The past couple of months have been interesting. With The Princess's annual IEP coming up, along with the looming 3-year reassessment, there's been a lot to do.
While we've been preparing for these meetings, we've heard some rumblings concerning the programs available to special needs kiddos in our area. Nothing has been released officially, but we keep hearing rumors that a town in our county has decided to pull all of their autistic children out of the special education district programs in favor of fledgling programs that will be initiated by the local school district come this fall. To save money. They never even ran this past the parents.
Needless to say, we hoped these were just rumors.
A day or two after we filled out the grueling 3-year re-evaluation (a twenty-two page packet of depressing questions and observations, a truly nasty document that requires copious amounts of chocolate to deal with), The Hubbs received a phone call.
The Fabulous Mrs. G. was calling to talk about what's going to happen next year. Evidently, the rumors are true. All of the kids in a district two towns over have been pulled from the special education district, and their home district is going to start their own autism program. This is in progress all around the county. The parents have no choice. Mrs. G. wanted to let us know, because our little town apparently had yet to make a decision one way or the other.
I immediately started researching who I should talk to, which offices to call, which feathers to ruffle, in order to make sure our girl continues to get the level of care and service she has become accustomed to during her three years with The Fabulous Mrs. G., who - by the way - has been doing this for twenty-nine years. I can't imagine changing everything up on her now, not after the amazing progress she's made with this team.
Once I finished breathing in and out slowly into a paper sack, I started to form a plan of action. I'd start with the special ed coordinator at The Princess's home district, as well as the superintendent. I was armed with all of the contact information for the members of our county board who represent our district. I just couldn't trust my voice not to break or my tears not to flow.
I had to do this right. And that meant it would have to wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment