My battle with public schools
Posted By: A Mom on 2006-12-01
In Reply to: I need to vent about our public school....sm - Inquiring mind
I will try not to get to long-winded here, but I wanted to let you know my experience with public schools. My youngest of 3 boys has extreme expressive language delay. His first word was at 4.5 and was Mama. No autism, no physical reasons. In every other aspect, he was normal.
After he was no longer eligible for state intervention after 3 years of age, we paid for private speech therapy but that was killing us and our insurance did not cover it. So we decided to enroll him in the preschool 4 year old program the following year.
It was a nightmare two weeks experience. The principal of the school would not let parents walk their kids to class. I was expected to bring my 4 year old nonverbal scared child to the front door and some teacher would escort him. In that two weeks, we had many meetings trying to resolve the problems. In addition, my son began to act out in extreme ways, peeing, screaming, hitting, kicking. It was not normal for him at all.
Finally, that Friday of the second week, it all came to an head for me. My son was screaming and hiding under the steering wheel that morning. I was crying. It had been a nightmare dealing with an insane school bureaucracy to get help, my husband being no help and saying we just needed to give it more time, and my little formerly sweet son acting out so savagely.
I decided that was it. He was only 4 for goodness sake. I went in to remove him from school. I was met in the office (the only place parents could go in the building - I swear this is true!) by the principal and told that I was to leave my child there, leave, or she would call the police!
This woman was something else. She refused to listen to any of my concerns, and refused at all to let me go into the classroom! I literally begged in tears in her office to **allow** me to go to my son's class to help so I could see what was going on. Parents were not allowed to help out in school unless on special days, like field day.
A shouting match ensued - and I mean my mama bear came roaring out. My son was there with me, clinging to my leg for all he was worth, listening to the principal and I scream at each other. Because the principal literally screamed at me back. It was without a doubt one of the worst experiences in my life. Teachers came running to see what was going on...my son's teacher was there trying to calm me down. I left that building with my son and have never been back.
My husband came racing home from work, I was so hysterical when I called, fearing they would take our child away from us. There were phone calls the next couple days from the school superintendent - Oh, we're so sorry. She's a new principal. She will be talked to about this. Come back, etc.
By that time, I was in battle fatigue and scared to death of my child being taken away. Fast forward now 5 years...He is talking up a storm, reading, very good in math, and is back to his sweet and gentle self. We chose homeschooling. We didn't want to really but couldn't afford private schools.
We got swept up in a great co-op that has become our pseudo-school. He takes classes there and has made very good friends. The kids were all very accepting of him from the first and did not tease at all about his speech. Last year, at graduation ceremonies, he read a booklet so clear and perfectly pronounced. One of the mom's put her arm around me because she knew what a long journey it has been for him.
So, that's my story. Sorry so long. For my other two sons, my eldest is in high school public school. My middle son couldn't stand being in school with his younger brother having so much fun in co-op and we homeschool him too.
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you have to realize too that a private schools also get those who are kicked out of public schools t
have a friend who is a teacher at private school who passed along this info so don't flame me,LOL.
battle for your soul
I finally had to pretend God and the devil were fighting it out for my soul. So I wasn't standing up to the cigarettes, but the devil himself. God won. A little melodramatic, but withdrawal is pretty dramatic.
This could be a life long battle about who gets what--sm
I say---exhume the body of the son, creamate both the son and Anna Nicole, share the ashes with anyone who wants a piece of her and the boy. Argument over.
jmo
If can live together as friends, yes. If home is battle
x
agree. I was rased in a battle zone -
it scared the crap out of me and it was daily. To this day, I aim to please (him) to keep the peace, and never achknowlede what I might want. If there is an argument - I end up doing it like my parents...poorly.
