speed as well as
visual processing. Findings indicate that Bear's cognitive weaknesses and
history of mental health issues impeded his performance academically. I will try
to observe him next week and then will write up the report, which will have much
more information and interpretation of data.

Needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting an interpretation of this and how it will effect his school work, and of course the actual report. So of course, this is the e-mail I get over a week later (after I'd left several messages).

November 19th

Hi Mary,

Sorry for the delay in response, but it's been hectic and I've been out
sick. I will have Bear's report written by 12/01, so I can have a copy ready for
you that Wednesday, if you want to come by {Bear's special school for
emotionally disturbed youth} or I can mail it to you. I think {his
home school's counselor} emailed you in regards to scheduling a meeting to
discuss the results and address any questions you have. As for cognitive
deficits, those aren't remediated; Bear will learn to compensate for his
weaknesses through strategies. This, of course, would be an investment on his
part. Academically, the applied classes appear to be a conducive setting in
meeting his learning needs. Hopefully, within those settings they are working on
developing strategies for solving problems and dissecting texts. Bear will need
to learn a systematic way to approach similar tasks, which will help him to
organize and analyze information. I will get the report written, so this will be
more integrated and not so disjointed. Sorry, I know you're eager to get the
results.

Eager? Ya think?!!

Not only am I having trouble understanding what she wrote (and I have a Masters and a very big vocabulary!), but "for some reason" I find this extremely frustrating.

Then I got this e-mail after sending out an e-mail about Bear's recent theft.

Mary,
Thanks for sharing the update about Bear. I will let Bear's Home campus' Support Counselor, know about what is going on with Bear. I think it would also be helpful for the campus to have consent to speak with his outside therapist. If this is okay with you, I can send home a consent form for you to give the school permission to communicate back and forth with Bear's outside therapist.

Should I give the access to Bear's therapist? We're struggling to get everything done as it is. Do I want to potentially be left out of the loop?

Guess there is nothing to do but wait. This stinks!

School Daze

Last Friday - we had a meeting with Kitty's old school district to discuss her special needs with her new school district. They gave us the assessment results, but honestly, since they discussed it I didn't bother to read it in depth. Stupid me! Everyone at the meeting heard them say that Kitty is operating on about a second grade level (actually half of them heard 7th grade, but luckily we clarified that before the meeting ended). We were also told that she needed to be in a small group setting to be successful and if she had to be mainstreamed then she would need support from a behavior specialist for most if not all of class. Apparently NONE of this was actually in the stupid report. Even though 2 of the three people who were at that meeting were present for the IEP (in Texas it's called an ARD) meeting, and both agreed that that was what we heard - they went by the recomendations outlined in the assessment.

Saturday - I didn't feel good and slept most of the day.

Sunday - I missed church to spend some time with Hubby, and then took Hubby and whiny kids shopping at Sam's Club (warehouse store).

Monday - Biomom visit.

Tuesday - Spent 3 hours with Kitty (ADHD and emotionally disturbed) sitting around waiting to see if we could get her enrolled, while Bob took placement tests for Texas History - which she had completed at the private school. Hubby and the private school teachers were outraged that she was being forced to take the tests when she had documented proof of completion from an accredited school. It was hard to argue with them, and then she failed the tests. *sigh*

Discovered that they planned to put Kitty in several regular classes with inclusion help (15 minutes of assistance once a week!). Totally unacceptable. They wanted her to start that afternoon or the next day, but I insisted on an IEP meeting (ARD) before she started. So she came to work with us again.

