Surviving the System: April 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

When is Spring Break not a break?

Somehow, this spring break has been totally not a break this year. On the agenda:

Projects for both high school students

Frantic AP cramming, at least for the Junior

Visiting colleges with the Junior, both local and one about 3 hours away, that with traffic took 8 hours back and forth and then 5 hours touring...very long day

Too much work and not enough vacation time for me to take more than a day or two off

So, tomorrow I go back to work and along with not going any place (besides the previously mentioned college) I haven't done any spring cleaning and I haven't figured out the summer plans for either my special needs kid or my soon to be high school senior.

Blah!

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