My youngest son has severe speech disability and slight hearing loss due to cleft lip and pallet, ADHD: primarily inattentive type, anxiety, depression, hallucinations, and will soon be evaluated for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Last year as a fifth grader his teacher and I had conversations about him not being ready for middle school because he struggled to keep up, pay attention, know what he was supposed to be doing, physically move at the same pace as the others, etc.
The promoted him to middle school anyway because academically he was successful. It has been a disaster.
He can't get to class on time, doesn't always know where he is supposed to go, can't keep up with which elective class he is supposed to go to because they rotate days, fails to bring things he needs to class, has panic attacks at school, doesn't remember school work, can't fill in his daily planner with assignments that are posted on the board..
The school's response has been terrible. They have been resistant to every request I have made for assistance. They don't always listen to him or take time to try to understand or let him use his "text-to-speech" accommodation. Panic attacks are ignored by teachers. They won't give him an aide. They won't put him in self contained class. They won't move him to an alternative campus with smaller classes. However, they want me to keep him medicated, and for him to "get it together." They want to hold him accuntable for expectations, but not give him help that he needs. Their reasoning is because academically he does fine and he doesn't disrupt class, so to them that means his needs aren't bad enough.
I have caused such a ruckus that they agreed to do new evaluations on him, and talk about putting him with a different team if teachers, or moving him to alternative campus. They had told me it needed to happen before the Christmas holiday because they only make changes at the beginning of semesters. I did everything I was supposed to. They did not. They did not finish evaluations until last week. I highly suspect that they are going to say they can't do anything because the new semester already started. I also suspect that their findings will also still say that he isn't bad enough.
The meeting is on February 2. If they are unwilling to help him at that point, I'm going to prepare to homeschool him next year.
Last year as a fifth grader his teacher and I had conversations about him not being ready for middle school because he struggled to keep up, pay attention, know what he was supposed to be doing, physically move at the same pace as the others, etc.
The promoted him to middle school anyway because academically he was successful. It has been a disaster.
He can't get to class on time, doesn't always know where he is supposed to go, can't keep up with which elective class he is supposed to go to because they rotate days, fails to bring things he needs to class, has panic attacks at school, doesn't remember school work, can't fill in his daily planner with assignments that are posted on the board..
The school's response has been terrible. They have been resistant to every request I have made for assistance. They don't always listen to him or take time to try to understand or let him use his "text-to-speech" accommodation. Panic attacks are ignored by teachers. They won't give him an aide. They won't put him in self contained class. They won't move him to an alternative campus with smaller classes. However, they want me to keep him medicated, and for him to "get it together." They want to hold him accuntable for expectations, but not give him help that he needs. Their reasoning is because academically he does fine and he doesn't disrupt class, so to them that means his needs aren't bad enough.
I have caused such a ruckus that they agreed to do new evaluations on him, and talk about putting him with a different team if teachers, or moving him to alternative campus. They had told me it needed to happen before the Christmas holiday because they only make changes at the beginning of semesters. I did everything I was supposed to. They did not. They did not finish evaluations until last week. I highly suspect that they are going to say they can't do anything because the new semester already started. I also suspect that their findings will also still say that he isn't bad enough.
The meeting is on February 2. If they are unwilling to help him at that point, I'm going to prepare to homeschool him next year.