When my parents finally split, I remember life being calm and I didn't live in fear anymore.
sad we have to battle the school system that we pay for, but has she been tested for dyslexia? sm
sounds like a repeat of my daughter who is now in 5th grade and it has been a battle every since. in fact, i posted message on here few months ago regarding her. she also has dyslexia, which is quite common and sounds like your daughter may have too. we had it in our family so i knew she had it given her symptoms. school says they can't test til 3rd grade. hello, who can catch up when they are that far behind? i fought it enough i finally got someone to say, we can test earlier if the parents' request it. so they did and it has helped her tremendously til we moved this year and now she gets a "video" dyslexia class that sux and doesn't help. i am not sure how to continue battling it from this point. at her prior school though she went from failing to A's and B's with dyslexia help and extra time on assignments, verbal reading, etc. with her IEP.
I agree. I posted below about living in the battle zone -
If my parents would have had counseling, I might have been given a better example of how to disagree constructively and carried that forward in my life. Counseling is for getting through anything, you name it. Divorce too.
(your kids might need a place to voice themselves other than you, too.)
Went to the schools to eat
Several times. Nothing like we had when we were kids. There was No quality to their meals. I was not pleased.
Same at our schools
The kids can have them in school, but they have to be turned off and kept in their lockers. They found that the students were actually using the cell phones to cheat on tests. My daughter is probably one of the only teens that doesn't have a cell phone. If she goes out and absolutely needs one then she borrows either mine or her father's. We never had cell phones. I think most of us turned out okay.
Schools
Wondering if you can help me with this.
Due to many problems within the school district I have decided to start a special parents group to address the situations that were not handled properly, teacher/student relationships, and on.
What questions/and concerns would you ask of your school if you were not satisfied with them,;
Thanks for your time.
private schools
No, it's not fair that you should have to pay for a private school, but that might just be what is best for your daughter. We decided 16 years ago that our 3 children would not go to public schools. We have spent a fortune over the years, but I do not regret it for an instant.
but he did not go to Korean schools
the other poster may be correct about what they teach in Korea, but that was not the cause of this person going ballistic. and it should not be made to seem like it was.
The schools have enough to take care of
besides crap like this. Kids, source, name calling SO? You are grown, supposed to know better, do not stoop to their level by retaliation, nothing gained as hubs would say.
It is not only in schools. It can be anywhere. On the news here
in SC last night, a little boy 3 or 4 years of age has it and is at MUSC in Charleston but doing good. He was not in day care anywhere. He stayed at home all the time.
Our schools do the same thing
Having kids from 7 up to 19 in our district, I've had this happen a few times. But the difference is, our school district sends home on the very first day of school, a form that tells you if there is an emergency and kids have to be dismissed early, what you want to happen. I elect for my kids to get on the bus and if no one is home, they will be sent to Latchkey. When they take the bus, the bus driver will not let them off until an adult appears. She will sit there and honk for a few minutes and then go. Working with headphones on makes that difficult too, but I normally get someone calling telling me they heard about the school, etc. as a warning. They don't have time to call parents and I understand that. Not to mention, if the power is out at our schools, the phones go out as well.
Now we have had practice evacuations in case of fire, bomb threats, etc at the lower age and the teacher has to get them to our local fire dept, which is a very short walk away. They wait there until the buses can get there and take them home. They had to do this one time and it was a mess. Of course parents heard about the bomb threats (blanket threat over the whole district so everyone was evacuated), so they showed up to get their kids or sent friends, but they would not release kids to no one but parents. No grandparents, nothing. Reason being, if a true emergency like 9/11 happened, would they honestly have time to get those emergency forms? No one knew that they were not going to release the kids to parents only. Now that they've experienced it and people wrote letters complaining etc, it is now documented on the same form as mentioned above about parents only picking up their kids during a situation like this.
I know its hard, but I would at least write a letter explaining your situation, but be compassionate to what they are experiencing as well and come up with a compromise. They shouldn't have released your kids to your brother without any emergency forms for sure. I'm in a very small district where everybody knows everyone and they still would not release kids that day. They knew they were liable.
