The original purpose of this blog was for me to write about Anna and what was going on with her.  It helped me make sense about the whole thing.  I haven’t been writing very often.  I definitely think that is a good reflection on what is going on with Anna-Boo.

We’re in the home stretch now for the 2012-2013 and so much has happened.  I don’t know where to begin…

I guess the beginning is a very good place to start.

In July we received a letter from the school system saying that Anna was enrolled in the same school as Jack.  This was a huge relief because we really needed the extended day program at the school.  John is on the extremely early train and I’ve got to be out on the road by 7:15.  If the kids were at different schools, there would be no way we would be able to make that happen.  So when we received the letter, we were absolutely relieved.  The letter said that if we didn’t hear from the school by September 1^st, we should call to schedule a screening appointment.

We didn’t hear from the school, so on September 4^th, I called the school.  The first actually was the Saturday before Labor Day.  I couldn’t call until that Tuesday after.  When I did call the school, I was told that Anna wasn’t registered there.  She was actually registered at a different school.  This was a problem because she started school in a week, and we had no other child care set up.  We had been dependent on the before and after school programming for child care.  Where would we find good reliable child care in seven days?  We needed her to be at the same school as her brother.

Anna was actually set to be in was her old preschool.  The number of kindergarteners in the city was through the roof, so they had to set up three kindergarten classes in the preschool.  We had originally planned for Anna to be in an inclusion classroom made up of a group of regular ed students and a smaller group of special ed students with various support staff in place.  Not all of the elementary schools in the city offer inclusion classes.  So we couldn’t just ask that Anna be taken off the list for the school she was actually registered at and placed in the school the letter said she was placed at.  Jack’s school doesn’t offer inclusion classrooms.

This was a complete mess.  I called the student registration office.  The women I spoke to said that she couldn’t help me because I didn’t actually have the letter with me.  I was at work and the letter was hanging on my fridge at home.  Then she said that she would help me, but just not then.  Since I shouldn’t have received that letter at all, she couldn’t help me at that moment. I called her when I got home and told her I had the letter in my hand and that I could read it to her.  She then told me that wouldn’t be necessary because she was the one who had sent it.  Then she said that she couldn’t help me because it was a special ed department problem because Anna was a special ed student.

So then I called the special ed office and was told that I shouldn’t have received the letter in the first place.  The woman I spoke to on the phone told me that she couldn’t help me, I would have to speak to the head of the department.  Unfortunately for me, the head of the department wasn’t in her office and I would have to send her an email.  That just struck me as bullshit.  So I asked for the number to the superintendent’s office.  The superintendent’s secretary told me that the head of the sped department was actually in her office and transferred my call over.

This woman was seemingly helpful, but she talked a good game.  She said that she couldn’t just send Anna to Jack’s school because of Anna’s IEP.  I told her that I was in a bind because of the childcare situation, and that at this point I would be willing to change the IEP.  I suggested another school that I had been told had inclusion classrooms and I drove by it on my way to work.  It turns out that that school no longer does.  She tried to tell me that I didn’t want Anna to go to Jack’s school because there were 30 kids in a kindergarten class.  I told her to re-write the IEP and I would sign off on it so long as Anna was going to receive all the services outlined in the original IEP.  She said she would try to do it, but it was no guarantee that Anna would get into the Baker.

John had taken that week off because Jack and I started back to school and Anna had another week before she started.  He wasn’t satisfied with my little phone adventures, and he went to the preschool the next day.  He spoke with the principal and she graciously took about an hour and made a bunch of phone calls.

Early that afternoon, the student placement office called and apologized.  Anna was welcome at Jack’s school.  The sped office called and apologized and said that they would re-write the IEP and send it out to us ASAP.  We were told to bring Anna to open house on the day before she was meant to start school.

John did.  We had been relieved, but things were not as we had hoped.  When John and Anna got to the school for orientation, they found out that Anna was not registered there at all.  They’d never heard of her.  So John had a little sit down with the principal and things got evened out.  Unfortunately, while all the other kids got to go see their classrooms and meet their teachers and classmates, Anna had to go hang out with her dad in the principal’s office.  Anna finally got to meet her teacher and see her classroom, but…

Anna started school the next day.  She was happy as a clam!

There was confusion with IEP.  Her services didn’t start for a while.  Whoever re-wrote the IEP did it pretty poorly.  In addition, there was confusion because Anna was doing incredibly well with the regular curriculum.

But things got started and it really has been doing well.  Anna has been doing really well with the curriculum.  She’s made so much progress in so many areas.  It’s been so good to watch.

In February, we had Anna’s IEP meeting.  Her teachers love her.  According to them, her classmates love her.  She’s operating at a level that is on par or above her peers in the classroom.  About 15 minutes into the meeting, the chairperson stopped the meeting and asked why they were providing services for someone who really seemed not to need them. 

I gave the abridged version of life with Anna, what it was like to come home and have to restrain her while we both cried.  I told them about the crying fits, the delays in social aspects and in speech.  I told them about getting her into the preschool and how she’d improved over time.  I told them how we had planned for her to be in an inclusion classroom, but there had been a placement error.  I started crying.  Her classroom teacher got misty.  We decided to re-evaluate and reconvene.

So they retested her and we reconvened this week.  The testing came back and across the board it was amazing.  The only testing that I have issue with was the psych evaluation, but the school psychologist admitted in his report that the full scale score was most likely in accurate.  The actual academic testing was much different from what he got.  I think she was messing with him, which is kind of amusing, but it really affects the testing.

We decided to stop the services.  She’s got two more weeks of OT services.  And we’ll end her special ed pull out in May.  I think she’ll be ok without the OT, but she really likes her sped teacher.  I’d like to let her ease out of it, but then have enough time to see if she’s functional without that particular support before the end of the school year.  The speech consult ends right now.  It was only once a month anyway.

She will be on a 504 plan.  This is a list of accommodations that teachers have to follow to help her out.  These accommodations mainly revolve around her eye and it being patched for so often.  It’s really very simple, too.  The school adjustment councilor will pull her once a month for a “lunch bunch.”  This will help with her social skills, which I don’t really think she needs.  It will also provide the councilor with the opportunity to check in with her to see how she is dealing with school without the supports.

Oh!  What a long, strange trip it’s been! 

I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing.  I am thrilled with the school.  The school has been wonderful to Jack and they have been amazing to Anna.  Both my children are happy.  They love going to school every day.  They love the extended day program.  The staff has bent over backwards for my children. They are safe.  They are cared for.  They both get out of bed in the morning and are happy and eager to get to school.  They even get angry with me if I pick them up too early in the afternoon.

I’m apprehensive about taking her off the IEP.  It has always been the goal.  I never really thought about her being on the plan forever.  When we set up the inclusion part of the plan, we had thought of it as a stepping stone to regular ed.  I had hoped that by first grade, she’d be off the plan.  And she will be.  And I’m a little worried.  She’s performing either at or above her peers in school.  She probably shouldn’t be on an IEP.  She probably shouldn’t be receiving all sorts of special services.  And we’re doing it in a safe, slow manner.  She’ll transition well.  She usually does. 

I’m thrilled, too, with how far she has come in such a relatively short period of time.  Those months of sobbing and struggle are gone.  I know that we haven’t reached adolescence yet and that will bring its own challenges.  But I love my little girl.  I love the happy, bright thing she’s  become.  I love that when people talk to me about her, they talk about how funny she is.  How loving she is.  How thoughtful.  How sweet.  How bright. 

She’s a completely different girl.

She’s a completely different girl.  Here we come first grade!