Have I mentioned how much I hate the Public school system?
We have been homeschooling our kid for the past two years because of difficulties with our district. She is hard of hearing, but is very auditory and fully capable of speech, etc. Because of her hearing loss, she has a speech and language delay of approximately 2 years, but she is at grade level most subjects and catching up in others. (Actually, in several subjects she is ahead of grade level). Our primary problem with the district lay in the fact that their deaf program is set up for profoundly deaf kids who use ASL to communicate. We have been doing Auditory/Verbal, and using support services such as speech therapy and technology like the FM system and bilateral hearing aids. Our biggest problem while she was in school was in getting the teachers and staff to properly implement her IEP- in a two year period, they broke it half a dozen times. Some of the simplest tasks were beyond their reach- things like looking at her so she could read their lips, turning on the Closed Captioning while watching films and using the FM system to amplify their voices. Really basic, easy stuff. After two years of 'Whoops! I keep forgetting!' we gave up and pulled her out.
Homeschooling is fine, but it tends to isolate kids, and try as we do to get her around other kids, it's not enough. We could also use a little guidance in the curriculum department. Well, she has a friend who attends a homeschool program in a neighboring district, and we thought we'd see if she could go there as well. We filed for a transfer out of district, and last week received the go ahead. Yesterday, the district we wanted to move her to sent us a decline, saying they had no room. The only problem is that we had never got around to applying to them, which means our old district informed them of our intentions, and likely told them of her hearing impairment. Definite breach of privacy laws, in several areas. I fired off a letter to the new district, and am going to contact an attorney, but I am extremely pissed off. Her friend and her two sisters received an acceptance letter the same day we were declined. (Her friend is not special needs). The thing that pisses me off more than the privacy breach is the fact that we don't want any services- we provide ALL services; we just want some guidance and our daughter to have something of a normal educational experience. Bastards, and I don't know how they sleep at night.
On a more positive note, we got our Walt Disney Travel package today!!!! Yaaayyy! A little over two weeks away, and I can't wait. Lots of very fun and creative doings planned, and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again. (And meeting in person those that I missed last fall). I also paid off the Alaska cruise, so while profoundly broke, I know there are some fun times ahead.
Homeschooling is fine, but it tends to isolate kids, and try as we do to get her around other kids, it's not enough. We could also use a little guidance in the curriculum department. Well, she has a friend who attends a homeschool program in a neighboring district, and we thought we'd see if she could go there as well. We filed for a transfer out of district, and last week received the go ahead. Yesterday, the district we wanted to move her to sent us a decline, saying they had no room. The only problem is that we had never got around to applying to them, which means our old district informed them of our intentions, and likely told them of her hearing impairment. Definite breach of privacy laws, in several areas. I fired off a letter to the new district, and am going to contact an attorney, but I am extremely pissed off. Her friend and her two sisters received an acceptance letter the same day we were declined. (Her friend is not special needs). The thing that pisses me off more than the privacy breach is the fact that we don't want any services- we provide ALL services; we just want some guidance and our daughter to have something of a normal educational experience. Bastards, and I don't know how they sleep at night.
On a more positive note, we got our Walt Disney Travel package today!!!! Yaaayyy! A little over two weeks away, and I can't wait. Lots of very fun and creative doings planned, and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again. (And meeting in person those that I missed last fall). I also paid off the Alaska cruise, so while profoundly broke, I know there are some fun times ahead.