What's happening to Schools
Everytime I pick up a newspaper, watch the news or read stuff off the internet I hear about schools being in lockdown. Why is this happening? It wasn't heard of way back when. Don't the schools today lock their doors any when school is in session and use a buzzer to let people in and out? This is really scary. Schools today need to put more security in place. I can't imagine being a student, parent or school official and having to deal with this.
None of my high schools because sm
I don't have a clue where any of them are, haven't gone to a reunion, although this year is 30 years and I STILL won't go!
My life took a very different track from many of them. I was and am the Earth Mother, vegetarian, animal lover, big family gal and they were money-oriented yuppie types. NOTHING in common.
I recently connected with a friend from elementary school. We were not really friends then, but we are now. The other 2 friends I had from elementary school also went on different paths. One married and had a career, and her real full time job was managing the doofus she married AND the kids they had. The other never married, never had children and has been a bartender for 25 years at a couple of bars her brothers own. Again, nothing in common.
My most enduring and treasured friendship is an MT friend I met online in 2001. We have talked nearly daily since, but have never met in person. We will be spending a week together in June, the plans for which dropped into our laps unexpectedly. We had decided we might never meet face to face and that was okay. She is no less dear. We have used a webcam in recent months and connected that way, which was a gas.
ok, if i ever see one out on its own in public,
x
Public
I have to agree with "Baptist here". I think teaching in a public school would really make her shine - and public schools need teachers like her!
I worked in the schools with them for years.
Try raising them for their entire lives. These kids have LOTS of other problems, just ADHD as an example because there are so many kids on this stuff. They are on LOTS of medications which do cause a lot of GI upset. You're grandchildren are lucky if they didn't get stuck on these drugs...unfortunately, the kids I'm talking about aren't so lucky.. they are court mandated to be put on these drugs without a thought of what it is doing to them.
You obviously assume I don't know what I'm talking about...being sick to your stomach has nothing to do with being disrespectful. I've seen disrespectful up close.
I think it's a great idea and that all schools should do it.
Just my opinion...but we all see the way some of these kids dress today, especially the girls.
Lunchables are better than what most schools serve.
today our elementary school served cinnamon rolls and chili *!*!gross*!*!* and the option was PBJ sandwiches.
I say Lunchables rule. I am sure if mom is worried about keeping them cold she is concientious(sp?) enough to make sure they eat a good breakfast and an excellent dinner. Welcome to 2007
I will climb off my soapbox now and finish eating my lunchable :)
Not all schools have a waiting list - sm
where I am the local teaching hospital does not use them at all. So fresh crop each time. I have been thinking about it too. I am 42. I need to do 3 classes first to qualify for the program. It is full-time though 5 straight semesters and I would be done, though would probably go for the more advanced degree once I had the basic one, have to get that one first though. Money is also an issue, guess I would have to hope for a full scholarship as I have no money to go to school, and of course childcare during the summer would be the other issue. Just wish the program was not "accellerated" so I didn't have to do school in the summer. A job is basically guaranteed when done too, though I am sure you don't get to offered 9-5!
I went to 2 different high schools and when it came to driving....sm
the 1st high school a lot of the parents gave their kids brand new cars for their 16th birthday and paid for everything. A lot of those kids would wreck their cars and didn't care because they had no true repercussions.
The 2nd high school I went to after we moved was in a more economically depressed area. The kids that did have cars, generally had older used cars, had to work part-time to pay for the expenses of it and rarely got into accidents.
I drove a family car and while I was a senior in high school I took a full load of high school classes, 12 hours of college classes, worked 15 hours a week to pay for gas, insurance, upkeep, and was in marching/concert band, and made straight A's because I was determined to do all of this.
ESL students in elementary schools
They probably bought the store from a cousin.
