Junior Year: The “Home” Stretch 8 of 9 part series

 I’m sick of this Groundhog Day crap. I think by year 11 I was starting to lose my positive attitude. We have exactly two more school years, 360 school days to figure this out. But wow, we are quickly running out of time. All those older people who told me to enjoy it because it goes by so fast, yeah – I guess you weren’t kidding. Anyway, onward and upward – mostly because there isn’t another choice.

Remember the special education coordinator that I was unsure of? I am now sure that she is the most PHENOMENAL school employee I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. She instantly fell in love with my son. She even supported his side business by purchasing a dog silhouette made of wood from him. She was what we needed 11 years ago. And although I’m sad she’s just walking into our lives now; SHE was the answer we needed; I think.

Long story short, December came and here we were again with the headaches and the stomach aches. Lots of “I don’t feel good”, lack of sleep, spending a lot of time in his room alone. This was in stark contrast to every summer when school wasn’t in session and meant one thing – We didn’t find what works for him yet. BUT, for the first time in the history of history, I felt supported by my school district.

Back to the state education website I go, searching for alternatives. Homebound… Hmmm, what is homebound? 10 hours of 1:1 instruction per week. I like the 1:1 part. It can be done at home, at the library, or virtually. If we remove the trauma of the social piece, maybe he can find that success we’ve been so desperate to find. He does well with older adults, but kids his age make him anxious – minus the few friends he has.

My first call was to his pediatrician. I needed her support on this because she needs to fill out a form advocating for homebound instruction. She has always been very supportive. She has a child with a severe learning disability, so she just gets it. She was 100% on board and filled out the form. I took it to our sped coordinator who once again: no excuses were made, no deflection, no making me feel like “that parent”. It took a week or so and he was approved! Then the anxiety started for me – Lord, PLEASE let this work. It felt like every avenue was a leap of faith and I was never 100% sure it was the right leap. But we’ve tried private school, extra support in a public school….. What else could I find that could get this kiddo through just two more years of school?

The results were immediate! The dark clouds went away, and the rainbows and unicorns were abundant. I wasn’t getting too excited though. We were still in the honeymoon period.

His OG tutor was still the same, which was a good thing because she is a huge part of his success. He had a social studies and math tutor. Independent health and the best shop teacher in the history of shop teachers. He maintained his grades. His sense of humor came back. He STOPPED isolating in his room. His smile that I had missed for so many years was beaming for the first time in a long time. Life.was.good again.

The rest of his 11th grade year was a breeze. It was so nice functioning like a regular family again. We were all sleeping sound again. Up next, SENIOR year. I can’t believe we are here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Failure Becomes Fuel

How did I keep going when I felt hopeless and powerless? That’s a tough question to answer. Bottom line, I sure as hell wasn’t accepting failure when it came to my kids’ future, just like I never accepted it for mine. To backtrack a little bit, I too struggled in school. I was born in the late 70’s and learning disabilities were just not a big thing at that time. I always wanted to do well and couldn’t understand why I kept failing - I knew I was smart, but school was hard. Every August, I promised myself I’d finally get my act together - study, read, do the work. By mid-October, I was toast. School was so overwhelming to me that it crushed my soul. It made me feel worthless, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be successful. I remember being in some sort of pull-out reading intervention in Elementary School. And I remember feeling like a loser for being in there. I’m not sure why that intervention ever stopped, but I can tell you it was a mistake. I didn’t read a book cover to ...
Read more

The IEP table isn't as equal as they say.....

  I can promise you that no parent walks into that room wanting to fight. All we want is for the school district to understand who our child is, what they struggle with, and brainstorm how the district can support those little humans that we love so much. You spend many nights before the meeting lying awake, role-playing in your head. You spend your days researching, overthinking, preparing, and looking for any past evidence you can find to prove your point. Then you walk into that meeting. You, a regular education teacher, a special education teacher, an “administrator,” and anyone else who can contribute—which sometimes can be multiple other people. You hear that you are just as much a part of the team as the many other people in that room. But are you? Because it seems to me that you’re outnumbered. The school team asks for your input, which you give. The input you’ve spent days gathering. The input that you think will hold a lot of weight… And then you hear it. Those fiv...
Read more

When Advocacy Breaks You - And How I Kept Going Anyway

 Let’s talk about the emotional trauma you experience as a parent advocating for your child. Never in a million years had I imagined this was even a thing when I sent my first child to school. I truly believed they had his best interests at heart and would do whatever was needed to help him learn and grow. Well, that thought didn’t last very long. “What do you mean you don’t see that he can’t sit still? Or that he can’t focus for more than five seconds? Or write with normal spacing and letter height on the lines of the paper?” “So wait, you’re saying it’s okay that he’s writing letters backwards?” That one still throws me for a loop. “We can read what he writes,” they said. Eventually, it turned into: “It’s just his ADHD.” And I fell for it. Repeatedly. I walked out of every meeting feeling like an overprotective mom. That mom. And it didn’t just end with my oldest son. It continued with my other children too. “We don’t see that here.” Okay, great. Just because you don’t...
Read more