Wednesday - Emergency meeting at the school to discuss their plans for Kitty's schedule. They started with the completely unacceptable schedule and we argued from there. They have Kitty in a regular ed Science class, with inclusion help (the inclusion teacher is in there all day, but doesn't only work with Kitty - she's more like a class aide). We also insisted that Kitty have a behavior assistant sit with her in every class that wasn't in the resource room - for most of the period, if not all. We'll see how that goes. She has several electives because we insisted she not be put in PE this year (way too many kids in each class for her to handle). She is taking theatre arts and choir. She has study hall during one period (they are not set up for this, so her schedule says teacher aide). The good news is that this means she will have little to no homework. The only choir that fit in her schedule turned out to be a beginning class for 6th graders (we asked her if she was OK with that and she was). She has absolutely no sense of rythym or pitch, but luckily that is not required! It's her last period of the day so she ends on a good note! (pun intended!)

Thursday - apparently they turned off the gas last night, and Kitty wet the bed so Kitty and Hubby had to take cold showers. This put them both in charming moods. This also means no dryer (so no laundry) and no cooking on our gas stove tonight. Luckily it's fairly warm today (yea Texas!). Hubby talked to the gas company and they will come out tomorrow and turn it back on. Which means I have to stay home until it's done, and since we only have one car - I'll be stuck home all day.

Kitty has had another growth spurt (she is now 5'3" and weighs 150lbs!). We argued and dealt with meltdowns for most of the morning about the fact that her "favorite" t-shirt was too form-fitting (other than the fact that she is now at least a 34C, you can't tell where all the extra weight is going). When she finally changed shirts, she discovered that most of her clothes were no longer acceptable. She spent so much time arguing that she didn't make lunch or have breakfast. She kept knocking things over and yelling at Hubby. I ended up giving her a plain t-shirt from my closet and plan to take both girls looking for t-shirts today. I'm hoping Grandma will help pay.

Bob is now super confident and has lots of friends (mostly boys who want her phone number! *eek*) -pretty cool for my introverted daughter who complained all through elementary that she had no friends. Totally bad news for my jealous Kitty, who can't stand others having what she wants.

Ironically after talking about it at work yesterday, one of the staff thought she might have it, I discovered I have shingles... again!! This will be the second time in 3 years. Maybe I'm under just a wee bit of stress?! Good news is I got a nice nap while waiting at the doctor's office, and my wonderful Mom (who had to drive me - no car) took me out to lunch afterward.

Hubby didn't feel well but went to work anyway and discovered that the electricity has been turned off. When he calls the electric company they tell him our tax id number doesn't match theirs (probably have the former owners). They won't turn our electricity back on until tomorrow unless we fax them a W9 form with the correct tax id number. Luckily I'd printed out a W9 form a couple of days before for a client so we had one. The problem is, how do you fax without electricity! So Hubby had to find a place to send a fax. Somedays it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

It's been a long week, month, YEAR!

Please say bad things come in threes

So since I was supposed to take our only car to a networking meeting Thursday night, and Friday was going to be a logistical nightmare with the boys out of school, the girls needing to register at public school, the meeting to review Kitty's assessment results with the new school district, Kitty having meltdown after meltdown, not enough money to cover payroll...

the car breaks down on the way home from Bear's therapy. We had just made a u-turn because I thought I had forgotten to pick up one of Kitty's meds when it died (I realized after it died that I was wrong).

Apparently this was God's way of reminding me that I promised to get more exercise - so we walked home (only a couple of blocks and luckily the park on the way had a bathroom - I had to pee! Stupid males laughed at me when I complained that the seat on the outdoor potty in 40 degree weather was darn cold!).

So Grandma loaned us her car and Poppy helped Hubby tow the dead car to the shop. I missed my meeting, but decided Kitty needed me home anyway.

Today started fairly smoothly. Hubby drove the girls to the private school for their last day (and to finish tests). The boys had the day off so we let them sleep in and then had to talk them into getting ready to go. Why is it shoes go missing on days like these? I had to find 2 pair!

Of course I forgot my phone.

One of our clients who was supposed to make it possible for us to get a decent size check to cover payroll, of course didn't come through.