I grew up in public schools where about 1/3 of my fellow students in elementary school were SE asian refugee children and some spanish speaking children and some who spoke other things. My teachers did not know what to do with classes of 33 students (5 over limit) where they had students speaking Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish, and who knows what else, and little to no English. These kids spent an hour a day in ESL but they never caught up (maybe by senior year in high school, some of them) . There is another method where they spend their first year in intensive ESL study before going into the regular classroom. Since kids learn languages better the younger they are, this makes a lot more sense. I know that I and other students were slowed down by this problem in the classroom (as well as the fact that the school could not keep up with the numbers and our classes were overcrowded).
Our high schools here all have a no cell
phone policy. First time, the parent comes to pick it up. After that the school keeps it until the end of the year. No reason for them to have cell phones turned on during classes is the way I see it. Before and after school is fine, but not during. My daughter's middle school also has no cell phone policy. Even if they are in their lockers and ring, they are taken away.
One school in a neighboring county was confiscating them and giving them away. The parents there filed a law suit and they now keep them, but the student loses it until the end of the year.
That is what stinks about private schools - sm
my kids used to attend private school, one reason I pulled them out was this one girl who bullied everyone, she was allowed to hurt kids, over and over again because the school wanted the tuition money and the father donated thousands of dollars in money, time, and construction labor to the school, and they were constantly "giving" things just so their daughter would not get kicked out. After trying to stangle someone the parents were finally told they had to get the girl some help and now she is on medication, but it took 4 years before the school did anything. The girl is still there, friendless basically, all the kids in her class cannot stand her, and she is just a pain in general. It is very sad in a way, if the parents had gotten her help a lot sooner she probably would not have allienated all the kids in her class (20 or so).
cutting funding for schools....sm
My sunday paper today had an article about possible cuts for funding to schools. I cannot believe how friggin ignorant the government is!!! (well, actually yes I can) But it angers me to no end!! They need to start thinking about cutting funding WITHIN the government! But schools???? come on now! Of all the possible things they could cut and they come up with children's education??? Don't they realize that these kids are the people who are going to be taking care of them one day, whether it be their doctor or lawyer, the president, lawmakers, or Transcriptionist or whatever. They are OUR future in one way or another whether they're serving us food or wiping our butts! We need them to be as educated as they possibly can be. Besides, we need them to get a good education so they'll be able to get us out of this economical hell hole the government has got us into right now! This has just been ticking me off for a long time but today seeing it in print really got to me. Oh, and they're always cutting funding for mental health, too. Um...hello????....I think maybe they're the ones who need the mental health care if they don't see what's wrong with THAT picture, either. Children and mental health. I just don't get it. Anyone else agree with me?
Our schools do that and I called to complain
I have 3 kids in elementary school. When they come home and tell me they owe money, I immediately send a check the next day. However, several times, my youngest who is in kindergarten would forget to tell me. I never got a note from the school. One day, I got a phone call from the district office saying that if his balance wasn't brought current immediately, he would receive PB&J. I was very indignant as I had never been notified. Their response was -- you should know how much your child has in his account from whether or not he packs his lunch. That's all well and good in a perfect world, but sometimes my kids eat breakfast without telling me and sometimes they buy extras (milk, bottled water, etc). I can't keep up and the school district hasn't upgraded the computer system to allow us access to our kids' accounts.
I have no problem with these rules, but the parents should be given ample notification before applying the PB&J rule.
There is no more home ec in schools anymore,
x
Our schools are required to perform
visual and hearing tests at certain ages. Really don't understand why you are so upset. These tests catch problems some parents are not aware of. They are not invasive, so don't see the problem.
Our high schools require it also, they want
to know who is coming in, I think mainly because if there is any trouble from someone from another school, it can be handled by that school.
Swine flu closes schools
NEW YORK – The sons of a critically ill New York City school official diagnosed with swine flu say their father has been on a breathing tube and is barely able to talk to his family.
