Surviving the System: The final K-12 summer

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The final K-12 summer

This is HSS's last City Schools summer. I'm expecting/hoping that summer internships will happen through her college years, but this summer it's about prepping for college.

UMBC has a pre-college orientation-type program that includes taking two courses that are required for graduation, called CSI. So, for the first 6 weeks of the 12 weeks that is summer vacation, HSS will be living in the dorms, figuring out the logistics of college life, making friends, doing service projects, being a tourist...all sorts of fun stuff.

After that, besides the family vacation at the cabin, HSS will have to figure it out. Yet another step towards Independence and adulthood.

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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