Kitty's assessment review went pretty well, they were very clear with the new school district that Kitty needs a resouce classroom (small group setting) for pretty much everything and PE would be overwhelming. I don't think they totally agreed, but we have a good starting point for the ARD - which of course is the bad news.

They will schedule an ARD as quickly as possible, but no one recommends Kitty starts school until her schedule is hammered out. So she gets to come to work with us.

I had so much fun filling out all the registration forms, twice. With all their already redundant questions.

Bob had worked so hard to finish her Texas History coursework, and now the public school insists on making her take 2 exams on her first day to prove that she learned it. Even though the private school is accredited. With any luck she'll get to take an extra elective instead.

Hubby and I missed a client meeting to go to the meeting for Kitty.

We had to pay the private school for half this month's tuition for the girls ($500+)

Luckily our car was repaired relatively cheaply ($500+).

Hubby went back to work for a meeting with one of our biggest clients. The client just layed off 14 people and told us that while they love our work, they are canceling the project.

Kitty had at least 3 meltdowns.

Then it got more fun, but this post is long enough.

Spiraling Down

So one of Kitty's therapists suggested that Kitty's latest issues could be due to mania from adolescent-onset bipolar disorder. We can't afford to get her tested by a psychologist though (and they're not sure they could "tease" it out from her many other diagnoses.

We did find out in a recent meeting that Kitty was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 3rd grade. Apparently many doctors will not diagnose bipolar in children so that may be why it was rescinded. We also found out that at age 9 and 10 her IQ was assessed at 106! Pretty big drop to the 76 she was more recently diagnosed with! Could be the 76 assessment was on a bad day, or the earlier assessment was from a less comprehensive test that wasn't as influenced by her learning disabilites.

We do plan on getting her assessed by the public school system (although we do not plan on putting her back in public school at this time - assuming we can afford next semester's tuition). So hopefully we'll get a more accurate IQ then.

I did talk to the psychiatrist about the therapist's concerns and he decided to cut her anti-depressant in half (can trigger mania), and quadruple the mood stabilizer (Geodon) that we'd been working on removing completely due to joint difficulties (TMJ). She immediately started wetting the bed again (she hates this) and has been complaining about body pains (although that could have been from ice skating last Saturday).

She went to a birthday party on Saturday and came home totally activated. If I wasn't already sure she couldn't handle public school with 30-40 kids per classroom, this would have been a major wake-up call.

She's continuing to spiral downward and I don't know how to stop it!

She's missed so much schoolwork (slow, taking breaks when she's "ill," refusing to do homework, faking being finished so she could play, out sick...). The school assessed how many workbook pages she'd have to do a day to get caught up by Christmas break - 38 a day! 50+ if she wants to catch up on the books she missed by starting school a month late. Last year she was finishing 26 easily, but 38?! I don't know what to do. I think she's overwhelmed by the work, and it makes her feel ill, which puts her further behind, which is overwhelming her more...

Bob on the other hand is easily finishing 36 pages a day - sometimes before lunch. She was just as behind as Kitty, but is now completely caught up and has even started taking pre-Algebra. The school assessed how many workbook pages she'd have to do a day to finish her work by Christmas break - 18! The child reads fast, focuses, and is super smart. At this rate she'll be graduating early and Kitty will be lucky to graduate by 21.

We've talked to the school about Kitty - a lot! We're asking them to back off and let her do fewer pages a day - we'll try to make up the difference over Christmas and Summer break. We've also asked them to let her drop Latin. To me this is asking too much of Kitty and she could be using the time to work on other things.

I've set up a homework folder for Kitty. She was "losing" her homework slips and using that as an excuse not to do her work. We had no idea that she even had homework (last year the girls rarely did). The homework folder has a page for each week. It has a spot the teacher can circle if Kitty left the classroom because she was "ill", and of course spots for how many pages in each subject she is supposed to do - and a place to check them off when she's done.