Adam Wiener (WEE'-ner) is disputing media reports that his father, Mitchell, had been suffering from pre-existing medical conditions before he contracted the virus. He says the only condition his father had before was gout.
He says his father is now suffering from kidney failure and a lung infection after being hospitalized with swine flu since early Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Adam Wiener has been keeping a vigil at the hospital with his mother and younger twin brothers.
Eighteen-year-old son Jordan says his dad was awake briefly and asked him about an earlier baseball injury.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Maintenance workers are scrubbing down three public schools in New York City that were closed because of a swine flu outbreak.
The city's Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg says desks, tables, floors, doors and door handles are being disinfected.
The city announced Thursday that it was closing the schools in Queens after hundreds of children went home sick with flu symptoms.
An assistant principal at one of the schools is in critical condition on a ventilator.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the three schools — with more than 4,000 students altogether — will be closed for at least a week.
Public school
I have a granddaughter in the mountains of North Carolina in the fifth grade, who has teachers from you know where.. They should not be in a school setting. One used four letter words and they were not love. They will not go out with the students at recess, so it is a free for all with three to five grades out there all at once. There is bullying and if she says anything, the teacher says she is squealing. I don't think when your knees are bleeding from being knocked down, it is squealing. The third grade was awful. They finally got her moved out of there into another class and the teacher was wonderful. That was about three months before the year was over and that was because they went to the superintendent of schools. Next year was bad and this year is the worse. The teacher tells the student she cannot believe the students are that ignorant, loses papers the students turn in and then gives them a zero. Her mother saved her papers and showed them to the teacher and she had some phony excuse, like she had so many papers to correct. Teachers are supposed to do that. The teacher also has a teacher's aide three times a week and there are only 15 students in the class. She also calls my granddaughter a liar when she says she turned her papers in. She says my granddaughter is to lazy to do the work. My granddaughter loves school, is on the honor roll and would have made the principal's list had the teacher not lost three papers that my granddaughter had turned and gave her the grade she deserved instead of giving her a zero three times. Don't say go to the school and the principal. When they go, the teacher acts so nice and after they leave, she picks on my granddaughter and tells her not to go home and tell her parents things that are not true. The principal does nothing. They have her on a list for a private school and after paying taxes, no one should have to pay to go to a private school, but that is what you have to do. I cannot believe that all the parents do not get together and descend on the principal's office. My granddaughter loves school but not this year because of the teacher. Cannot wait for the year to be over. She has been humiliated in front of her classmates and when a classmate tries to stand up for her and tell the teacher she is not talking or doing any of what the teacher says she is doing, she tells the classmates not to try to take any sides. She is a very loving, sweet, and intelligent girl and what she has to go through every day, makes my skin crawl. When school is out, I am going to write the principal, the teacher and the superintendent of schools and tell them what I think of their teachers. If they did away with tenure, maybe the teachers would take their work more seriously. I never worked for a company that told me if I stayed with them for 10 years, I could not be fired. Ridiculous. The principal does not like to report anything is wrong because in the reports they have to send to the state board of education, the more problems the school has, the less money they get, so they do not report anything is wrong. Report cards were given out Friday and the teacher wrote that she was a very good student, and a pleasure to have her in the class. Why write that when all you do is pick on her. To protect herself when things get tough. Thank you for letting me vent.
Public School
My husband and I have two special needs children and homeschooling was the best thing we could have ever done for them. My oldest child is learning up a storm and my youngest child is going to start being home-schooled next year. We both work full-time and we still find time to homeschool. It does not take as much time as you would think. There is just you teaching your kids and it goes a lot faster and they learn faster. We thought we could not homeschool, but we were forced to as the public school did nothing for our son and now nothing for our other child. You can do more than you think you can if you have to. Good luck!
anyone who has to come to a public board like this
Anyone who has to go on a public board/forum and brag on and boast about ANYTHING- ( about A MAN, no less *L*).....just makes most posters question the credibility of such posters. Anyone who is truly happy....has no need to type all this on a public forum....nor to hang out on one....
the hubby *put you on a pedestal* so now you can reach the keyboard....*lol* -
Now really, all the nasty, antagonistic posters, and in this particular thread, should get off their mommy's computers and go outside and play because from my view, it's a spectacularly gorgeous day outside
*laughs*
PUBLIC PLACES
I love animals; however, I have a life-threatening allergy to dander. Keep your animals home, love them, and enjoy them in YOUR space.
