Surviving the System: Update, or hope is not a plan...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Update, or hope is not a plan...

Or you might be told something that appears to be contrary to the law (theoretically something that unilaterally limits the type, amount and duration, as in "the only ESY you can have is our ESY and our ESY is 4 weeks and is only appropriate for lower functioning autistic children"), in which case your choices are:

take an inappropriate placement
design and fund your own appropriate placement
find a lawyer

Lovely options, eh? And supposedly BCPSS really doesn't need the consent decree anymore because they are doing such a great job at Special Education. Right.

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About this blog

This will be anonymous because schools can be pretty political, but hopefully constructive. My eldest child entered Kindergarten 16 years ago and I figure I've got another 4.5 years until my youngest finishes. By this fall between the three children we've been enrolled in eight different schools. There have been CST meetings, IEP meetings, PTO meetings, PTA meetings, fund raisers and vast quantities of homework. We are in public schools because we believe that justice starts with a decent free education for all and if I want decent public education being personally involved is the first step.

Glossary and Acronym List

Autism Spectrum - the spread of behaviors that define autistics. The primary areas are difficulties with communication, social interactions and change/lack of order. You can see the official diagnosis criteria here.
CST - Child Support Team, a group (including parents) that meets when a student is having difficulties
ESY - Extended School Year. In our experience, related to special needs kids who go to school over breaks because there will be significant regression in skills over the break if they weren't in a school setting.
FAPE - Free Appropriate Public Education. This is the right of every American child, but is usually a term about creating or finding a learning environment that works for a special needs student.
IEP - Individualized Education Plan. A written plan of goals and ways to achieve them. Typically for special needs students
PTO & PTA - Parent Teacher Organization & Association
SST - Student Support Team, I guess this is the new term that replaces CST