We're going to have to work at making sure she shows us this the minute we get home so she has time to do the work if she hasn't already done it. I admit it didn't occur to me until after bedtime tonight, and she took it into her room putting it on the floor by her bed so she would trip over it when she woke up and not forget it. Ok, now that I've typed that it looks suspicious. *sigh* Wonder what she's hiding.

Kitty Assessments

I spent all day yesterday talking about Kitty and getting her assessed and now I'm even more confused!

So yesterday morning Kitty and I had the initial interview with the psychologist for Kitty's psych eval. I really liked her. As usual, I brought in tons of documents including the psych eval from last August. She wanted to know why we wanted another psych eval - she had a good point. I was interested in getting her diagnosed for bipolar disorder, but she's already on 3 meds for it (Trileptal, Seroquel and something else). The psychologist said it would be very difficult to "tease" out the bipolar from the ADHD and other issues. I think what I might really need is just someone to explain the results.

One thing she mentioned was that Kitty's IQ is only 76 - borderline mental retardation. We've always believed that Kitty doesn't present and test well due to all the trauma, moves, learning disability and ADHD, not being stable on her medications yet, and not being comfortable with the testers - so we were working on the assumption that in reality her actual IQ is higher; however, the psychologist said that if she can't adapt or adjust well that this could actually be lower. (Kitty's EMDR therapist believes that our initial assumption is correct and that Kitty is actually higher functioning than this).

The psychologist (after Kitty left the room), pointed out that we did the right thing by keeping Kitty in a small classroom setting. That she would not be able to handle all the chaos, stimuli and social issues that go along with being in a regular classroom. She also noted that the previous psych eval had included a lot of academic assessments. Her biggest concern was that Kitty doesn't appear to be able to generalize information so a little time each day teaching her tips and techniques (which is all I figured she needed) would not be enough or very helpful. Right now Kitty is working on about a 5th grade level (she's in 7th grade). She is not making big leaps in the academic area so I'm afraid she's going to continue to be 2 years behind. She'll already be 19 when she graduates. Add on 2 extra years or more (as things get harder I worry she'll get further behind) and she may never graduate! Did I mention Kitty's current goal is to be a surgeon?!

The meeting took only an hour so I decided Kitty should go back to school (Kitty was not thrilled!). We went to Salvation Army and picked up appropriate clothing for school (didn't make sense to go all the way home and then all the way to the school when she needed more uniform pieces anyway), took her to lunch, and took her to school. My car is on the critical list, so my Mom drove us around. After we dropped Kitty off, we went to the middle school closest to Kitty's private school (according to the law they are responsible for Kitty's assessments and providing special services because she attends a school in their district) to meet the woman in charge of assessments. I'd already given her a heads up that I would be coming by to pick up and drop off paperwork, rather than mailing them (I am not a patient person).

So here's my biggest concern. Kitty's private school, while very willing, does not have the capability of providing more than minimal accomodations for Kitty. They do not even know how to read an IEP and as far as I know have never bothered to read the one Kitty came with last year. I doubt seriously that we could get the school to train them or provide a one on one aide at the private school. It's really starting to sound like Kitty will need more than a couple of hours a day of help. If the school district insists she needs to be enrolled to be able to provide all the services she needs then I have to decide if I want to pull her from the private school. She has to be in a resource room environment (which I would have to fight for), and since she is so high functioning, I worry that she's going to look around and give up because, "everyone thinks she's stupid."

I'm this close to deciding that the new psych eval is unnecessary, plus we think we will have to pay the $1500 insurance deductible, but if the school district assesses her and decides that they can't accomodate her at the private school, then I will need something showing that she shouldn't be mainstreamed with inclusion help (which was their plan in 6th grade- regular classes with 15 minutes a week of in class assistance!). I'm guessing that proving she is mentally retarded (based on her low IQ and inability to adjust) might force them to allow her the resource room classroom.

So most of the paperwork is turned in, now I just have to wait for actual assessments.

Mary