Lilly
Public Pet Peeves
I enjoyed reading the post below about the different "social pet peeves". Does anyone else have any that were not mentioned? Let's see, we had pets out in public, children misbehaving in restaurants, and smoking outside public places. Any others?? Let's share - let yourself be heard!
Some of the public really OJ haters, myself
I watched all the trial, every last second of it and came out with the same conclusion the jury reached- NOT guilty. You and others just cannot seem to get over what a jury decides and their word is final.
It might be public knowledge but
how you obtain is another matter. You cannot get someone in a public office (as stated below) to ramble through a persons records. That my dear is against the law and that is what was said and not only that but if the person committed crimes when a child or teenager, those records are sometimes totally off limits and closed to the public. I also have people in law enforcement but if I needed information, would not have them go through the records to get for me and risk losing their livelihood.
Umm, yes, you were. You are on public board
x
So what exactly has he done for the public good
in the last 30 years?
Georgia schools also socially pass....sm
I had a prior foster child that came to me in the 5th grade that tested to be on the 1st grade reading level and 2nd grade math level. Her prior schools for the past 2 years that she was in foster care before moving to me had report cards for her with A's and B's all over the place. The school here refused to hold her back because she was held back on the 1st grade due to poor attendance while living with her birth parents, even though emotionally she was 8 in a 12-year-old body.
Fortunately for this child while she was living with me we figured out her educational deficits and that she had learning disabilities. We moved her to a specialized group home that has worked with her extensively and she's now in 8th grade and back in mainstream classes. She's making C's and earning them - not having them given to her. I shudder to think what would have happened to her if she hadn't come to my home to figure out she had more problems than the system realized and helped her get the help she needed - she probably would have ended up as a statistic. She still is emotionally behind her peers but hopefully one day will catch up on that aspect. Oh yes, she also went to summer school here and that was 2 weeks - what a joke. All they did was play games half the day outside and did just a little work on reading and math.
Some Georgia schools have dress codes...sm
and they work with school uniform vendors to provide them really cheaply, around $7-8 for each shirt and each pair of pants or shirt.
My daughter goes to a school with a dress code and it's nice not having the "what is OK to wear to school" discussions in the morning. It also eliminates kids who come from poor families feeling inferior to other kids over their clothes.
Schools and the CRCT test inquiry...sm
Out of curiosity here.... in the area you live in, do your schools basically become just a babysitting facility after the CRCTs are administered until the last day of school? I've been through CRCT testing with my children now for 5 years and the minute they finish those tests, from that day on until the last day of school they're watching movies, spending more play time, etc. at school & very little actual school work. It's like the schools are busy teaching the CRCT criteria and once the testing is completed they don't do diddly squat for the last month of school.
What about in your area?
Try to be close to schools and to things for kids to do, even once she's
s
Wyoming schools started around the 20th
my daughter's don't start preschool until after Labor day.
She has 2 wonderful kids whom she home schools
They are ages 13 (boy) and 10 (girl). My sister died at age 27 of cancer and left a husband and 8 yo boy. My sister was also 6 months pregnant when they found the cancer and she lost the little girl after going to MD Anderson and all the treatment, and my sister only lived 6 months.
There is such a concern here because of my having kidney cancer and given 6 months to live, but I have been in remission for 4 years now.
My sister had breast cancer, in remission for 5 years.
I am open to any help anyone has, be it good or bad. Thanks.
