School District Meeting
I met with several members of the school district/elementary school yesterday. In attendance was the Principal, Psychologist, Social Worker, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Pre-School Teacher.
The long story short. JT qualifies for the 4 day a week 1/2 day pre-school. He will receive OT and ST for about 2 hours per week in total plus the activities the teacher has them do. I am glad that JT qualified, but sad because this means his delays warrant special education at this time.
We still have a transportation issue. I am being told the rules changed last year and the district does not have an obligation to bus JT since his "special need" is not special enough to warrant special transportation.
Our district is willing to contract with the adjacent district, but then JT's funds allocated to him would be used up by bussing in about 2 months.
This leaves us with two choices. The first choice is to contact a lawyer (which I did in the past) and fight. I am being told we have a case, but we would have to pay to fight AND fighting takes time. JT is eligible to start on Monday.
Our second option is to try to arrange with our daycare to bus JT back and forth. They do advertise that they bus to the various local schools, but they usually only bus Kindergarten and up.
I spoke with our daycare center yesterday and explained the situation. They seemed receptive. I was told I would hear something today or tomorrow and hopefully, we can get JT set up with bussing so he can start on Monday.
Please keep your fingers crossed!
posted by RollerCoaster @ 12:16 PM
2 Comments:
I really really hate to sound like a broken record...but you have got to get the book From Emotions to Advocacy, and also check out the wrightslaw website. He is the top special ed. lawyer in the country, and he argued and won a case before the supreme court.
One thing he made very clear in the seminar I attended is that getting a lawyer should be the last step after exhausting all other options.
Also...they are completely wrong to say that JT is only allocated a certain amount of dollars--it is about giving him access to all of the services he is legally entitled too, not a number.
In the meantime, I hope the daycare bussing thing works out, it sounds like a good interim solution.
I know it is difficult to hear your child is delayed, but hopefully these services will help him catch up quickly!
I am definitely keeping fingers and toes and eyes crossed that a workable solution presents itself. That being said, i am so pissed at the school district for not having the decency to at least provide transportation to your son.
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