Schools' hands are tied in many states....
My daughter teaches third grade. This year, she had a child from Yemen, an Arabic country. His dad, who barely speaks English, bought a convenience store and ran that. His mother speaks NO English. His older brother of two years understands a little more English and can speak it better though. But my daughter's student can't even read the instructions, read English, take a test, nothing. WHat is more frustrating, she is still expected to teach him like the other children (they have no special teachers for ESL students), even though she can't communicate with him. His father is very considerate if he is absent and writes her a note (very badly written at that) but that's all. Now get this....he can't understand anything in class, my daughter is expected to just give him F's or whatever and just keep going, BUT when standardized testing is going on, she is REQUIRED to count his grade in her overall classroom score, which brings the overall score DOWN. Now how dumb is that? This was going on all year but she went in last week, no child, no explanation. She gets a call from the office asking to look in his desk to check for any books he may have left. Come to find out, she was told he and his family had been put on the next plane OUT of the country and back to where they came from. We believe they were here illegally BUT how did they get here, buy a store, and go about their business? Our government allowed their being here....they should be required to explain why that family was here in the first place and why they suddenly disappeared. Our government is so busy trying to cater to everyone, they are screwing the rest of us.
While breastfeeding in public does not necessarily
offend me, I think some discretion is absolutely necessary and some things are better done in private. God also made our bodies for procreating, but we wouldn't want to see that done in public, either. JMO. 
I need to vent about our public school....sm
My daughter is in the 1st grade. While in kindergarten her teacher became ill and was out of the classroom more than in it for over a month and then ended up having to leave permanently after being out for 2 months. During this time they had parapros in the classroom but all of the kids in her class got behind because of the inconsistent teaching. Finally in March they split the class up and moved the kids into other classrooms, but by the end of the year each of the 15 kids were behind their peers because of the true instruction time they had missed, through no fault of their own.
Now fast forward to 1st grade. Some of the kids had managed to catch up but others haven't, including my daughter. She is now reading on a level 3 and should be on a level 5 or 6. Math-wise she is way behind as well as her reading level is below normal. She is currently in a classroom with 27 kids and has ADD, but it is very easily managed when she is given tasks in small increments and visual cues to work with (i.e. write math problems for her and she can do them but ask her to do them in her head and she struggles).
My husband & I met with the school yesterday because of the concerns about her being behind and in the student support team meeting, consisting of the school system psychologist, special education teacher, her teacher, principal and vice principal, we were told that they don't have the resources to work with her to meet her needs and that by the No Child Left Behind federal laws they don't have to address her needs individually until she is 6 months to a year behind her peers. Why do they WANT kids to get this behind before helping them? We know she is smart - she has an IQ of 92, but she needs to have the distractions caused by the 26 kids in her classroom removed and they won't do anything about it because all other 1st grade classes have 26 kids, and the only one that doesn't have that many is a class full of kids that are learning English. We are working with her at home but it's ridiculous to send her to school 7 hours a day and then tutor her at home because the teacher won't take 2 minutes to explain instructions on a task to her. I told them that I don't want her to have to go to special education in the future because she's behind and that I'd prefer that a way to get her caught up and kept on level with where she would be should be what the goal is - not wait until she's very behind. Their response was "well over the upcoming Holidays we can send home LOTS of things for you to work on with her."
Home schooling isn't a good option for her and her psychologist has agreed that she needs the classroom interaction with other kids. If it weren't for that I'd home school her in a nannosecond, even if that meant giving up everything outside of my regular work day to educate her.
I've talked to a couple of private schools in the area and one school wasn't really any better, has 1 teacher per 20 kids in 1st grade. The other school could take her and has currently 5 kids per teacher for 1st grade with good test results . It's ridiculous that we're being forced to consider paying for private school because the public schools don't care.
I'm sure others have run into these same type of situations. What did you do - continue working with the public schools, turn to home schooling or private school?
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